You must return to Atlas, slay your father and enjoy adorable family interactions such as these.
The Other Path [RWBY SI] [AHOIAC AU]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
Xyshuryn
Not A Morning Person
- Location
- On the Shade Train
So the female Ed expy's dad is a lying liar who lies, and a cheating cheater who cheats... Good to know.
Kinda hope Jacques Schnee trips and falls down seven flights of stairs... before defying gravity and falling back up them. So he can do it again. Maybe Klein can cover the stairs with mouse traps between trips?
Sounds like Ruby "I drink milk!" Rose. Only more like 15 times, with her daily cookie intake being the annual intake for most kids.
Kinda hope Jacques Schnee trips and falls down seven flights of stairs... before defying gravity and falling back up them. So he can do it again. Maybe Klein can cover the stairs with mouse traps between trips?
Sounds like Ruby "I drink milk!" Rose. Only more like 15 times, with her daily cookie intake being the annual intake for most kids.
theauthor
Birdie
- Location
- Soerabaja
*winter* *best sister*Winter is best sister. Thank god she is within the atlantian military and especially with ironwoon so she is pretty much safe from harm!
I wouldn't thought of that in previous Wren life. How the time has changed.
Warlord01
Who said anything about plan?!
- Location
- Terra - Europa - Land of milk and honey.
I wonder how is this one going to turn out.
Last one went the way of the Necrontyr. What is it going to be now? Also, how many people that would live in the other version are going to die now simply because he was powerless to save them. Quite a lot I think. After all, he may have his friends now along with family that does not want his head, but at the same time, how is he going to replace the vast robotic army? With power of friendship?
He may become the pragmatic Astartes-level badass but he will still be alone in that. So many events are going to elude him simply because he will not be able to get there in time.
Last one went the way of the Necrontyr. What is it going to be now? Also, how many people that would live in the other version are going to die now simply because he was powerless to save them. Quite a lot I think. After all, he may have his friends now along with family that does not want his head, but at the same time, how is he going to replace the vast robotic army? With power of friendship?
He may become the pragmatic Astartes-level badass but he will still be alone in that. So many events are going to elude him simply because he will not be able to get there in time.
Chapter Eighteen
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Eighteen
There was an awkward silence around the table of our usual watering hole. Gorm and Chez were looking at Zhelty, and she was standing downcast, face down. "I didn't know," she whispered. She had told them first thing in the morning, because in the end, she had chosen to tell them. If she hadn't, then the ensuing conversation would have been a bit more awkward then it had any right to be. "I swear I didn't know."
"It's fine, Zhelty," Chez said, trying to sound nice about it. "He gave us the money back, and it's enough to get all the courses we need-"
"I am angry," Gorm muttered, his voice holding a light growl within his throat. "Not at you," he added slowly, "But at myself for falling for this." He then looked up at me. "When did you find out?"
"Last night," I said. "This morning I had a talk with her father. Heartfelt talk about right and wrong, justice and injustice...friendly, quiet, happy talk," I added in a murmur. "I think that's what convinced him to pay reparations."
"I'm sorry," Zhelty stammered out again. "I really am-"
"It's fine," Gorm said, there was a hint of flatness in his voice. "It's not on you. You did the right thing. It's on your father." He took a small breath. "Anyway, I found a job as a bouncer at a night club, and Chez as a waitress, so we're set."
I sighed in relief as the conversation moved on.
Some things got better if you did the right thing. Other things never became better, regardless of how much of a good person you were.
"I'm sorry professor Rassvet, did you say we are going to go see a Goliath herd?" I asked just to be sure. The Professor gave a curt nod, and inwardly I died inside a little bit.
"Now listen up," he said to the noticeable smaller class henceforth gathered. "The Goliath, especially an elder Goliath, stands at the cusp of Grimm ecology. Can anybody tell me why without going for a 'Your mother' jokes?"
"Aw, that's no fair!" Jasil exclaimed from the back rows.
"They're tough," Zhelty said. "And relentless."
"And they never forget," Chez added. "If you annoy one, it will start hunting you and will keep on hunting you until either it or you are dead."
"Good," Rassvet said. "Goliaths are sturdier than they look. It take a team of experienced huntsmen to bring one down, and even then, they are smart enough to never go alone, and they do their best to survive an encounter. They use their environment, and are notorious for using cheap tricks and incapacitating huntsmen only to hunt them later. Why is that?"
"If you've got an injured comrade, and you want to bring them back to get treatment, you'll have to run away," Gorm said. "Then he can just pursue you through the desert until you're too tired to fight him properly."
"Exactly," professor Rassvet said, clapping his hand once. "Nice to know the trick was in prohibiting stupid jokes. Now, what do you do when a Goliath herd is coming for you?"
"You run away as fast as you possibly can?" Jasil said, trying to sound sarcastic.
"Exactly," professor Rassvet said. "And now, why do they not hunt down trains, or break train tracks? They could cause serious damage to the city, yet they do not, why is that?"
"Because they know that if they do, then the city will send groups of huntsmen to kill them," I said, realization dawning on me. "They know that if they take out lone huntsmen, or nomad tribes, nobody will bother. But if they destroy something vital-then they'll get hunted down."
"Maso-Wren got it in one," professor Rassvet said with a snap of his fingers. We were already at the train station by then. "You might have wondered why the last year lessons have a hike in prices. You can thank the SDC industries and the Schnee corporation for that. Usage of one of their wagons for personnel transport has a hefty cost, but the added safety is what we're all about. We care about you so much, we're not going to make it easy for the Grimm to eat you. Barring Jasil, so if you want to go pet the Goliaths, Jasil, just go right ahead."
"I can feel the love from back here, professor," Jasil said.
"It's the only kind of love you'll ever get in your life, so treasure it," professor Rassvet retorted, even as he counted head and got us all aboard. The wagon was small, and cramped. There were no seats, but there was an overhead trapdoor that led to the roof. After a few minutes, the train departed.
The professor, quite amiably I might add, opened the square trapdoor overhead and then one at the time, had us climb to the roof. There weren't any tunnels to look out for, but the speed of the train made us push our bodies down on all fours.
"Now, now, think of this like a prelude to your next lesson, 'High-Speed Balance and Combat', and enjoy it. We'll be passing by an abandoned train station in a matter of a couple of hours, and when I tell you to, I expect you to jump."
"You want us to jump from a moving train!?" someone yelled.
"You can jump or I can throw you," professor Rassvet said. "Either works for me. You all know how to use your Aura to dull blows, so it's the same principle. Or don't do it and get a face-full of pain. I know some of you like it."
"Nobody likes that!" I exclaimed. "Nobody does!"
"Sure, anyway," professor Rassvet spoke while walking amidst us holding on for dear life. "The Goliaths will probably know we are near them, but they will not attack us, why is that?"
"Same reason as the train tracks!?" I yelled.
"Yes, and also no," professor Rassvet said. "It's because I am with you, and as I said before, the Goliaths have long memories. And they know I can take one of them out, so they will not come near because one of them, without a doubt, would die. And they do value their lives."
"But what if they decide that they can take you since there's a lot of them and only one of you?" Jasil yelled over the winds.
"Then you start running, brats. They're relentless, but that doesn't make them fast and we're not that far from Vacuo that you can't make it, and if you can't make it, then what the hell have you been doing until now?" professor Rassvet retorted, making my confidence plummet down.
Seriously. What next? "But anyway, if all goes as planned, after you get a good luck at some Goliaths, we're going to go fishing for a Desert Taijitu and an Earth Feilong. If you're incredibly unlucky, you might even get first hand experience on how to dodge and escape Sphinxes while we're at it."
"All in one day?" I mouthed, looking at Gorm.
Gorm looked back, eyes wide.
He hooted.
It was the longest, most traumatized hoot I had ever heard him say.
It held a bit of a chicken squawk to it, if I could say so myself.
