What Happens Next (Slay The Princess/RWBY)

Ozpin had seen lots of things in his too long life. He had seen the Brother gods at their heights, thinking that they were benevolent, before time had shown him how arrogant and uncaring they truly were. He had seen the creation of Faunus, their god wanting to help but unable to understand people could disagree with his choices.

Yet, he didn't think he would ever see new gods come to Remnant after those three had left. The Brothers bored with their creation after trying to recreate it, and the god of Faunus leaving for another world from which he never returned after one too many times seeing his help being rejected.

So, when his elevator opened and he saw an amount of magic only a god could produce coming from the two he was supposed to interview, he couldn't help but feel wary.

The two currents of magic were somehow completely opposed, yet not. The woman had an ever shifting one, all parts changing and staying the same in some ebbing and flowing tide. The man, on the other hand, had a static cloak covering him. A strong feeling of Nothing and eternity that promised a world without anything happening. Except that the more Ozpin looked, the more he could see that this Nothing was rejecting the idea of always staying the same, and was instead changing so slowly that it gave the appearance of not doing so, in the same way that the woman rejected the idea of only changing and clung to some parts.

When he saw the woman begin to walk towards him arrogantly, he began fearing the worst, that the new gods were just as bad as the previous ones. Then… then he saw the man, no, Sable, the huntsman he was supposed to have an interview with, stop her in her tracks with disappointment. He saw the woman, Stella, look at him, really look at him, and calm herself, her entire magic reacting by suddenly feeling more… human. He saw all that, and his heart began to have hope.

Of course, the world couldn't let him have good things and he heard a preposterous proposition right at this moment.

"I am sorry. I think I heard wrong, did you just say you wanted to show me your full form to explain? I assure you, there is no need to do so, not to mention that a god manifesting on top of this tower would attract attention…." He frantically tried to convince the suddenly extremely enthusiastic Stella. It was as if he was seeing a woman dying of thirst who just found a source of water, her entire being radiating anticipation at the prospect of *revealing her true form to a worthy man*.

"Do not worry, I will contain our forms from being felt too much, it is in my nature to restrict my dear Princess." Sable explained. Ozpin would have been a little reassured by this, if not for the fact that Sable had said *our forms* and this meant that two gods were about to reveal themselves right there….

"I am tired of waiting! We are doing it now!" Ozpin barely had the time to register what Stella said before the world disappeared, replaced by a sudden expanse of Nothing, the same Nothing he could feel in Sable's magic… no.

With a start, Ozpin realized that this whole place was Sable, or whatever his true name was. A being so vast he couldn't even begin to truly see all of him, something so far above the gods he had seen it made them look like normal mortals. But despite the size of it, despite the fact that he should feel horror at the scale involved, Ozpin felt peace. A name came to his mind and he understood, The Long Quiet, a place made to live forever in static peace, one flawed in the fact that change was a thing people craved. It reminded him so much of the God of Faunus' numerous doomed attempts to help, that he wasn't even surprised when Sable created an avatar next to him that looked almost like said god.

There was a link there, he was sure of it. Whatever it was, it would have to wait, as a presence that had been growing since he entered the Long Quiet was reaching its peak.

Ozpin stopped his straying thoughts, calmed his mind, and prepared to witness the companion to this immense Nothing he was in.

---

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upvjWS-90PU

While Ozpin didn't know it, the Shifting Mound deciding to show herself was felt on the whole of Remnant. The Long Quiet did lessen her effects considerably but not completely.

When he was in the Long Quiet preparing to witness the revelation that was approaching him, the world was holding its breath.

From the cold north of Atlas to the hot desert of Menagerie, from the depths of Salem's palace to the bustling streets of Mistral, people felt change washing over them. The promise of a tomorrow, not necessarily better but definitely different, a world free of the slow decay it was condemned to by the creatures of Grimm. They were living on the bones of a dead world, and it was time for a renewal.

In his humble cabin in Menagerie, Ghira Belladona allows himself to think about his daughter, to hope that after all this time, she can finally be free of the one that even now shackles her in her own mind. He doesn't know it, but her eyes open to things she had willfully gone blind to at the same moment.

