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Trapped in Amber (RWBY AU)

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[X] Another weapon

Yeah I'd want another weapon to enhance our combat effectiveness. Maybe a Rifle or High-Caliber Pistol for medium range.
 
[X] Dust Casting
Equinox was clearly designed to use the wind and fire dust crystals attached to it. You need to figure out how to use them - especially if Ruby is right about how easy it'd be to switch out the crystals. Professor Hickory should be able to help.
 
[X] Dust Casting

Yeah I'd love to be able to use Amber's weapon properly. Let's get good with the main weapon that Amber's instincts can help with before we worry about a side weapon.
 
[X] Who Were You
Your memory is at best vague and at worst hopelessly mixed up between who did what. You need to talk to someone about everything that's happened and get some real answers about your past - and Amber's.
 
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The First Week P2
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    • As night arrives your team vanishes, leaving you alone in the room. Pyrrha wanted to work out, Ruby said something about Yang and Blake said nothing. You're guessing she went to the library, but it doesn't really matter.

    You're sitting at your desk, staring at Equinox's collapsed form. You've just finished skimming a book on dust crystals and it wasn't particularly helpful. Dust crystals are normally only used by huntsmen because of how easy it is to set them off accidentally, not because only a huntsman can get them to work. But that's the situation you're in - you doubt you could use the fire crystal to light a match when you should be capable of using it to imitate a flamethrower.

    You're pretty sure someone would've mentioned to you if there was something wrong with the crystals or Equinox by now, so the problem must somehow be you. When you try you can dimly remember practicing with dust rounds at Control - it was as simple as point and shoot while infusing your weapon with your aura. You were definitely infusing Equinox properly since the dust crystals would've shattered if you weren't, but everything you just read says that that's impossible. Either you weren't using your aura right and Equinox should have broken, or you were were using your aura right and the dust should have worked.

    Of course you aren't really using your own aura. The amber coloured light that shines from your skin when you focus is proof enough of that. If the issue is that you're using Amber's aura without really being able to control it, you can't really imagine a solution that doesn't involve drawing on your own aura. But if you do that you'll be pulling it away from your semblance, away form helping Amber. And you won't do that. Hopefully Professor Hickory will be able to help - and Ozpin told your teachers enough about your situation that you don't have to be too careful about what you say to them.

    ----

    Once again you're woken by a nightmare, jerking awake to a deafening heartbeat and the desperate fear that you know Amber was feeling before whatever happened happened. Being on the top bunk means you make a lot more noise than before but it doesn't look like you woke the others up. Blake might have twitched when you looked at her, but she looks peacefully asleep when you look again. At least this time you woke up closer to dawn than midnight.

    Your position on the top bunk lets you watch the sunrise through the upper window. It's a peaceful start to what quickly becomes a frantic day. It seems Pyrrha literally rises with the sun, letting you get up yourself without feeling guilty about waking anyone. You feel vindicated by your caution when you manage to wake up Blake just by getting out of your bed, thoroughly ignoring her sleepy glare in favour of getting into a shower.

    Ruby looks more than a little put out when she sees that you all woke up before her - you're guessing she was planning to use her whistle on you again. Unfortunately for her every student seems to have set their alarm for the same time as her, forcing her to compete with them to get ready in time. She's still fast enough you can eat breakfast as a team before heading to your first class, but it's a close call.

    -----

    The first three classes you attend remind you of something you'd forgotten - school kinda sucks. You know you need to learn what they're teaching you, but Professor Port is boring and Professor Oobleck is incomprehensible. At least you aren't the only one struggling to pay attention or starting off behind - it looked there were only a half dozen students really listening to Port and you're pretty sure Oobleck left half the class behind in five minutes. Port even called you and a few other students aside at the end of the class, Jaune among them. Apparently students not knowing about the common types of grimm is a recurring issue in his class, one he blames on you not attending a combat school before Beacon. The fact that he immediately provides a solution for this problem surprises the other students, but you were expecting it. You're pretty sure you flew the Professor around a few times when you were a pilot and you already knew that he isn't the blowhard he sounded like while teaching. The copies of Port's Grimm Compendium he gave to you and the other students was proof of that for the others.