"Don't be too scared, or you'll make it worse on yourself," Professor Rassvet continued nonchalantly. "The Grimm are beautiful creatures to watch, provided you take appropriate care in handling them. And just remember, you don't need to be the fastest in running away. You just need to not be the slowest."
"Professor, do you spend your weekends in the middle of the desert just looking at Grimm?" Zhelty asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"That I do, that indeed I do," he replied.
Of course he did.
"But you'll do it too. It's part of the curricula. Advanced Desert Survival will include a one week camping experience in the middle of the desert, near Grimm," professor Rassvet spoke with serenity oozing from his voice. "Only you, your classmates and the wonderful nature of Vacuo attempting to either eat you or just plain kill you. Ah, brings back memories."
"Oh, that's going to be easy," Chez said. She had somehow crawled her way to my side, and had apparently decided to grab hold of my shoulders rather than the steel roof of the train, like everyone else was doing.
I could feel her pressed against my back, purring in delight. "It will be like being back in the tribe," she added.
"We'll be counting on you then," I said as I held on to the train.
"Yes," I could actually feel the strength of Chez' smile behind my head.
It was probably just my imagination, or my madness.
We were all a little bit mad here in Vacuo, after all.
There was an awkward silence around the table of our usual watering hole. Gorm and Chez were looking at Zhelty, and she was standing downcast, face down. "I didn't know," she whispered. She had told them first thing in the morning, because in the end, she had chosen to tell them. If she hadn't, then the ensuing conversation would have been a bit more awkward then it had any right to be. "I swear I didn't know."
"It's fine, Zhelty," Chez said, trying to sound nice about it. "He gave us the money back, and it's enough to get all the courses we need-"
"I am angry," Gorm muttered, his voice holding a light growl within his throat. "Not at you," he added slowly, "But at myself for falling for this." He then looked up at me. "When did you find out?"
"Last night," I said. "This morning I had a talk with her father. Heartfelt talk about right and wrong, justice and injustice...friendly, quiet, happy talk," I added in a murmur. "I think that's what convinced him to pay reparations."
"I'm sorry," Zhelty stammered out again. "I really am-"
"It's fine," Gorm said, there was a hint of flatness in his voice. "It's not on you. You did the right thing. It's on your father." He took a small breath. "Anyway, I found a job as a bouncer at a night club, and Chez as a waitress, so we're set."
I sighed in relief as the conversation moved on.
Some things got better if you did the right thing. Other things never became better, regardless of how much of a good person you were.
"I'm sorry professor Rassvet, did you say we are going to go see a Goliath herd?" I asked just to be sure. The Professor gave a curt nod, and inwardly I died inside a little bit.
"Now listen up," he said to the noticeable smaller class henceforth gathered. "The Goliath, especially an elder Goliath, stands at the cusp of Grimm ecology. Can anybody tell me why without going for a 'Your mother' jokes?"
"Aw, that's no fair!" Jasil exclaimed from the back rows.
"They're tough," Zhelty said. "And relentless."
"And they never forget," Chez added. "If you annoy one, it will start hunting you and will keep on hunting you until either it or you are dead."
"Good," Rassvet said. "Goliaths are sturdier than they look. It take a team of experienced huntsmen to bring one down, and even then, they are smart enough to never go alone, and they do their best to survive an encounter. They use their environment, and are notorious for using cheap tricks and incapacitating huntsmen only to hunt them later. Why is that?"
"If you've got an injured comrade, and you want to bring them back to get treatment, you'll have to run away," Gorm said. "Then he can just pursue you through the desert until you're too tired to fight him properly."
"Exactly," professor Rassvet said, clapping his hand once. "Nice to know the trick was in prohibiting stupid jokes. Now, what do you do when a Goliath herd is coming for you?"
"You run away as fast as you possibly can?" Jasil said, trying to sound sarcastic.
"Exactly," professor Rassvet said. "And now, why do they not hunt down trains, or break train tracks? They could cause serious damage to the city, yet they do not, why is that?"
"Because they know that if they do, then the city will send groups of huntsmen to kill them," I said, realization dawning on me. "They know that if they take out lone huntsmen, or nomad tribes, nobody will bother. But if they destroy something vital-then they'll get hunted down."
"Maso-Wren got it in one," professor Rassvet said with a snap of his fingers. We were already at the train station by then. "You might have wondered why the last year lessons have a hike in prices. You can thank the SDC industries and the Schnee corporation for that. Usage of one of their wagons for personnel transport has a hefty cost, but the added safety is what we're all about. We care about you so much, we're not going to make it easy for the Grimm to eat you. Barring Jasil, so if you want to go pet the Goliaths, Jasil, just go right ahead."
"I can feel the love from back here, professor," Jasil said.
"It's the only kind of love you'll ever get in your life, so treasure it," professor Rassvet retorted, even as he counted head and got us all aboard. The wagon was small, and cramped. There were no seats, but there was an overhead trapdoor that led to the roof. After a few minutes, the train departed.
The professor, quite amiably I might add, opened the square trapdoor overhead and then one at the time, had us climb to the roof. There weren't any tunnels to look out for, but the speed of the train made us push our bodies down on all fours.
"Now, now, think of this like a prelude to your next lesson, 'High-Speed Balance and Combat', and enjoy it. We'll be passing by an abandoned train station in a matter of a couple of hours, and when I tell you to, I expect you to jump."
"You want us to jump from a moving train!?" someone yelled.
"You can jump or I can throw you," professor Rassvet said. "Either works for me. You all know how to use your Aura to dull blows, so it's the same principle. Or don't do it and get a face-full of pain. I know some of you like it."
"Nobody likes that!" I exclaimed. "Nobody does!"
"Sure, anyway," professor Rassvet spoke while walking amidst us holding on for dear life. "The Goliaths will probably know we are near them, but they will not attack us, why is that?"
"Same reason as the train tracks!?" I yelled.
"Yes, and also no," professor Rassvet said. "It's because I am with you, and as I said before, the Goliaths have long memories. And they know I can take one of them out, so they will not come near because one of them, without a doubt, would die. And they do value their lives."
"But what if they decide that they can take you since there's a lot of them and only one of you?" Jasil yelled over the winds.
"Then you start running, brats. They're relentless, but that doesn't make them fast and we're not that far from Vacuo that you can't make it, and if you can't make it, then what the hell have you been doing until now?" professor Rassvet retorted, making my confidence plummet down.
Seriously. What next? "But anyway, if all goes as planned, after you get a good luck at some Goliaths, we're going to go fishing for a Desert Taijitu and an Earth Feilong. If you're incredibly unlucky, you might even get first hand experience on how to dodge and escape Sphinxes while we're at it."
"All in one day?" I mouthed, looking at Gorm.
Gorm looked back, eyes wide.
He hooted.
It was the longest, most traumatized hoot I had ever heard him say.
It held a bit of a chicken squawk to it, if I could say so myself.
"Don't be too scared, or you'll make it worse on yourself," Professor Rassvet continued nonchalantly. "The Grimm are beautiful creatures to watch, provided you take appropriate care in handling them. And just remember, you don't need to be the fastest in running away. You just need to not be the slowest."
"Professor, do you spend your weekends in the middle of the desert just looking at Grimm?" Zhelty asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice.
"That I do, that indeed I do," he replied.
Of course he did.
"But you'll do it too. It's part of the curricula. Advanced Desert Survival will include a one week camping experience in the middle of the desert, near Grimm," professor Rassvet spoke with serenity oozing from his voice. "Only you, your classmates and the wonderful nature of Vacuo attempting to either eat you or just plain kill you. Ah, brings back memories."
"Oh, that's going to be easy," Chez said. She had somehow crawled her way to my side, and had apparently decided to grab hold of my shoulders rather than the steel roof of the train, like everyone else was doing.
I could feel her pressed against my back, purring in delight. "It will be like being back in the tribe," she added.
"We'll be counting on you then," I said as I held on to the train.
