ruffsficstuffplace

[ruffsficstuffplace]

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All fics will be permanently hosted on https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal from here on out.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 34)

As they finally sat down on the bench, removed their armour, and started examining their wounds, they found out some were deeper and worse than they realized, the pain having been dulled by all the pankillers and rapid healing treatments they’d been taking all day. As surgical staples and thread needed to be brought out, they decided to call it for the live tests for now, got to discussing the results, and checking their comm-crystals.

One very important matter in particular stood out:

“I’m sorry to tell you all, but it seems the Quartermaster Branch has changed their mind since earlier today,” Ren said. “Some of the seniors feel it just isn’t safe to have elemental weapons and ammunition here at the Grove, with just Qrow supervising their use; they require at least one other watcher or weaver of similar rank, before they’ll loan us anything.”

“Aww, man!” Yang cried. “Do you guys happen to know anyone that can pair up with him?”

“Not right now, mostly because of the expeditions!” Nora replied. “Pyrrha’s also way below the necessary experience and commendations for her to join up with the regular at the Roost, so there goes that idea.”

“So what do you suggest we do instead?” Weiss asked.

“Information-wise? Read up on the literature, watch instructional holos, and especially the special events in the Pits that revolve around elemental weapons,” Ren replied. “With your team strategy, it might be wise to just choose from melee weapons, and the conventional firearms you’ve already tested. Skill and familiarity can make all the difference, after all.”

“Yeah, I’m not comfortable with stepping into our debut match with two not having any first-hand experience on elemental weapons,” Yang said. “We’ll have to figure something out—Weiss, maybe you can ask your teacher if he can help us? We’ll only really need a single day.”

“I can certainly try, but I doubt it’ll happen,” Weiss replied. “Weaver Tygan has been pretty strict about ‘no foci, no mediums, and no ammo’ for the most part.”

“Well see if you can’t change his mind, and call me if you need someone to try and translate for you.” Yang replied. “We really need to cover as many bases as possible, what with the disadvantages we have compared to other teams.”

“Are there any other concerns we need to address alongside this?” Pyrrha asked.

“Nothing that can’t wait after we get that solved, so we’re pretty much done for today,” Yang said as she got up off the bench. “Pyrrha, Weiss, you two head on back to the house, and do me a favour and turn in early; our call could be coming any time this week, and I want us all healthy and in top fighting condition.”

Pyrrha nodded. “We will. Thank you for the training, everyone, it was quite the enlightening and enjoyable experience!”

“And from me also,” Weiss said. “I’ve learned a lot more from today’s bouts than all the large-scale matches we’ve been watching so far.”

“You’re very welcome,” Ren said, bowing.

“Don’t hesitate to ask for more of it sometime!” Nora said, beaming. “The more of us that can fight well, the better we’ll all be whenever shit hits the fan again!”

“We won’t,” Pyrrha said, smiling back. She had a dry bath and a change of clothes, before she and Weiss left. “So, are you excited for our big debut at the Pits?” she asked as they stepped onto the path leading back the house.

“Not really, unless it’s for the pay at the end,” Weiss replied. “Combat sports aren’t really my idea of ‘fun.’”

“Really?” Pyrrha asked. “I’m surprised. Weren’t you a fencer in back high school?”

“Yes, but it was just my required extra-curricular for graduation, and a form of regular exercise between academics,” Weiss replied. “I… joined the Swordplay Society for less than ideal reasons, but never quit because I didn’t want to look like someone who made such an important, long-term decision so hastily and lightly.”

Pyrrha nodded. “So I take it you were just pretending to enjoy your little mock battle on stage with Ruby, back during the Eve…?” she asked playfully.

Weiss blushed, and turned her face away.

Pyrrha chuckled. “Ah, I understand now.”

Weiss blushed harder. “I’m guessing you’re looking forward to our first official match…?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Pyrrha replied, beaming. “I’ve never really been able to have a serious, no-holds barred fight with real-life opponents until now; aside from my handlers always being insistent that I remained scar and injury free for appearances, there was always the security risk of someone killing me, accidentally or worse still, intentionally.”

“So how did you hone your skills?” Weiss asked. “I doubt you could move and fight like that just by reading up on combat tactics, and practicing your stances and strikes.”

“AFA-grade combat droids; top-of-the-line nerve-stim equipment to simulate pain, injury, and fatigue, and of course; the Trance if I wanted something far more immersive, complex, and/or fantastical than could be set-up in real life,” Pyrrha replied. “The last was always a final resort, however: there’s just something even the most impressive simulations can’t capture.”

“Agreed...” Weiss said, nodding.

“I take it you’ve used the Trance for combat training, too?” Pyrrha asked.

Weiss winced. “… Not exactly, but it’s something I don’t want to talk about… what simulations have you trained in, out of curiosity? Anything custom-built, or mostly or all pre-mades?”

Pyrrha blushed and laughed. “This is embarrassing, but do you know the holo series CNBR…?”

As Weiss and Pyrrha neared the main house, they found Blake standing on the porch, gazing out at the wild, untamed land by the edge of the property. They hadn’t even called out for her when she walked over to the elevator and lowered it for them, before returning to her post.

<Thank you!> Pyrrha said after they ascended.

<What are you doing?> Weiss asked as she stepped out.

<Zwei,> Blake replied, pointing out to the distance. They couldn’t see him clearly for the darkness, but it was easy enough to make out an extremely large, moving mass among the shadows, sniffing, rolling, and padding about.

<That, and I needed to get out of the house for a while.> Blake added.

<Why?> Weiss asked. <Something happened?>

<Winter and Qrow,> Blake replied, looking weary as her ears drooped. <I don’t know how they can keep on arguing for so long and so often, and still have the energy to do other things.>

<Should I talk to them?> Weiss asked.

<Please.> Blake said, nodding. <But be careful—it’s like they’re always on the verge of another duel, formal or not.>

<We will, thank you,> Weiss replied, before she and Pyrrha went inside.

It was quiet and dark except for the kitchen, where the lights were on, and they could hear vegetables being chopped, and smell cooking food. Pyrrha and Weiss went up to the entrance, and found Winter busy making sides and drinks with two of her summons, while Qrow was at the stove, stirring a gigantic pot of stew.

All seemed to be well, up until Qrow turned off the stove, and put on a pair of oven mitts.

“Wait, that’s it?” Winter asked as she looked away from the salad bowl she was tossing.

“It’s done, just need it to cool down so you can eat it without it literally burning the inside of your mouth,” Qrow said, gripping the handles. “What, you want to bring out a thermometer and test every last cube of meat?” he said, before he lifted the pot up.

“No, what I mean is, is that what you’re really going to be serving for the main course?” Winter asked.

“Yes,” Qrow said as he carefully carried it off to the table, eyes on the rim.

“You’ve barely done anything than just chop up the ingredients, toss them into a pot, and stir it every once in a while as it stewed!” Winter cried.

“It’s all it needs,” Qrow replied.

Winter sighed, and shook her head. “You know, Qrow, there was a time when I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, believe that you were simply too exhausted from your work, or had too many other duties to attend to for you to want, or be able to be able to put much effort in your cooking...

“But now I realize that you really just don’t care, do you?”

Thunk.

Qrow set the pot down on a wooden cutting board in the center of the table, then slowly unwrapped his talons from the handles. “Winter, wouldn’t saying that I don’t care make a helluva lot more sense if I didn’t just go through all the trouble of making this dinner, from when it was still breathing to now that it’s on the table?” he said as he whipped out the towel hanging on his apron, wiped up the stew that had spilled over the sides.

“That’s not what I meant,” Winter replied coolly.

“Then please, enlighten me!” Qrow said as he turned around to face Winter, opening his arms up wide. “What did you mean?” he said as he tucked his towel back into his apron, then crossed his arms.

“This Valley has some of the finest, most impressive quality of ingredients I have ever seen in my entire life, in abundance that human chefs and ingredient suppliers can only dream of,” Winter said, gesturing to the impressive spread of side dishes she had prepared. “Don’t you think it’s a huge waste not to use these to their fullest potential?”

“No, because as a local, it’s just regular ingredients to me, and more importantly, I’m a watcher, not a professional chef,” Qrow growled. “If my hypothetical job was to make whatever-star quality meals for paying customers or whoever, I’d do that! But in reality, it’s to keep the folks I’m responsible for from going hungry—including you, just as a reminder.

“Tell me: do you really want to piss off the guy making your meals most days...?” he asked. “Because it doesn’t take much thinking nor experience to realize that’s a pretty bad idea.”

“I can hunt and cook for myself and others if I really needed to,” Winter replied. “Something I’m starting to feel is necessary from here on out, if this is what you feel is an acceptable quality to serve on a regular basis, regardless of whether or not you’re out in the wilds and have just finished hunting, killing, and butchering your prey; or spent most of the day lounging around doing nothing but getting drunk.”

Qrow’s eyes narrowed. “Hey, here’s an idea: maybe you should consider taking over cooking duties for the Grove entirely, seeing as my work doesn’t meet your high, discerning standards? Maybe that’ll be the solution to all of your complaints—if you want a job done right, do it yourself, and all that!”

“Not a chance, Qrow.” Winter said icily.

“What, change your mind now that the hypothetical isn’t theoretical anymore?” Qrow snapped.

“No, it’s because I’m not about to let you shirk your responsibility!” Winter shouted. “And for your information: I’ve always hated that saying! If you want a job done right, you make sure whoever had it in the first place is doing it right, instead of picking up their slack!”

“I’ve been doing this job for 15 fucking years, Winter, what does it say about my cooking that my niece and all of the Keeper team members past or present had, and are still eating it daily?!” Qrow said, slowly storming up to her.

“That they evidently think it’s less unpleasant than starvation, however little,” Winter snapped back as she did the same.

The tension in the air grew dramatically, metaphorical electricity crackling, very literal frost starting to pour out from Winter’s mouth.

Pyrrha and Weiss looked at each other worriedly, then at Qrow and Winter about to come within striking distance of each other; they struggled to figure out what to do with,  but fortunately, Taiyang came to the rescue.

“Hey, hey, hey!” he cried dashed into the kitchen and put himself between Winter and Qrow, and held them apart. “Seriously, you two? I leave for fifteen minutes to go check on Jaune, and already you’re back to fighting? Can’t you two at least try to come to blows some days of the week than all of them?”

“I am trying, Mr. Xiao Long, but it seems that Qrow over here is intent on pushing every last one of my buttons, and I can’t help but get the sense it’s intentional,” Winter said, frost still pouring out her mouth.

“And in my defense, it’s pretty obvious that Ice Queen over here still hasn’t adapted to the fact that we do things very differently here in the Valley,” Qrow spat.

“Basic professionalism and standards is independent of culture!” Winter cried.

Taiyang groaned. “Enough! How about you two save the arguing till after dinner? It looks like we’ve already got some hungry mouths to feed, and you’ve both still got plenty of work to do,” he said, pointing at the unset table and the unfinished sides.

Qrow and Winter looked, the two of them looking embarrassed or worried as they noticed Weiss and Pyrrha standing in the doorway. They cast one final glare at each other, before they broke apart and either finished up their sides, or went to the cabinets to get out the bowls and cutlery.

“Thank you,” Taiyang said, walking towards Weiss and Pyrrha. “Oh, and do us all a favour and lock horns again somewhere private, alright? Just in case it turns into something very different.”

Both Winter and Qrow made strangled or unpleasant noises, visibly riled up and uncomfortable for a moment. Weiss noticed, frowned, and quietly asked Taiyang, “Is there anything actually developing between my sister and Qrow? Because I would REALLY like to know about it.”

“Nah, definitely not,” Taiyang replied. “Teasing them about it does help stop them from bickering and things escalating, if only temporarily, and that’s always good.”

Weiss sighed in relief. “Good; I don’t even want to think about how convoluted my situation with Ruby will get if they ever got romantically involved, also.”

“But just in case they do, you have my word that the Fae are pretty accepting when it comes to Keepers and unusual romantic relationships!” Taiyang added, nodding his head and smiling.

Weiss hit him.

“Ow!”

Note: For clarity, I really don’t ship Winter and Qrow in this fic; as Weiss had said, it would make her relationship with Ruby WAY too complicated for her tastes.

CNBR = Cinnabar

[ruffsficstuffplace]

Just Drawn That Way (Part 3)

“What the hell is this?!” Weiss screamed, her cheeks burning as she found herself in Queen Dragon’s latest concept, drawn just before a break. “Aren’t these Lumen suits supposed to be armour?!”

Even to those that didn’t have a lick of military nor combat experience, it certainly looked far from it.

Most of her body was left completely exposed, the chest plate modeled like a corset conforming to her petite, lithe figure; the mechanical exo-skeleton over her waist and her thighs resembled the straps of a garterbelt and stockings; the heels of her leg armour were raised four inches off the ground and the plating stopped a few inches up her knees, with the armour on her arms was just as skimpy. And as if it wasn’t revealing enough, instead of the usual full body jumpsuit underneath it all, Weiss was drawn wearing a light blue, legless leotard, the only signs it was supposed to be an official uniform being the logo of the Lumania Defense Force, and her future designation:

“Lucky 03”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a non-combat model meant for ‘raising morale,’ am I right, Jaune?” Mercury said teasingly, before he elbowed Jaune beside him.

Jaune didn’t react, instead continuing to sit with his eyes squeezed shut, body instinctively braced for serious physical injury.

“I really gotta agree with Mercury, Weiss, that thing isn’t armour, it just has…” Ruby muttered, looking at her with extremely mixed emotions. “… So many glaring design flaws.

“Not to mention its aesthetics!” Coco added, throwing her hand-out. “Ugh, no sense of subtlety, grace, or coyness anywhere...” she muttered, shaking her head.

“And no doubt that Queen Dragon and Hentai-sama are likely collaborating on this.” Glynda finished with a nod.

“Yeah, that totally looks like something he’d draw, or she knows he’d like to see...” Velvet said, ears drooping as she blushed and covered most of her face with her hands, peering through her fingers.

Cinder sighed heavily. “Stars above, I wish those two never became friends...”

“Well, that certainly does explain a lot, thank you, now could you all PLEASE STOP STARING!?” Weiss screeched, trying to cover herself up.

“Oh, come on, Weiss, it’s not like your primary role isn’t fanservice for your audience!” Mercury teased.

“FUCK YOU, MERCURY!” Weiss screeched. “If could take a single step off this page, I would slap you so fucking hard your prosthetic legs will be standing without you!”

Mercury laughed. “Yeah, real threatening when I’ll just be back to normal the second after, as if nothing ever happened.”

Cinder groaned. “Enough messing around, Black! And that’s an order!”

“Seriously, Major?” Mercury asked, disappointed. “We’re off duty at the moment, aren’t we?”

“We’re also in the presence of civilians, and I had hoped you’d at least try to reign in some of your worse impulses,” Cinder snapped back. “We have a reputation to maintain, you know!”

As Cinder continued to rip into Mercury, and Mercury to defend himself, Weiss continued to try and cover herself up, shaking with anger and embarrassment as it was clear no angle and nothing she could would make the outfit any less revealing, clearly trying her damnedest not to cry.

Ruby noticed and frowned, looked around and noticed that Neo was on her phone, ignoring her everything around her. She reached over and poked her on the shoulder, Neo looked up at her curiously.

“BORROW CAN?” Ruby signed, using one hand to point at her mundane umbrella hanging off one of her chair’s arms, then at Weiss.

Neo looked at Weiss, her eyebrows rising and her lips curling into an amused smirk, before she turned back to Ruby, and gave it to her.

“THANK YOU,” Ruby signed with a smile, before she turned to Weiss, and cried, “Hey Weiss! Catch!”

Weiss caught the umbrella, looked confused for a moment, before realization hit and she opened it in front of her; it wasn’t nearly large enough to cover all of her, but it did hide a great deal from the main cast members, and for now, that was enough for her to relax.

“Wow, intentionally inviting bad luck and compromising your artist’s vision?” Mercury said in mock shock. “I’m surprised, Weiss! Never thought little miss Class Rep had it in her.”

“For the last time, enough, Black!” Cinder yelled, smoke and embers pouring out of her mouth now. “Or do you want me to demonstrate how Umbra powers can be used for disciplining misbehaving soldiers…?”

That got Mercury flinching. “Now, now, Major!” he said, suddenly sitting up straight in his chair. “No need for a mini-martial, I’ll behave now.”

“Good,” Cinder said, the smoke and embers quickly fading to nothing.

“I have to say I’m disappointed in your lack of control over your own soldiers, Maj. Fall, especially since you’re supposed to be leading a quick reaction force,” Glynda said. “Then again, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Cinder huffed, the smoke returning with a vengeance.

“Only that you’re young, inexperienced, and clearly have a long way to go before you have begin to have a firm hold on your own unit.” Glynda replied.

Cinder scowled, before she shook her head, and relaxed. “Tch, criticism of my leadership from a civilian… that’s rich.”

“And you say that like you need a military background to detect poor management,” Glynda said quietly.

Cinder’s gripped the arms of her chair, the veins of her hands popping visibly under her skin, the embers and smoke starting to grow into little tongues of flame. Jaune again braced himself for imminent suffering, everyone else looked uneasy as the air suddenly grew heavy and heated, Cinder’s soldiers especially.

Then, Cinder relaxed her grip and calmly turned away from Glynda, the atmosphere lightened up immediately, and everyone else did also. The incident was soon forgotten or shuffled to the back of their minds as Queen Dragon came back from her break and resumed drawing, and quickly started getting serious about her designs.

It was soon obvious that Weiss was her model of choice for designing the new Lumen suits she was making for the crossover; for dozens of styles in the overall form, variations within individual components, and even the most minute of details like the exact shape and configurations of the external and internal indicator lights, Weiss was the one drawn, rather than any other character, a generic, faceless dummy, or free-floating components as earlier.

She drew her standing at rest, at attention, in a variety of “cool” stances for the inevitable group pose for the cover. She drew her preparing to fight, in the middle of close-combat attacks, or firing all manner of configurations of shapes meant to stand-in for weapons. She drew her running, jumping, or even flying about the field via a “Garuda” flight unit, or the much smaller, short-lived thrusters that all of the suits had.

Variations began to narrow down to but a handful of prototypes, quality began to improve dramatically, Weiss began to transform herself, Hentai-sama’s cartoonish and simplistic style being overtaken by Queen Dragon’s much more realistic and detailed designs. By the very end of it, Weiss was a far cry from the hastily sketched, skimpy and fetishistic outfit she had been drawn with hours before.

Now, she stood almost completely covered in plate metal, heavy, bulky, and doubtless capable of taking punishment that would have killed a regular LDF footsoldier several times over. She wielded a fusion between a lance and an energy rifle in one hand, and held her helmet in the crook of her other arm; her iconic ponytail was tied into a tight bun, her posture perfectly straight; and her gaze calm and serious as she looked out to an undrawn battlefield, the opposing army already charging in from the horizon.

“Like a princess about to go to war...” Coco said, smiling and impressed.

And just like that, a bell sounded, the publishing assistants all cheered or heaved sighs of relief, and the studio lights on Weiss began to shut-off—Queen Dragon was calling it for the day.

“Is it all over?” Weiss asked, looking confused as she came out of her pose.

“Yep!” Mercury said, hopping off his chair and stretching his arms, working the servos of his legs. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the Chief will go right back to playing Pretty Princess Dress-Up: War Edition with you by next week.”

“Dismissed, Firebrand! All convene again on Monday as per usual,” Cinder said, as she got up and calmly strode to the exit.

The rest of the cast members started to do the same, until Weiss cried, “Hey! You all forgetting something here?!”

They all turned to look, saw Weiss was still in her Lumen suit, scowling as assistants took away her weapons and helmet.

Mercury smirked. “Can’t even get out of your own Lumen suit, can you, Weiss?” he asked.

“I suppose my never having gone through the requisite training has a great deal to do with it,” Weiss growled. “Now how do I get out?!”

“It’s thought-controlled, Schnee,” Cinder replied as she resumed walking. “Simply think of the suit coming off of you, and it will.”

“Thank you,” Weiss said, before she closed her eyes, and started taking deep breaths.

Everyone but Jaune left the studio, he stopped by the door looking in concern as Weiss still seemed stuck inside her suit. “You having trouble, Weiss?” Jaune asked.

“Some, but nothing I can’t handle!” Weiss replied, eyes still closed. “Just go, Jaune, I don’t want to waste your time.”

“Are you sure?” Jaune asked again. “Because I’m not really doing anything right now...”

Weiss gritted her teeth. “I’m sure, Jaune, now if you can please leave so I can concentrate, this is apparently harder than it sounds.”

“Maybe I can--” Jaune started.

“Go, Jaune.” Weiss said, glaring icily at him.

Jaune winced, before he awkwardly shuffled out with the last of the publisher’s assistants. The lights shut off, Weiss sighed internally, before she closed her eyes and resumed trying to get out of her suit. A minute later, she was still wearing it, the frustration now clear on her face, her gloved hands clenching tightly.

There was a knocking on the door, Ruby poked her head in and asked, “Hey Weiss?”

“What is it?!” Weiss snapped.

Ruby was unfazed as she replied, “I was wondering if you wanted to go check up on Diana with me, seeing as we missed the emergency meeting earlier and all.”

“… Oh.” Weiss said, calming down. “Has she texted again?”

“Nope, not a peep out of her since,” Ruby replied.  

“Then I’ll have to decline, and encourage you not to do so in the first place,” Weiss said. “She’s likely having some personal time, and you know how she likes it long and uninterrupted.”

Ruby nodded. “Fair point.” After a brief pause, she said, “So, do you need any help getting out of your suit?”

Weiss sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Yes please… I don’t want to be stuck in this thing till I show up for the new chapter on Monday.”

Ruby chuckled as she approached. “Nobody does, these suits are meant for battle, after all.”

“Is that why don’t have any conveniently located ‘Off’ switches?” Weiss asked sarcastically.

“Yep!” Ruby replied, nodding her head. “Umbra are always smarter than we’d like them to be, so if we put anything like a switch, or even a voice command to take off the suits, I’ve no doubt that Anoke would make it so that they could find some way to press it, or mimic the exact voices of the wearers, force them out of the suit and kill them while they’re completely unprotected.”

“That’s… incredibly disturbing.” Weiss said slowly.

“There’s a good reason we have the content warning in front of every chapter,” Ruby said gravely, before she lightened up and said, “So, what have you been thinking about, exactly?”

“Pardon me?” Weiss asked.

“Sorry, ‘What things have you been thinking of to try and get the suit off of you?’ is what I should have asked,” Ruby replied.

“I’m still confused, Ruby,” Weiss replied.

Ruby blinked, before she snorted and facepalmed. “Oh, right, you don’t have any training! Sorry, back in our series, no one even got to touch the suits without the proper training, let alone be in one… anyway, we users tend to use mental association and physical cues to help get our suits off. Mine is imagining me shrugging off a jacket or a cloak, while moving my shoulders like this,” she said, demonstrating it.

“Wow, what a clever, convenient, and helpful piece of information I could have seriously done with earlier!” Weiss said, scowling.

“Sorry again,” Ruby said. “Want to try it?”

“I suppose there’s no harm...” Weiss muttered, before she closed her eyes and mimicked Ruby.

After a few moments, it definitely wasn’t working. “Am I doing something wrong here?” Weiss asked, frowning.

“Maybe you should try something that’s more comforting and relaxing instead,” Ruby replied.”Like, ah, imagine yourself going to sleep all curled up in your bed; slowly sinking into a nice, hot bath; maybe even vegging out on the couch while you settle in with a nice book or your favourite TV shows.

“Lots of users tend to do just that after getting back to base, making for very strong mental association.”

“Yes, that might work much better,” Weiss said, before she closed her eyes and tried again.

A minute later, still no change.

“Is it still not working?” Ruby asked.

“No...” Weiss muttered. “I can’t stop thinking about the fact that Hentai-sama was probably drawing me like that for an ecchi scene...”

“Hrm, you’re right…” Ruby said, frowning. She furrowed her brow, looking deep in thought, until her eyes brightened up and she snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it!”

“What’s the plan?” Weiss asked.