In her room in Atlas, Weiss Schnee finally managed to believe she can actually change the policies her father forced on her heritage. She sees a long and arduous road, but she stands straighter simply by knowing of it.

In their house in Patch, a pair of sisters bask in each other's presence, comforted by the knowledge that even with their respective mothers gone, life goes on.

In his lab, a scientist witnesses a miracle, a mind he was prepared to infuse with his own soul gaining her own before he could do so. One that he will learn possesses unbound curiosity for everything and a strong desire to be free.

And in her Palace, Salem is intrigued. She doesn't know what she is feeling now, it almost comes to her long broken mind, yet escapes her grasp. Ultimately, the inability to change forced on her by her curse proves too much for this trickle of The Shifting Mound to affect, and she comes back to her previous plans, none the wiser to the potential new players on the board.

---

For the second time in your short and long life, you are once again whole as the Shifting Mound. Opening your millions of eyes to behold the wonderful vision of your love in all his glory.

Unfortunately, Ozpin is also there, and your goal is still to get him to understand you. So you tragically have to cut yourself short before beginning a new dance with him. You look at the man that for some reason is looking embarrassed and firmly making sure his eyes don't go any lower than your faces.

"Welcome. Ozpin, Director of the Huntsmen school of Beacon. I am the one they call the Shifting Mound, a way for them to try and classify what cannot be." Your voice resonates from your multitudes. "I can see you have questions. Ask, and my Other Half and I will do our best to answer."

He stays silent for a moment, clearly regaining his bearings. You let him, even if you want things to move now, your brief time as Stella has taught you that mortals need time to adapt.

"I'll begin by asking the same question I did before you decided to show me your form then: Why are two gods acting as Huntsmen in my school? I have no doubts you are not there for nefarious purposes, as I wouldn't be here to talk if that was the case. But you said this was necessary to show me the answer, and so far I do not see exactly why."

"The reason is simple: We are there to understand and, as much as it is possible, be understood. Before we entered Remnant, my Other Half and I had to recover missing pieces of perspective so that I could be whole and we could escape the construct we were imprisoned in together. When I tried to convince him to join me at my side as we claimed our rightful place across the universe, he reached into my heart and managed to help me see that we didn't need to be above all to live. That for all that they are so small they don't seem to, mortal's opinions matter. This led us to begin our journey near Vale, where we began observing how you lived by doing it on your scale." You look at your love with a million smiles. "While I didn't agree the first time, I can see now that there was wisdom in your approach, my Love."

The Long Quiet simply smiles back. While Ozpin now seems pensive.

"In that case, let me begin by saying that you are already far better at understanding mortals than the three previous gods I met in my long life. An incredible achievement made all the more impressive by the fact that you are so much bigger than them you make them look as mortal as me in comparison." Ozpin is serious here, and you feel a weight on your shoulders lift with his words. You have shown him your true self, and even if he hasn't accepted you yet, he isn't rejecting you. "Which reminds me of the second question that came to my mind." He looks at your love's avatar with a critical eye. "This form the Long Quiet is taking is eerily similar to the one used by the god of Faunus, given that you mentioned being imprisoned for a time, would I be right in thinking he is related to this?"

"The only one we knew when in our prison was an echo of its creator. He named himself the Narrator and gave my love a choice and me, a role to play. I do not know much about him except that he wanted me dead, but maybe my other half knows more?" You answer, reminiscing about the conversation between the fading echo and the Long Quiet you heard before your fated confrontation with each other.

"I cannot say for sure that the Narrator is the god of Faunus you speak of. All I can confirm is that he did look like I do, or, in reality, I look like he did." The Long Quiet explains.

"Thank you, this is enough for me to work with. The rest will come after I know you more." Ozpin says, and his apparent desire to know you fills you with hope. "Now, while this did go in a direction that wasn't expected, I still met you with the intention to interview the both of you for a job at my school. Since you are willing to answer questions, why don't we familiarize ourselves with each other? This is a lot to digest and a return to a situation I know better would help me."