"Yes," I could actually feel the strength of Chez' smile behind my head.
It was probably just my imagination, or my madness.
We were all a little bit mad here in Vacuo, after all.
Warlord01
Who said anything about plan?!
- Location
- Terra - Europa - Land of milk and honey.
Now, it is probably just my imagination. But I have to think about it. It was said that MC retains knowledge of his previous SIs, at least some of it. Therefore it is prudent to ask, is this particular SI before or after the StarWars one?
I mean, either Shade likes Alice in the Wonderland a lot or the two variations of Cheshire cat might have possibly something in common. This one is really close to him and the one in the SW SI was essentially part of him.
Wren/Chez ship confirmed? Go get the cat! After all, who else is mad enough to understand Wren and his actions other than the madness incarnate.
I mean, either Shade likes Alice in the Wonderland a lot or the two variations of Cheshire cat might have possibly something in common. This one is really close to him and the one in the SW SI was essentially part of him.
Wren/Chez ship confirmed? Go get the cat! After all, who else is mad enough to understand Wren and his actions other than the madness incarnate.
- Location
- London
Rassvet is just Steve Irvin of Remnant.
Wren is a known catgirl lover and a magnet. He tends to gravitate towards them without even realizing it. Last time, he had cat-like robot daughterus to distract him, but now there is nothing but him and catgirls. And the beautiful fauna of Vacuo. And sand. So much sand.
You must return to Atlas, slay your father and enjoy adorable family interactions such as these.
Shame that I can only see one image :'(
Awesome work
Chapter Nineteen
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Nineteen
The greatest wonder of Remnant was a question. It was a simple question that time, and time again, I kept on thinking.
Just how could humanity survive, when some of its members were inherently so damn stupid?
"Do you see that beautiful slithering mass of black and white scales?" professor Rassvet spoke, pointing his cricket-mace-crossbow in the far off distance, where a form not unlike that of a giant anaconda was slowly slithering towards us.
"Yes, and it's getting closer, professor," someone among the students said.
"Oh, it's just coming to say hello," professor Rassvet insisted, smoothly. "Don't panic and it won't attack. A calm and collected huntsman can avoid many conflicts with older Grimm, because if he doesn't fear them, they may determine he is capable of handling them, and thus run away."
The snake-like Earth Feilong was drawing closer still.
"This one doesn't look to have gotten the notice, professor," Gorm said.
"It's just coming to say hello," professor Rassvet said instead, nonchalantly. The Grimm-Mask was starting to show as the creature's speed increased. "A bit of a quick hello, all things considered."
I stared at the incoming mass of Grimm flesh and bone rushing forth like a torpedo. "Do we fight it? Do we run?"
"Sure, why not," professor Rassvet said with a shrug.
"Yes to what part of my question?" I asked next, scandalized.
"Weapons out trainees! Think of it as an experience in life's unpredictability!" and as he cheerfully said that, the Earth Feilong took that as the cue to hop out of the sand with its back wing flapping open, and slam into professor Rassvet's weapon face-first. The professor flew, together with the Feilong's head, and we soon realized he wasn't going to come back anytime soon.
Thankfully the Earth Feilong didn't attempt to turn back on us, more content in hunting down the professor.
This did leave us without a professor in the middle of the desert with only our fading tracks as a reliable landmark to follow in order to return to the point we had jumped off the train, and the railways thereof that would lead us back to Vacuo.
Still, everyone did have their weapons out.
"I cannot believe that man," I grunted. The next moment I felt the ground below my feet tremble a bit. "Everyone, move!" I yelled, jumping away as the spot I had been on broke, a smaller Desert Taijitu emerging from the sands.
Differently from their Beacon counterparts, Desert Taijitu resembled desert vipers. They had two small and sharp horns on their heads, and their tail ended not with another head, but with a spiky mace-like appendage. They came in a variety of sizes, and the smaller ones had apparently been following the Earth Feilong like ducklings would a mother duck.
The one in front of me snapped its head forward, and I ducked to the side. The creature moved its head back and snapped forth again, and I ducked to the other side. This time, I lifted my left leg and kicked the creature in the throat. My blow bounced off as if I had hit concrete.
"I keep forgetting," I grumbled as I jumped forward, landing on the creature's back. "I need to add Aura to my blows," I growled, feeling the heat rise into my left fist as my knees were holding me on the back of the bucking viper-like Grimm.
Then I slammed my fist down against the Desert Taijitu's armored back, and the resounding shattering sound announced that I had successfully broken not just the skin, but also the inner vertebrae of the thing. It crumpled down with a croaked gasp, slumping on the sand and starting to slowly turn into black ashes.
I glanced around quickly, finding Gorm easily smashing a Taijitu's head in, and Chez actually revving her chainsaw to cut through the sides of her own enemy. Zhelty had pummeled one into submission, and slammed her sword-shield through the creature's eye, freeing the weapon a second later and turning to look around for anyone in need of help.
Jasil was running, as was the norm, and the Grimm pursuing him was actually starting to ponder its life choices as it was verbally harassed by the boy to the point where I was starting to feel sorry for the poor creature of death and destruction.
There were various degrees of success in the class. I zeroed in on someone that had two Taijitu against him, and rushed to their aid. Zhelty probably followed my line of reasoning, because she headed for them in turn.
"I take the right," I said.
"Mine's the left," Zhelty agreed. We both jumped at the same time, the Grimm giving us their backs. Then their tails snapped, twin beady eyes opening in their spiky mace-like things, and I hastily brought my gauntlets up to parry the incoming mace-spike. Zhelty did the same with her shield, and as the blow landed us back into the sand, I spluttered and coughed.
The spiky tails didn't just open their eyes. They seemed to slowly grow in size as the snake-like part diminished in turn, as if eaten alive by their tails.
I stared.
I stared and an image came to my mind. I shouldn't have laughed, but I couldn't help it.
My laughter was like the tinkling of crystalline bells, so honest it was.
"What are you laughing at!?" Zhelty asked, askance as she was back on her feet like I was, though she wasn't holding her stomach from laughter like I was.
"Slowbro," I said wheezing it out. "Oh, this takes the cake," I gave a thumb-up in the direction of the two visibly larger shells, with only a small portion of the Taijitu emerging from them. "It's got to be Hermit merged with Taijitu!" I snickered. "Gorm, Chez! Assemble!"
The two Faunus arrived by my side, even as I cracked my knuckles. "Gorm, you've got a fishing lure, so make one bite and pull, Zhelty, get the other to latch on to your shield and pull. Chez, you got the honor of cutting one's neck, and I'll go for the other. Deal?"
The two Slowbro-like creatures didn't just sit there, they began to advance, their necks elongating to snap in the spot we had been, and from which we jumped away. Clouds of sand rose, but we had our great plan, and it would be put in motion.
Gorm spun his chain-mace in the air over him, and then slammed it into the creature's face. He pulled it expertly back, and repeated the motion again and again. Eventually the Grimm snapped and bit down on it, and as the tug of war began, I rushed for it.
I jumped to its side, spinning in midair as I gave momentum to my fist. Heat gathered at the edge of my hand, and as I extended it like a karateka about to chop some wood, I instead chopped a neck.
With a trembling noise, the Taijitu-side that had been cut turned to ashes, but the one attached to its back did not. From the other side, I could hear Zhelty's screams of effort as her shield banged against the Grimm's face, before pulling back and goading them into snapping forth. Chez slammed down from the sides, and one more head was cut.
The remaining hermit-side pulled out its claws, and then with sharp, fast movements began to spew sand in our direction.
I had goggles on, so I didn't need to bring my hands to cover my face.
I pointed my gauntlet towards it, cries of surprise all around me at the impromptu sandstorm. I concentrated. Nobody was watching me. A small Schnee Glyph appeared in front of my bolt-launcher strapped to my wrist.
A second and third Glyph followed the first, and then I launched my bolt forward.