Ruby circled around behind Weiss, held out her arms, and cried, “Trust fall!”

“Trust fall?” Weiss asked, confused.

“Yeah, trust fall!” Ruby replied. “Just let yourself completely relax, and imagine falling right into my arms.”

“Won’t this likely result in me falling right out of this suit in reality?” Weiss said, looking behind her and at Ruby.

“Which is why I’m standing here like this, duh!” Ruby said.

“And you’re sure you can catch me instead of breaking my fall?” Weiss asked.

“Of course!” Ruby replied. “Just because we have superpowered suits doesn’t mean we get to skimp on basic training and physical conditioning on the reg. Believe me, I can catch and carry you, easy!”

Weiss still looked doubtful, but still, she turned around, closed her eyes, and let herself completely relax. Almost immediately, air started hissing out of previously hidden seams, the back of Weiss’ armour folded out, the actuators inside the exoskeleton gently pushed her out. She fell, tensing up as she felt the air rushing past her for a brief moment, was still tense as strong, firm arms wrapped around her, and gently, carefully lowered back down to her feet.

“You can open your eyes now, Weiss,” Ruby said as she let go of her.

Weiss did, looking at her empty suit closing again, before she turned around to face Ruby, smiling. “Wow… it actually worked! Thank you, Ruby.”

“Told ya,” Ruby said, smiling back.

There was brief moment of silence, the two of them just looking at each other, Weiss quickly growing uneasy. “Is… something wrong, Ruby?” she asked.

“Just taking in how different you look, Weiss,” Ruby said.

“Is it a ‘good’ different or ‘bad’ sort of different…?” Weiss asked.

“Good, very good,” Ruby said quietly. “You look so beautiful, Weiss...”

Weiss blushed, her lip quivering, her body starting to tremble. There was a part of her that told her to get ready for the script to compel her to yell at Ruby for complimenting her, maybe even slap her before she turned away and sulked, calling her a “baka” under her breath…

… But there was no script, no author forcing her to do something, no one making decisions for her but herself.

And what she decided, was that--

Bang! Bang!

“Yo, anyone in here?!” a female voice called out. “Ruby?”

One of the doors to the studio burst open, the bright lights of the hallway outside poured in, blinding Ruby and Weiss. They instinctively flinched and cried out, Ruby shielding her eyes with her arm, Weiss turning away from the light and hiding her face.

“Oh, shit! I am so sorry, totally didn’t mean to interrupt whatever was going on here!”

Ruby lowered her arm, squinted as she tried to make out the new arrival. “Yang? Is that you?”

“Yep!” Yang replied, waving quickly. “Just going to be waiting outside now, feel free to just come out whenever, or just text! Okay, buh-bye!” she said, before she closed the door again, plunging them back into darkness.

Ruby frowned in confusion, before she shrugged, and turned back to Weiss. “You okay, Weiss…?” she asked.

“I’m fine...” Weiss said through gritted teeth, her face still turned away from the door.

“You sure…?” Ruby asked, stepping towards her. “Because you don’t--”

“I’m. Fine.” Weiss repeated icily, her hands balling into fists.

Ruby nodded slowly, before she pointed to the doors. “I’ll just be going now… see you, Weiss.”

“Bye...” Weiss said tersely.

Ruby stepped out of of the studio, very carefully pulling open the door to keep the light from hitting Weiss again. After some brief, muffled conversation between her and Yang filtering in from the other side, they went down the hallway and were gone.

Weiss pulled out her phone, turned on the camera, and checked herself out. Already Queen Dragon’s design was fading away, her face rapidly losing much of the fine detail and semi-realistic qualities, turning back into Hentai-sama’s simplistic, cartoony style, her hair magically loosening from its bun.

A massive, glowing red vein popped up on her head, before Weiss screamed.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

A/N: No Viridian Vanguard Update This Week

Apologies, but no update this week due to RL issues, distractions, and the muse apparently having had enough of thinking up of conventional weapons. I promise I'll be back next week with a new chapter.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 33)

With Taiyang unavailable, and Ren and Nora participating in the test runs themselves, Weiss and Cheese took over the refereeing, the former watching the feeds, monitoring the timers, and doing announcements via her comm-crystal, the latter operating a recording of the dueling horn.

“You sure you want to stick with those?” Pyrrha asked Yang as they did a last check of their gear. “I feel like Fury Fists would suit your fighting style as well, while providing significant increase in offensive power.”

“I’m sure,” Yang replied as she practiced collapsing and unfolding her Brawler’s Bracers. “I’ve depended on these guns all my life, I’ll keep on betting on them. Besides, I never liked the prospect of accidentally running out of ammo in the heat of a fight.”

“Fair enough.” Pyrrha replied.

With all that out of the way, Pyrrha started out with a Slugthrower pistol.

Rat-ta-tat! Rat-ta-tat! Rat-ta-tat!

Pyrrha raised her ballistic shield up against the bursts of machine-gun fire from above, Yang crouching behind her, the both of them slowed to a crawl as they crossed the arena’s bridge to the base in the trees. They made it to cover, Pyrrha didn’t hesitate to return fire at Ren!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ren ducked, his cover cracking and splintering with each shot, wincing as one of bullets punched through and missed him by a few inches. <Moving position, defend the flag,> he whispered into his mask-comm as he abandoned his spot, Yang and Pyrrha made a break for it.

<On it!> Nora replied as she stood at a different platform, before she thundered towards the edge and leaped off, towards Yang and Pyrrha. “NO YOU DON’T!” she cried as she raised her hammer high above her head.

Yang and Pyrrha slowed down and turned to look, their eyes widened before they jumped out of the way!

Crash.

Dirt and mud flew up into the air as Nora made a new crater in the ground, the shockwave caused Yang and Pyrrha stumble. Bullets started raining down on them once more, Ren chased Yang into cover, Nora charged after Pyrrha with her hammer at the ready.

Pyrrha heard her thunderous footsteps coming far too close and too fast, she spun around and started firing!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Nora winced as some of the bullets slammed into her chest plate and slowed her down, a shot to the face-plate disoriented her just as she leaped forward!

Pyrrha dodged to the side, Nora missed her completely, overbalanced, and staggered forward. Pyrrha rammed her shield into her back, sending her falling to the ground. Nora began to struggle, Pyrrha kneed her in the back and put her gun to her shoulder.

Bang! Bang!

Nora cried out and stopped, Pyrrha put it to the back of her helmet.

Click! Click!

Pyrrha’s eyes widened. Before she could reach for a new clip, Nora shoved her off, and didn’t hesitate to climb on top of her, pin her down before going to town with her fists, raining blows down on Pyrrha till the horn sounded again.

“Ugh...” Pyrrha groaned as Nora climbed off of her. “I’m starting to see what you meant by ‘making it more like real matches’...’”

“Trust me, this is only the very tip of the iceberg!” Nora hummed as she carefully pulled her back up to her feet, helped her off to the bench. “Ren and I aren’t even using any of the most basic martial arts techniques yet!”

Bruises and bullet wounds were iced and patched up, before they moved onto Pyrrha’s second choice: a Stormbringer cannon, loaded with explosive shells.

Thoom.

Pyrrha fired a shell at Ren and Yang, they dove to the sides, just barely avoiding the explosion and the shrapnel. The two of them scrambled from cover to cover as they made their way deeper into the arena, Yang looking for way to the flag Pyrrha was defending, Ren shooting at her with a rifle to try and slow down the rain of explosive of doom.

Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

Huge chunks were taken out of the barricades, new smoking holes and craters started appearing all over the arena, some of the smaller obstacles disappeared in clouds of smoke, ash, and splinters. There was a brief lull as Pyrrha ran out ammo, Yang and Ren took the opportunity to run, thundering up stairs, or grabbing as much spare ammo as possible before finding a new firing position.

“Come on, Pyrrha!” Nora cried as she watched with Weiss. “Yang’s getting closer! Reload, reload, you can still stop her with the secondary fire!”

“You seem awfully eager to see your long-time friends get blown up,” Weiss muttered.

“Ah, that’s just the way it is with the Watchers!” Nora replied, waving her off. “Unless they’ve got an attitude, cheer on the newbies, they’re the ones that need the most encouragement!”

Boom.

With a giant cone of fire, Pyrrha sent Yang flying off a ledge.

“WOO!” Nora cried, throwing her arms up. “Nice shot!”

Ren started alternating firing at Pyrrha and moving towards the flag, Yang hit the ground headfirst, before she laid sprawled out and unmoving. “Should I stop the fight?” Weiss asked, looking at her in concern.

“Aw, she’ll be fine!” Nora replied. “Believe me, if this were a live match, folks would riot if we ended it over something as minor as that!”

Stray sparks rained down on Yang, she started slowly dragging himself across the ground, and away from it.

“See? Just fine,” Nora said, nodding.

Weiss looked at Yang curling up into a ball behind cover, at Cheese’s concerned face as he shared a dock with her comm-crystal, before she resumed quietly observing.

The match ended with Ren hiding behind a tree, Pyrrha shearing off another layer from it if he so much as tried to peek.

“Argh...” Pyrrha groaned as she unceremoniously dropped the smoking cannon on the ground then rubbed her arms. “Can any of you suggest something with much less recoil…? I don’t think I want to handle high-caliber weapons for a while...”

“I’ve got some suggestions we can move further up the queue,” Ren replied as he stepped out from behind the tree. “Then again, it will require a drastic change of equipment and tactics beside.”

“I don’t mind, let’s hear it,” Pyrrha replied.

And so her heavy plated armour was exchanged for a hooded cloak, a leather chestplate and pads for her limbs, with tight-fitting, bullet-and-blade resistant clothes, similar to what Ruby used. Her mask was now almost entirely bare, except for reflective material placed over her “eyes,” making them faintly glint in the light, or with sharp enough eyes.

“Fighting Pits Regulations state that, except for actively channeled techniques, your opponents should always have the opportunity to realize where you are before you strike from stealth,” Ren explained. “It’s important to note, they never state how exactly, or how much of a window you should have to act. Faint sounds, disturbances in the air, flashes in the corner of your eyes, the smell of your opponent’s equipment, blood, and sweat, even the taste of such with the right mods, or biology… if at least one of those elements could have given them away for even a split-second before you’re jumped, you can’t contest it as unfair.

“It is entirely up to you and your team if this goes in, or against your favour.

“And a bit of advice, if you’re going to stick with stealth for the long-run: hunt on the regular. Nothing will teach you what can and will give you away quite like the animals outside the walls, the predators most especially.”

With the tree top base mostly destroyed and needing reconstruction, they tested in the other half of the arena, a shady, maze-like series of walls, obstacles, and barricades set near the water, her weapon the ranged cousins of Wingblades:

Windsingers.

“Do the users paint and design each individual flechette, too?” Pyrrha asked as she practiced loading them, collapsing and unfolding the “wings” to reduce their profile.

“Outside of particularly dedicated and well-funded performances, I’m afraid you have to do with mass-produced designs,” Ren said as he assisted her. “There’s quite the variety within them, though.”

Pyrrha chuckled. “I’m not surprised.”

Soon, Yang stood in the center of the maze, her bracers exchanged for a shield and a shotgun. “You ready for this, Pyrrha?” she called out, gazing at all the cover and darkness around her.

No response.

“Hah!” Yang laughed. “Glad to see you didn’t fall for that, at least!”

The horn was sounded, and Yang quickly got serious, holding her shield and gun up at the ready, warily eyeing her surroundings, listening in carefully. The insects and the animals had long abandoned the area for all the activity and violence, almost complete silence until…

Thip.

Yang felt a dart in the back of her helmet, she immediately spun around and fired.

Bang!

Wooden splinters flew into the air, but no sign of Pyrrha. Yang narrowed her eyes, debating a moment, before she stayed where she was, her shield raised in front of her.

Thip. Thip.

Two more, this time lodging into her lower back. Yang spun around again, and aimed at a wooden wall, her finger on the trigger. She slowly slipped it off and back on the trigger guard, took a slow, deep breath, observing the wall and its surroundings.

A minute passed, no action from either of them. Then, Yang charged, her cry almost as loud as the blasts of her shotgun!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pyrrha winced as the pellets ripped through her cover, some of them grazing her side. She dashed out of cover, firing three quick bursts at Yang’s head before she she fled deeper into the maze. Yang raised her shield up, blocking most of them, blindly firing until she ran out of ammo.

Pyrrha had disappeared by the time Yang lowered her shield, but muddy tracks she left behind gave Yang a good idea of where she went.

“Three minutes left!” Weiss warned.

Yang chased Pyrrha through the maze, steadily blasting it to pieces as she destroyed potential hiding places or flushed her out, more and more darts sticking out of her shield and her armour as Pyrrha continued to catch her unawares or returned-fire as she fled, her movements slowing as the small, sharp pains and puncture wounds started to add up.

Thip. Thip. Thip.

Three darts struck near Yang, she fired and annihilated a waist-high barrier; even more darts proceeded to strike her from an entirely different direction, she cursed as she raised her shield and jumped behind a wall. “I am NOT losing to friggin’ dart guns, Pyrrha!” she cried as she rammed fresh shells into her shotgun, her movements stiff and mechanical.

“One minute!” Weiss cried.

Yang started blind-firing her shotgun, she smiled as she heard Pyrrha cry out, then frantic, muddy squelches. She peered out, saw the numerous messy gouges Pyrrha had left in her scramble, then charged out of cover to the barricade she was hiding behind!

She jumped around it, finger already on the trigger, a smile on her face... it disappeared as she found only many more muddy gouges and the dirt, and no sign of Pyrrha.

Yang heard wet squelches directly behind her, but by then it was already too late.

Pyrrha unloaded almost two full clips of darts into Yang’s back, before she hooked her leg into hers, and tripped her. Yang fell to the ground, Pyrrha pinned the barrel of her shotgun down with her foot, before aiming her windsingers at her head.

“You were saying?” Pyrrha asked, before she opened fire once more.

“So, how are you liking stealth and deception?” Ren asked as he carefully extracted the flechettes from Yang with a pair of pliers, dropped them into a waiting bucket.

“Well enough, but I’d like something with more power per shot,” Pyrrha said as she stood beside him, bandaging up her ankle.

Ren nodded. “Tell me: have you ever tried archery?” he said.

“I have, in fact,” Pyrrha replied, smiling.

“Just saying it out now, I am not cool with being on the receiving end for that!” Yang cried, before she winced and hissed.

“Fret not, Yang, Nora will be the better model for its effectiveness in a real fight, anyway,” Ren said, before he dropped another dart into the bucket.

And so with the sun beginning to set, and the tree top base almost rebuilt, Pyrrha decided to try out a Nightstalker bow.

“It gets its name for its effectiveness and popularity when hunting nocturnal prey,” Ren explained. “It’s still a solid weapon for any time of day, however, having enough power to penetrate skulls, hard shells, and thick hides with ease; an extremely long effective range; and should you be forced into close-combat”--he pressed a switch near the grip, blades shot out from the limbs--”you don’t even need to worry about reaching for a secondary weapon.”

“Clever,” Pyrrha said, gripping it in her hands, practicing slashing and guarding with it, before retracting the blades.

“Normally, I’d warn potential users that it takes quite a bit of upper body strength to draw it, let alone to full power, but I doubt that would be much of an issue with you,” Ren finished.

Pyrrha practiced her archery at the range, until the wrecked cover and holes were replaced and patched over; lamp posts were lit and a handful of floodlights were set up; and the ammo boxes were filled with plenty of arrows. For the sake of their handicap, Yang and Pyrrha were on defense, the latter starting high up on the platforms, while Ren and Nora were on the attack, both out in the open by the bridge.

“Fighters ready?” Weiss called out.

“Aye!” all of them cried.

“Then fight!” Weiss cried, before Cheese blew the horn.

Almost immediately, Yang and Nora charged straight for each other, fists and hammer swinging; ducking, weaving, and slamming into one another; trying to strike vulnerable areas, block and deflect counterattacks, outmaneuver the other by hopping, ducking around, and even climbing on and jumping off the obstacles all around them.

Pyrrha gritted her teeth as she tried to fire at Nora, her shots going wide and impaling themselves on the walls and the floor, her aim interrupted as they moved out of her line of fire. Even then, the ones that did hit looking like they didn’t hit nearly hard enough, bouncing off of Nora’s armour, or clearly not causing her much harm.

Then, a lucky hit: an arrow sunk into Nora’s helmet, stunning her for a moment; Yang quickly seized on the opportunity, dashing into her side and pummeling with rapid punches.

Pyrrha nocked another arrow, until she suddenly felt a wave of unease come over her. She quickly spun around, Ren pounced on her with his sickles, she thrust her bow out at Ren!

It slammed into his chest, knocking him back, but not far enough as his blades cut into her shoulders.

Pyrrha gritted her teeth, ducked to the side as Ren tried to slash at her again, hopping and skittering around like a wild animal on his hands and feet. Pyrrha tangled with him for all of three seconds, before she fled for the nearest zipline leading to the ground floor. Ren gave chase, leaping at her just as she launched off!

He sank his sickles into her sides, Pyrra cried out. “YANG!” she yelled out as she began to violently swing back and forth, tried to knock Ren off.

Yang ducked under a swing of Nora’s hammer, looked, and immediately dashed after her. Nora saw too, holstered her hammer, then made a break for the unprotected flag.

Ren let go as they neared the end of the zipline, landed on the ground with a graceful roll, readied himself to pounce at Pyrrha again. He was just bending his limbs, before his eyes widened, and he immediately flattened himself.

Yang went sailing above him a second after, her arms grabbing nothing but empty air. She crashed and rolled onto her side, Ren leaped on top of her, sinking his sickles into her shoulders and starting a messy, violent brawl on the dirt.

Pyrrha jumped off the zipline, spun around and nocked a new arrow; she aimed it at Ren raining strikes down on Yang, before she saw Nora in the distance, victoriously waving the flag as she ran back to the bridge. Her eyes darted between them both for a few precious seconds, before she raised her bow and fired!

Thack.

Nora flinched and slowed down as an arrow slammed into her back, Pyrrha nocked a new one and aimed it at Ren.

Thack.

It struck him in the shoulder, making him wince in pain, Yang headbutted him, and quickly reversed the situation, raining pnuches down on Ren in turn. Pyrrha nocked a third arrow, aimed at Nora just about to make it to the starting line at the bridge, and fired…!

Whiff.

It sailed past her head, Nora crossed the line, and did a little victory dance as the horn echoed throughout the arena.

Yang grunted as she rolled off of Ren, pulled her mask off and wiped the sweat off her brow. “I appreciate the save earlier, but we’ll have to get together as a team some time and talk about when it’s better to just go for the win.”

“And I’d appreciate someone steadying the arrow in my back...” Ren groaned. “Excellent shot, by the way!”

Yang and Pyrrha both carefully picked him up, helped lead him back to the benches, and started patching up their wounds...

Note: In the Pits, most ammunition, allowed weapons, and modifications necessary and optional have intentionally reduced lethality. While the fans DO in fact want to see blood, they also generally want to see their favourite Pit Fighters live to see another match, and another, and another. Accidental deaths and/or crippling injuries are still well within the realm of possibility due to various other factors, of course, but that’s why the health and life insurance is so good, both within the Pits and third-party organizations like Leagues.

Some specific examples include limiting weapons to semi-automatic receivers with small magazines; less potent formulations for chemical weapons that fizz out very quickly and/or are easily neutralized; and modifications to projectiles’ designs that emphasize blunt impact than penetration--”bruises over blood,” as the makers say.

Those that ARE intended to maim, kill, or otherwise completely and utterly destroy their target are used almost exclusively in Fae vs Animal/Magitech events. It is a grave, permanently bannable and possibly even criminal offense to intentionally attack other fighters during these, especially since all participants are on the same team, or are explicitly banned from directly attacking the other parties.

Some specific examples include automatic receivers and drum/box magazines; extensive use of catalysts and accelerants for chemical weapons; and projectiles designed to penetrate through hides, bone, and into vital organs, before exploding and causing even more damage.

I should mention that last part is rarely actually necessary to kill a target, it just makes for a bloodier, more entertaining show.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

Just Drawn That Way (Part 2)

Note: This story has morphed into existential angst/horror and lesbians. Be warned.

SLAM!

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Cinder yelled, her chair screeching across the floor as she shot up.

Akko winced, as did some of the other protagonists in the meeting room. At the head of the table, Papuru-chan was unfazed, still smiling as she always did. “Now, now, Cinder-kun, you’re supposed to be an elite soldier, aren’t you? You’re not supposed to get this emotional over orders!”

“I can when the orders are a joke!” Cinder shouted back. “This is a joke, right?! Just another pitch for an advertisement, or another damned 4-koma?! Because you can’t seriously be saying that I’m going to have to spend an entire month, doing double-shifts with him!” she cried, thrusting her finger at Jaune.

Jaune flinched, before he shrank into his seat even more than he already had.

“It’s official,” Papuru-chan said calmly. “We have the new contracts they signed specifically for the anniversary, actually, would you like to see them...?”

Cinder’s eyes widened. “She agreed to do this?!”

“Hai-hai...!” Papuru-chan beamed. “Don’t worry though, Queen Dragon-sama is being compensated generously for her extra time and effort, and Publisher-tono believes that this event will help bring in even more readers from all the buzz we’ve been getting!”

Cinder gritted her teeth, a tendril of black smoke leaking out from her mouth. “So this all about the money...”

“It’s always about the money,” Amanda said as she lounged on her seat, her boots resting on the table. “Geeze, I know you’ve only been pro-published for a few months, but did you seriously never realize this before now?”

Cinder heaved a heavy sigh, before she pulled her chair back, sat down with her arms crossed and an aura like the heat radiating from a giant, smouldering wreck. How the other protagonists sitting right next to her managed to keep their cool, Akko didn’t know.

“Okay!” Papuru-chan said as she picked up her projector remote again. “Now that that’s been resolved, here’s the rest of the pair-ups for our first anniversary’s Grand Crossover Extravaganza…!”

The rest of the meeting went on without incident, reactions to the other odd or questionable duos far less violent than that of Cinder’s, before Papuru-chan went into more general matters like reviews, sales numbers, and the other upcoming events outside of their control such as conventions.

“… And that’s it!” Papuru-chan said, clapping her hands and turning the lights back on. “You’re all dismissed, everyone!”

The protagonists all stood up, bowed and said the usual formalities,  before shuffling out the conference room, heading down the stairs or the elevators leading back to their respective series’ domains.

“You. Jaune.”

… Except for Jaune, who found himself freezing as Cinder put a hand on his shoulder.

Akko watched uneasily as he slowly, very carefully turned around, just barely maintaining the look of calm on his face. “Y-Yes, Maj. Fall...?” he asked.

“You and I are going to have a long talk about this crossover business… privately.”

Jaune gulped, and mechanically nodded his head. “S-Sure, anything you say, Major,” he muttered, before Cinder quickly marched him off into a smaller meeting room a little ways away.

Akko watched them go, the internal conflict clear on her face.

Amanda shook her head as she stepped up beside her. “Don’t. Seriously, just don’t,” she said quietly and firmly. “There’s nothing good that ever comes out of interfering her when she’s in a mood like this.”

Click.

The door shut behind Jaune and Cinder in the meeting room, a dark miasma like black smoke and fading embers began to emanate from beneath the door.

Akko instinctively stepped away from it and into Amanda, she calmly put her hands on her arms. “See?” Amanda said. “Just turn around, and walk away,” she said, coaxing Akko in the other direction.

“But it doesn’t feel right to leave to just leave him like this!” Akko cried, resisting. “Shouldn’t we be helping him? Protagonist to protagonist?”

“’Look out for yourself before others,’ it’s the way of the Horizon as much as it is everywhere else,” Amanda replied, shaking her head as she let go Akko. “Besides, he’s a Romantic Comedy Harem Protagonist—he’s made for surviving anything a woman can throw at him. If they aren’t throwing him, anyway,” she added with a chuckle.

Akko sighed heavily. “I guess you’re right…”

“Because I am, 9 times out of 10,” Amanda said, grinning, before she patted Akko on the side, and headed to the elevator. “Welp, see you, Akko, gotta go back to the studio to celebrate the rest of that ‘Welcome Back’ party with the Niva’li, go do the fun stuff Boss-lady can’t show on-panel anymore,” she said, chuckling.