You see no reason to refuse, nor does your love. You thus spend the rest of your time with Ozpin discussing what you want out of a post at Beacon, as well as the policies of the school.

At no point does Ozpin asks you to go back to your guise as Stella Panoply, there are some hiccups, but he does his best to treat you as he would a person, instead of a monster.

When the interview is finished and you pull yourselves back into the singular existence you had, you discover that you are crying. You have to reassure Ozpin that it is simply due to how positively the previous talk went. The simple fact he cares enough to ask sending you into another crying fit.

It is official, Ozpin will have the both of you as teachers next year. You will spend the rest of this one taking classes to some subjects that you are required to know.

You love has found a goal, he is going to help students learn endurance and how to exploit the environment.

You were still undecided before but you came to a conclusion during the interview, you will teach:

[] You will teach teamwork and counsel teams to reduce internal conflicts.

[] You will be a counselor in the school, helping with problems both for teams in general and students in particular.

[] You will teach students about Semblances. Help them find their own for those that didn't, help those that did train theirs. Your nature as an everchanging multitude could be very helpful here. (X0.8)

Here are your votes! Due to a slight lack of votes for the semblance teachings in the previous options, it got a weight of 0.8, meaning that I will multiply the number of votes it got by this and use that to see who won.

While this means that it requires slightly more votes to win, there wasn't a strong lack of interest in it, so I didn't put a strong difference in weight.

---

A/N:

Congratulations! It's a robot girl!

Ok, I'll admit this wasn't supposed to happen, but it did, and now there is a Penny that was created by your existence. Be responsible when you meet her, alright? (The idea of a Penny created by the power of the Protagonist due to a complete accident shamelessly ripped off of *Devourer of Worlds*)

I originally wrote Salem being interested in what she felt, deciding to search for it. Then I realized the level of Paranoia it would create in thread, thought more about if she would, and concluded her curse would stop her from understanding your nature due to being opposite to it in a way.

The entire first part is Ozpin's mind going *Ahhhhh, she is going to reveal the full power of a god right this moment! My office can't take that!* and her Nature going *Oh? He thinks we want to do it right now? Ok, fine by me!*.

As you can see, you going full power was felt in the whole of Remnant, while it wasn't big, it did change some trajectories. All in all, you gave hope in the future to lots of people.

This post will contain all the new perspectives you have gained during the quest, it is, of course, full of spoilers for potential developments.

As the vote for what post to teach at Beacon is an important one, I felt necessary to give some precisions on each ones:

One of the biggest differences will be how you will interact with the students in the exercise of your functions.

If you choose to become a teamwork counselor, you will obviously mostly interact with them as team first, and as individuals second. Your job will be to smooth out tension between team members, as well as to give lessons on teamwork.

If you choose to be a counselor, you will interact with them as individuals almost exclusively, the teams will be for when the problem is entirely related to big tensions in them. Your job will be to keep students mentally healthy, monitor how well they are doing, and signal when this is not the case so that help can be given. You will not have conventional classes for this one.

If you choose to help with Semblances, you will mostly interact with them in normal classes, with individual lessons on a case by case basis. There will be psychological components since Semblances are tied to how one sees the world, but this will not be the main thing in your classes.

To give some examples of this:

At the beginning of canon, Weiss is doubtful of Ruby's abilities as a leader, and thinks the place should have been hers.

As a teamwork counselor, you would see the whole team to discuss what they feel of the current arrangement, how they can help Ruby, and what can be done if it turns out she really isn't made for the job.

As a counselor, you would see Weiss and discuss why she wants to be the leader, what it means for her, and how she can either help Ruby be better or work to prove herself without sabotaging Ruby. You would also certainly see Ruby herself to discuss the burden she has been saddled with as a team leader.

As the Semblance teacher, this doesn't concern you, you can give advices if Weiss or Ruby approches you, but otherwise, not your circus, not your monkeys. Now, you will probably have a discussion with Weiss about what her hereditary Semblance means for her and the problems she has with it, or what Blake's Semblance means about her, and what Adam's means about him.