    Professor Dusk's class was a different issue. You didn't know what to expect from a class devoted to learning about aura, but meditating under a heat lamp isn't it. The others seemed to take it in stride when the Professor ignores their questions, so you quietly follow their lead. At least the class lets you try and feel out the differences between Amber's aura and yours without worrying about anyone noticing something strange but you don't really accomplish anything.

    Your fourth class is the one you've been waiting for - Dust with Professor Hickory. You cut your lunch short so you can get there early, telling the others you just needed a few minutes alone to keep them from following. Of course you end up arriving in class early enough that the Professor isn't even there. You pass the time by trying again to activate the dust crystals attached to Equinox but to no avail.

    "Miss Delores, yes? I do hope you're not trying to set my classroom on fire already. There'll be plenty of time for that in the practical classes." The Professor's deep voice alerts you to his presence, and you turn to see him entering the class with a chrome briefcase in his hand. He's a short man with dark skin and long dark hair and you remember him having a reputation for always dodging the catastrophes that accompanied students experimenting with dust.

    "I wish I could Professor." You say once you're sure no one is following him. "I actually wanted to talk to you about an issue I've been having with getting dust to react to my aura."

    "Precision is always an issue when learning to use dust in a new way, especially when you're adapting to a new weapon. Nothing will let you get control over the reaction except practice. In the mean time you and your teammates will simply have to be ready for sudden explosions." The Professor says, depositing his briefcase on the podium before turning his attention fully to you.

    "I haven't been able to get any sort of reaction out of the dust crystals on my weapon." You say, holding Equinox up so he can see. "Even when I was flying through the air and stabbing grimm."

    "An unusual problem. May I see?" He says, gesturing to Equinox. You pass it over without complaint, watching him twirl it around and send a light breeze through the classroom, before striking the ground with the fire crystal and spraying sparks into the air. "There's no issue with your weapon. The crystals are in perfect condition and the wood conducts aura as well as my own weapon. Have you had any success with powdered dust?" He asks, turning back to you with an intense expression.

    "My only experience with powdered dust is in bullets, so no. I didn't think blowing myself up would be great preparation for attending Beacon. And I only had a few days to try anything" You say defensively.

    "Powdered dust can react to the aura of an unawakened mouse and you seem to have an affinity for wind, so I suggest you begin your experiments with a cloud of wind dust. A cloud of the coarsest grains the school provides should be sufficient to get a basic reaction. Ideally you'd be using the finer grains, but those are expensive and the school won't be providing them to you for free." He pauses and looks regretful for a second. "But it shouldn't matter. Once you have success with triggering a cloud you should practice with smaller and smaller amounts of dust - being able to activate only a few grains of dust should be sufficient practice for the crystals." He says, holding your gaze the entire time. "Of course such experimentation should only take place in one of the sparring rooms, which are always in high demand. You'll either need to be an early riser or be practicing with your teammates around you - in which case you'll need to make sure they're safe.Dust can be dangerous, even to a huntress."

    "Understood. I'll talk to the others and pick up the wind dust tonight." You say, a little overwhelmed by his suggestions.

    "Excellent. Now I suggest you take a seat, I'm expecting the first few students to arrive presently." He says, turning back to his briefcase.