“Wait, Amanda!” Akko cried, stepping towards her.

“Yeah?” Amanda asked, looking over her shoulder as she pressed the call button.

“Do you want to go get our casts together and discuss the crossover sometime?” Akko said.

“What for?” Amanda asked, confused.

“Well, you know, some of them might have problems with it like Cinder did, and maybe we could help them work through it?” Akko replied.

“And…?” Amanda asked.

“… That was it.” Akko replied.

Amanda sighed, and shook her head. “Look, Akko: whether or not any of us like this latest cash-grab gimmick isn’t important, whatever the creators want us to do, we’ll do it; that’s the reason they gave us life, and that’s the only reason we’ll keep on having it.”

Ding. The elevator arrived.

“It was like that back when we were still a webcomic, it’ll be like that for as long as Boss-lady feels like we’re worth her time and talent,” Amanda said as she stepped in. “And honestly, I don’t know why anyone would be against anything that helps keep them drawing you for another day.

“Last chance to come with, by the way!” she said as she held the doors open. “I promised those blue-skinned bikini babes I’d be back within 10 minutes of that meeting ending, and you bet your ass they’re counting the seconds.”

Akko sighed, and said, “I’m good, you enjoy your party.”

“Thanks, feel free to come by if you change your mind,” Amanda said, grinning as the doors closed.

Akko stood there for a few moments, before she sighed and turned away, quietly debated what to do next.

Click.

She jumped as the black miasma from earlier spilled out from the now open door, filling the hallway like a fog machine from hell. Cinder strode out in the middle of it all, an ominously cool, calm expression on her face, Akko stepped back even further and well out of Cinder’s way as she headed down the stairs.

Moments later, Jaune’s trembling hand came out from the blackness, his knuckles growing white as he gripped the frame and tried to pull himself out on shaky, unsteady legs. Akko immediately rushed over to help him, slung his arm over her shoulders as she carried him out of there, to a row of chairs beyond the unnerving mist.

“Thanks...” Jaune mumbled as she lowered him on one of the seats.

“Iie,” Akko asked as she sat behind him. “Mind if I ask what happened back there?”

“Graphic stuff way beyond our 15+ rating...” Jaune said as he pulled himself up to a more comfortable position, the strength slowly returning to his limbs.

“Like...?” Akko asked.

“You sure want to ask...?” Jaune said. “It gets messed up.”

“I’ve been to some of Amanda’s arc-end parties, trust me, I know messed up.”

“Fair.” Jaune said. He sucked in a breath, and after a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Cinder said if my hands or any other part of me so much as grazes her butt, her boobs, or anywhere else important, accidental or not, she’s going to shoot my dick off with a laser.”

“Ah.”

“Is it--” Jaune stopped and hesitated, looked at Akko; when she nodded, he continued, “Is it weird to be worried about losing my dick if I never really ever get to use it, and probably never will?”

Akko thought about it. “Hrrmm, I can’t speak with 100% confidence as I don’t have a penis myself, but I have struck other actors and been struck in the crotch, and I’d say worrying about getting your penis shot off with a laser is legit, ‘cause it sounds like it’ll really, really, really hurt.”

“Huh, guess so,” Jaune muttered. “Guess I didn’t really consider that part.”

Akko nodded. “Hey, if you don’t mind, I’ve been meaning to ask: does it ever start hurting less over time, all the abuse you get?”

“No, no it really doesn’t,” Jaune said, shaking his head. “I guess that’s just one more thing that makes me ‘The Unluckiest Lucky Man in the World’…”

Akko reached out and patted him on the shoulder.

Jaune smiled. “Thanks.”

“Iie, anytime,” Akko said, smiling back.

Editor’s assistants soon came to fetch Jaune, talking about how he was due for a round of concept art, chiding him for not answering his company phone. “Oh, sorry!” he said, pulling it out of his pocket as he was ushered away, “I think I forgot to take it out of silent mode when I left the meeting!”

Realization hit Akko as she pulled out her own phone, opened it and noticed a text from Diana, sent several minutes ago:

“Emergency meeting. NOW.”

“OMW ASAP” Akko quickly replied, before she dashed to the stairs.

She was sweating and out of breath by the time she arrived at the meeting room. Diana the only other character there, her snake-half coiled so tightly around her it was like she was about to spring into an attack, her claws clutching the papers in her hands so tightly her nails had already ripped holes straight through each page.

“I’m here,” Akko said breathlessly, weakly rapping her knuckles on the door.

“Hello, Akko,” Diana said tersely, the paper crumpling even further in her grip. “Forgive me, if I don’t fetch the refreshments like I usually do, I am working through some rather volatile, intense emotions right now.”

“No problem,” Akko wheezed as she walked over to the mini-fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and settled herself on the couch. After a handful of swigs, she looked around, and asked, “Ruby and Weiss aren’t coming?”

“No, they and the rest of their cast members have been summoned by Queen Dragon for concept art,” Diana replied. “Ruby says she’s simply relishing the opportunity to design more of those Lumen suits,  so I suppose that makes at least one person happy about this whole business...” she hissed.

Akko nodded sympathetically, before she pulled her handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped herself down. Eventually, the two of them both cooled down, Akko’s breathing returning to normal, Diana relaxing her grip on the papers and the rest of her body, her tail spilling out around her as she slumped in her seat.

Akko sighed as she took one last sip of her water, stuffed her handkerchief back into her pocket. “Okay, I’m good… I’m guessing you want to talk about this…?” she said as she screwed the cap back on.

“Yes,” Diana said, before listlessly holding up the crumpled, punctured memo. “I can guarantee you now, this ‘Crossover Extravaganza’ will NOT fare well for you...” she muttered.

“I know that.” Akko replied. “Director-sama isn’t exactly shy about taking his own advice on the importance of conflict!”

“It’s not Mr. Oreon I’m worried about, it’s the Mistress M.” Diana mumbled. “I…” she sighed and looked down “… had thought it would never to come to this, as we’ve only only ever really worked together for the sake of promotions, merchandise, and silly, lighthearted 4-panels. But now that our creators are collaborating and sharing our casts, I can all but guarantee you that the Mistress M has only the absolute worst in store for you, suffering on a level you hadn’t thought possible, in ways you could have never expected.”

She looked up, sorrow in her reptilian eyes as she said, “And I am certain I will be the means by which she delivers it to you.

“I wish for you to know, Akko, that I am deeply, terribly sorry for anything and everything that I will be scripted to do upon you and your fellow cast members, and that I will not blame nor hold against you or anyone else any drastic changes in your opinion of me, how you speak to me, and how you act around me, if you even choose to interact with me on a voluntary basis.”

Akko looked at her in confusion. “What are you even apologizing for, Diana? It’s not going to be your fault, it’s the scripts’!”

“And those scripts will be written in part or in whole by the Mistress M.” Diana said flatly.

Akko grew concerned, and asked, “Is it really going to be that bad…?”

“Worse, even,” Diana replied. “Her creativity can be just as cruel and gruesome as it is wondrous and beautiful. Be quite thankful that here, she has the regulating forces of her editor, the threat of losing her primary income, and age and censorship laws. But even still, things will never be the same between us after this event is over, I guarantee it.”

“Why do you sound so sure of everything…?” Akko said, frowning.

“Because it’s happened before, and nothing is giving me any indication that this time will be any different,” Diana said ruefully.

Akko stewed for a few moments in her seat, before she suddenly got up, and strode over to Diana with her “Determination Face” on.

“Akko, what are you doing…?” Diana asked.

“Take my hand, Diana!” Akko cried as she thrust it towards her.

Diana looked at her with curiosity and concern, before she slowly, carefully obeyed, wrapping her claws around the back of Akko’s hand.

“Let the land, the sea, and the stars bear witness!” Akko cried in her “theatrical” voice, before she knelt before Diana, hand on her chest, gazing into her eyes as she said, “I, Kagari Atsuko, do swear to you, Diana Cavendish, that our friendship will stay strong and survive the Papuru Fiction Grand Crossover Extravaganza! This I swear, on my honour as the Guardian of the Fallen Star!”

Diana blinked, her lips tugging into a small smile, before she shook her head. “You know that the Promessa only works within your series...”

“I know,” Akko said, smiling as she went back to her normal voice. “But magically binding oaths or no, I’m still promising I am going to do everything I can, just for you~”

Diana’s cold-blooded, demonic nature rendered her incapable of things like blushing, but it was quite obvious that Akko’s actions had had an effect on her…

… Except to Akko herself, who calmly let go of Diana’s hand, and went back to her seat. “So, got anything more to get out of your chest?” she asked as she plopped down on the couch.

Diana’s features fell. She opened her mouth, then closed it, quietly suppressing the emotions stirring within her, before she said, “No, I’m sure that’s all I have, and any other grievances can be aired after yours. Do you have any?”

“Well, it’s not really a ‘grievance’ so much as a question that’s bugging me...” Akko murmured.

“Go ahead, Akko,” Diana said, sitting up and laying her hands on her lap. “I’m listening.”

“Do you think it’s weird to care about losing a body part off-panel, when it’ll just come back the next time we’re on the job?” Akko asked.

“It depends,” Diana replied. “Which body part is it? If it’s something as vital as your hand or an entire leg, it’ll surely affect your qualify of life.”

“But what if you never really ever get to use it, on-panel or off?” Akko asked. “Like, would it matter if someone shot your penis off, if you never have and probably never will use it for the bathroom or sex?”

Diana blinked. “… Pardon…?”

Note: Queen Dragon is half-Japanese/Half-American, raised in Japan. She is well aware that Queen Dragon-sama is grammatically incorrect and redundant, but it helps differentiate her from another popular mangaka who also has Dragon in her pen name, which is why interviews and Papuru-chan refers to Queen Dragon as such.

They know each other, but have no interactions nor relations, being from different publishing houses and catering to different audiences.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 32)

Elsewhere in the Grove during the duels, Weiss was in her nest, Penny snuggled up to her chest, Cheese and Winter’s summons around her for company, menial tasks, and/or food as she watched holos through Penny’s projector. (The quality was far superior than her comm-crystal’s.)

“I feel it… the purity of their love…!” screamed the monster of the week. “This is it… the power, of YURI!”

A wave of purple-black miasma shot out of the monster, washing over the convention floor, reality itself beginning to warp and change as bright, prismatic energy was sucked out of them.

Hina gasped. “Akane, Aoi, look! All the couples, the anime and manga, even the doujins and the fan art—they’re all losing their gayness!”

“You monster!” Aoi screamed. “Do you know how long that slow-burn was between Diya and Nene?! This is an affront to all of Girls Love!”

“You’re going down, Yarama!” Akane screamed as she whipped out her spear, Hina and Aoi doing the same with their weapons.

“Piper, this show is so fucking stupid...” Weiss muttered.

“Would you like to change to something else?” Penny asked through an annotation on the holo.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t enjoying it!” Weiss said.

A fight sequence began, the tables and displays being torn up and destroyed from the empowered monster, the heroes trying their best to spare the panicked, confused convention goers, and the merchandise, too, if they could help it.

“Face it, Spiral Hearts!” the Yarama cried. “The power of women loving women is just too strong!”

“That is true…” Hina replied “… but it’s not as strong as the true fans of yuri, those who make and support new content for fans everywhere, not filthy parasites like you! Akane! Aoi!”

“On it!” they both cried, before they all joined their weapons into one giant cannon. “For the love of all that makes our lives worth living… SPIRAL PIERCER…!”

The projection suddenly stopped, Penny’s eyes flashing green.

“What happened?” Weiss asked amid the disappointed growls and groans of the summons.

“It seems there was a serious accident during Jaune and Pyrrha’s training!” Penny replied, untangling herself from Weiss’ arm, then hovering towards the window. “I’m afraid my medical expertise is needed on-site, apologies, Weiss.”

“Don’t you just have first-aid equipment right now?” Weiss asked as she sat up.

“Yes, but I still have my treatment database, patient history, and high-precision scanners,” Penny replied. “I’ll inform you of any new developments as soon as I can!”

Weiss sighed, frowning as she watched Penny fly out the window and out of sight. One of Winter’s summons gently prodded her on the side, and gestured to her comm-crystal charging on a dock in the corner; she turned to them and shook her head. “You’ll have to find out what happens next later, I’ve got a hunch I need to investigate,” she said as she stood up. “Help me get dressed, everyone!”

The summon sighed, before everyone available either fetched Weiss’ garments from the closet, or helped her put it on. “Cheese, you’re coming with me,” Weiss said as she scooped what remained of him from his plate, now just a small blob no bigger than her hand.

c:

“I’m heading out to the training grounds!” Weiss said as she passed by Winter in the living room.

“Don’t try to squeeze in more exercise when you’re supposed to be recovering, I really did mean that was the only time I’d carry you back!” Winter replied, not looking up from the Nivian-Actaeon book she was reading.

“I won’t, sheesh! It’s been what, four years since that happened?” Weiss said as she opened the door.

“I know you, Weiss, it takes a long while for you to give up on something you’ve put your mind to,” Winter replied as she turned the page.

Weiss shook her head as she shut the door behind her, called for the elevator before taking a bite out of Cheese.

He was down to just his soulstone by the time she arrived, by which point Jaune was securely strapped to a spine board and being carried away by Taiyang and Nora, Ren and Penny following them with medical supplies.

Futher away, Yang was on a bench, comforting the rather glum looking Pyrrha sitting beside her. After a few moment’s consideration, Weiss stepped over and asked, “May I ask what the hell happened to Jaune this time?”

“We were dueling, and I accidentally threw him far harder and further than I intended,” Pyrrha replied. “His landing was… ugly.”

“Should I…?” Weiss asked uneasily.

“In short: he looked a human pretzel,” Yang said. “Just so you know, the un-pretzeling process wasn’t pretty, either.”

“Uh... huh...” Weiss mumbled. “Do you need me to stay, or should I just leave…?” she asked, thumbing behind her.

“If your brain is functioning enough again for Pit Fighter business, sure!” Yang said.

“I’ve made quite a lot of progress on the weapon choice front, it’d be a shame to waste this time,” Pyrrha added.

Weiss nodded, and sat down with them. “So how’s it going, exactly?”

“If we’re being thorough about it, I’m halfway through the process,” Pyrrha replied. “I still haven’t explored any of the Fae firearms that weren’t almost-complete replicas of AFA armaments, but now I know for sure that I have a solid idea of what I’m looking for in melee weapons.”

“And what would that be?” Weiss asked.

“Something versatile with reach, coupled with a shield and elemental mediums for an all-rounded offense or defense,” Pyrrha replied. “Weiss’ temporarily limited powers aside, both of you are highly specialized fighters, and I’d rather not lose a good chunk of our effectiveness, or expose glaring weaknesses in our defenses should one of you be downed, or otherwise indisposed. Whether it’s defending against attacks from any range, leading a charge into our enemies, or wreaking some elemental havoc, I’ll be ready for it.

“That being said, I haven’t seen what Fae ranged weapons can bring to the table, and if the melee weapons were any indication, they should be quite the learning experience.”

“You should probably join us at the firing range later, Weiss!” Yang said. “Get a feel for how the Fae deal death from a distance.”

“I’d rather not,” Weiss replied. “After all that training at the Terrace, my arms will definitely become too sore to even hold a gun as soon as I’m hit the recoil.”

“I meant in a mental, tactical sense, see what you might go up against in person!” Yang replied. “You’ve barely seen anyone really use a ranged weapon outside of all-out war where tracking who fired what was the least of your worries. Plus, the special ammo will give you a great idea of what happens when you mix elements up—nothing wrong with your using pure, but you miss out on useful things like Melty Wash that way.”

“’Melty Wash…?’” Weiss asked.

“Melty Wash,” Yang repeated, nodding. “It sounds just as stupid in Actaeon, don’t worry.” She winced as her stomach growled. “Ugh, all this drama made me forget how hungry I am—come on, let’s go get some grub and a nap, then on to lighting shit up!” she said, getting up.

Weiss shrugged. “Alright, fine, I’ll go!” she said as she hopped up. “I figured I needed to get out of bed and do something productive today, anyway...”

Jaune was left in the cabin he bunked in, Taiyang and Penny stayed behind to take care of him and keep him company. Everyone else had lunch and rested a while, before discussing Pyrrha’s firearms training.

As elementally-infused ammo, alchemical grenades, chemical weapons and the like needed to be specially ordered by and used under the supervision of a senior watcher or other qualified individual, and Qrow was far too drunk at the moment, they started out with the standard Fae firearms.

In contrast to the practical, sleek, and streamlined AFA guns Pyrrha was used to, the Fae practically made it a point to have their guns as flashy and embellished as possible. Every one of them seemed to have as many engravings, stylized components, and decorations as they could possibly add without compromising function too much, like an iron sight made out of some long-dead predator’s skull, the gun barrel coming out of its jaws

Metal and wood were the materials of choice for most of them, all manner of colours, grains, and sheen from the varieties, mixtures, and treatments, with the rest of the parts made from bone, rock, crystal, plant fibers, and whatever else the Fae could get their hands or hand-equivalents on. There was barely any built-in magitech to be seen, no small-form targeting systems, recoil adjusters, or ammo management systems, just physical springs, levers, hammers, revolvers, and whatever else.

And almost all of them were powerful, even the quietest guns having massive impact.

Thip. Crack. Thip. Crack. Thip. Crack.

Pyrrha fired her “Fang Gun” into a log target, each bone projectile lodging an inch or two deep into the wood, splinters flying out from the holes, the cracks clearly audible to Weiss even as she watched from well away to the side.

She stopped after six shots, putting her rifle down and massaging her arms. “Not the kind of gun you fire just for fun, is this?” she asked Ren.

“Not unless your idea of ‘fun’ is accuracy competitions, or clean hunting kills,” Ren replied calmly. “Shall we focus on lower-caliber weapons that are easier to fire for sustained periods, such as repeaters? Most every Fae firearm hits the user almost as hard as they do the target.”

“No,” Pyrrha replied, picking the gun back up, and aiming for a farther target. “I suppose I’ll just have to learn to make every single shot a hit from here on out!”

Ren nodded. “One well-placed bullet’s all you really need, most of the time.”

“And the rest?” Pyrrha asked.

Ren smiled. “Two bullets.”

After Pyrrha started getting used to the intense recoil, and firing far less frequently than she would have with human guns, they started planning which weapons she was to try out, how she was going to test them out, and who would be involved.

Everyone except Weiss donned a set of armour; a small arena was built by a copse of smaller trees with the help of deployable cover, ballistic shields, and the foliage; and several dozen crates of ammo were carted out of storage, their contents transferred to smaller boxes set around the area, or to loaded into all manner of belts, bags, and quivers just waiting to be strapped on.

Before Pyrrha’s first live-fire exercise, however, Ren wanted to demonstrate how Fae opponents would be using firearms themselves, exchanging his usual sickles for two “Shredders,” Fae-style SMGs.

“The first thing you need know is, except for heavy weapons like Hailstorm cannons or extreme long-distance weapons like Shardslingers and Farslingers, Fae tend to prefer shooting on the move, and most can shoot quite accurately and survive getting shot at also,” Ren said as he loaded one of his guns with a clip.

He dashed towards some training dummies, shredding their canvas coverings with short, accurate burts. He maneuvered around their cover and shot them from behind, slid on the ground to slip through tiny gaps and holes in defenses, even leaped off a ledge and fired the last of his clip in mid-air.

“Predicting your enemies movements and firing where they will be in a second is a helpful skill in lower ranks, and absolutely vital as you move up,” he said as landed, pulled out his second shredder and loaded them both.

“The second is that, thanks to our biology and engineering advancements, dual-wielding guns isn’t as stupid and dangerous idea to us Fae as it is to you humans,” Ren said as he adjusted the stocks, shortening them and fitting them over his forearms. “In fact, it’s actually quite popular inside the Pits, both as a stylistic choice and a significant combat advantage.”

He calmly crossed a bridge lined with target dummies, both guns blazing and ripping apart targets on both sides, casually bending his arms further and more dramatically than any human could to shoot behind his back, over his shoulders, and even under his leg.

“And the third and arguably the most important is: we Fae are far, far more mobile and agile than any of you are right now, or will be in the immediate future, so do consider any way your enemies can outmaneuver and flank you,” Ren said as he holstered one gun, replaced the empty clip with a drum magazine.

He moved towards one of the “bases” in the arena, a tight cluster of trees with platforms rising up two stories above him, a small sniper’s nest on the third. Several dummies stood behind cover, well-protected from any shots angled upwards, free to pump Ren full of bullets if they were actually armed and alive.

Then Ren started jumping from branch to branch, running up and along the trunk and the walls, swinging from the ropes or running on top of the ziplines, raining metal hell down on all of them from above and behind.

Ren zipped down from the base, gracefully landing back down to the ground. He unloaded the empty drum, turned over to Pyrrha and Weiss said, “Generally speaking, never forget to look up. Now, any questions or concerns?”

“None,” Pyrrha said, smiling as she put on her helmet. “Let’s get shooting.”

“Oh yeah!” Nora cried as she shot out of her seat. “We about to get all John Woo up in here!”

Note: Aside from the tendency for special ammo and the like to deteriorate over time, to the point of being unusable or dangerous to use, it’s also expensive to produce, and capable of causing severe injuries to folks and damage to property that oftentimes require urgent, specialized treatment, thus the many hurdles to legally acquiring and using them. Due to the nature of the Keeper and her team, restrictions are a bit looser and relatively easier, but not by much.

The shardslinger is the non-elemental version of the farslinger. Though they use many similar designs, the key difference is in the loading mechanism and the insides of the barrels, with the latter being specially treated and much, much, MUCH more expensive, to be able to handle the severe wear of high-power elemental mediums. It’s not unknown for substandard barrels to simply explode or melt during stress testing.

This chapter was coded “Shooty Shooty Bang Bang.” The next chapter is coded “John Woo-ing It Up In Here.”

[ruffsficstuffplace]

Just Drawn That Way (Part 1)

Summary: It was a weekly ritual of theirs, show up at the end of each Monday, complain about their existences, before sympathizing, then planning out how they were going to survive what next week would bring.

In short: it was a support group—as much as manga characters could be said to have one, at any rate.

They never thought it would ever do much harm, until it threatened to erase them from existence

Weiss was the last one to arrive, quietly walking in a whole ten minutes after everyone else had already settled into their seats. She wasn’t drawn in her school uniform, or any of her “casual” outfits, instead wearing a buttoned up white-shirt and a sarong around her waist, her hair slightly damp and her iconic ponytail tied up into a tight bun.

Diana sniffed the air and flicked her serpentine tongue out for good measure, smelled and tasted salt water, burnt charcoal, and coconuts. “Beach special?” she asked.

“Yes.” Weiss replied as she headed to the middle of their three-person couch, her usual spot. Ruby and Akko scooted over or pulled up their legs to make room, she thanked them before she sat down with her knees tightly pressed together, her hands clasped in her lap, her posture absolutely perfect and straight.

Akko and Ruby noticed and frowned, but said nothing.

Diana rose up from her beanbag, her snake-half uncoiling a bit beneath her. “Is everyone ready to start the meeting?” she asked.

“Yes,” everyone replied, with varying levels of enthusiasm.

“Then would anyone like to begin our session?” Diana asked, glancing at the others. “Weiss, perhaps?”

“No, no,” she said, shaking her head, slowing down as she noticed drops of sea water dripping down her hair. “You girls go first.”

“Are you certain?” Diana asked.

“Yes.” Weiss replied, carefully catching the water in her hands, before wiping them off on her sarong.

“Then would anyone else like to go first, or shall we just follow our established order?” Diana asked.

“I’m cool with that the usual,” Ruby said, then Akko said, “Yeah, that sounds fine.”

Diana nodded. “Then Ruby, please start us off,” she said, gesturing to her.

Ruby nodded back, then said, “I thought we were going to have a quiet rearlines chapter this week, or maybe some more political intrigue over at Command, but it turns out that Anoke wanted to introduce a new type of Umbra to the story. They’re called Stalkers, and their shtick is that they’re infiltration and ambush experts; apparently she thought the best way to illustrate that was to have one of them break into HQ—specifically, the R&D labs.”