The bolt sailed, already fast enough, even faster once it went through the three Glyphs. I didn't have lightning Dust to further accelerate it, but what it did with the simple enough version of the family semblance looked good.
There was a resounding crack in the outer shell of the Hermit, though I had aimed at its face, I reckoned there had been some diverting. There was a halt in the sandstorm, though, because the bolt though deflected had still hit the Grimm in the fleshy underside. One of its pincers moved towards the bolt, attempting to scrape it off.
Gorm's chain-mace came swinging from the side with resounding strength, slamming into the top of the hermit's armored back and making it collapse on one side. I rushed forward, hand charged with Aura, and plunged it deeply into the soft underbelly of the Grimm, crafting a wound that went from side to side.
The Hermit didn't scream or move any longer, and simply began to collapse into a pile of ashes.
The one on Zhelty's side didn't fare any better. The moment it had attempted to do a sandstorm, Zhelty's cannon-shots had come into play, soon followed by Chez' own grenade-launcher teapot.
The poor thing had suffered explosive destruction, and had the tip of its shell fuming plumes of dark smoke as the innards were probably torn into mush.
All in all, it was a successful battle.
I took a deep breath, and then looked around. My eyes caught a dark group of blurs, big black and white blurs, coming for us from the distance.
"Guys," I heard Gorm say. "I think we need to go."
"Shit," Chez muttered next. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Goliath Stampede!" I yelled, "Everyone, run for the rails!"
This was Vacuo in a nutshell.
One moment you were a hero battling Grimm, and the next you were a wise person running away from the Grimm.
Professor Rassvet rejoined us at the train station we were supposed to wait for our train back, and he didn't look any worse. "The old girl just wanted a bit of a scratching and some rough playing," he said charmingly, signs of scorch marks on his body. "She must have felt bold since she had some friends with her this time, but I'm guessing that you took care of them?" he counted heads, "Drats, Jasil's still here."
"Oi!" Jasil yelled with an affronted look.
"Well, guess we'll have to go look at the Sphinxes next time. Jasil, you'll be on bait duty for them," Rassvet mused.
"Fuck you, professor!" he yelled again.
"That's five extra laps around Vacuo when we get back," professor Rassvet continued. "You'll thank me one day, kid."
"I'll probably kill you one day, old man," Jasil growled back.
I chuckled at that, shaking my head. My back against the abandoned wall of the train station, Chez seated cross-legged nearby, Gorm with his arms crossed by my side, and Zhelty standing with her back to the rails and looking at us with a visibly pleased grin on her face.
"Team Sizzling Sunrise is awesome," she simply announced, puffing her chest up in pride and attempting to stand on the tip of her toes to look higher.
I extended a fist in front of me. "Aye, to team Sizzling Sunrise."
"Yeah," Chez brought her fist up from where she was seated, and Gorm chuckled before adding his own.
Winter somehow looked scandalized to hear what I had done on that particular day.
Then again, she had asked to be called once a week, and I was being incredibly dutiful about it.
I was sure she was worrying for nothing.
Surely, even in Atlas they had you run away from a Goliath stampede to build your character.
It wasn't like they were trying to actively kill us.
They'd have sent us to swim naked in the Garbage Dumps of the SDC refineries to wrestle Kraken-Grimm otherwise.
Winter was even more scandalized to know those things existed, and that they actually had us swim in the garbage swamps, but with protective clothes on.
I didn't peg her for a worrywart, though.
Truly, it was nice to talk with one's loving family...
...even when they were a bit too coddling for my own tastes.
The greatest wonder of Remnant was a question. It was a simple question that time, and time again, I kept on thinking.
Just how could humanity survive, when some of its members were inherently so damn stupid?
"Do you see that beautiful slithering mass of black and white scales?" professor Rassvet spoke, pointing his cricket-mace-crossbow in the far off distance, where a form not unlike that of a giant anaconda was slowly slithering towards us.
"Yes, and it's getting closer, professor," someone among the students said.
"Oh, it's just coming to say hello," professor Rassvet insisted, smoothly. "Don't panic and it won't attack. A calm and collected huntsman can avoid many conflicts with older Grimm, because if he doesn't fear them, they may determine he is capable of handling them, and thus run away."
The snake-like Earth Feilong was drawing closer still.
"This one doesn't look to have gotten the notice, professor," Gorm said.
"It's just coming to say hello," professor Rassvet said instead, nonchalantly. The Grimm-Mask was starting to show as the creature's speed increased. "A bit of a quick hello, all things considered."
I stared at the incoming mass of Grimm flesh and bone rushing forth like a torpedo. "Do we fight it? Do we run?"
"Sure, why not," professor Rassvet said with a shrug.
"Yes to what part of my question?" I asked next, scandalized.
"Weapons out trainees! Think of it as an experience in life's unpredictability!" and as he cheerfully said that, the Earth Feilong took that as the cue to hop out of the sand with its back wing flapping open, and slam into professor Rassvet's weapon face-first. The professor flew, together with the Feilong's head, and we soon realized he wasn't going to come back anytime soon.
Thankfully the Earth Feilong didn't attempt to turn back on us, more content in hunting down the professor.
This did leave us without a professor in the middle of the desert with only our fading tracks as a reliable landmark to follow in order to return to the point we had jumped off the train, and the railways thereof that would lead us back to Vacuo.
Still, everyone did have their weapons out.
"I cannot believe that man," I grunted. The next moment I felt the ground below my feet tremble a bit. "Everyone, move!" I yelled, jumping away as the spot I had been on broke, a smaller Desert Taijitu emerging from the sands.
Differently from their Beacon counterparts, Desert Taijitu resembled desert vipers. They had two small and sharp horns on their heads, and their tail ended not with another head, but with a spiky mace-like appendage. They came in a variety of sizes, and the smaller ones had apparently been following the Earth Feilong like ducklings would a mother duck.
The one in front of me snapped its head forward, and I ducked to the side. The creature moved its head back and snapped forth again, and I ducked to the other side. This time, I lifted my left leg and kicked the creature in the throat. My blow bounced off as if I had hit concrete.
"I keep forgetting," I grumbled as I jumped forward, landing on the creature's back. "I need to add Aura to my blows," I growled, feeling the heat rise into my left fist as my knees were holding me on the back of the bucking viper-like Grimm.
Then I slammed my fist down against the Desert Taijitu's armored back, and the resounding shattering sound announced that I had successfully broken not just the skin, but also the inner vertebrae of the thing. It crumpled down with a croaked gasp, slumping on the sand and starting to slowly turn into black ashes.
I glanced around quickly, finding Gorm easily smashing a Taijitu's head in, and Chez actually revving her chainsaw to cut through the sides of her own enemy. Zhelty had pummeled one into submission, and slammed her sword-shield through the creature's eye, freeing the weapon a second later and turning to look around for anyone in need of help.
Jasil was running, as was the norm, and the Grimm pursuing him was actually starting to ponder its life choices as it was verbally harassed by the boy to the point where I was starting to feel sorry for the poor creature of death and destruction.
There were various degrees of success in the class. I zeroed in on someone that had two Taijitu against him, and rushed to their aid. Zhelty probably followed my line of reasoning, because she headed for them in turn.
"I take the right," I said.
"Mine's the left," Zhelty agreed. We both jumped at the same time, the Grimm giving us their backs. Then their tails snapped, twin beady eyes opening in their spiky mace-like things, and I hastily brought my gauntlets up to parry the incoming mace-spike. Zhelty did the same with her shield, and as the blow landed us back into the sand, I spluttered and coughed.
The spiky tails didn't just open their eyes. They seemed to slowly grow in size as the snake-like part diminished in turn, as if eaten alive by their tails.
I stared.
I stared and an image came to my mind. I shouldn't have laughed, but I couldn't help it.
My laughter was like the tinkling of crystalline bells, so honest it was.
"What are you laughing at!?" Zhelty asked, askance as she was back on her feet like I was, though she wasn't holding her stomach from laughter like I was.