Realization hit the others quickly, Akko winced. “Wow, that must have really sucked.”

“It really did,” Ruby said, frowning. “Anoke went full on horror mode with the scene, too.”

“What happened?” Weiss asked.

“Oh, the usual setup: I was working late at night, heard weird bumps in the vents and the corners, went to investigate it for a couple of panels before the Big Scary Thing came out at me in a full-page spread, and I spent the rest of the chapter running and fighting it off.” Ruby explained. She sighed. “Honestly, I’m so glad Anoke wrote me as a weapons engineer, and I had usable prototypes everywhere and ammo everywhere, but still, she made that thing way too reckless and durable for something that supposedly HAD to use stealth, or be killed almost immediately!

“It chased me through the entirety of the lab, managed to pin me down after I tripped on all the spent shells; it was even about to eat me, before someone from security finally thought to investigate why the cameras and audio feeds went down all of a sudden, and why they could still hear the gunshots and the screaming from all the way up there!

“They killed it right on time to save me, but not nearly soon enough, if you ask me...” Ruby grumbled, before she heaved a heavy sigh. “Alright, rant’s over. Akko?”

“We had another big Teatro with a rival troupe,” Akko started. “Same plot as always: brand new characters, this time from within Luna Nova—I think they were one of the more detailed background characters in an audience shot two chapters ago, you know Director-sama likes to do that. Anyway, we challenged them, they talked about how bad we’re going to lose because we suck so much, but also go through so much effort to cheat to ensure their win, then we somehow beat them anyway, and this time they chose to flip the table than eat their humble pie, and Finnelan expelled them.

“But this week it was just so--” she raised her trembling hands in front of her “--so stupid! I mean, I get it: there’s only so many serious, dark, realistic motivations you can give rivals before you have to start making most of them orphans from Teatri Finali, but this one was just, ‘Gasp! Somebody said something vaguely insulting about me and it wasn’t even directly to my face, so I blow up at them in public! I mean, we could talk things through like normal people and ask what they meant, but heck, let’s just skip all that and go straight to trying to mock-murder each other on stage so we can decide who’s telling the ‘truth!’

“I mean—COME ON!” Akko cried, throwing her hands up. “We’re supposed to be training to be the professionals that literally decide how wars are won, and here we are getting this angry over a simple misunderstanding?! Director-sama is setting a really bad example to our audience! I mean, real life actresses aren’t this petty and prone to overreacting, are they?

“I mean, are they…?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“I really don’t know, Akko,” Weiss said. “The Show Time arc had all of protagonists us as the actors, no industry professionals to speak of except for production and agents. Even then, I doubt it would have been a realistic portrayal, considering, you know.”

“The recording of our drama CD also went incredibly smoothly,” Diana added. “Whether that was an exception or not, I can’t tell as we only ever did produce the one so far, not to mention the third party involved for most of it.”

“Maybe if one of us gets an anime adaptation one of these days, we might be able to find out during the director’s commentary!” Ruby said.

Akko sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Maybe… okay, I’m done. Diana?”

“It’s a very similar problem as yours, actually,” Diana hummed. “I swear, no matter how much I despise the role I was written for, I would be so pleased if the Mistress M would extend any of that seemingly infinite creativity of hers into the ways she reminds the audience I’m the ‘Token Evil Teammate’ of the group,” she said, making air quotes.

“She’s already bluntly stated there’s limitless possibility in such a lawless, wild, and fantastic land as the Horizon!

“But no, it’s always: ‘Oh, guess who subtly poisoned or otherwise killed the morally ambiguous ally side character who was just shy of proudly advertising that they were going to betray us?’ or ‘Oh, guess who refuses to help the latest band of stranded refugees, or the poor, penniless villagers out in the middle of nowhere?’ or ‘Oh, guess who immediately suggests murder as the ultimate solution, since it’s what we end up doing nine times out of ten, anyhow?’

“And the answer is always, ‘Diana.’”

“It used to be shocking, fascinating, even, in the early stages of the series, but now it’s all just so boring and trite. If an omake is to be believed, it seems there’s a ‘meme’ about it involving law enforcement just pinning the blame on me immediately, and no judge willing to contest the charges—and if she went out of her way to acknowledge it in publication like that, you can be certain she found it entertaining.

She sighed again. “I will likely never get a redemption arc, but I would at least prefer it if my role was to be come much less routine and utterly predictable. And with that, I am satisfied. Weiss?”

Weiss looked sheepishly at her lap, and started twiddling her fingers. “So, you all know what a beach special means in my genre, right…?”

“Sandcastle building? Beach volleyball? Barbecue at the boardwalk?” Ruby offered.

“Ooh, ooh: watermelon smashing! Swimming! Songs and stories around a bonfire at night where you stay up super late and sleep on the beach!” Akko cried.

“Skimpy, highly inappropriate outfits for characters explicitly of high school age; copious amounts of even more inappropriate behaviour such as willing or unwilling indecent exposure; outright sexual assault treated with the least amount of seriousness possible...?” Diana said.

“Correct, correct, and correct,” Weiss said, nodding at each of them in turn. “Look… I could handle Jaune accidentally barging into the ladies dressing room as usual, among other stupid antics of his. I could handle the frankly insane amounts of outdoors, mid-day activities Hentai-sama thought someone of my complexion and constitution could happily oblige to for 12 or so hours, especially with most of our drinking water ending up spilled in the service of an ecchi scene. I could handle faking being attracted to Jaune in swimming trunks, internally ‘gush’ about how ‘nice’ he looks with his hair wet, ‘admire’ his muscles shining with sweat, and just generally find single thing he does charming, no matter how asinine and/or immature.”

She clenched her fists tightly. “But I could not… I can’t… I’m...” she sniffed, tears welling in her eyes.

Ruby and Akko both reached out and patted her on the shoulder and back as Weiss began to sob, trembling with each violent, pained heave.

“I’m gay...” Weiss whispered, broken. “I’m so, so, so fucking gay, and I don’t know how much longer I can pretend to be even remotely attracted to that stupid, bumbling, personality-devoid blonde blank-slate when I have not one, but two pretty girls in my vicinity at all times, plus Ms. Goodwitch and all the side-girls of the week!”

She sucked in a breath, looked up at Diana with red-streaked, teary eyes, her cheeks wet and glistening. “Did you know, I had to put sunscreen on Pyrrha’s back…? Do you know, how much detail Hentai-sama drew her with? And do you know, how much willpower it took, for me to convincingly look like I was pretending it was actually me in Velvet’s place, make it seem like I wanted to be with Jaune, keep from losing myself in the objectively superior choice, who was literally right in the palms of my hands…?”

Weiss broke into another round of tears, Akko hugged her and cradled her face to her chest, while Ruby continued rubbing her back. Diana maneuvered her snake-half to their mini-fridge in the corner, pulled out a bottle of water, then flung it to Ruby’s waiting hand.

“I’m sorry...” Weiss whimpered some time later, her voice hoarse, her eyes stinging from the tears still flowing, her water spilling as her hand couldn’t stop trembling. “I’m so, so sorry, this is all I have, compared to all of your problems...”

“It wasn’t your fault you were created for a harem comedy, Weiss,” Diana said, giving Weiss a warm, sympathetic look—or as much as a half-snake demon could, at least.

Weiss continued to cry until she ran out of tears and drained most of her water, now clutching it so tightly in her hand the plastic was crumpling around her fingers. “I hate this...” she muttered.

“We do too...” Ruby said.

“I don’t know how I’m going to last much longer…” Weiss whispered. “It was only because I had the dubious honour of being Jaune’s roommate when it came time to assign the inevitably-fewer-cabins-than-we-thought that I lasted till morning… I wouldn’t have lasted five minutes if I was in that same, tiny, cramped room with Pyrrha, Velvet, and Ms. Goodwitch, in their nightwear… if they even wore any clothes to sleep!” she whimpered.

“Thank fuck it was just a one-chapter deal, I couldn’t have survived another in-story day in that sunny, sandy hell… and now, I guess it’s time for all of us to figure how we’re going to survive next week.”

“Indeed,” Diana said as she pulled off the curtain for their whiteboard.

Akko killed the lights, Ruby found the remote for it and tossed it to Diana, Weiss tossed her crushed water bottle into the trash before they all prepared for this week’s news update.

“As you are all aware, Papuru Fiction is reaching its first anniversary in six weeks,” Diana started, pulling out and extending her pointer. “Without a doubt, it will be a grand, elaborate affair, what with our relatively recent explosion in audience numbers, and of course, our new additions to the roster since the magazine’s creation,” she said, looking at Ruby and Akko both.

“Without a doubt, our respective mangakas will be pulling out all the stops in the near future, so expect dramatic developments in the plot and world-changing arcs, explosive and catastrophic finales, and even new main characters being introduced to our respective casts, Weiss’ series especially.

“Then there is the separate matter of what Mrs. Publisher and the Editors will think they will have to do alongside that; we will likely be working overtime with special editions, extra lengthy chapters, and of course, promotional material and new merchandise.”

Akko groaned. “I smell being framed and almost expelled again…!”

“I sense hundreds of thousands of extras dying, and a city being wiped off the map,” Ruby continued.

“And I’m certain the ecchi is going to hit critical mass...” Weiss muttered, looking down at herself.

“Indeed,” Diana said, nodding gravely as she turned off the projector, exchanged the remote for a whiteboard marker. “Now, shall we get to predictions and planning, ladies?”

With no objections, they got right to it; they ultimately managed to predict quite a lot of things, except for the “almost being erased from existence” part.

Note: I don’t hate Jaune. I don’t have anything against anyone turning him into the aforementioned wish-fulfillment harem protagonist. I hate that, independent of him being Jaune, they’re EVERYWHERE.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

And The AWRD Goes To... 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12760974

RWBY/LWA Crossover

Mature

Fantasy/Sci-fi Action/Adventure

Of Seduction, Emotions, and Spycraft

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12681219

LWA AU

13+

Fantasy/Sci-fi Spy Comedy

Pyrehearts (Burning Desire + Unequenchable Thirst)

https://archiveofourown.org/series/814818

LWA AU

18+

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Comedy/Erotica

Want fic recommendations: LWA

Hey there friends. I’m interested in reading Little Witch Academia fic, specifically Dianakko. I’m really bad at finding fic that I’m interested in, but if any of ya’ll could point me in the direction of some Dianakko fic, I’d be most appreciative.

Fics greater than 10,000 words appreciated, but fewer is fine!

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 31)

Pyrrha’s next choice ended being a set of Dunestriders. They were a specially modified design for human hands and feet, fully enclosed without the straps and open toes and fingers they usually had, though the boots still had a reverse-joint form, achieved by having Pyrrha’s actual feet much higher than they appeared to be. It had the effect of making her even taller than she already was, which Jaune immediately noticed as she strode into the arena.

Pyrrha looked at him, visually compared the lengths of her armoured dunestriders and the companion gloves against Jaune’s arm plus sword, and frowned. “These are probably going to put you at a severe disadvantage again...”

“Yeah, it probably will...” Jaune muttered.

“Are you going to stick with your sword and shield again?”

“No, I’ve learned my lesson,” Jaune said, stepping out of the ring, heading to the weapons rack, and returning with a poleaxe.

“A suitable weapon for the conditions of the fight, Jaune,” Pyrrha said, nodding in approval.

“Thanks,” Jaune said, before held the poleaxe out, its spike just a good lunge away from meeting Pyrrha.

She went into her own fighting stance, crouching low on the ground like a sprinter, the dunestriders’ mechanisms whirring and preparing for action.

Taiyang looked at them both and smiled, before he blew the horn.

Jaune attacked first, thrusting his poleaxe at Pyrrha!

Whoosh!

Pyrrha launched herself to the side, and the spike met the cloud of dust left she left in her wake.

Jaune pulled it back and swung at Pyrrha, she leaped over the blade and shaft, landing on her hands before she put her feet back on the ground and started to circle around Jaune. He noticed and rushed to the center, swinging wide for her chest!

Pyrrha dropped to her knees!

Clang!

The top of her helmet banged against the axe-head as she slid across the ground, kicked up a huge cloud of dust in her wake. Jaune pulled his poleaxe back and tried to stab at her, she scrabbled backwards, kicking up even more dirt and hiding her from view.

Jaune quickly pulled his weapon back, squinting as he tried to any sign of Pyrrha…

Whoosh!

The cloud blew apart as Pyrrha launched herself at Jaune!

He braced his feet, and cried out as he stabbed at her…!

… He missed, Pyrrha landed behind him on her hands and a foot, cocking her other leg and looking over shoulder, before she drove her heel into the back of Jaune’s knee.

“AGH!” he cried out as he stumbled, rammed his poleaxe in the dirt to keep from falling.

Pyrrha launched herself back up on her feet, dashed towards Jaune, and kicked his legs out from under him. He collapsed on his back, his poleaxe held across his chest; he tried to raise it up until Pyrrha brought one foot down on the shaft, pinning it to his body.

He could only watch as she prepared to drive her other foot onto his neck.

“You really have a thing for going for the neck, don’t you…?” Jaune wheezed as he was back on the bench once more, his helmet off and rubbing at the fresh medical patch slapped on top of his neck.

“Well, it is one of the most vulnerable parts of the human body, and evidently the Fae folk’s also,” Pyrrha replied as she sat next to him, her helmet also off. “Should I stop? I mean, there are other parts I could target!”

“What were they again?” Jaune asked. “It’s been a long while since I went through them in Basic.”

Pyrrha put on a thoughtful expression, and muttered, “Hmm... well, our helmets and visors make the ears, eyes, nose, and such well-protected and impractical to strike; our chest armour will easily withstand a blow to the solar plexus, the ribs, and even down to the crotch; and our boots and leg-armour are incredibly sturdy and help protect against knee breakage… so there’s always going for the arms for a disable…?

“Oh, but that’s where your weapons are, especially your shield, so… on second thought, I guess there really isn’t any other weak points I can exploit except for your neck...” she mumbled, sheepishly looking down. “This is embarrassing, I apologize.”

“It’s cool,” Jaune said, waving her off. “I mean, when you think about it, this can be good practice, you know! For everything out there, outside the Bastion, ‘cause I’ll be Weiss’, ah, ‘personal server,’” he said, gesturing vaguely at the stretch of uninhabited swamp some distance away. “Those animals are probably also going to be coming straight for my neck, up close and personal, so better be prepared for it, right?”

“Right, but I think most people would prefer training with Fae firearms and other ranged weapons, than attempting to master close range-combat,” Pyrrha said, looking back at him. “Reach and range can mean everything in an encounter, especially when one party is robbed of it. Speaking of which: why are you training with your sword and shield? Has it been strengthened with echoes over the years, too?”

Jaune frowned, looked away, and muttered, “It’s stupid...”

Pyrrha put her hand on Jaune’s shoulder and smiled at him. “I won’t judge.”

Jaune looked at her, hesitated a moment, before he looked away and said, “There’s this… legend in my family about these weapons...”

Pyrrha took her hand back, placing them in her lap, before she nodded at Jaune. “Go on...”

Jaune looked at her from the corners of his eyes, before turning to his weapons on his lap. “It says that this sword and shield? They’re completely, absolutely unbreakable, made out of some special super-metal, by some special smith, in the woods, in the mountains, deep in cave in a lake—the details are really fuzzy and change a lot, but the point of it is, you can’t wreck them—ever.

“The blade gets dull, the shield gets dented, and they aren’t immune to getting bent out of shape, but they’ll never break, and whatever happens to it, it can get fixed.

“And my ancestors said that it ‘blessed’ whoever wielded them, making them just as unbreakable, too. If you can believe the stories, this shield saved Arcs from a barrage of gunpowder cannons, a historic storm, and even helped slay a legendary demon, way back when. The only their wielders could ever die was when they intentionally left them behind, or when it was finally their time to go, anyway.

“I’m pretty sure a lot of it is bullshit bedtime stories to make them seem special, make my family seem special, but since they really are pretty much indestructible, maybe, maybe there’s some truth to their ‘blessing!’ And if it is true, then I can...” he suddenly stopped.

Pyrrha waited a few moments, before she asked, “And then you can…?”

Jaune shook his head again. “Nevermind, it’s even dumber than the legend,” he said as he put his helmet back on, grabbed his weapons as he stood up. “My neck’s feeling better now, I’m ready to see you in the ring again when you’re ready.”

Pyrrha looked unconvinced, but she nodded and did the same, heading to the weapon rack to pick out her next choice.

It ultimately turned out to be a series of Stormwheels. Her first choice was a lightweight, one-hander designed for close range combat, a “Clutcher” Stormwheel. The wheel was six inches in diameter including the three curved hooks, had a lever mechanism that’d extend it away from her when activated, and a miniature, fire-powered motor that wrapped around her forearm.

“Are you sure you want to use that?” Jaune asked as they were back in the ring.

“I’m sure.” Pyrrha replied. “From what Ren has told me, it’s a very effective weapon when it comes to disarming and disabling melee attackers.”

“Okay…” Jaune said, nodding slowly.

“Do you have any issues with it, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked.

“Well, it’s just that… it looks like a giant fidget spinner!” Jaune cried. “One you wear on your arm instead of hold in your hands!”

“I’ll admit it looks a bit silly, but I’m willing to give it a shot!” Pyrrha replied, holding up the clutcher. “Who knows? It might make it among those in the final running.”

Jaune shrugged. “If you want to use it, I guess...” he muttered as he readied his weapons.

Pyrrha smiled. “Thank you, Jaune,” she said as she did the same.

Taiyang blew the horn, Jaune rushed at Pyrrha and slashed!

She raised her clutcher, squeezing hard on the trigger, the wheel roaring into action!

Reeeee—CLANG!

Jaune’s sword immediately got caught in the now spinning hooks; caught by surprise, he felt his wrist painfully twisted. “AGH!”

He immediately lost his grip on his sword, the clutcher sent it flying off into the audience!

“HOLY SHIT!” Yang cried as she, Nora, and Ren ducked for cover.

Taiyang swiftly caught it out of the air. “Got it!” he said, triumphantly holding it up by its blade.

“Maybe I shouldn’t use these...” Pyrrha said as she quickly pressed the emergency stop button, the clutcher screeched to a halt.

“Agreed...” Jaune mumbled, trembling as he cradled his wrist.

After a quick medical check to ensure that the bones there were still whole, the blood cells unruptured, and the nerves healed, Pyrrha decided to move onto another variation, a “Whirler” Stormwheel, or as it was more affectionately known, a “Whirly-wheel.” This one was smaller, about two or so inches in diameter, made of a coil of steel-silk sandwiched between two sharpened discs, the water medium inserted via magically infused beads.

“So now you’re fighting with a yo-yo…?” Jaune observed as he observed Pyrrha practicing with it, playing with it as you would the actual toy.

“It could be fun!” Pyrrha replied, trying to do a trick with them, giggling as it ended up going out of control and smacking her lightly on the chest.

Jaune shrugged, and prepared himself for combat once more.

Taiyang blew the horn, Jaune charged first, aiming for a thrust this time!

Pyrrha activated the water medium inside her stormwheel, the beads glowing bright as she threw it at Jaune’s head!

Clang!

The blow jerked Jaune’s head backwards, he staggered and stumbled as he instinctively raised his shield up to his face.

Pyrrha pulled her whirler back, spun it around to build momentum, before she launched it at him again!

At the same time, Jaune regained his balance lowered his shield enough to see—specifically, the whirly-wheel flying straight for his face again.

Thunk.

It landed on his shield and ricocheted off, but the force and the angle of the strike sent it and his hand smacking straight into his head.

Jaune fell onto his back, his limbs splayed out around him.

Pyrrha pulled her whirler back; it missed her hand and struck her in the head, leaving a shallow dent in her helmet. “Are you alright, Jaune?” she asked as her whirler fell and tumbled in the dirt.

Jaune slowly raised his shield hand and turned it outwards, making a thumbs-up, before it dropped back to the ground.

As Ren wanted to test him for potentially serious head-trauma, it gave Pyrrha time to choose and train with one of the much more exotic and flashier variants: “Screamer” Stormwheels. It was a four-piece set that could be used like wheels, circular saws, or small shields, mounted on the sides of special boots and gloves, loaded with earth medium upon Nora’s recommendation.

Like the dunestriders before it, the reverse-joint design of the boots and the screamers themselves gave Pyrrha quite the height boost, and with the incredible speed she could achieve from a standstill thanks to the motors, Jaune was given another polearm.

This time, he chose a grasping vine staff.

Pyrrha skated into the arena, playfully circling around Jaune, before she moved to her starting place. Jaune nodded at her, before he pulled out his staff, and held it at the ready.

Taiyang blew the horn, and Pyrrha was off, dashing around the arena, ripping up huge gouges in the ground as she kicked up huge clouds of dust!

Jaune rushed to the center again, standing strong and steady as he watched the dust flying up around him, looked out for the glint of metal through the clouds.

Pyrrha dashed in to strike!

Jaune smacked one arm away with his staff, blocked the slash from the other. Pyrrha tried to dash back into the clouds, Jaune swept his staff at her legs, managed to grab onto an ankle, and pulled!

“Gah!” Pyrrha cried as she was jerked backward, falling on her stomach.

Jaune started to pull her closer to him, she slammed her screamers into the dirt, gouging the ground and slowing him down, but not enough to try and get back up. It almost seemed like Jaune finally had the upper-hand, when she accidentally activated the motors in her hands, and the sudden motion jerked Jaune to the side.

Realization struck the both of them. Pyrrha smiled as she arranged her three free screamers parallel to each other, Jaune paled as he tightened his grip as he heard all three motors screeching back to life.

Whirrrr…!

Round and round Pyrrha went, gradually going faster and faster and father and farther away from Jaune. He struggled to keep the fast-slipping staff in his hands, turn around without tripping himself on his own feet, or just getting yanked to the ground, small mounds of dirt building up around him as he literally dug his heels in!

Ultimately, Pyrrha won, Jaune getting yanked face-first to the ground as his staff flew out of his hands.

Pyrrha made a long, hard turn and came to a stop, the staff smacking her in the side before she picked it up, and freed her ankle from it. Meanwhile, Jaune pushed himself up by his hands, just in time to see Pyrrha heading straight for him at full speed.

Later on the benches, Pyrrha had her helmet off and her head inside a barf bucket, while Jaune had the chaotic road map of gouges on his armour filled in. When the both of them were good for combat once more, Pyrrha choose something far away from the stormwheels:

Gaoler’s Grasps.

They covered all of her hands and almost all of her forearms, their “jaws” extending past her knuckles when activated, the armor plates clinking ominously with each step she took. Pyrrha punched them together twice, the sound rang out in the arena, then echoed faintly from the trees a few moments later.

“… Not a very subtle weapon this time, huh…?” Jaune asked.

“Precisely,” Pyrrha replied, before she raised her fists.

Taiyang blew the horn, Pyrrha charged in with a haymaker!

Clang!

Jaune blocked it with his shield, she slipped in a weaker punch to the gut, sending him staggering back. Jaune retaliated with a slash!

Ka-chunk!

Pyrrha snapped the jaws of one glove around his sword, and stopped his arm. The two began to wrestle for his sword and exchange blows, Jaune smashing his shield into Pyrrha, Pyrrha punching with her free hand, the clangs of metal on metal ringing out in the arena.

Thunk!

Pyrrha managed a blow to Jaune’s head, stunning him.

Ka-chunk!

She let go of his sword, latched onto his shield then pulled it out of the way. Jaune tried to bash her in with the pommel of his sword, but it was too late.

Thunk!

Jab to the stomach, most of the wind rushed out of Jaune’s lungs.

Thunk!

Uppercut to the chin, he went stumbling back, fell onto his back as Pyrrha let go of his shield. She didn’t hesitate to straddle his chest, raise both of her hands up high in the air for an overhead smash. Jaune closed his eyes.

THUD.

“Who are you?” Ren asked as he sat on the benches with Jaune.

“Jaune Arc.” Jaune mumbled.

“Where are you?”

“The training grounds...”

“Which is in?”

“Keeper’s Cove—I mean Grove.”

“Which in turn is in?”

“The Viridian Valley.”

“How many claws am I holding up?”

“Three.”

Ren and Jaune continued with the head trauma tests, while Pyrrha stood some distance away, watching uneasily. “Maybe I shouldn’t have gone so hard that time...”

“He’ll be fine!” Nora replied. “He’s actually been doing pretty great, by human or Fae standards!”

“Really?” Pyrrha asked, surprised. “How so?”

“He’s still alive and in one piece!” Nora replied. “Most greenhorns I know couldn’t have even lasted under a quarter of the abuse Jaune’s already taken, let alone keep coming back for more! If nothing else, he’ll probably make a great meatshield.”

“… That doesn’t sound like much of a positive.”

“It is once you’re outside the walls!” Nora hummed. “Trust me, sometimes the best watcher you need in your hunting party is someone who can survive being mauled and/or chewed up for a minute or five to give everyone else room to breath.”

“Uh… huh...” Pyrrha mumbled.

Ren ultimately declared Jaune “mostly fine,” and Jaune himself was still willing to resume the duels.

“Are you really sure about that, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked. “I’m starting to feel that pain patches and black moss won’t be of much use rather soon.”

“I’m sure!” Jaune replied, nodding. “Maybe just for one more match, but that’s still going full-out!”

“And what do you know, I’ve got the perfect weapon idea for it, too!” Yang added, smiling.

Pyrrha looked at them both dubiously, before she sighed, and said, “Alright. One more match, but only one.”

She ended up donning a full Warcharger set, like the one Keren used. Though the horns mounted on her helmet and the extra armour on her chest and shoulders looked intimidating, Jaune’s real concern were the bulky boots she wore, and the force-amplifying mechanisms hidden inside it.

“Still sure you want to go through with this, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked as she crouched low to the ground, pointed her horns at him.

“I’m sure!” Jaune said, readying his weapons.

“So I take it you’re both ready?” Taiyang asked.

“Aye!” they replied.

“Then for one last time… FIGHT!” Taiyang yelled, before he blow the horn.

Pyrrha charged at Jaune, boots leaving craters in her wake, closing the distance in seconds!

Jaune’s eyes widened as he braced for impact.

Crash!

He slid backwards a few feet, his heels burying themselves into the ground before he grabbed hold of Pyrrha, smashed at her with the pommel of his sword. The blows barely seemed to have any effect on her drastically thickened armour, Jaune was slowly pushed back further and further, until he was finally lifted up into the air.

With a resounding cry, Pyrrha threw him!

Her eyes widened as she realized he was flying much farther and faster than she intended, straight into the empty benches and a lamppost opposite Taiyang and the others.

The furniture and the lamppost were fine.

Jaune was not.

Note: Fae dislike human-style, fully enclosed footwear for two reasons: one, their naturally, incredibly durable and highly adaptable hides made it unnecessary (many can step on a nail or broken glass without issue and only very superficial injury, if they even notice); and two, the sheer variety of feet, hooves, talons, claws, flippers, fins, and so on and so forth made it extremely difficult to design for them without having to resort to very expensive, oftentimes convoluted designs that was made to comfortably fit the individual folk it was made for, and no one else.

Even hand-me downs from parent to child weren’t a guarantee as they could be of entirely different species thanks to the increasing volatility of Fae genetics after the Second Great War, and even slightly larger claws on their toes could make it painful to wear a shoe at all. Thus, most designs were very minimalist or highly adaptable, with a large amount of bands of hard material, secured with fibers, coupled with flexible and malleable materials for comfort.

Clutcher Stormwheels have a close cousin called “Flailer” Stormwheels, whereby projectiles are either slung using centrifugal force, or used to amplify the force of whatever objects are attached to the cables; they are usually blunt and heavy, but not always.

Whirlers are incredibly infamous weapons of choice, especially for young, inexperienced users, as they are ASTOUNDINGLY good at causing collateral damage from even the most basic of techniques.

Screamers are so named for the sound their users make as they rush past you, more specifically from the air they displace.

Stormwheels also come in:

“Flurry” which are small, disposable sets for throwing;

“Wheeler” which are disposable sets meant to roll across the ground, or be a much heavier-duty thrown weapon;

“Dancer” which curve back to the owner, and are frequently used in performances;

“Minder” whose trajectory can be easily controlled mid-flight, generally with weaver magic;

“Slasher” which are meant for close combat unaided by motors;

“Crusher” which are very large, meant to be carried over the shoulder or around the arm, and are made to shatter bone than cut;

“Moon” similarly sized versions which can split apart into two crescent shaped-blades, and be folded for easier transport or agility;

“Eye” which are even LARGER variations meant for the user to ride in;

and many other styles and modifications.

Gaoler’s Grasps were rarely used in prisons. As you might expect, if you’re handling violent convicts, most watchers prefer to stick with ranged weapons or ones that otherwise kept them a fair distance away from you. Their infamy mostly comes from the few times they WERE brought out, and to devastating effect.

Warchargers are named after the special division of Fae soldiers that used them during the Second Great War. They were the vanguard for almost every major offensive, and were infamous for being EXTREMELY difficult to bring down while they brought down and crushed your walls, defenses, and defenders. There are few more iconic images of the Second Great War than a wave of heavily armoured Fae sweeping down from the horizon, charging through and trampling everything underfoot, barely slowing down or stopping for ANYTHING.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 30)

Note: I know I used “many” thrice last chapter, but it turns out it’s hard to make a number of unique, distinct weapons for Fascist Magical Space Hippies; think of ways to artfully demonstrate their effectiveness in one-to-one matches with a semi-experienced, talented human user whose opponent is essentially a human target dummy; while also trying to keep within self-imposed chapter lengths to avoid author burn-outs.

So, hope you don’t mind this chapter’s selection for the melee weapons, which hopefully gives the general idea of how the Fae have modified or made similar designs to humans, or works completely their own. The next chapter will either be a continuation of melee weapons, or move onto ranged weapons, depending on how many of these crazy ideas for weapons/ways for Jaune to get his ass kicked that you folks want to see.

“Are you sure you want to continue with this plan, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked, her voice modulated by the comm-unit inside her visor. “Even for training weapons, these seem awfully dangerous still, and that isn’t even going into the mediums I’m using!”

“I’m sure!” Jaune replied, making a thumbs up with his gloved hand, the surface still scarred from all his elemental mishaps earlier. “We’ll never get anywhere if neither of us ever get serious!”

(“That’s the spirit, Jaune!” Yang cried from the benches on the side.)

Pyrrha sighed. “Alright, if you’re sure...” she muttered.

From his position on the side of the dirt circle the two were in, Taiyang raised the dueling horn to his lips. “Fighters ready?” he asked.

“Aye!” Jaune and Pyrrha both cried, readying their weapons.

“Then fight!” Taiyang cried, before he blew the horn, starting a long series of one-on-one duels between Jaune and Pyrrha.

The first set of matches were with Fae equivalents of traditional human weapons, but with the advantage of the former’s engineering, materials, and of course, elemental mediums.

Pyrrha’s first chose was a Khopesh and shield, the blade infused with elemental earth. The two of them exchanged simple slashes and thrusts for a few moments, Pyrrha gracefully dodging and deflecting Jaune’s inelegant attacks, Jaune blocking with his sizable shield, or enduring her direct attacks.

It all seemed like a standard sword duel, until Pyrrha activated her weapon’s element, and caught Jaune’s sword in the hook of her blade.

Clang!

Jaune’s sword stuck to Pyrrha’s Khopesh, now magnetized. Pyrrha yanked backwards, Jaune staggered forward and tightened his grip, the two of them started wrestling and kicking up dirt, until with a swift bash of Pyrrha’s shield to the side of Jaune’s head, his sword flew out of his hand.

Pyrrha pulled back, deactivated the medium and dropped Jaune’s sword, before she spun back around and aimed a chop right at Jaune’s neck!

Thwack!

It stopped dead on the armor there, a great deal of sturdy material before even getting close to nicking his skin, but that didn’t stop him from making an incredibly undignified noise.

Taiyang blew the horn, Pyrrha carefully removed her sword; Jaune gasped, instinctively grasping at his neck and stepping back.

“Are you alright, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked as she sheathed her sword.

“… Yeah…” Jaune replied, calming down now. “Just… surprised. Straight for the killing blow, huh?” he asked, rubbing at the fresh nick with one hand.

“This is ‘full out’ sparring,’ after all,” Pyrrha replied. Her voice softened as she asked, “Would you still like to continue? I’m afraid I can’t pull back, as the other fighters at the Pits certainly won’t.”

“Yeah, I’m still game!” Jaune said, nodding as he put his hand away.

“Are you sure?” Pyrrha asked.

“I’m sure,” Jaune said. “That is why we’re wearing like an inch’s worth of armour all over, right?” he said, spreading out his arms.

“Right.” Pyrrha replied, before she stepped out of the circle and back to the collection of weapons on the side.

For the next round, she decided on a spear loaded with elemental water. For the sake of fairness, Jaune was given his own without the medium, though while Pyrrha could hold it straight and confidently, he could barely keep it steady.

“Will you be alright fighting with this, Jaune?” Pyrrha asked as they reentered the arena.

“I’m good!” Jaune said. “I’m trying to learn by experience, aren’t I?”

Pyrrha slowed down and looked at him for a few moments, before she nodded and continued on to her starting place.

Taiyang blew the horn, Pyrrha attacked immediately, aiming thrusts at Jaune’s chest, blocking his own jabs with her shield, or smacking his spear away with her own. It wasn’t long before Jaune lost his grip on his weapon, and was reduced to holding his shield up in front of him with both hands, trying to remain standing as Pyrrha stabbed him in the legs.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

It seemed like the match had reached a stalemate as Jaune blocked or powered through most of Pyrrha’s thrusts, until she activated the water medium in her weapon.

Thrust.

Jaune cried out and stumbled as he was stabbed in the ankle.

Thrust.

His shield rang as it blocked a blow meant for his chest, the force sending him staggering back till he was almost out of bounds; Jaune desperately flailed his arms, trying to keep from falling back.

Poke.

Pyrrha gently hit him in the thickest part of his breastplate, sending him falling flat on his ass, and out of the ring.

Taiyang blew the horn, Yang came up to Pyrrha as she put the spears away. “Word of advice: don’t do mercy if this were an actual match,” she said. “Folks love their epic, brutal finishers, and if you’ve got someone on the ropes like that for most of a fight, make sure everyone knows how bad of an idea it was to mess with you.

“Caring for your opponents is before, after, and outside of a match, not during it.”

“Noted,” Pyrrha said, before she looked at the vast array of weapons laid out before her.

The hours went by, and nearing the end of that set, Pyrrha started going for more exotic, “crowd-pleaser” weapons, like nunchuks infused with elemental air. Even just loading it with a fresh vial had the whole weapon sparking and glowing ominously.

“Are you sure you’re not gonna hurt yourself with those things?” Jaune asked as he watched Pyrrha carefully practicing with simple, practical swings.

“Not entirely, but our armour has proven itself quite durable, so I wouldn’t worry too much!”

“Alright, just be careful!” Jaune replied. “I don’t want you to accidentally shock and knock yourself out.”

“The concern is much appreciated, Jaune,” Pyrrha replied, before she got into a combat stance, one rod held firmly in her hand.

Taiyang blew the horn, and almost immediately, a miniature, violent thunderstorm erupted inside the ring.

Jaune couldn’t even prepare a single attack before Pyrrha rushed in, electricity arcing through the air as she swung her nunchuks, the rods landing on his armour and shield with explosive, thunderous force. The strikes were so many and so fast that everyone on the sidelines could barely watch the fight for all the sparks and electric discharges flying out.

With a sharp, piercing cry, Pyrrha pulled her nunchuks back and kicked Jaune in the chest!

Jaune went flying and crashed into the dirt, a smoking, twitching, slightly blackened heap; Pyrrha staggered and almost lost her balance as some of the leftover charge coursed into one of her legs.

“Oh, Great-Grandma, is he going to be okay?” Pyrrha asked as she rubbed her ankle, watched as Nora and Ren jogged forward with the first aid kit.

“Yes, actually!” Ren replied as opened it and put on a pair of non-conductive mender’s gloves. “We Fae have treatments for all sorts of things.”

“Yep!” Nora replied as she did the same, before she started pulling out equipment. “Cuts, bruises, all kinds of poisons, burns of all three degrees, crushed or blocked airways, partially severed limbs, fully severed limbs, internal bleeding, organ failure, chafing—we’ve got a treatment for pretty much everything!”

“I see...” Pyrrha muttered as she carefully pulled out the air medium from her nunchuks, before holstering it.

They took a break to allow Jaune to recover, along with Pyrrha rehydrating, refueling, and reviewing what weapons she’d already tried, and the many more she hadn’t. With her new experience of how vastly different Fae designs and elemental mediums could change even the most familiar tools and styles, she decided to go into Fae weapons for the next set.

For her first choice, she tried out Spiderdancers, a pair of weaponized gloves that covered her arms from the elbows down. “This is a beautiful and fascinating weapon,” Pyrrha said as she unwound some of its steel-silk fibers between her fingers, practiced weaving and tying them together using the needle-like points over her fingers. “I’m aware of the philosophy of copying designs and ideas from nature, but this is just a level beyond all that I’ve seen before...”

“Try your best to keep from getting too entranced by them,” Ren said, armed with his own pair. “These can very easily turn against their own users, not to mention how easily they cut and resist being cut themselves.”

“I will,” Pyrrha said, before the two of resumed practicing.

“You’re really going to fight me with just a bunch of strings?” Jaune asked as they returned to the circle. “I mean, yeah, they’re made of metal, but still—it’s just strings!”

“To be fair, with enough creativity and skill, anything can be turned into a lethal weapon,” Pyrrha replied as she went into a wide, low stance.

Jaune looked at her dubiously, before he shrugged, and readied his own weapons again.

Taiyang blew the horn, Jaune charged at Pyrrha with an overhead slash!

She brought her hands together, tying her silk-steel threads together, before stretching them out above her like a sheet!

Twang!

Jaune’s blade bounced off of the steel-silk; surprised, he staggered backward. Pyrrha didn’t hesitate to rush in and begin her counterattack, starting with wrapping her threads around his sword. Everyone watched as she proceeded to disarm him, before beginning to tie him up, binding his limbs to his body or into odd, painful angles. It was an inelegant, inefficient job with plenty of wasted steel-silk thread as Jaune managed to flail and free parts of himself, but eventually he was completely immobilized in a razor-sharp, messy cocoon.

Finally, Pyrrha straddled him, making a new sheet of steel-silk, wrapping it around Jaune’s neck from behind, and turning it into a garrote.

Taiyang watched Jaune struggle and squirm as he was strangled for half-a-minute, occasionally glancing at Ren with a vital scanner, before he finally blew the horn again.

Pyrrha snapped the threads of her garrote, Jaune wheezed. She climbed off of him, instinctively reached out with her hand, until she noticed just how convoluted and twisted her threads were. “Uh...” she muttered, sheepishly glancing at the side.

“I’ve got this,” Ren said, coming by with gloves, scissors, and a large seam ripper. “Try not to breath too deeply or squirm, Jaune, that will just make things worse,” he said as he knelt by his side.

Jaune whimpered, and did so.

“Holy hell!” he cried after he was freed, sitting on a bench with his helmet off, examining all the nicks and cuts all over the surface of his armor. “How is this even legal to use against other people?!”

“Literally thick skin!” Nora said, chuckling as she whipped up a large bowl of armour reinforcer paste. “Believe me, you wouldn’t believe what the most senior of senior watchers can survive, even without trying to defend themselves! Oh, did you watch any footage from the Eve attack?”

“Hard not to,” Jaune replied, “it was on the news everywhere 24/7, you could hardly find someone not talking about it.”

“Then you know that part with Taiyang and the giant Death Laser?” Nora asked as she started spreading the goop out on the cuts.

Jaune’s eyes widened. “… That was him…?!”

“Yep!” Nora replied casually. “Though I guess he’s not that good of an example, seeing as he’s been out of training for over a decade and a half. If he’d been at full capacity, he could have probably taken that Cinder Fall on and then some.”

“… Uh… huh...” Jaune muttered weakly.

Jaune’s armour repaired, Pyrrha put away the spiderdancers and tried Wingblades instead, the folding sheets spanning almost the entire length of her arms. “These are so beautiful...” she muttered as she spread them all out, admired the mid-morning sun glinting off the metal.

“Wait till you slap on some fresh paint and decorations on these bad boys!” Nora said, chuckling. “It’s why they’re one of the most popular weapons for choreographed fights!”

“And in the Pits also, because of their effectiveness in actual combat,” Ren added, wearing his own set and demoing it.

And after Taiyang blew the horn, both Pyrrha and Jaune would find out just how effective.

Jaune rushed forward with a slash!

Krsshh!

Pyrrha blocked it with the folded blades of one arm, sparks flying off Jaune’s sword as it slid right off and away from her. She unfolded the blades of her other arm and aimed a slash at his neck!

Jaune raised his shield, briefly wondered why there was no screeching noise of metal on metal, until Pyrrha grabbed his shoulder and kneed him in the crotch.

The several layers of armour there absorbed most of the blow, but it sent him staggering back nonetheless. Pyrrha hooked her knee into his leg, tripped him and sent him falling to the ground. Jaune landed on his back, limbs sprawled by his sides, he watched as Pyrrha prepared to fall on top of him, one arm of blades coming down on his neck like a guillotine.

After some praise from Yang at “what could have been a shoe-in for the highlight reel!” and another check to ensure that Jaune’s neck and armour were still fine, Pyrrha exchanged the wingblades for a King’s Claw, a nearly arm-sized blade that could transform into a pair of pinchers, with a heavy blunt edge on the opposite side.

“You sure you want to be using that?” Jaune asked as Pyrrha brought it into the circle. “That seems like it’s too heavy and big to be much use in an actual fight.”

“It’s surprisingly light, actually!” Pyrrha said, making wide, fast swings with it. “Maybe not as graceful, speedy, or versatile as your sword, but that doesn’t seem to be the point of it,” she said, before she got into a combat stance, holding the main body of the blade before her like a shield.

Jaune readied his own weapons, Taiyang blew the horn, and yet another match began.

Jaune charged first, aiming a thrust at Pyrrha’s head!

Krrsshh!

She blocked it, angling her arm and the claw so Jaune’s blade would slide away from her, before she punched him in the stomach with her other arm. Again, Jaune’s armour absorbed most of the blow, but the brief opening was all Pyrrha needed to wind up her arm and bring the blunt end crashing into the side of his head.

Thud.

Jaune staggered from the force of the blow, Pyrrha bashed his head again, then started slashing. Jaune reeled from each hit, huge gashes appearing all over his armour, his shield and sword getting knocked aside as he tried to block or parry, getting closer and closer to the edge of the arena, until he was once more desperately flailing his arms to keep from falling out.

This time, however, Pyrrha didn’t hesitate to thrust and pull the trigger for the pincers, trapping Jaune’s neck between them.

Jaune choked, bashed at the blade with his weapons, dropped his weapon and tried to wrestle it open, before he was desperately slapping at it. Pyrrha freed him, and he promptly fell out of the ring and onto his rear.

“Okay, now THAT was an appropriately badass way to finish a lopsided fight, I approve!” Yang said, applauding.

With Jaune needing to have another medical check for possible neck injury, and his armour definitely needing reinforcement once again, Pyrrha took the opportunity to choose and practice with one of the more versatile and complex weapons, a Grasping Vine Staff.

“If you were a weaver, the grasping vine could be an actual, living plant you control with your magic, which would be awesome, but since you’re not, you’re just going to have to make do with magitech controls,” Nora said as she demonstrated it to Pyrrha, making the staff curl, tighten, whip out, and do the rest of the impressive range of motion it had, thanks to the segmented design of the shaft and the flexible fibers keeping them together.

Pyrrha nodded. “It’s very impressive, and I don’t doubt it’s effectiveness in real combat… but can I ask why this feels like the Fae version of an animal control pole?” she asked.

“Because it is!” Nora replied cheerfully. “Lots of weapons are useful as tools and vice versa, don’t ya know?”

“I suppose I should have realized that...” Pyrrha muttered, before she continued practicing with it.

Sometime later, the two of them were back on the field, Jaune’s armour fully repaired. Pyrrha still had one concern, however: “Are you sure you want to stick to your sword and shield?” she asked. “We’re fighting one-to-one in a flat, circular arena, I’m going to have a severe advantage over you with my reach compared to your sword.”

“I’m sure!” Jaune replied. “These weapons are my family’s lucky heirlooms, you know!”

“Are you really sure?” Pyrrha asked.

“Yes,” Jaune replied as he went into a combat stance. “Now that I’ve had to think about it and practice, I’m sure I can fight better now.”

“If you’re this confident!” Pyrrha said, before she pulled the staff from her back.

Taiyang blew the horn, and the two fought once more.

Pyrrha struck first, thrusting several times at Jaune, before repeatedly striking him on the arms and his head. Jaune blocked some of the attacks with his shield, powered through the pain and the rest of the sharp blows as he charged at Pyrrha, closing the distance and swinging out with his sword!

Pyrrha easily dodged out of the way, thrust her staff towards his one of his legs, snared his ankle and pulled. Jaune stumbled but remained standing, Pyrrha started shuffling around the arena and yanking him right along with her.

He whacked at the shaft with his sword, tried to wrench his foot free, swung and thrust at Pyrrha, but the wood and the fibers wouldn’t give, its grasp was just to strong, and he could barely reach her, let alone get the leverage for a proper strike.

Pyrrha braced herself and swung her staff, trying to send Jaune out of bounds! Jaune stomped a foot in the ground, stopped himself, then yanked back with as hard as he could!

Pyrrha cried out, pulled towards him; Jaune let out a cry as he aimed an upward slash at her neck!

… Which missed as Pyrrha ducked her head, the blade sailing above her, before she let go of the staff and rammed herself into Jaune, sending him stumbling out of the circle.

Taiyang blew the horn, Pyrrha picked her staff back up and released its grip on Jaune’s leg. “Are you alright, Jaune?” she asked. “I doubt it could have been comfortable, having your leg constricted that powerfully for so long.”

“I’ll live...” Jaune muttered, rubbing idly at where the staff had held him. “Any weapons feel like the one for you, yet?”

“A handful, but I’d like to be thorough about this and test as many as I possibly can,” Pyrrha replied. “We might be here all day, at the most idealistic estimates. You don’t mind, do you…?”

“No, no, I really don’t mind!” Jaune said quickly. “Anything for you—and for Weiss, and Yang, and everyone else, ‘cause they’ve been so nice letting us live her and all!”

“That’s much appreciated, Jaune,” Pyrrha said, patting him on the shoulder, before she holstered her staff, and walked back to the collection.

As she started inspecting her options, Jaune quietly wondered just what he would be facing next...

Note: Spiderdancers usually come in two pairs, one for the arms, one for the legs. There is sometimes a fifth used for a tail, or attached to the back as extra leverage or storage for silk-steel spools. And for fairly obvious reasons, very young Fae wishing to train with them start with regular, non-metallic threads.

Though Wingblades were developed for flying Fae, it wasn’t long before Air Weavers took notice and started developing a version that could be easily used by flightless folks. While it remains one of the most popular foci of choice for said class of weavers, there are many watchers that enjoy it for its versatility, its freedom of movement, and of course, its looks.

A King’s Claw is more properly known as a King Crab’s Claw. Though the Fae explicitly copied the infamous defense mechanism of said species, many liberties were taken and limitations hit; aside from size reductions and ergonomic considerations, it was difficult to make the pincer mechanism shatter bone and sever limbs like the animals themselves without severe drawbacks to the other aspects of the design, or inconvenience to the user.

The Grasping Vine Staff is also useful for agriculture, tending to plants or animals; law enforcement; alchemy; construction; childcare; cooking; wilderness exploration; and a whole host of other uses that are far too long to list here. Modifications to the shaft, the fibers, and the control mechanism are extremely common and widespread, and oftentimes encouraged.