"Slowbro," I said wheezing it out. "Oh, this takes the cake," I gave a thumb-up in the direction of the two visibly larger shells, with only a small portion of the Taijitu emerging from them. "It's got to be Hermit merged with Taijitu!" I snickered. "Gorm, Chez! Assemble!"
The two Faunus arrived by my side, even as I cracked my knuckles. "Gorm, you've got a fishing lure, so make one bite and pull, Zhelty, get the other to latch on to your shield and pull. Chez, you got the honor of cutting one's neck, and I'll go for the other. Deal?"
The two Slowbro-like creatures didn't just sit there, they began to advance, their necks elongating to snap in the spot we had been, and from which we jumped away. Clouds of sand rose, but we had our great plan, and it would be put in motion.
Gorm spun his chain-mace in the air over him, and then slammed it into the creature's face. He pulled it expertly back, and repeated the motion again and again. Eventually the Grimm snapped and bit down on it, and as the tug of war began, I rushed for it.
I jumped to its side, spinning in midair as I gave momentum to my fist. Heat gathered at the edge of my hand, and as I extended it like a karateka about to chop some wood, I instead chopped a neck.
With a trembling noise, the Taijitu-side that had been cut turned to ashes, but the one attached to its back did not. From the other side, I could hear Zhelty's screams of effort as her shield banged against the Grimm's face, before pulling back and goading them into snapping forth. Chez slammed down from the sides, and one more head was cut.
The remaining hermit-side pulled out its claws, and then with sharp, fast movements began to spew sand in our direction.
I had goggles on, so I didn't need to bring my hands to cover my face.
I pointed my gauntlet towards it, cries of surprise all around me at the impromptu sandstorm. I concentrated. Nobody was watching me. A small Schnee Glyph appeared in front of my bolt-launcher strapped to my wrist.
A second and third Glyph followed the first, and then I launched my bolt forward.
The bolt sailed, already fast enough, even faster once it went through the three Glyphs. I didn't have lightning Dust to further accelerate it, but what it did with the simple enough version of the family semblance looked good.
There was a resounding crack in the outer shell of the Hermit, though I had aimed at its face, I reckoned there had been some diverting. There was a halt in the sandstorm, though, because the bolt though deflected had still hit the Grimm in the fleshy underside. One of its pincers moved towards the bolt, attempting to scrape it off.
Gorm's chain-mace came swinging from the side with resounding strength, slamming into the top of the hermit's armored back and making it collapse on one side. I rushed forward, hand charged with Aura, and plunged it deeply into the soft underbelly of the Grimm, crafting a wound that went from side to side.
The Hermit didn't scream or move any longer, and simply began to collapse into a pile of ashes.
The one on Zhelty's side didn't fare any better. The moment it had attempted to do a sandstorm, Zhelty's cannon-shots had come into play, soon followed by Chez' own grenade-launcher teapot.
The poor thing had suffered explosive destruction, and had the tip of its shell fuming plumes of dark smoke as the innards were probably torn into mush.
All in all, it was a successful battle.
I took a deep breath, and then looked around. My eyes caught a dark group of blurs, big black and white blurs, coming for us from the distance.
"Guys," I heard Gorm say. "I think we need to go."
"Shit," Chez muttered next. "Shit, shit, shit."
"Goliath Stampede!" I yelled, "Everyone, run for the rails!"
This was Vacuo in a nutshell.
One moment you were a hero battling Grimm, and the next you were a wise person running away from the Grimm.
Professor Rassvet rejoined us at the train station we were supposed to wait for our train back, and he didn't look any worse. "The old girl just wanted a bit of a scratching and some rough playing," he said charmingly, signs of scorch marks on his body. "She must have felt bold since she had some friends with her this time, but I'm guessing that you took care of them?" he counted heads, "Drats, Jasil's still here."
"Oi!" Jasil yelled with an affronted look.
"Well, guess we'll have to go look at the Sphinxes next time. Jasil, you'll be on bait duty for them," Rassvet mused.
"Fuck you, professor!" he yelled again.
"That's five extra laps around Vacuo when we get back," professor Rassvet continued. "You'll thank me one day, kid."
"I'll probably kill you one day, old man," Jasil growled back.
I chuckled at that, shaking my head. My back against the abandoned wall of the train station, Chez seated cross-legged nearby, Gorm with his arms crossed by my side, and Zhelty standing with her back to the rails and looking at us with a visibly pleased grin on her face.
"Team Sizzling Sunrise is awesome," she simply announced, puffing her chest up in pride and attempting to stand on the tip of her toes to look higher.
I extended a fist in front of me. "Aye, to team Sizzling Sunrise."
"Yeah," Chez brought her fist up from where she was seated, and Gorm chuckled before adding his own.
Winter somehow looked scandalized to hear what I had done on that particular day.
Then again, she had asked to be called once a week, and I was being incredibly dutiful about it.
I was sure she was worrying for nothing.
Surely, even in Atlas they had you run away from a Goliath stampede to build your character.
It wasn't like they were trying to actively kill us.
They'd have sent us to swim naked in the Garbage Dumps of the SDC refineries to wrestle Kraken-Grimm otherwise.
Winter was even more scandalized to know those things existed, and that they actually had us swim in the garbage swamps, but with protective clothes on.
I didn't peg her for a worrywart, though.
Truly, it was nice to talk with one's loving family...
...even when they were a bit too coddling for my own tastes.
Ryven Razgriz
I need a Gun and I'll let you know 'What's up?'.
- Location
- South East Asia
Why do I have the feeling of Wren-Shade being capable, in the near future, of goddamn taming the grimm of all the damn things and somehow woo Salem with it?
- Location
- England
I don't think that's likely, but if it does happen I will get to say "Called it".
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Getting laid by Grimm is truly a manly way to go...If your fucking stupid that is
theauthor
Birdie
- Location
- Soerabaja
I dunno. Salem looks pretty human.
Careful my dude, you may end up impressing someone with your nonchalant "...And that's how that ended, with 'Sheila the Beowulf' tied up and brought back to be a pet mate. What do you mean 'thats not normal!'? Don't you get Hunters doing this sort of stuff in other parts of the world? Pansies the lot of you!"
- Location
- England
If danger noodle, then it's a nope rope.
The Grimm concept was interesting, but could really have used some size reference. Not necessarily exact measurements, even something like 'big as a car' or 'as wide as three anacondas combined' would be helpful in visualizing them.
Fragnostic
Cheshire
- Location
- Neko City
Since when were you under the impression I stopped reading and commenting?
I bet you expected something else, but alas! It is I, Fragnostic!
We need some cheerful optimistic idiot who knows how to use Talk no Jutsu or Therapy no Jutsu
+50 relationship points with Sienna Khan
+25 relationship points with Blake Belladonna
+10 relationship points with Adam Taurus (I don't judge)
-1000 relationship points with Jaques "Schnee"
OFF WITH HER HEAD!
I bet you expected something else, but alas! It is I, Fragnostic!
Foolish otouto, why are you so yowai?
He's suicidal. It's the stress of leading the "Shnee" Dust Company without actually being a Shnee.
Considering Wren is already on a revenge path to hurt/maim/kill his father...
We need some cheerful optimistic idiot who knows how to use Talk no Jutsu or Therapy no Jutsu
I imagined the classic cartoon scene of there being a blinking white outline, where the girls stood.
She's ice cold!
What other kinds of inflation are there, though?
Now you're thinking like the White Fang.
+50 relationship points with Sienna Khan
+25 relationship points with Blake Belladonna
+10 relationship points with Adam Taurus (I don't judge)
-1000 relationship points with Jaques "Schnee"
Truly, a tsundere is a sight to behold.
But what if it's exactly what he meant? Wren might have a nice ass!
Wow, what next, a Philosopher's Stone made out of the souls of an entire desert nation... oh, wait...
I hope you meant "kick". Though I guess they could be good with the other one too...