For those curious, the Grove’s shed really is the size of your average storage shed in a backyard—it’s just that there’s a few miles worth of waterproof, reinforced, temperature-controlled bunker storage underneath it, as storage for all the things that the residents of the Grove have acquired and can’t or don’t want to dispose of for one reason or the other.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 29)

Several hours later, at around 8AM, Yang and Pyrrha took the elevator to the Schnee sisters’ home. Three of Winter’s summons were now resting above the door in their plushie forms, and their spirit forms didn’t hesitate to jump out and crowd around Yang, making threatening noises and gestures at her.

“Woah, easy, easy!” Yang said, holding out her hands as she stepped back from the angry elementals by her ankles. “I’m not here to fetch Weiss again! We’re just going to ask how she is.”

“Has anything happened to her?” Pyrrha asked. “She and Winter weren’t at breakfast earlier, and their comms have been on ‘Do Not Disturb’ all morning.”

The three summons looked at each other, quietly talking and burbling among themselves, before one of them went to a pipe by the door, lifted the cap, and got sucked inside. The other two stayed to watch Pyrrha and Yang, the latter crossing her arms at the wary looks they continued to give her.

A few minutes later, Winter stepped out, her tied into a looser bun than usual, several locks dangling around her head. “If you’re looking for Weiss, she’s drained physically and mentally from yesterday, so unless you’re offering HV recommendations, doing menial tasks for her, or bear large amuonts of blueberry frozen yogurt and/or triple chocolate cake shakes, she doesn’t want any of it.”

Yang sighed. “Damn, I was afraid of that...”

“Why are you two looking for her, if I may ask?” Winter asked.

“Pit Fighter business,” Pyrrha replied. “Specifically, we were hoping to brainstorm on what weapons and tactics I should specialize in, now that we’ve received and reviewed Weiss’ performance at the Weaver’s Terrace yesterday.”

Winter’s eyebrow rose at that. “Mind if I substitute for her?” she asked. “I’ve been wanting to get a better understanding of Fae combat, for sport or otherwise.”

Yang chuckled. “Hoping to get Uncle Qrow on a rematch someday?”

“Among other reasons,” Winter said. “So, what do you say?”

“Well, I definitely won’t say no to free help from ex-Queensguard!” Yang said, beaming.

“Neither will I, and thank you for the offer,” Pyrrha said.

“You’re welcome, now please, come inside and make yourself comfortable,” Winter said, stepping aside and gesturing in. She calmed down then ordered about the other summons that were around, and soon, Winter, Pyrrha, and Yang were sitting on the couch or one of the armchairs, summons carting in refreshments from the kitchen.

“So, how is the situation with your team?” Winter asked as a tray of tea and biscuits was hoisted onto the coffee table.

“Middle of the road, leaning on bad,” Yang replied, picking up and examining one of the biscuits before she took a bite. After a hum of approval, she continued, “Weiss’ offensive power is seriously down now that she doesn’t have access to most of her magic, which was supposed to offset her being relatively fragile and untrained; and even though Pyrrha can keep pace with the average watcher in standard exercises and unarmed combat, we’re going to be facing a lot worse once it’s time to actually get into the fray.”

“What’s the issue, or issues, then?” Winter asked asked as she picked up the tea pot, started pouring cups for each of them.

“It’s embarrassing, but I haven’t found a weapon or set of them that just feels right to me,” Pyrrha said, blushing. “Using them isn’t much of an issue, as my hobby of traditional martial arts seems to be paying off in dividends now.”

“I’ll say!” Yang cried, bits of crumbs falling from her mouth. “Anything Pyrrha picks up, she can start kicking ass with it in no time! I swear, in a different life, you’ve probably already been a several-time arena champion by this point!”

“Let’s try and focus on this life, please,” Pyrrha said, before she picked up one of the cups, thanked Winter for it. “I’ve found one of the key issues is that there’s just so many weapons, not to mention all the myriad modifications and variations that can completely change how they’re wielded and what they’re useful for, never mind the varying levels of training and skill that may or may not vastly increase their effectiveness and versatility with enough time and experience.

“It’s been difficult to find something I want to master, alongside being a solid choice for our career plan in the Pits.”

“And what would that involve?” Winter asked, taking a sip of her tea.

“First and foremost, make a good impression in our first couple of months.” Yang replied, before she took a drink from her cup. “Few folks expect a brand new team to be winning every event right off the bat, nor would anyone outside of our friends and family be following us all that closely, but I would like our early record to be a mix of losses and wins, and not finally catching a break after a perpetual losing streak. The latter doesn’t really win the crowds or fans, unless you manage to keep that winning streak from then on out as you shoot straight up the ranking ladder, and none of us have the time, the training, nor the connections for that.

“Second, kick the asses of Keren and her team, and keep our name,” Yang continued, picking up a new biscuit. “We literally paid the price to be ‘The Furies,’ and both for the sake of our brand and on principle, I’m not about to let some sore losers steal it by abusing the optics of a duel,” she growled, biting down so hard on her biscuit the whole thing fractured into dozens of crumbled pieces.

Yang cursed, an elemental helpfully came by to mop up the mess as she picked up a new biscuit. “Third and finally, build a solid team composition and general strategy,” she said, before taking a much more careful bite. “We’re not planning to get drafted in random-draw melees for more than three-four months at the absolute worst, and once we establish ourselves and a semi-solid fan base, we’re going to try and stick to short, high-risk/reward matches we can do once or thrice a month, to give time and opportunity for all the other shit we’ll be doing outside of the Pits.

“Right now, we’re thinking of just going full-on offense, seeing as that’s what me and Weiss both specialize in already, and since the matches we want tend to be on short, strict, unforgiving timers with just one or a handful of opponents, combat fatigue is the least of our worries. But obviously, we need to get the rep and the rank to qualify for those, and the events we’ll have to do to get there are more often than not about endurance and picking your fights wisely, letting the majority weed each other out, and conserve your energy and effort for the real threats.

“So, any advice?”

Winter thought it over for a few minutes, sipping from her tea from time to time, before she put her cup down, and said, “I think it’d be best to have Pyrrha focus on defense, and perhaps have yourself or Weiss branch into it also to make your team more well-rounded. As you said, you’ll be forced into melees for the immediate future, and tactics putting everything into the attack almost inevitably involve great risk of injury to all parties involved. You may win a match, but what of the next match, and the ones after that, alongside whatever this Hell Hole that is the Valley will throw at us sooner or later?

“The consequences of a serious, debilitating injury; the culmination of dozens of other wounds and bruises; or just regular fatigue could easily wipe out whatever winnings you earn, among other, more dire costs.”

Yang nodded. “Points taken! We’ll do that, thanks for the advice, Winter!”

“Indeed, this will really help narrow down my choices, thank you,” Pyrrha added.

“You’re welcome.” Winter replied. “Oh, and there’s one more thing I’ve been meaning to tell you two since Weiss told me about this whole Pit Fighting business, so if would you please spare a few more moments of your time to hear me out...?”

“Of course! We’re listening,” Pyrrha said, smiling.

“I’m aware that Weiss is willingly, knowingly throwing herself headlong into danger in the Pits and her other pursuits, but since you’re both guaranteed to be by her side in the former, please try and shield her from harm as much as possible.” Winter said, her voice calm and her expression neutral. “Now, just to be clear, I’m not saying that there will be severe consequences if ever Weiss gets seriously injured, and I can objectively trace it to some negligence, abuse, and/or inaction on either of your parts, nor can I force Weiss to do anything against her will, ironclad as it is…

“… But as her beloved older sister, I have no shortage of sway and built-up trust with her, and as much as you convinced her to sign-up for these blood sports, I’m much more confident in my ability to convince her to quit early, among other things...” she finished, icily eyeing the both of them in turn.

Pyrrha gulped, Yang was unfazed. “We promise we’ll try and make sure Weiss doesn’t end up putting herself in the hospital again,” the latter said calmly, casually putting a hand over her heart. “If the ward starts reserving a bed specially for her, it won’t be because of the Pits.”

“Excellent!” Winter said, warming up in an instant. “Is there anything else you need my help with?”

“Nope, we’re good!” Yang replied. “We’ll just see ourselves out,,” she said, grabbing a handful of biscuits to go as she stood up.

“Good luck with the Pit Fighter business!” Winter said, waving goodbye.

Soon, Pyrrha and Yang were back in the elevator, quiet burbling and whooshing sounds around them as the cab descended back down to the ground floor. “Can I ask how you managed to keep your cool back there?” Pyrrha asked.

“Eh, I’m an older sister, too, I can empathize with threatening people into helping protect your little sister,” Yang replied, idly chewing on one of the biscuits.

“Even if she’s former Queensguard?” Pyrrha asked.

“Some things are just beyond rank and martial prowess, I suppose,” Yang replied as the doors opened. “For now, let’s get to the training grounds and looking for a weapon for you; only so much time before our big debut at the Pits, and I want it to have the best chances of being a good one!”

Pyrrha nodded, and followed her out.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal clashing on metal only got ever louder as Pyrrha and Yang approached the training grounds, rivaled only by Nora’s loud and passionate cheering. “Come on, Jaune!” they heard her shout. “Be the rock! The mountain! The immovable object!”

“Seems like Mr. Xiao Long and Jaune have already begun their weapons training,” Pyrrha mused.

“I’m impressed he’s moved up this quickly!” Yang said. “Dad didn’t even use a stick on anyone back at the ole dojo, not unless he was sure they’d completely mastered the basics first.”

As they entered the grounds, however, they found that only Jaune was armed with his sword and shield, while Taiyang was still just using his fists, bare and unenchanted. It didn’t seem to matter though, as each strike had Jaune reeling and staggering back, every swing of his sword effortlessly deflected or stopped in its tracks. It seemed that only Taiyang’s significantly pulling back kept Jaune’s bones and his gear from shattering on impact.

Thud!

Jaune had his back forced against a tree, Taiyang threw a right hook!

Clang!

Jaune deflected it with his shield, sending Taiyang’s fist into the bark, clumsily swinging his sword for a counterattack!

“YEAH!” Nora cried, throwing her hands up in the air.

Taiyang deflected the blade with his other hand, seamlessly transitioning into a punch aimed right at Jaune’s face. His knuckles stopped just short of Jaune’s nose, he paled and made an undignified noise.

“… NO!” Nora cried, lowering her arms. “Damn, so close!”

Jaune’s knees quaked, Taiyang unclenched his fist and pulled away.

Jaune sighed heavily as he started sliding down the length of the tree. “Still suck, huh?” he mumbled.

“Yeah, but you can still get way better,” Taiyang said as he grabbed his hand and hoisted him back up to his feet. “Just gotta keep on working and growing,” he said as he walked Jaune back to where they started.

Jaune just nodded, his eyes widening as he looked to the benches. “Pyrrha! Yang!” he cried, his eyes widening. “You’re both here! Uh, how long were you two standing there?”

“A little bit before Dad cornered you.” Yang replied.

“Oh...” Jaune muttered, his face drooping.

“Any luck with Weiss, you two?” Taiyang asked as they neared.

“Unfortunately no, but we did however get advice from Winter!” Pyrrha replied. “She recommended that I specialize in defense, so those are the types of weapons I’ll be trying out from here on out. If it’s not too much trouble, we’d like to borrow Nora and Ren.”

“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Taiyang replied. “I need them to help improve Jaune’s defensive skills, especially against multiple targets.” There was suddenly a glint in his eyes. “Unless...”

“’Unless’ what?” Yang asked playfully. “You’ve got your ‘Idea Face’ and everything!”

“That I do!” Taiyang replied, grinning. “Jaune, Pyrrha, how’d you you two like to train together? Since I want Jaune here to learn how to protect himself from all kinds of weapons and situations; Pyrrha is trying to find the right gear for her; and you both need Ren and Nora’s help, we could kill several birds with one stone by having Jaune protect himself from Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora, then vice versa!”

“That sounds like an excellent compromise, Mr. Xiao—err, Taiyang,” Pyrrha said, smiling. “I’m amenable to it. Jaune?”

“Uh, sure, I can do that!” Jaune said.

“Then it’s settled!” Taiyang said, before turning back to Nora and Ren, cupping his hands around his mouth. “Ren, Nora! Two full sets of heavy training armour, get the prefab barricades out, and every weapon we have in there that can remotely be considered ‘defensive!’ Extra padding too, now that I think about it!”

“On it, Coach!” Nora said as she stood up, saluting Taiyang, before she and Ren headed off to the shed.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing now?” Jaune asked, pulling at the reinforced fabric of his watcher’s training robes.

“Not nearly enough protection,” Taiyang replied. “You’re going to need a serious helmet, at the absolute minimum, not to mention I don’t want a repeat of you dying on us again.”

“… Why, exactly…?” Jaune asked.

Taiyang smirked. “No point in trying to figure out if a weapon’s right for you if you can’t go all out with it, yeah…?”

Note: Next chapter: a more in-depth look into all the many, many, many ways Fae have devised how to kill animals, each other, and eventually, the aliens that had settled on their planet, along with Jaune getting hurt and humiliated because I enjoy his suffering, and want to play on certain character flaws of his I’ve cooked up, or feel the show did not portray as well as I’d like.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 28)

Edit: Apologies for late update, I have been busy with AC Odyssey for the past week and a half.

The Keeper Team came out of the teleporter, and straight into a scene of anarchy.

The walls of the Thundercall Tunnels and Research Facility Hyrkanos echoed with the sounds of booming thunder and the roc’s deafening shrieks, hundreds if not thousands of them flying into the hollow the facility was built in, the aerie so thick and densely packed they were like one solid mass of beating wings and crackling electricity. Energy collectors, lightning rods, and power regulators exploded and melted as the rocs either overloaded them, or ripped them apart with their beaks, talons, and screams; jets and vents roared and tried to blow the rocs away and into choke-points; and what was left of the facility’s watchers were desperately firing high explosives, area-of-effect spells, and whatever else they still had left against the rocs.

With each barrage, dozens of the rocs died, shredded, exploded, shot, frozen, incinerated, gassed, or many other demises, but it seemed there were always more ready to replace them, their numbers seemingly infinite. Suddenly there was a monstrous screech, one that dwarfed the sounds of all of the other rocs combined, that chilled the bones of the Fae and their beasts, sent the watchers running and for cover and the rocs parting to make way.

“SCRAW…!”

Zeus V burst into view, barely slowing down from the high-force winds blasting him, demolishing buildings and towers just by flying through them, the electricity from his feathers blowing up and setting fire to whatever was still standing. Dozens of his brethren flew in his wake, becoming living shields for Zeus, helping lay waste to the other buildings, or attacking the watchers, even carrying off some unlucky Fae and animals.

Most managed to fight their way out of their talons, or their allies shot the rocs down, but a handful didn’t make it, their screams drowned and their fates unseen as the rocs rapidly swarmed around them. Zeus flew back out the hollow, almost completely unscathed, while the watcher’s defense line was pulled back, just one or two more retreats before Hyrkanos was at the mercy of the aerie.

Blake looked back at the portal as it was forced to shut down; the few dozen or so Apex-class watchers and animal companions that had made it alongside the Keeper Team; back to the observation window; then finally, at Ruby. <Let me guess: we’re the ones that are going to be hunting down Zeus?>

<Yep!> Ruby said cheerfully.

Blake sighed heavily, her ears tilting downward. <Alright, it’s not like I didn’t ask for this...>

Soon, the reinforcements were briefed, and equipped with flight packs, hookshots, and special armour for withstanding the roc’s electrical and sonic attacks, among other necessities. Save for Zwei who was joining the mobile artillery units, every member of the Keeper Team plus Blake were to be loaded into a series of shells, then fired out of a giant electromagnetic cannon.

<I feel obliged to disclose: this method of deploying into battle is not entirely safe and carries great risk of personal injury, even in ideal circumstances,> Penny said as the weavers and makers buffed them with spells, and covered them ear tips to toes with mixtures and solutions.

<It’s alright,> Blake replied. <Believe me, I’ve gone into life and death situations much worse than this.>

They were loaded in, the runes and the magitech along the barrel started crackling and humming as it was aimed at where Zeus would swoop down. Zwei and the other artillery units continued their barrages, until finally, that deafening screech echoed through the caverns again:

“SCRAW…!”

<NOW!>

The artillery units ceased fire, the Keeper Team deployed.

Thoom. Thoom. Thoom.

Any rocs they hit instantly turned into a fine bloody mess, those around them were swept away and sent spinning. Zeus barely had time to pull out of his dive and flap his feathers, making a giant electric shield in front of him.

Krrzzsshh!

The shells exploded, the shrapnel flew away from Zeus, killing and injuring the other rocs nearby, or making harmless nicks on his hide or damaging the tips of his feathers. He almost seemed to smile smugly, up until he saw Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team flying out towards him.

Slash!

Ruby got him in the neck, the large, ugly gash bleeding profusely. Zeus howled in pain, swiftly turning around and retreating, the Keeper Team either jetted after him with their flight packs, or clung onto him with their hookshots.

Zeus flew out of the hollow to the giant, open cavern outside Hyrkanos, started doing sharp dips and rises, hard turns near walls and rock formations, and barreling around in the air, outmaneuvering or shaking off Qrow, Ren, and Nora. Ruby almost flew off, too, until Blake whipped out her breakneck and caught her, Penny helping reel her in, then keep them all secured on Zeus’ back.

Zeus let out a frustrated screech, before he dove to the ground, talons gouging the rocks before he stopped completely. He started looking around, raising his wings, violently shaking and turning around, trying to find where the three of them were.

Boom-boom-boom.

Smokebombs exploded in Zeus’ face, he coughed and flapped his wings, blowing it away. His whole body crackled and surged with electricity, lightning discharging randomly all around him, but Penny, Blake, and Ruby were just too fast or too tough, dodging them or tanking the blasts without ill-effects, slashing and shooting at him as they circled around him, or dashed underneath his wings and legs.

Zeus suddenly let out a long, piercing screech, the sound echoing and shaking the caverns, Ruby, Penny, and Blake forced to cover their ears as their sound dampeners were pushed to their limits. Zeus whole body glowed as he concentrated all the energy in his body, before it discharged in a wave around him, the rushing electricity and air blowing them back and stunning them.

Deafened and disoriented, they didn’t hear Zeus’ reinforcements arriving, notice the large roc swooping down on them until Blake found herself picked up, and being swarmed by dozens of smaller rocs.

<BLAKE!> Ruby screamed as she started chasing after her.

<FORGET ABOUT ME!> Blake shouted back. <FOCUS ON ZEUS!>

<Like hell we are!> Ruby cried, holstering her scythe and holding out her arm. <Penny!>

<On it!> Penny cried, taking it.

Ruby threw her into the swarm of rocs, Penny discharged a wave of magic from her arms, stunning and disorienting them and Blake. She fell out of their claws, Ruby dashed forward and caught her, before continuing on back the path to Hyrkanos. Dazed, injured, and out of breath, she could only look back and watch Zeus having his wounds tended to by his smaller brethren.

<Keeper Team, rendezvous with me at the following location, be warned that Zeus and lackeys are still alive!> Ruby said, marking an area in her mask’s mini-map. <Bring Zwei, too, I think we might need med-vac!>

<Roger!> Nora called back. <FYI, we drove the rest of the rocs out of the hollow and pushed the defense line back up, it’s basically a shooting gallery here!>

<Is it bad?>

<Hell no! Zeus being gone has really given us the upper hand!> Nora said, before she resumed fighting.

Ruby, Penny, and Blake stopped behind a patch of rocks, just before they ran into the chaos in the cavern nearby. Ruby laid Blake down on the ground, before Penny was kneeling over her and scanning her.

<How’s it looking?> Ruby asked.

<Extensive damage to the first and second layers of her armour and to her flight pack, potential internal organ damage and hearing loss from all the electric shocks and sonic blasts, some lacerations to the epidermis,> Penny said as she sprayed Blake down with medicine, then temporary reinforcement for her armour.

<Why did you save me?> Blake asked. <You could have killed Zeus back there, he was getting desperate!>

Ruby looked back at her, smiling underneath her mask as she said, <I promised to protect you, right?>

There was suddenly a commotion nearby, screeching and dying rocs, and the sounds of gunfire and fighting. Ruby and Penny tensed up, until Zwei leaped into view, Nora and Ren on his back, Qrow flying close behind them.

“Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers!” Nora squealed as she and Ren fired a barrage of bullets and explosives at the rocs chasing them, until they retreated..

<What?> Blake asked as she stood back up.

<Holo-Vision quotes, she does that a lot,> Ruby replied. <You good to fight still?>

Blake nodded. <Let’s roast that bird.>

<Just so you know, they’re best boiled, slow roasted, or slow cooked,> Qrow said as he and the others readied their weapons again, turned back into the tunnel. <Otherwise they’re tough as bark and taste about as pleasant.>

They were about to advance back to the tunnels, when they heard it: the sounds of wings flapping in near unison, rumbling thunder and crackling electricity, an all too familiar monstrous screech:

<SCRAW…!>

They started firing, slashing, and throwing out more bombs as the rocs went straight for them, surrounding them and even tackling them to the ground; they only realized that they were on a suicide charge as Zeus flew past them while they were occupied.

Blake managed to hook her breakneck on his back, Ruby dashed and sliced through several rocs and managed to grab onto her, before the both of them were yanked off and high up into the air. Zeus kept on climbing, what remained of his aerie swooping around him and taking the shots and distracting the watchers rushing after him, his whole body crackling and charging with electricity once more. He abruptly near the roof of the cavern and hovered in the air, too busy glowering at the firing line in Hyrkanos to notice Ruby and Blake flying upwards and above him by her breakneck’s cable.

Time seemed to slow down as they hit the peak of their swing, where they looked at the dozens of Fae and beasts that were at the firing line and around them, down at Zeus clearly building up to something catastrophic, then at each other.

<Do it.> Blake said firmly.

<I’m sorry.> Ruby whispered back.

<Don’t be.> Blake said, before she activated her breackneck’s reel.

The two of them screamed through the air, going faster and closer to Zeus with each second. Ruby let go of Blake, pulling out her scythe and prepared for a massive swing, her scythe’s blade growing bright silver. Blake closed her eyes as she fell past Zeus, serene and calm as she awaited the inevitable.

Shing!

Zeus seemed to continue hovering in the air for a moment, seemingly unharmed, before his eyes widened, blood spewed out from the new, clean line around his neck, and finally, he exploded.

Boom.

The thunderous blast deafened and disoriented Blake, the shockwave ripping her breakneck off Zeus’ back and sending her hurtling through the air. With her flight pack broken, it was only a matter of time before she was dashed against some rocks or the ground.

<Guess this is it,> she thought to herself, before she smiled, and waited for the end...

… Only it never came, as Qrow snatched her out of mid-air, desperately flapping his wings and trying to slow them down, steer them away from any rock formations or stalactites, until finally the others caught them and brought them safely to a stop.

Behind them, Zeus beheaded, charred carcass crashed to the ground, forming a massive crater as it hit. Ruby landed on it shortly after, breaking several of its bones. The watchers and the other Fae watching waited in suspense, until finally, Ruby said:

<Hope you meat-eaters out there are fine with your roc being extra burnt!>

The Thundercall Taverns echoed with the sound of cheering and applause.

“Blake wasn’t instantly promoted to the Keeper Team after that—she was still a fugitive here under really terrible circumstances, after all—but the Hyrkanos Defense did go a long way into helping her officially become part of our team two months later.  Maybe it was fate, or because we already worked and gelled really well with her for the most part, but we just couldn’t find anyone better to fill the spot other than her.

“And that, Weiss, is how Blake ended up joining the Keeper Team!” Ruby said proudly.

“Wow,” Weiss said, smiling, “is recruiting new members always this exciting?”

“Nah,” Ruby said, “Penny’s was a lot less dramatic. I could tell you it sometime—but probably not now, you should probably be going to bed.”

Weiss nodded, before she yawned. “Yeah, it’s probably safe for me to lie down now… thank you for the story and the conversation, Ruby, I really appreciate it.”

“Any time I can help it, Weiss!” Ruby said, smiling. “Sleep well, I love you.”

“I love you too, Ruby, have a nice rest of your shift,” Weiss said, before she closed the connection.