You're a real night owl, aren't you? Seriously, such stereotyping...
I'm REALLY curious about this tribe now... if it's anything like Alice in Wonderland... well...
OFF WITH HER HEAD!
I hate sand, it's coarse, rough and leads to prequel memes...
Really, Avengers?
Chapter Twenty
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Twenty
Some classes were obligatory, even though nobody would want to take them. They included stuff like International Laws, Kingdom Laws, Huntsmen and Civilian rights, and much more tedious work that had us forced to actually sit down in front of one another, heavy and dusty books in hand, and try to conjure forth the possible questions and answers to the upcoming exams.
"What happens when a Mistralian Lower class meets a higher class that has given them past patronage?" I asked, reading the book in question.
"He stabs him and steals his money?" Zhelty said, sounding unsure rather than sarcastic. I raised an eyebrow. "He gives a bow or something?"
"A dignified nod of the head to signal he has seen the greater individual in the relationship, and should the greater individual wish for it, he may have him near to offer further patronage to its undignified ways," I muttered as I read the line. I then looked at the date the book had been written. "This is stuff from thirty years ago. Is it still valid?"
"Yeah, I think it is," Chez said, flipping through an equally old book on Desert Laws. "This is stuff my tribe did constantly. Rights of passage, exchange of water and information, arranged marriages and-" she flipped the page, "Yep, duels to the death in the middle of a Deathstalker pit."
"Seriously?" Gorm asked.
"No," Chez rolled her eyes. "We weren't that mad," she bit her lower lip, "Though I did see a head roll once, but it was a water thief, so..."
"You could have tied him to a tree somewhere," I pointed out.
"We didn't have any rope to spare, or any trees nearby," Chez answered. "Sometimes water rationing sucked, but it kept everyone alive. So for someone to take more, it put everyone else at risk." She grimaced. "Made everyone angry too. The flow of blood appeases the anger, and calms the heated hearts."
"It still sounds extreme," I muttered, "But if there wasn't another option, then I guess there wasn't another option."
We resumed our studying, and our questioning. And at the very end, as the final exam came around and the final question was done, and the scoreboards came out to reveal that indeed, we had all passed those incredibly boring exams, we looked at one another, and we cried tears of relief that we never knew we could cry.
"What are you crying like school children for?" Professor Rassvet grumbled, finding us acting like silly children in the courtyard. "This was the easy part. There's the camping trip next week."
"Fighting Grimm isn't as difficult as studying," Zhelty said, "Whatever happens, we can handle it!"
I began to feel dread.
"After what we faced today," Gorm said, "What could possibly-"
My hands went to his mouth, violently shutting him up. "Do not say those words," I hissed. "Those are the words that must never be spoken."
"Melodramatic," Chez rolled her eyes, "Just do as I do and everything will be fine," her cat ears twitched as she smiled brightly, "I can guarantee you that nothing will go wrong."
I quietly removed my hands from Gorm's mouth, "Can I do the camping experience with another group, professor?" I asked.
"No," Professor Rassvet said. "I will, on the other hand, let professor Valtò bring you along in my place. I know better than to go against the power of those words," and as he said that, I stared at him with a look of pure loathing. He patted my shoulder, looking strangely misty-eyed. "You were a great student, but it's always the great students that die so young. Goodbye, Masochistic Wren, you won't be missed."
"One day," I grumbled as professor Rassvet walked away, cackling to himself, "I will make it a law."
"Oh, come on," Gorm said, "What could possibly go wrong? It's just a normal camping trip."
I took a deep breath, and then quietly gestured for the rest of my friends to come closer. Three head-knuckles later, and I felt more at ease. "Hey!" Zhelty exclaimed, rubbing her forehead just for show. I hadn't hit any of them that hard. "What if I stop growing because of that!?"
"Then I'll put you on the rack and give it a couple of spins," I grumbled back, massaging my knuckles. "What are your heads made of anyway, concrete?"
"You are mean, Wren," Chez muttered. "I'm putting dead rats in your shoes."
"Stop. Playing. The. Stereotype. It's offensive," I hissed out.
"Nyah," she stuck her tongue out in my direction. "I can do it. You can't. And rats are a good source of protein anyway. So it's more of a gift than a bad thing if you think about it."
I swear a nearby Rat faunus just got a cold chill down his spine. Though I hadn't yet seen one, so perhaps it was just my imagination.
"I could use some meat in my diet," I muttered, "I've been eating nothing but rice and sawdust, and the latter's a bit too crunchy for my tastes," I chuckled.
Chez smiled. I didn't like that smile. "Maybe I'll get a rabbit or something," she mused aloud. "We could share it over the campfire. The night in the desert is quite cold, and yet the stars make it so romantic."
"W-What are you even saying!?" Zhelty exclaimed, somehow finding the opportunity to barge in the conversation while waving her hands around, as if to disperse some kind of imaginary cloud. Her face was incredibly red from the small amount of exertion. "We'll all be sharing a tent anyway. I doubt the school is going to allow its students to just laze about!"
"Actually," a new voice joined us, "It's precisely what the camping is about," professor Valtò appeared with his arms crossed by the nearby window. "I will be notifying the students later, but after the first day in which I will lay down the ground rules on what to expect, what to do and what not to do, you will be left to your devises, supervised of course, but pretty much allowed to do as you wish. The only thing that matters is that you survive with your own resources, or those you share with your allies. We will not be providing anything more than a tent and a warm sleeping bag. Even security, you will have to deal with yourself."
"So the only failing grade is death?" Gorm asked.
"Indeed," professor Valtò said. "Of course, killing another student won't be allowed. It's just a test, not a fight to the death tournament in which only one may walk away alive after having beaten everyone else, enemies, friends and lovers alike." He sighed. "They don't allow me to do that anymore. Say it's bad PR for the preparatory school when only one gets to graduate out of a whole class."
He chuckled at our four aghast faces. "Just a joke, just a joke. But just in case, don't go striking any more friendships while out in the desert. You never know how long they may last."
He disappeared back where he had come from.
I did not feel at ease.
Nobody felt at ease.
"Chez," I said. "Please tell us what to get."
Chez did, and we were grateful for it.
That was how we ended up spending the most funny days and nights of our lives in the middle of the Vacuo desert.
Fighting Grimm.
Who didn't need to sleep, eat or go to the bathroom.
Who would come howling whenever they got within range when they were young, and who would instead dig their ways below our tents to collapse them if they were older and more experienced.
We fought off Beowolves packs. We went to the bathroom in pairs. We actually dug a makeshift trench around our tent just to be sure when a Grimm came burrowing towards us, because it would collapse the wall. By the end of it, we weren't traumatized merely because we had already seen worst.
I rolled an imaginary cigarette in front of the campfire, and Gorm played an imaginary harmonica. Zhelty and Chez were back to back, holding imaginary bottles of whiskey and mulling their darkest thoughts.
"This is like GarbageNam, but without the garbage," I said.
"I still don't know what the 'Nam' thing is," Gorm pointed out, "But yes," he whistled, a pleasant tune rising in the air, "But without the garbage, and you can actually breathe."
"Until the wind drags the latrine pit up, and then you can't breathe again," Zhelty mused, taking an imaginary swill out of her non-existing bottle. "Is that what life is all about? Digging shit deep in the sand, only to have the wind bring it back up?" she made a deeper sigh. "Life's a battle of digging sand and hiding shit."
"This is nice," Chez said with a light giggle, having the time of her life and not looking the slightest bit traumatized, or worried about it. She was just playing along, grinning brightly like the Cheshire cat I knew she was. "Reminds me of home."
"An incredibly dysfunctional reality?" Gorm asked.
"No," Chez scoffed. "Home is where you make it. And right now, this is my home." She plopped her head against Zhelty's own. "If only Zhelty didn't have such a hard head."