Ruby sighed and frowned as the holo disappeared, she pulled her farsighter to her eyes and resumed scanning her surroundings with Iaros. A few minutes later, she put it down, pulled out her comm-crystal again, and sent a text message:

“Uncle Qrow? You up?”

“I am now,” Qrow replied a few moments later. “What’s up?”

“Do you mind if we holo-chat?” Ruby asked. “It’s real quick, I promise.”

Qrow sent a connection request, and his bleary-eyed face soon appeared before Ruby. “Like I said, what’s up?” he said groggily.

“I was just telling Weiss the story of how Blake ended up on the team, and I wanted to thank you again for deciding to let us keep her around, and saving her back at Hyrkanos,” Ruby said. “I know you had a shit-ton of issues with her and would have thrown her into the Roost if you could, but you didn’t.”

“I said it before, I’ll say it again: I wasn’t doing it for her,” Qrow said flatly.

“I know, Uncle Qrow, but I’m still thankful,” Ruby said. “Sorry for waking you up, and I love you.”

“Love you too, kiddo, now please let me go the fuck to sleep,” Qrow said.

“I will, promise,” Ruby said, shutting the connection, before returning to her duties for real.

Note: Thundercall Rocs are one of the apex predators of the Thundercall Caverns, and one of the most notorious at that. They are extremely fast and voracious breeders, are purely carnivorous and eat pretty much any other animal in the Caverns, sentient or otherwise, and are infamously impossible to tame or domesticate.

In the words of one Tender who tried and failed miserably, “They’re bitey, zappy, screechy bastards who’d sooner blow up your entire aviary for shits and giggles than try to sit on your command.”

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 27)

Qrow took one long, slow drink from his flask, pulled it from his lips, and sighed heavily. <Alright, I’m good—let them in,> he mumbled as he capped it again, put it away in the inner pocket of his shirt.

Soon, the door on the other side of the room opened up, their first interviewee of the day strode to the dais in the center of the room, Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team surrounding her. They exchanged the usual formalities, before she knelt down on the large cushion provided for her, bathed in the light streaming through the high windows.

<Welcome to the first round of interviews for the Keeper Team!> Penny said smiling. <First off, congratulations for making it this far! Second, for the purposes of uniformity, we will have to request that you please communicate almost-to-entirely in Actaeon, save for any Nivian sayings, concepts, or quotes that you feel will not, or cannot translate adequately. Third, though we are sure you are already well aware, the questions we may ask you can get intensely personal, and that you are free to ask such questions back, if either of us feel that they may be relevant, or might prove to be a significant asset or liability in the future.

<With that out of the way: please state your name, who you are, and how your merits and achievements make you the best candidate for this position!>

<I am Anouke Kalla,> Anouke replied. <I have been a watcher since I was old enough to walk and handle a knife, and have been hunting down, slaying, and skinning almost every dangerous beast and horrific monster that lurks in this Valley for the past five decades. Whether they stalk no man’s land, lurk in the darkest, murkiest depths, or soar the most treacherous skies, I can guarantee you I have faced and bested them all, with one notable exception:

<Soul Eaters.>

Anouke put her hand to her breast, looked Ruby in the eyes, and said, <I swear, Keeper Rose, grant me the honour of serving under you, and those monsters will learn to fear my presence as much as yours.>

<Yeah, say no more, you’re out.> Qrow said calmly.

Anouke’s eyes widened, she snapped her head to Qrow. <Excuse me?!>

<We don’t need overconfident big game hunters who want to be part of team just get close to a Soul Eater, and try to bag its head for a trophy,> Qrow said. <They’re not ‘fun,’ or a ‘worthy challenge,’ they’re an abomination of magic and science we have to stop at all costs—even if it means killing it so hard there’s nothing left of it that you can see without the help of a scanner or a microscope.>

<Yeah, I’m really sorry, Watcher Kalla, but Uncle Qrow has a point,> Ruby said. <You have to put your very all into fighting a Soul Eater—and every bit you spend on trying to kill it in a way that preserves its body, rather than just doing everything you can to ensure it’s dead is more opportunity for the Soul Eater to kill you, instead.>

Anouke scowled, before she let out a short, disappointed sigh. <I feel you are incurring a great loss by rejecting me… but very well, I will respect your decision, Keeper,> she said, turning back to Ruby, and bowing her head. <Thank you for your time and the opportunity.>

Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team said their half of the formal farewell, before Anouke was out the door, and the next candidate came in.

“Wow, that quickly and just for that reason?” Weiss asked.

“Yep!” Ruby said. “It’s kinda like one of those economic theories or something, where there’s hundreds of folks that want to fill in a vacant, permanent spot in the Keeper Team, so we can just pick and choose whoever we think is going to be the absolute best of the best, though there were some folks where the issues were more, uh, personal.”

“Such as?”

“Well...”

It was mid-day now when yet another candidate strode into the room, a pair of well-worn headphones around their neck. <Yo, name’s Yral Revene, but you might know me by my stage name: ‘Jackdaw,’> they said. <Officially my job is as a watcher-weaver, but only to pay the bills while I work on my real job: music maker. I want in on the Keeper Team as you all are gonna be the key to my revolutionizing music and weaving, and it’s going to start with me helping you kick Soul Eater tail like never before!>

<That’s an incredibly bold statement,> Ren said. <May you please explain how exactly you are planning to do this…?>

<With the freedom to use my Sound, is what,> Jackdaw replied. <I’ve been forced to use all the stock standard sheets and songs, so me and the rest of the sound weavers can harmonize and collab easy-like, and even then, I’ve barely been allowed to use my Sound on the field.>

<Your ‘Sound’…?> Ruby asked.

<They mean their personally composed music,> Penny said.

<Oh!> Ruby said. <So, is this also a set of custom-made and modified spells, then?>

<Yes,> Jackdaw replied. <I could go on and on about how awesome it is, but I think I should just let my Sound speak for itself,> they said, pulling out an external speaker and their comm-crystal.

<Excuse me!> Penny said, rising up from her seat. <I would like to remind you that elemental weaving of any sort is forbidden inside the interview room, and will be considered an attempt to harm the Keeper or her teammates, with the according grave punishment!>

<Relax, it’s just the music this time!> Jackdaw replied as they set it down, before they smiled. <You can experience the rest later, at the Grove. Ready?>

Everyone agreed to it, or didn’t mind, except for Qrow, who said <Hold on.> then ripped open one of the cushions, and plugged his hearing-holes with the stuffing.

<Oh come on, Uncle Qrow, aren’t you overreacting?> Ruby asked him.

<Alright, go!> Qrow said loudly, either ignoring her, or unable to hear.

Without any further issues, Jackdaw grinned, and pressed play, their personal music booming and filling the room. Merely ten seconds in, the smiles on Ruby and Nora’s faces disappeared, Zwei whined and pressed his two heads together and covered his outermost ears with his paws, while Penny looked concernedly at the increasingly uncomfortable and displeased members of the Keeper Team, sans Qrow.

<Oh, Eluna, make it stop!> Blake cried, clapping her hands over her ears.

<I’m really sorry, but please do!> Ruby added.

<Seriously?> Jackdaw asked, frowning. <It’s just new! It’s like an acquired taste! You’ll learn to love it, I swear!>

<My sincerest apologies, but I will really have to ask you to stop, or be forced to!> Penny cried. <Any more of this, and you might be charged with harassing and psychologically harming the Keeper and her Team.>

“And then there were some folks who’d been doing incredibly well, but we had to make the tough decision to reject them because of one deal-breaker or another...”

It was afternoon now, the curtains on the windows drawn to keep the glare of the sun from being too powerful. It was already past 2, their agreed upon lunch break, but they delayed it for the sake of their latest interviewee.

<… While I doubt I will be able to concoct, or even begin to research on something that might affect the Soul Eaters themselves, I’m sure that I’ve proven that my potions can be a great boon to you and the rest of the team, in combat or out of it,> he finished.

<Indeed you have, Maker Nyimu!> Penny said, smiling. <There’s just one more aspect from your record that we would like to address: we’re rather concerned about how dramatically your combat performance dropped after you finished drug rehabilitation, both in training exercises and live situations, and how that might be a liability when it comes to high-stakes situations like a Soul Eater attack.>

Nyimu frowned. <Ah, yes… to be honest, most of my stellar performance before it was all thanks to the constant abuse of enhancers, or using more to escape the consequences. Again, I swear I will improve myself without the cheap, dangerous shortcuts.>

<We know,> Qrow said, <but let me give you a hypothetical situation: everyone but you and Ruby are down or dead. She’s in deep shit, you’re the only one that has a hope in hell of saving her, but you know that the only way you can do it is if you pop a pot, or jam a needle into your arm, give you the boost you need.

<Would you do it…?>

Nyimu was silent, his eyes widening in surprise, before his face contorted into all manner of expressions, the inner turmoil clear for all to see. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, before finally, he sighed heavily, slumped his shoulders, and shook his head. <No, Watcher Branwen, I believe I cannot…> he said. <Even a single misstep will be all it takes to fall again into addiction, I’m certain of it..>

<So you don’t think you can sacrifice yourself, if it comes to that?> Ruby asked sympathetically.

Nyimu looked at her, and said, <No Keeper—I apologize.>

<Nothing to be sorry about.> Ruby said. <Though, I am sorry to say you’re not going on the Keeper team.>

<I expected as much,> Nyimu said, smiling ruefully. He bowed, they went through the formal goodbyes, and left.

As soon as he was out the door, everyone started getting up off their cushions and stretched, groans and sighs of relief echoing in the room.

<Ugh, I’m so glad it’s finally over...> Blake muttered as she arched her back. <Please don’t take this as a personal insult, everyone, but I never realized how much truth there was to the stories of what kinds of Fae would want to apply for the Keeper Team… I always assumed there was some element of exaggeration and fabrication to it to make it a more entertaining story, not that they were just reporting it as is!>

<Yeah, Keepers tend to attract misfits, outcasts, and oddballs almost as much as they do trouble,> Qrow said, bending his arms back and forth between their usual and flying configurations. <And sometimes, they’re both at once,> he added, looking pointedly at Blake.

She scowled, and said nothing.

<Be nice, Uncle Qrow,> Ruby snapped softly, before she smiled at Blake. <So, since this is your first time in the Bastion and being out of the house in general since you got here, anything you want to get for lunch? There’s plenty of great restaurants here, and I’m sure we can convince the Council to foot for our bill.>

<If none of you mind, I would really appreciate someplace that serves fish,> Blake replied. <Preferably fresh.>

<Oh, well you’re in luck!> Nora said, grinning. <Ren and I know this great seafood place in the Tender’s Fields, serves pretty much everything—freshwater and saltwater fish, squids, octopi, shellfish, algae, seaweed—heck, they even have these neat compressed balls of plankton you eat like chips! You even get a discount if you catch it yourself.>

Blake smiled. <I’d really like that, actually.>

<Any objections?> Ruby asked. When there were none, she smiled and said, <Then let’s go get some lunch!>

Then as if on cue, all of their comm-crystals sans Blake’s started flashing and beeping wildly in alarm, similar alarms echoing elsewhere in the Roost. Penny projected a holo and read aloud the message:

<Emergency Alert! Research Facility Hyrkanos in the Thundercall Tunnels is under attack by an aerie of Thundercall Rocs, confirmed lead by ‘Zeus V!’ Requesting Keeper Team and other Apex-class watchers to reinforce within an hour or less! Outposts have been overrun or isolated, security has sustained casualties and infrastructure has been severely damaged, evacuations impossible without outside assistance!>

<Isn’t Thundercall where we were supposed to go in three weeks?> Ruby cried as they started running.

<Looks like the date’s been moved forward, kiddos!> Qrow cried back.

<Sorry to sound self-centered, but what’s going to happen to me?> Blake butted-in as she kept pace with them. <I’m supposed to be with at least one of you at all times!>

<Simple: we take you with us!> Ruby replied. <Your equipment’s all fixed now, and you said it yourself that you’re willing to fight and hunt with us, right?>

<There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo about Keeper’s deputizing folks, so don’t worry about going to jail, and just focus on not dying!> Nora chirped. <It’d be really tragic and awful if you died so soon after you just got introduced into the story!>

Blake looked strangely at her, before she shook her head, and kept on running.

Note: Qrow, like many avian Fae, does not have ears, and has hearing-holes instead. Ren also has them, as reptilian Fae and some more exotic subspecies like snake Fae have acquired adaptations from others over the millenia, though the earliest of them reportedly could only “taste” sound or had very poor audio perception.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 26)

Soon, all the members of the Keeper team, permanent or part-time, were sitting on top of a tangle of roots, munching on energy bars and sipping from canteens as they looked at the holo Penny was projecting, listened to Ruby discussing their plan.

“…And just so you all know: if it turns out they’ve seriously hurt or killed Zwei, I’m murdering them.” Ruby said by the end of it. “Everyone clear?”

“Crystal,” everyone replied.

“Great,” Ruby said before she put her mask on. “Let’s do this.”

Qrow took to the air, Ren climbed up the trees and jumped from branch to branch, both scouted out the area. They found Zwei with his heads stuck in a large knothole, balancing his body on the mouth and a sturdy, large branch just underneath him. When nothing else of interest turned up, they all began to prepare to move into position.

Qrow and Nora perched on branches within sight of the knothole, loading a crossbow, or grenades, gas and anti-magic. Ren readied his blades and climbed above the mouth of the hole, ready to drop on unsuspecting intruders. Ruby and Penny climbed up to the branch Zwei was balancing on, and began to approach him, weapons in their hands.

“Zwei,” Ruby whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. “Zwei, are you alright?”

Zwei quietly tapped his right hind paw twice.

“Did you find an intruder, boy?”

Twice again.

“Do you think they’re dangerous?”

He tapped with his left once, then his right.

“Are they still armed?”

Again, the same gesture.

“Do you think there’s a good chance they might be a weaver?”

He double-tapped his left hind paw this time.

“Do you think they might escape once you pull out?”

Two taps with the right.

Ruby nodded, then turned to Penny. “You ready?”

“Absolutely,” Penny replied, putting her tail into Ruby’s hand, and her own hands around her mouth.

<This is Keeper Ruby Rose, of the Viridian Valley!> Ruby said, her voice booming through the trees. <You are suspected of trespassing into Keeper’s Grove, and for security reasons, we can’t just let you turn around and leave. Please identify yourself, your affiliation, and your purpose for being here, then surrender yourself peacefully into our custody within the next five minutes, starting now!

<If you do not, we’ll be forced to arrest you and hand you over to the Watcher’s Roost! Trust me, you really do not want to know what’ll happen if we have to do this the hard way!>

They waited for five long, tense minutes, and after there was no response, no motion, Ruby called out, <Your time’s up! We’re moving in to arrest you! Please do not resist, you are surrounded, we are all armed, and you’re in some seriously deep legal trouble if you try to fight, I’m warning you!

<Zwei! Get them out of there!>

Zwei barked, before he lunged, and carefully brought their intruder out of the knothole by the nape of their neck. Everyone tensed up, prepared to spring into action, until they all got a good look of their suspect: a female cat Fae, filthy from the tips of her ears to her tail, her armour severely battered and weathered, her whole body almost entirely skin and bones.

<Please...> she whispered, her voice barely audible as she trembled and shook. <Your dog...>

She fainted before she could say any more.

“Wow.” Weiss said. “Did you take her to the hospital?”

“No, but that was only because we could treat Blake just fine at the Grove,” Ruby replied. “Penny managed to revive her pretty much immediately, and since she was trying to head there in the first place, she went without a fuss—Nora had to carry her, though, because she didn’t want to be anywhere near Zwei.”

Weiss nodded. “That’s good to hear… so why was she trying to head into Keeper’s Grove?”

“I’ll get to it later, promise!” Ruby said. “Anyway, we gave her food, a sponge bath, fresh clothes, and a place to sleep. All we needed to do for security was station Zwei outside Varryn’s old room—or, I guess, Blake and Penny’s room right now— so we could sit down for a proper dinner ourselves. Then, we had a very important emergency meeting...”

“So, what are we going to do with her?” Ruby asked as they all sat around the kitchen table, the plates all cleared.

“I say we turn her into the Roost, let the Watchers and Seekers decide what’s going to happen to her,” Qrow said, resting his open flask on the table. “We’ve got enough problems as is, trying to look for a replacement for Varryn before the deadline, and there’s this strong feeling in the pit of my gut that she’s going to be bringing more trouble than she will be solving them.”

“I say we keep her detained her at the Grove for the time being,” Penny said. “By my observations of her vitals and behaviour, it’s much, much more probable that she’s been desperately trying to reach this place, and has gone through great efforts and much suffering to do so. It would serve us well to learn her motives and reasons for this journey, and I believe that keeping her in our custody and care will help us earn the necessary trust.”

“I’m with Penny!” Nora chimed in. “Come on, guys: pretty much nobody ends up here in the Grove in a super dramatic, major ‘early-to-mid-season plot development’ way by accident! There has to be a HUGE reason she’s here, and she doesn’t feel like a one-off character to me! Plus, consider the timing: she came here on the same day that Varryn finally left the team for good, we’ve got a really short deadline to find his replacement, and she’s also probably someone who’s a wilderness expert.

“Did you see how she looked like when Zwei pulled her out? Where we found her, so high up on the trees, away from most potential predators? Nobody does that if they haven’t had plenty of wilderness experience, and had been roughing it out for weeks, maybe even months.”

“Which begs the question of why she needed to do all that, and sneak into the Grove via the surrounding swamp, instead of taking the Tube station,” Ren countered. “I’m very sorry, Nora, but I have to agree with Qrow: the answer to that, among other questions, is likely going to involve some dark, complicated, and dangerous business, one handled best by the Roost and not by us.”

“So that’s two for two, looks like you’re going to be the tiebreaker, kiddo,” Qrow said as everyone turned to look at Ruby. “What do you think?”

Ruby looked uneasy, then sighed. “I think we should all finally go to bed, sleep on it, and decide again in the morning.”

“A prudent choice,” Penny said, smiling and nodding.

“And one that could potentially give whatever or whoever she might be running from time to catch up,” Qrow grumbled. “Eh, fuck it, just try and sleep with your weapons in reach, alright?”

“Alright, Uncle Qrow,” Ruby said, before they all got up, and got ready for bed, except for Penny who chose to charge herself just outside the room they were keeping their suspect in.

Morning came, and Ruby came over to their suspect’s room with a bowl of Fuerte Flakes, a bottle of milk for it, and a fresh cup of black moss tea. “How is she?” she asked Penny.

“According to my scans through the door, and Zwei’s visual checks from the window, she’s perfectly fine, and there have been no noteworthy incidents.” Penny replied. “She appears to have slept through the entire night, likely due to overexhaustion, and a severe lack of sleep.”

“Is she awake now?” Ruby asked.

“There’s a very, very low probability of that, and Zwei is also currently taking a break, so we cannot check.” Penny replied. “However, I don’t think she will protest being woken up and offered breakfast! Am I correct in assuming that you also want to check up on her personally, and make some inquiries?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ruby said, nodding. “I still want to keep her here if we can, but I’ve been thinking about what Uncle Qrow and Ren said, and we really do need to know if it’s going to be safe to do so. Can you let me in?”

“Of course!” Penny said, smiling. “Though, for security reasons, I will have to insist on joining you inside.”

“Can we not?” Ruby asked. “I think it might be uncomfortable for her to have two of us in the room, seeing as it’s not very big and all.”

“I’m afraid we really have to, Ruby,” Penny said. “The personal risk to you aside, we will be missing an extremely valuable opportunity to acquire information from her if I have to rely on your second-hand account, not to mention any small details you may miss, or lines of inquiry that you may not pursue.”

Ruby sighed. “Okay, you’ve got good points… ready?”

“If you are also, Ruby,” Penny said, smiling.

“Then let’s do this.”

Penny nodded, before she turned around and knocked on the door. <Good morning, Miss! I am going to enter your room now, apologies if we have caught you at an inconvenient time!>  she said, before she opened the door.

True to her earlier estimate, their suspect was just stirring from sleep, groaning and shaking her head as she slowly sat up in her nest. She sniffed the air, her eyes widening and her ears twitching in panic, before she quickly relaxed.

<How are you this morning, Miss?> Penny asked as she entered first.

<Better...> their suspect mumbled, pulling the sheets off of her and getting into a more comfortable position.

<You hungry? We brought breakfast!> Ruby said as she stepped in afterward, closing the door behind her with her foot.

The suspect looked, and smiled. <That’d be great. Thanks.>

<We’d also be quite grateful if you could answer some questions for us, starting with your name, your affiliation, and why you are here,> Penny added as she took the tray from Ruby, and set it down on the floor in front of the nest.

The smile on the suspect’s face disappeared, her ears flattening as she suddenly looked uneasy.

<Is there going to be a problem with that, Miss?> Penny asked, still smiling.

<Kind of… please, can I just answer the third question first?>

Penny glanced over her shoulder at Ruby, she shrugged, sat down behind Penny, and said, <Sure, why not?>

The suspect shifted again into a kneeling position, before she bowed, her head down as she said, <Keeper Ruby Rose, my life is in danger and I beg you, please, let me work for you, in exchange for your protection.

<This threat has been relentless, cruel, and determined, and they have already driven me out of my home; have forced me to cut ties with my friends, family, and community for their safety, if they had not done so already; and I know if they find me again, they will kill me, or worse.

<You are my best hope, among what little options I have left. This threat will stop immediately if they know I am serving under you, as they wouldn’t dare try to earn the ire of you nor the Eldan Council. I am a skilled and experienced huntress, spy, and warrior, and believe I can be a valuable addition to the Keeper Team, but I will be your obedient server doing whatever you ask of me, if I have to.

<So, please, I beg of you: let me work for you.>

<Can I at least have your name, what this threat is, and how you got to this point…?> Ruby asked.

The suspect was suddenly incredibly uneasy. <I fear what might happen to both of us if I share that information with you right now.>

<Because you don’t know if I’m going to stick my neck out for you yet?> Ruby asked.

The suspect nodded, and said, <Yes. If-->

<No.> Ruby said, firmly and calmly.

The suspect blinked, and looked at Ruby. <Pardon…?>

<No, I am not going to protect you!> Ruby said, scowling now. <I can’t blame you for thinking that we Keepers will take pretty much anyone who shows up at our doorstep, because we do, but do you seriously think that I’m going to risk my, my friends, and my family’s safety before you even tell me the most basic bits of information like your name, and who you are?!

<Before I commit to anything, show me that I can trust you, and you can do that by telling me everything.>

The suspect frowned, the dramatic internal conflict playing out inside of her clear on her face. <Keeper-->

<Shut up.> Ruby snapped. <Unless the next words out of your mouth are your name, who you are, and who or what you ended up pissing off so badly you needed to run all the way here from wherever in this realm you used to call ‘home,’ I am personally kicking you out of my house, shoving you into the cargo hold of a Log, before personally dragging you into the Watcher’s Roost.

<Then, you can go beg for protection from them.>

The suspect’s face fell, her ears and tail drooping; she was quiet for a while as Ruby continued to look at her, a calm expression on her face, until finally she said, <My name is Blake… Blake Belladonna.>

“We ended up spending the whole morning listening to her story. And sorry to say, Weiss, you’re going to have to ask Blake about all the details herself—she made us promise that she’d be the one to tell it herself.”

“I understand,” Weiss said. “It sounds like it’ll spiral into an entirely new story that’ll have us here till dawn, anyway.”

“Boy, will it ever!” Ruby said, chuckling. “Anyway, after we relayed it to the others, most of us voted to keep Blake around, though she ended up shuffled to the very bottom of the priorities list as we focused on finding Varryn’s replacement again.

“It all worked out though, because Blake was more than happy to spend all day indoors locked in her room, only coming out for food, exercise, and the bathroom. We ended up taking her with us when it was time for the face-to-face interview with the candidates, though...”

Note: Theoretically, you COULD in fact fit two average-sized individuals into a single Log, but it's uncomfortable, to say the least. Abner experimented with numerous multi-passenger designs after the first single-passenger models were finalized and mass-produced, but thanks to the limitations of the supporting infrastructure, he ended up modifying it to the single-passenger plus cargo designs today.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 25)

<I’m really very sorry we have to part ways like this, Ruby...> Varryn said as they bowed, all of their belongings in a sack on their back, and the Grove’s Tube station behind them.