"The hardest to ever exist," I quipped with a knowing nod, having finished my imaginary cigarette and having begun to attempt to light it. "I remember back in the days when it was all so simple. You went out to kill the Grimm, you came back, you had a shower. Now it's only Grimm, the sand, the sweat, and then more sand and more Grimm."
"Do you think it's only us acting this way, or are others just as bad?" Zhelty said, huffing.
Gorm turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees. "I think I'm seeing two people sobbing into each other's arms, and there's Jasil talking to an empty coconut with a face drawn on it. I think it's supposed to resemble professor Rassvet?"
"Somehow, I am not surprised," I muttered, taking a long lungful of my non-existing cigarette.
"The rest are simply milling around. Someone brought a deck of cards too," Gorm added.
"We could play a game!" Zhelty said. "Something like truth or dare."
"No," I vetoed it. "It's just a moment away before someone dares another to go do something stupid to someone else, and we end up fighting one another."
"Word association?" Gorm suggested.
"A game of would you rather!" Chez said instead.
"Would you rather?" I muttered.
"You don't know that?" Zhelty scoffed, "Where have you lived your childhood, Wren, under a rock?"
"In an ice palace actually," I retorted. "Can't you see how I'm melting already?"
"Well, anyway!" Chez said, hastily standing more vividly to attention than ever before. "Would you rather is about saying two things and picking one of those. Like, would you rather eat a cactus or eat a stone, and it's just a way to spend time. Everyone can answer, so we can see how we'd do things differently."
I yawned a bit. "Sure," I said. "Why not. Who wants to start?"
"Would you rather save a rich man or a poor man?" Gorm asked.
"Rich," Chez and Zhelty both said at the same time.
"Poor," I answered instead.
"Why save a poor man? He's not going to reward you," Zhelty said. I just shrugged at that. It was what I would do. It didn't mean it was the right option for everyone.
"Once you become a huntsmen, would you rather see the world, or stay in Vacuo?" Chez asked next.
"See the world," Gorm and I both said at the same time. Zhelty instead answered with staying in Vacuo, but there was her father's shop to consider, so it made sense.
"Between cold water and an ice cream, what would you rather have?" Zhelty asked next.
"Cold water," three people gave the same answer without even doubting it. Not for one second. Not for one millisecond.
Zhelty actually looked chagrined nobody had given a different answer. Then again, what did she expect? Eating an ice-cream only made one more thirsty.
It was finally my turn.
I turned thoughtful. "You stand in front of an enemy you have no possibility whatsoever to defeat. If you face him, you will die, but someone else will live. If you don't face him, you will live, but someone else will die. Would you rather face him, or run?"
"That's morbid," Chez mumbled. "Do I know this person I'm dying for?"
"Not really," I answered. "But they're a really good fighter. Perhaps the very best, and yet they're about to be defeated. Yet if you step in, you can save them but at the cost of your life. Given time, they may become stronger than you ever will be, or perhaps they won't. You can't know that. What do you pick?"
"I'd live," Gorm said simply enough. "If he's about to be defeated anyway, then it means it's suicidal to step in. If it were someone I knew, or cared for, I might go. But just because it's someone that may one day be stronger than me? I'd rather take their death as a lesson, and grow stronger in memory of what may otherwise happen."
"I'd live too," Chez said, "I mean, why did that guy even have to go and challenge a stronger enemy for anyway? And if that stronger enemy came for him, why not just run away? If an oasis dries up, you don't stick around hoping for rain to come. You move as fast as you can and go elsewhere."
"Yeah, I'd live also," Zhelty said. "There's so much more I can do if I'm not, you know, dead. And if they're fighting someone strong, then they knew the risks and accepted them. I'm not butting into that for a stranger I don't know."
I hummed thoughtfully at their words.
Then, I smiled. "Guess it's Gorm's turn now."
The answer I got that night, why, I would never forget it...
...just like I would never forget our first day in Shade Academy.
Some classes were obligatory, even though nobody would want to take them. They included stuff like International Laws, Kingdom Laws, Huntsmen and Civilian rights, and much more tedious work that had us forced to actually sit down in front of one another, heavy and dusty books in hand, and try to conjure forth the possible questions and answers to the upcoming exams.
"What happens when a Mistralian Lower class meets a higher class that has given them past patronage?" I asked, reading the book in question.
"He stabs him and steals his money?" Zhelty said, sounding unsure rather than sarcastic. I raised an eyebrow. "He gives a bow or something?"
"A dignified nod of the head to signal he has seen the greater individual in the relationship, and should the greater individual wish for it, he may have him near to offer further patronage to its undignified ways," I muttered as I read the line. I then looked at the date the book had been written. "This is stuff from thirty years ago. Is it still valid?"
"Yeah, I think it is," Chez said, flipping through an equally old book on Desert Laws. "This is stuff my tribe did constantly. Rights of passage, exchange of water and information, arranged marriages and-" she flipped the page, "Yep, duels to the death in the middle of a Deathstalker pit."
"Seriously?" Gorm asked.
"No," Chez rolled her eyes. "We weren't that mad," she bit her lower lip, "Though I did see a head roll once, but it was a water thief, so..."
"You could have tied him to a tree somewhere," I pointed out.
"We didn't have any rope to spare, or any trees nearby," Chez answered. "Sometimes water rationing sucked, but it kept everyone alive. So for someone to take more, it put everyone else at risk." She grimaced. "Made everyone angry too. The flow of blood appeases the anger, and calms the heated hearts."
"It still sounds extreme," I muttered, "But if there wasn't another option, then I guess there wasn't another option."
We resumed our studying, and our questioning. And at the very end, as the final exam came around and the final question was done, and the scoreboards came out to reveal that indeed, we had all passed those incredibly boring exams, we looked at one another, and we cried tears of relief that we never knew we could cry.
"What are you crying like school children for?" Professor Rassvet grumbled, finding us acting like silly children in the courtyard. "This was the easy part. There's the camping trip next week."
"Fighting Grimm isn't as difficult as studying," Zhelty said, "Whatever happens, we can handle it!"
I began to feel dread.
"After what we faced today," Gorm said, "What could possibly-"
My hands went to his mouth, violently shutting him up. "Do not say those words," I hissed. "Those are the words that must never be spoken."
"Melodramatic," Chez rolled her eyes, "Just do as I do and everything will be fine," her cat ears twitched as she smiled brightly, "I can guarantee you that nothing will go wrong."
I quietly removed my hands from Gorm's mouth, "Can I do the camping experience with another group, professor?" I asked.
"No," Professor Rassvet said. "I will, on the other hand, let professor Valtò bring you along in my place. I know better than to go against the power of those words," and as he said that, I stared at him with a look of pure loathing. He patted my shoulder, looking strangely misty-eyed. "You were a great student, but it's always the great students that die so young. Goodbye, Masochistic Wren, you won't be missed."
"One day," I grumbled as professor Rassvet walked away, cackling to himself, "I will make it a law."
"Oh, come on," Gorm said, "What could possibly go wrong? It's just a normal camping trip."
I took a deep breath, and then quietly gestured for the rest of my friends to come closer. Three head-knuckles later, and I felt more at ease. "Hey!" Zhelty exclaimed, rubbing her forehead just for show. I hadn't hit any of them that hard. "What if I stop growing because of that!?"
"Then I'll put you on the rack and give it a couple of spins," I grumbled back, massaging my knuckles. "What are your heads made of anyway, concrete?"
"You are mean, Wren," Chez muttered. "I'm putting dead rats in your shoes."
"Stop. Playing. The. Stereotype. It's offensive," I hissed out.
"Nyah," she stuck her tongue out in my direction. "I can do it. You can't. And rats are a good source of protein anyway. So it's more of a gift than a bad thing if you think about it."
I swear a nearby Rat faunus just got a cold chill down his spine. Though I hadn't yet seen one, so perhaps it was just my imagination.
"I could use some meat in my diet," I muttered, "I've been eating nothing but rice and sawdust, and the latter's a bit too crunchy for my tastes," I chuckled.