<It’s alright, Varryn, we all knew it was much more likely to end like this than not,> Ruby said, bowing back.

<I really do wish that I could have lasted longer in the team’s service, Ruby!> Varryn said as they bent back up. <You’ve been an excellent leader, both within and outside of the walls of the Bastion, and a great friend beside; and to say that the credentials and the experience I’ve acquired in my relatively short time with all of you will be invaluable for the rest of my life will be a severe understatement!>

<Aww, thank you, Varryn!> Ruby replied, smiling now. <You’ve been a great team member and a wonderful friend, too. I’m sure we’d have had spent way more time and had a whole lot more stress trying to navigate, hunt, and trap in the wilds if we didn’t have your skills, not to mention your help with all the Big Game, like Grarr VII!>

The colour drained from Varryn’s face, particularly impressive due to the dark colour of their skin.

<Sorry.> Ruby whispered.

Varryn gulped down the lump that had formed in their throat, before awkwardly jerking a paw behind them. <I’m just going to be leaving now, Ruby… need to get settled in my new home, get my affairs here straightened out, before it’s back out to the wilds again!> they said, backpedaling to the Log that was awaiting them.

<Good luck with all that, Varryn!> Ruby cried, waving. <And if you ever need anything from us, don’t hesitate to call!>

<I won’t, thank you, Ruby!> Varryn shouted back, before they swiftly spun around, stuffed their sack of belongings as quickly as they could into the cargo hold, before diving in and strapping the belts in place all by themselves.

The two Tube technicians looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to shut the hatch on Varryn, before sending them out of Keeper’s Grove for the last time. Ruby stood where she was for a few moments, before she sighed, turned around, and went back to the house with her head hung.

As she stepped back into the living room, she found everyone still at the “command center,” a table set up with Ruby’s terminal, plus a handful of loaned units. Qrow was the first to look up from his screen, and waved at Ruby. “Welcome back, kiddo, got to say goodbye Varynn like you wanted?”

“Yep! Managed to screw it up, but hey, it’s not like we’ll probably be hearing or seeing from them any time soon!” Ruby said as she plunked herself down on her chair, and reactivated her terminal. “Thanks for the break, everyone, I really appreciate it.”

Penny bid farewell to whoever she was talking to, then smiled at Ruby. “You are welcome, Ruby, and please, think nothing of it! Proper closure is absolutely vital for mental and emotional health.”

Ruby nodded as she returned to her recently moved terminal, and resumed the search for Varryn’s replacement.

“… Thanks to filters, bots, and the Codex, it was easy to screen out almost all of the folks who were completely unqualified, or that we didn’t need as badly as a new wilderness expert, but there were still LOT of folks to screen, references to call up, and a couple of extra background checks to do.”

“I’m surprised that there’s actually so many Fae who want in on the Keeper Team,” Weiss said.

“It’s probably because of all the benefits!” Ruby replied. “The regular pay may be crap, and the job is difficult and dangerous, to say the least, but even if you only lasted a single season with us, that’s the same rep and credentials as you would have had if you spent a year—maybe two—only taking some of the highest risk jobs available in the Valley, nearly non-stop.

“And if you managed to help me put down a Soul Eater? Well, provided you could still fight and venture outside the walls after, the Roost and private contractors will pretty much let you set your own fee, among other things.”

“And if you haven’t had that distinction, and can’t continue working as a Watcher?”

“Then there’s hefty benefits you could live off of if you’re not too extravagant about living expenses, let alone the folks that’d love to employ a former Keeper Team member for the PR points. And if you end up getting killed in action, whoever’s your beneficiaries will be pretty much set for life, and if you don’t have any, you’ll get a fancy, permanent memorial at the Roost—for some, that’s all they really want or need.

“Of course, there are some folks that are just using it as a stepping stone for their careers—‘High Honour Hopefuls,’ we call them. After all, nothing pleases supporters, and looks damn good on a public service record than helping keep Avalon from getting overrun by near-unstoppable monsters!

“Uncle Qrow really doesn’t like it when we get them, though...”

“Fucking hell, Penny, I thought you said you could screen out every single last one of these suck-ups!” Qrow griped as he angrily pressed the “reject” button, so hard his talon scratched the stone of the terminal underneath.

“I only said ‘Most of them,’ and I’m certain that your chronicle data will be concurrent with my own,” Penny replied coolly. “It’s not any fault of mine that some of them are able to avoid detection relying heavily on word and pattern recognition algorithms.”

“Heh, guess they wouldn’t be Honours if they couldn’t, huh?” Nora said playfully.

Qrow side-eyed her, before shaking his head.

“How many of them have you seen so far, Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked.

“One, and that’s already one too many...” Qrow grumbled, before he sighed then started to shut down his terminal. “You know what? I’ve had enough of screening hopefuls today, I’m clocking out.”

“We have been screening for several hours with just the bare minimum of breaks, it would indeed be wise to end now and resume tomorrow morning, to avoid unnecessary error and impaired judgment due to fatigue,” Penny said.

“Great, now it’s Mender’s orders, too!” Qrow said as he got up and stretched his legs. “Time for dinner—who’s turn was it, again?”

“I think it was Varryn’s, actually!” Ruby said as she and the others began to shut down their terminals, too.

“It was indeed!” Penny said. “So, with him gone, that means it’s Qrow on dinner duty, myself with dishes, and Ruby to attend to Zwei.”

Qrow paused for a moment, before he happy look on his face disappeared. “Ah, shit, you’re right...” he mumbled, before he dejectedly marched into the kitchen, pulling his flask out of his pocket as he did.

“We’ll help,” Ren said, as he and Nora got up, and followed him.

“And just so you know, I am starving after all that work, so it’s gonna be a total crumb-pocalypse tonight!” Nora said, chuckling.

“Please remember to pace yourself so you don’t end up with indigestion!” Penny called after them, waving, before she turned to Ruby. “Would you like some assistance with Zwei, Ruby? I was thinking of contacting some more character references before I stop completely myself, but I am willing to provide an extra hand and/or company, should you need or want it.”

“Nah, I’m good!” Ruby said as she pulled her cloak back on her shoulders and turned the hood up. “Besides, I wouldn’t mind some alone time with Zwei, he’s probably been so bored and lonely all day!” she said before she made for the door.

“If that’s what you wish, Ruby!” Penny said. “Don’t hesitate to call if you change your mind!”

“I won’t!” Ruby said, before she stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her, stood on the edge of the rail and yelled, “Zwei! We’re all done for today! We can go play now!”

She smiled as she leaned on the railing, gazing out at the overgrowth down below, waiting for Zwei to rip a new straight line through them in his rush. “Heh, he’ll probably leap all the way to the balcony and take me back down with him,” she thought, smiling.

The smile disappeared when she five minutes later, she didn’t see, hear, nor smell him. “Zwei!” Ruby called out again. “Zwei! Shift’s over today! Uncle Qrow’s already getting dinner! I’ll make sure you get an extra serving tonight if you get back here within a minute! Counting down: 60… 59… 58...”

She peered out at the swamp, trying to notice anything off, closed her eyes and counted silently, skipped a few as she sniffed and tried to get even the vaguest whiff of Zwei’s powerful, unmistakable smell.

“… 3… 2… 1… 0!” Ruby cried. “Times up, Zwei! Maybe I’ll consider still giving those extra servings to you if you come back right now…!”

The door opened, Penny peered out. “Has Zwei still not returned, Ruby?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s really weird...” Ruby said, still looking out. “He’s never strayed that deep into the swamp without us, hasn’t he?”

“No, based on my own Chronicle, Qrow’s, and the previous chroniclers,” Penny replied.

Ruby turned around, the worry clear on her face. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Most likely!” Penny said, smiling as she stepped out of the house and towards Ruby. “He’s an incredibly powerful, durable, and intelligent dog! That aside, it’s highly probable that he’s found an incredibly comfortable, secluded spot and fell asleep there, and it just so happens that he can’t hear you.

“Shall we go look for him?” she added, putting a hand on Ruby’s shoulder and gesturing out to the swamp.

“Please,” Ruby said, heading to the boat-elevator.

“I will inform the others that we’ll be searching for Zwei, then will join you post-haste,” Penny said.

Soon, the both of them were wandering deep into the swamps surrounding Keeper’s Grove, beams of light shooting out of Penny’s unblinking eyes; her ears slowly rotating around her head like radar dishes; her mouth open and her hands cupped around it, and her tail in Ruby’s hand and leading up to her mouth as she used her like a megaphone.

“Zwei!” Ruby called out, her voice booming and echoing off the trees as they hopped and walked on the giant roots. “Zwei! Where are you?! I’m really worried, boy!”

After yet another minute of silence, Ruby whined and let go of Penny’s tail. “He’s not answering or anything! Do you think something bad happened? Should we call the others?!”

“It is extremely concerning, but I urge you to please remain calm, Ruby,” Penny said as she put her hands off her mouth, shut off the spotlights in her eyes before she faced Ruby. “I’m going to contact them now, so we can get the equipment and the heads for a proper search.”

It was then that something fell from high up above, and noisily plopped into the water, followed by some leaves and branches that had been messily cut apart, likely by accident. Ruby and Penny both looked above, into the thick branches and leaves obscuring whatever was above, before turning to the water where the object had landed.

They shared a look with each other, before Penny reached in, and pulled out a black breakneck, now covered in swamp muck and dripping with water. She reactivated the lights in her eyes, Ruby frowned as she examined the weapon.

“This is Celestian made…” she muttered.

“Indeed,” Penny said, before she contacted the others back at the house. “Sorry to interrupt your dinner, everyone, but it appears that Zwei has found an intruder, possibly still armed and dangerous. Please prepare accordingly, bring the necessary detaining equipment, and alert the Roost.”

Qrow sighed. “And of course it’s right as I sit down and got my plate ready… alright, got your location, got a visual and any info for us?”

“No visual, and two things: there’s a good chance they’re from Celestion, and down a primary weapon,” Ruby said, holding up the breakneck for the others.

“Oooh, a possible assassination attempt!” Nora chimed in, her mouth obviously full of cookies. “Isn’t this exciting, Ren?! I mean, it’s not great obviously, but we get to check this off our milestone list of being with the Keepers!”

“I suppose so, Nora,” Ren said. “ETA 25 minutes—you want us to bring anything else alongside your gear, Ruby?”

“Yeah: dinner to go,” Ruby added. “Something tells me this is going to be a LONG night...”

Note: The Watchers, Seekers, Weavers, Makers, and the rest of the Orders are free to make recommendations for replacements and additions to the Keeper’s team, but aside from the most basic litmus tests, all the screening, interviewing, and hiring is done by the Keepers themselves, usually (but not always) with the help of the current and/or recently retired members.

This is because the Keeper Team has historically had a LOT of questionable hires, who turned out to be incredibly great assets, such as Abner.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 24)

Crack!

The spider golem’s last weak point shattered, it frantically, uselessly flailed about before it fell over on its back, legs curling up into itself as it deactivated. Weiss smiled as she ripped her runeblade out from it, held it up into the air as all six of Winter’s summons joined her and posed beside their “kill.”

Winter cheered from her place on the balcony above, Tygan just nodded his head, and switched to the other feeds in front of him.

Thoom!

Sayuri sent the wooden slab rocketing back with a compressed air explosion, before she thrust out the hand her “spitter” was mounted on. The weapon whirred and screamed like a miniature jet engine, a cyclone exploding out and blasting the slab. Her arm wavered slightly, Sayuri braced it against her other wrist, and the slab didn’t move an inch for the rest of the minute.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Goro stood at the pole again with his cannon this time, raining fiery balls of death down on the golems swarming around him, the hapless constructs exploding into smouldering pieces and ash before they could even get close to the barrier.

<Come on! Come on!> he yelled, taking a hand off his cannon to beat his breastplate. <Let ‘em at me, set ‘em all loose, this shit is too fuckin’ easy!>

<We’re not sending any more golems at you until you dial it back!> cried one of the technicians via comm-crystal. <You’re breaking them too badly, we won’t be able to recycle even half of the ones you’ve already busted!>

<Fuck you!> Goro snapped back. <What’s the point of training if you don’t always put your 110% into it?!>

<That’s enough, Aneyama,> Tygan interrupted calmly. <You can get off the pole now, you’ve already got full marks for this test.>

<Tch,> Goro said, shaking his head as he holstered his cannon over his back. <Next time you want me to break out my big guns, bring out the bigger golems, too!>

<I’ll keep it mind,> Tygan said. <For now, get started on your cooldown.>

Goro jumped off the pole and back to the ground, the clean-up crew gave him dirty looks as he passed them by; he just smiled, admiring the smoking ground, smouldering wreckage, and numerous craters left in his wake.

By 9:30PM, all of Tygan’s students were back underneath their tent, in much higher spirits, and with far less injuries or wounds to be treated by Penny, or the others—and even then, they were usually from accidents, overexertion, or bruises and cuts from earlier acting up. Lively conversation abounded, folks bragging about how well they had done on a certain test, complimenting others, and discussing plans for future lessons.

Meanwhile, Tygan was in the corner, sitting on a large root with Penny, reviewing the statistics and the footage, talking with her in hushed tones. Eventually he got up and strolled back into the front of the class, clapping his hands for attention, waiting for the hubbub to die down before he spoke.

<I have to say, everyone: I’m impressed!> he said. <All across the board, you’ve all done spectacularly with this round of evaluative tests, most of you scoring well above the average or better. I can really see why your peers, families, and mentors thought you’d be best off in a special, focused combat class like this!>

Folks cheered this time, beaming and soaking in the praise, giving out high fives and other friendly gestures..

<And on that same note, I now know exactly why you’re all still going to be Initiates for a long time yet!> Tygan said cheerfully, before his eyes opened, his mouth curled into a scowl, and his voice became deathly serious. <Because without your foci, almost all of you suck, and suck hard.>

All the smiles were suddenly wiped off faces, the students looked at Tygan in a mix of confusion or indignation.

<Adept and Master Weavers uses their foci as an extension of their body and power, not as a crutch nor compensation for their failings and lack. Your weapons and tools are supposed to amplify your natural capabilities to greater heights and allow you to take on incredible challenges, not ensure that you can reliably pass the most basic batteries of evaluative tests!

<I get it: you are Watchers, you are Pit fighters, you are Makers. You live and die by the quality of your tools, by the skill with which you wield them, and by the echoes they have gained under you, and whoever else may have used them before. But you are all also Weavers, and there is no putting away, no unloading, no blunting the most dangerous weapons you have:

<Yourselves.>

Tygan closed his eyes again, his frown turning into a neutral line, his voice flat as he said, <In time, you all have the potential to become truly great, ready to fight, defend, and change this realm, for fame or infamy… but before all that, you must learn to control that power, with or without the help of your foci.

<Remember this: the Primals are not in their positions because they can unleash power like the most devastating storms and phenomenon in nature; they are there because they know when to stay their wrath, when and how much of a percentage of their power to use, and when to unleash fury like Avalon herself.

<And with that: you are all dismissed! I will inform you all within two days time when our next session will be, and if you have any other inquiries, please send me a message via my public line, and I will get back to you tomorrow morning by 8AM at the very latest.>

Tygan bowed, the class stood up and did the same, before he turned around and left, gracefully launching himself up into the tree tops, before hopping from branch to branch, leaving a stunned, silent, and scowling class in his wake.

<Well, shit got heavy real fast—who’s up for drinks?!> someone cried. <Last one not under the table gets a free pass on the bill!>

<You’re on!> Goro said, grinning as he stepped up to them.

They blanched immediately. <Hell no, Goro! Not you! You stay away from this, I like my regular!>

<Well maybe you should have thought of that before you sent an open invite to everyone, ah?!> Goro snapped, hunching his shoulders.

Winter shook her head, wrapping a shoulder around Weiss and coaxing her away from the rapidly heating up argument.

Penny floated up to them and asked, “Would either of you like to join your classmates for dinner, or their other recreational activities? It would be an excellent opportunity to strengthen bonds and make potentially helpful connections in the future.”

Weiss yawned, and shook her head. “Maybe some other day…” she mumbled. “I am so ready to be completely, absolutely done with today...”

“Winter?” Penny asked.

“I think Weiss needs me more than I need to start making a new professional network,” Winter replied, patting Weiss on her arm. “On a related note: you think you can make it all the way back home like this, little sister?”

“So long as we can take the teleporter back...” Weiss mumbled, before she yawned again. “I want to walk as little as possible from here on out...”

“I’m afraid the teleportation functionality is severely limited for the moment, due to the repairs in the Water Quadrant diverting majority of the resources and mana of the Terrace,” Penny said.

Weiss groaned. “Great...”

“Guess we’re just going to have to do this the old fashioned way,” Winter said, shrugging before she knelt down to the ground.

Weiss stared at her in disbelief. “Are you seriously going to give me a piggyback ride back home?”

“Are you going to refuse?” Winter replied calmly.

“No.” Weiss said, fixing up the contents of her belt, before wrapping her arms around Winter’s shoulders.

“Huh, this is strange...” Winter said as she grabbed Weiss’ legs and stood up.

“What is…?” Weiss mumbled as she nestled her head on her shoulder.

“It’s been a decade and a half since I last did this, and it’s still just as easy as it was then!” Winter hummed. “It’s like you’ve barely grown at all, little sister.”

Weiss scowled. “Oh, screw you...” she mumbled, before she quickly fell asleep, smiling.

A little over an hour later, Weiss was standing alone on the balcony of her and Winter’s home, dressed in her nightgown with one of her jackets thrown over it, leaning on the railing with a cup of black moss tea in hand.

She wasn’t doing much but sip and maybe gaze around for interesting sights in the Grove, until her comm-crystal beeped, with a message from Ruby: “On nightwatch. Super bored. Want to talk for a while?”

Weiss smiled, and replied, “Text or talk?”

“Talk. I need to keep my hands free for my farsighter.”

Weiss took a sip from her tea, and established a connection; soon enough, the holo in front of her showed Ruby standing on the edge of a rail, her hood up and her cloak tied tight around her. “Hey Weiss!” she said, waving and smiling at her, before she put a telescope-like device to her eye.

“Good evening, Ruby,” Weiss said, nodding. “Sure you’re not going to get in trouble for this?”

“Nope!” Ruby said, still looking through her farsighter. “I’m really only supposed to be a fail-safe, Iaros is the one we expect to catch anything suspicious out here.”

“Who’s Iaros?”

Ruby spared a hand to move her holo around, Weiss saw a rather large, hawk-like creature, jet black eyes, a sharp-hooked beak, prominent talons, and bright, fiery feathers. She shuddered, and said, “Yeesh, security crystals not intimidating enough for you Fae, huh?”

“Nope!” Ruby said, turning the holo back to herself. “It really helps with keeping wild animals from trying to sneak onto our convoys and into the supplies, having an apex predator keep guard. Though, he’s mostly just been eating domesticated meat and treats, since we still have plenty of animal repellents, there’s still a lot of us traveling together, and we’re not in the really wild zones yet.

“Anyway, enough about me: what’s up on your end? Penny hasn’t updated me on today yet, and I won’t really have the time to catch up for a while, anyway.”

Weiss sighed. “Just the usual, with life and the universe screwing with me… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Is it because it hurts to talk about it, or because you don’t want to bog me down with your baggage?” Ruby asked. “Because if it’s the second, I’m 100% open to hearing you out and lightening your load.”

“Are you sure about that?” Weiss asked. “It’s going to be about an hour, hour and a half worth of griping.”

Ruby chuckled. “I’m sure—that is what girlfriends do, right?”

Weiss blushed and looked away. “Well, if you’re so willing...” she muttered, before she gave her an abbreviated account of the day’s events, up until Winter’s giving her a piggyback ride back home.

“Wow,” Ruby said. “Pretty much just all action, combat, and the Pits since you woke up this morning, huh? You sure you should still be up and talking to me, instead of getting some sleep?”

“I should be, but I can’t right now,” Weiss replied. “We were starving by the time we got back, and myself and Winter proceeded to quite literally stuff our faces with as much food as we could fit in our mouths. By the time my stomach finally sent the signal that it was time to stop, it was already way too late, so here I am now, standing out at our balcony, sipping coffee while I wait till it’s safe for me to lie down again.”

She sighed. “I’m really worried that this might be my new normal, when it comes to food.”

“Why?” Ruby asked. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you and dad are growing enough to feed all even without allowance from the Council, and Qrow, Blake, and Ren are able to hunt enough for everyone on the reg.”

“It’s not how we’re going to get food that worries me, Ruby, it’s where all of it’s inevitably going to go,” Weiss grumbled, looking down at herself. “Penny assures me that most of it is going to end up metabolized and turned into mana, and that I can burn off the rest of the calories pretty quickly with spellcasting, but I’m concerned at just how much of both is going to happen while I still have this collar on,” she said, touching it.

“I might have to buy a new wardrobe for the meanwhile, and I’ve got this sinking feeling that Blake might have to permanently modify all my old clothes by the time this comes off!”

“I won’t mind if you gain some extra weight, Weiss,” Ruby said.

Weiss scowled. “Well I do, and I know your intentions are good, but I’d rather not hear that from you, especially because your genetics lets you eat cookies on a daily basis, and still keep your rock-hard, six-pack abs.”

She sighed heavily. “Anyway… how are things on your end?”

“Eh, pretty boring and tedious, actually,” Ruby said.  “Lack of action aside, I miss you, and everyone else, too. This is actually the first time I’ve ever had an expedition where it’s just me that went, no close friends nor family.

“I mean—I’ve always accepted that there’s going to come a time where they might not be around, especially with how dangerous our jobs are, but when it actually happens… it’s never as easy as how you imagined it to be, you know…?”

“Do you want to talk about it, too...?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah but, I don’t really know where to start!” Ruby replied. “Kinda always relied on Penny for these things, seeing as it’s her job and all.”

“Maybe you could try one of your more memorable expeditions with them?” Weiss asked. “Or maybe your first trips together? Knowing you, there have to be some interesting stories there.”

Ruby paused, then nodded. “Huh… now that you mention it, Blake did start working with us because one of our old Keeper Team watchers quit on us, right on the eve of an important extended trip! How well she did then was how she became a permanent of the team now, actually.”

“Then would you mind telling me all about it?” Weiss said, smiling.

“Sure thing!” Ruby said, smiling and nodding. “It all started about a year ago...”

Note: Since some of you have been politely asking me to show Ruby doing her Keeper duties, y'all are getting a flashback series of chapters.

A farsighter is not just a simple telescope, it also automatically “tags” points of interest and living beings, and with relatively modern developments, have been used to sync up the data to comm-crystals and improve information in the wilderness and the battlefield.

Weavers have VASTLY increased caloric needs than other Fae. Aside from mana water, many watcher-weavers are equipped with energy drinks made with it as a base in case of emergency, extra watcher chocolate bars and similar treats, and receive the lion’s share of food and hunts.

Few mind, as they can perform tasks by themselves that would take scores more of non-weavers to do, and not nearly as efficiently.

In case of emergency or times of scarcity, large amounts of sugar, be it lactose, sucrose, or fructose, can be used to refuel weavers instead of mana water. It’s not nearly as effective nor efficient, but if the situation requires you to desperately shovel table sugar down into your mouth before washing it all down with a fruit milkshake, most weavers don’t really care.

Not all weavers have sweet teeth, and a good chunk of them abhor the taste of mana water, which is generally sweet with additional flavours and undertones that are difficult to describe in Nivian, or translated Actaeon. There are actually some famous Primals, Masters, and notable Adepts who have gone to great lengths to avoid using it, try to make them more palatable to their taste, or both, to the point of inventing entirely new classes and types of beverages and alchemical products over the course of their research.

This is actually how the famous “Fireki’s Fizzy Fun” series of drinks was invented, when the creator Weaver Fireki Venquen tried and failed miserably to make viable variations of pure mana water, and proceeded to sell the prototypes to fund future research. She became ABSURDLY rich from it, but unfortunately never did manage to find those mythical formulas she was looking for, before she died.