Chez smiled. I didn't like that smile. "Maybe I'll get a rabbit or something," she mused aloud. "We could share it over the campfire. The night in the desert is quite cold, and yet the stars make it so romantic."
"W-What are you even saying!?" Zhelty exclaimed, somehow finding the opportunity to barge in the conversation while waving her hands around, as if to disperse some kind of imaginary cloud. Her face was incredibly red from the small amount of exertion. "We'll all be sharing a tent anyway. I doubt the school is going to allow its students to just laze about!"
"Actually," a new voice joined us, "It's precisely what the camping is about," professor Valtò appeared with his arms crossed by the nearby window. "I will be notifying the students later, but after the first day in which I will lay down the ground rules on what to expect, what to do and what not to do, you will be left to your devises, supervised of course, but pretty much allowed to do as you wish. The only thing that matters is that you survive with your own resources, or those you share with your allies. We will not be providing anything more than a tent and a warm sleeping bag. Even security, you will have to deal with yourself."
"So the only failing grade is death?" Gorm asked.
"Indeed," professor Valtò said. "Of course, killing another student won't be allowed. It's just a test, not a fight to the death tournament in which only one may walk away alive after having beaten everyone else, enemies, friends and lovers alike." He sighed. "They don't allow me to do that anymore. Say it's bad PR for the preparatory school when only one gets to graduate out of a whole class."
He chuckled at our four aghast faces. "Just a joke, just a joke. But just in case, don't go striking any more friendships while out in the desert. You never know how long they may last."
He disappeared back where he had come from.
I did not feel at ease.
Nobody felt at ease.
"Chez," I said. "Please tell us what to get."
Chez did, and we were grateful for it.
That was how we ended up spending the most funny days and nights of our lives in the middle of the Vacuo desert.
Fighting Grimm.
Who didn't need to sleep, eat or go to the bathroom.
Who would come howling whenever they got within range when they were young, and who would instead dig their ways below our tents to collapse them if they were older and more experienced.
We fought off Beowolves packs. We went to the bathroom in pairs. We actually dug a makeshift trench around our tent just to be sure when a Grimm came burrowing towards us, because it would collapse the wall. By the end of it, we weren't traumatized merely because we had already seen worst.
I rolled an imaginary cigarette in front of the campfire, and Gorm played an imaginary harmonica. Zhelty and Chez were back to back, holding imaginary bottles of whiskey and mulling their darkest thoughts.
"This is like GarbageNam, but without the garbage," I said.
"I still don't know what the 'Nam' thing is," Gorm pointed out, "But yes," he whistled, a pleasant tune rising in the air, "But without the garbage, and you can actually breathe."
"Until the wind drags the latrine pit up, and then you can't breathe again," Zhelty mused, taking an imaginary swill out of her non-existing bottle. "Is that what life is all about? Digging shit deep in the sand, only to have the wind bring it back up?" she made a deeper sigh. "Life's a battle of digging sand and hiding shit."
"This is nice," Chez said with a light giggle, having the time of her life and not looking the slightest bit traumatized, or worried about it. She was just playing along, grinning brightly like the Cheshire cat I knew she was. "Reminds me of home."
"An incredibly dysfunctional reality?" Gorm asked.
"No," Chez scoffed. "Home is where you make it. And right now, this is my home." She plopped her head against Zhelty's own. "If only Zhelty didn't have such a hard head."
"The hardest to ever exist," I quipped with a knowing nod, having finished my imaginary cigarette and having begun to attempt to light it. "I remember back in the days when it was all so simple. You went out to kill the Grimm, you came back, you had a shower. Now it's only Grimm, the sand, the sweat, and then more sand and more Grimm."
"Do you think it's only us acting this way, or are others just as bad?" Zhelty said, huffing.
Gorm turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees. "I think I'm seeing two people sobbing into each other's arms, and there's Jasil talking to an empty coconut with a face drawn on it. I think it's supposed to resemble professor Rassvet?"
"Somehow, I am not surprised," I muttered, taking a long lungful of my non-existing cigarette.
"The rest are simply milling around. Someone brought a deck of cards too," Gorm added.
"We could play a game!" Zhelty said. "Something like truth or dare."
"No," I vetoed it. "It's just a moment away before someone dares another to go do something stupid to someone else, and we end up fighting one another."
"Word association?" Gorm suggested.
"A game of would you rather!" Chez said instead.
"Would you rather?" I muttered.
"You don't know that?" Zhelty scoffed, "Where have you lived your childhood, Wren, under a rock?"
"In an ice palace actually," I retorted. "Can't you see how I'm melting already?"
"Well, anyway!" Chez said, hastily standing more vividly to attention than ever before. "Would you rather is about saying two things and picking one of those. Like, would you rather eat a cactus or eat a stone, and it's just a way to spend time. Everyone can answer, so we can see how we'd do things differently."
I yawned a bit. "Sure," I said. "Why not. Who wants to start?"
"Would you rather save a rich man or a poor man?" Gorm asked.
"Rich," Chez and Zhelty both said at the same time.
"Poor," I answered instead.
"Why save a poor man? He's not going to reward you," Zhelty said. I just shrugged at that. It was what I would do. It didn't mean it was the right option for everyone.
"Once you become a huntsmen, would you rather see the world, or stay in Vacuo?" Chez asked next.
"See the world," Gorm and I both said at the same time. Zhelty instead answered with staying in Vacuo, but there was her father's shop to consider, so it made sense.
"Between cold water and an ice cream, what would you rather have?" Zhelty asked next.
"Cold water," three people gave the same answer without even doubting it. Not for one second. Not for one millisecond.
Zhelty actually looked chagrined nobody had given a different answer. Then again, what did she expect? Eating an ice-cream only made one more thirsty.
It was finally my turn.
I turned thoughtful. "You stand in front of an enemy you have no possibility whatsoever to defeat. If you face him, you will die, but someone else will live. If you don't face him, you will live, but someone else will die. Would you rather face him, or run?"
"That's morbid," Chez mumbled. "Do I know this person I'm dying for?"
"Not really," I answered. "But they're a really good fighter. Perhaps the very best, and yet they're about to be defeated. Yet if you step in, you can save them but at the cost of your life. Given time, they may become stronger than you ever will be, or perhaps they won't. You can't know that. What do you pick?"
"I'd live," Gorm said simply enough. "If he's about to be defeated anyway, then it means it's suicidal to step in. If it were someone I knew, or cared for, I might go. But just because it's someone that may one day be stronger than me? I'd rather take their death as a lesson, and grow stronger in memory of what may otherwise happen."
"I'd live too," Chez said, "I mean, why did that guy even have to go and challenge a stronger enemy for anyway? And if that stronger enemy came for him, why not just run away? If an oasis dries up, you don't stick around hoping for rain to come. You move as fast as you can and go elsewhere."
"Yeah, I'd live also," Zhelty said. "There's so much more I can do if I'm not, you know, dead. And if they're fighting someone strong, then they knew the risks and accepted them. I'm not butting into that for a stranger I don't know."
I hummed thoughtfully at their words.
Then, I smiled. "Guess it's Gorm's turn now."
The answer I got that night, why, I would never forget it...
...just like I would never forget our first day in Shade Academy.
Funny Thing
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
There's apparently a book of the RWBY franchise coming out on the 25th of June that takes place in Vacuo, some teachers and places are mentioned and probably new Grimm.
So, since I am a kindhearted man filled with nothing but gentle love for its readers, what would you prefer?
[X] Let this be until the book comes out and the wiki-guys go about updating Vacuo's situation
[X] Keep powering on and who cares if we're going against the canon-compliant stuff.
So, since I am a kindhearted man filled with nothing but gentle love for its readers, what would you prefer?
[X] Let this be until the book comes out and the wiki-guys go about updating Vacuo's situation
[X] Keep powering on and who cares if we're going against the canon-compliant stuff.