    ----

    "Dust is one of our greatest weapons against the grimm. It is the fuel that keeps our society running, the mechanism that makes our technology work. And despite it being studied for millennia, it is incredibly mysterious." Professor Hickory says to start his lesson. "Common wisdom holds that the four basic types of dust are fire, earth, water and wind and that all of it's other forms can be created by mixing those four. Yet ancient mistrali philosophers held that dust occurred in a natural cycle of wood, fire, earth, metal and water and we can replicate the experiments that convinced them of that." He pauses and looks at you all.
    "I hold that there are only two meaningful distinctions to the various types of dust - those that occur naturally and those that must be created by humans. I find this to be a meaningful distinction because I am one of the few who know how to create hard-light dust and I know my creations always pale when compared to the what naturally occurs in Atlas. I will be teaching you to mix dust yes, but I will also be teaching you how to make every grain of dust last as long as possible, how to safely mine dust and how to make every last type of dust useful in the field. All I ask in return is that you don't blow up my classroom more than once per semester per person." He smiles wryly before continuing.
    In the end he shows you what he can do with each of the dust crystals he had in his briefcase, finishing by creating a hardlight copy of himself that he collapses into a strange purple crystal with gravity dust.

    After the class ends you get to spend a relaxing hour watching everyone else that chose music as an elective showoff. Ren proves to be an amazing dancer and apparently Weiss released an album before coming to Beacon. You're surprised to see Jaune playing a guitar badly but he's enthusiastic enough about it to shrug off any complaints - apparently you aren't the only one here to learn something new.

    After Music is the only other class you'll be attending every single day - Combat with Professor Goodwitch. But with 48 students not everyone gets to actually fight each day, so you have to content yourself with watching Blake go down after underestimating Nora's awareness and Ruby beating Weiss by not allowing her enough time to do anything to her. Pyrrha whispers to you that she thinks Goodwitch is trying to find everyone's worst possible match-ups in the class, which makes sense when you consider how every fight was thoroughly one sided. You can't help but wonder who you'll end up fighting tomorrow - you don't really know enough about your classmates to guess who could be your worst match-up. You are pretty sure you'd lose against most of the people you actually know but that's because they're more experienced than you, not because you have an inherent disadvantage.

    ----

    It takes a few days for you to figure out what you want to do in Music, but you eventually settle on finding a quiet corner and listening to song after song. You've apparently been humming something when you meditate, a discordant tune that no one recognises and distracts them from their own meditation. There's a good chance its something Amber knew instead of you so you're trying to figure out what it's from. It'd be a new connection to her, one that doesn't revolve around being a huntress. t'd be nice. Unfortunately all you've gotten out of your search so far is an endless succession of old pop songs stuck in your head.

    "Ah, there you are Amber." You look up to see Weiss in front of you. "I was wondering what you got up to during this class." She says, glancing pointedly at your scroll. You pull of your headphones with a defensive shrug.

    "I'm trying to figure out an old memory." You say with a shrug. "Can I help you with anything?" You ask. Weiss hasn't spoken much to anyone outside of her team - and Ruby. Your leader had accosted her after their one sided spar and started badgering her about leadership. You're not too sure what they ended up talking about but it didn't end badly - unlike when Jaune tried asking Weiss out.

    "I wasn't intending on eavesdropping but I couldn't avoid overhearing you explaining what you intend to your team." She says primly. You blink back, trying to figure out what she's saying.

    "What am I intending to do though?" You ask.

    "You are going to experiment with clouds of wind dust." She says. "Even with aura such experiments can be incredibly dangerous. I was hoping to offer you my assistance in keeping safe - I know more about dust than any of our fellow students and can use my glyphs to neutralise chain reactions before they're dangerous. I could even offer you some high quality dust from my own supply to use." She says, pulling a vial of dust marked with the Schnee logo form her pocket to show you. You look back, surprised by the offer.

    "That's, um. That's a pretty big offer. I'm not sure I can say no." You say. "I really don't want to risk screwing up what anyone else is doing with this."

    "You do need to consider saying no though." Weiss says reluctantly, putting the dust vial back in her pocket. "I overheard what you intend to do, not why. I can't imagine why you would need to experiment like this and Ruby wouldn't tell me." She sighs before continuing. "But I can't help you without knowing why you need help. So I'm afraid you'll have to choose between keeping it private or trusting me."

    You look away from her and bite your lip as you think. You already tried getting small clouds of wind dust to react to your aura when another nightmare had gotten you up early, but all you'd discovered is that a sneeze can set it off. Weiss' help would be invaluable, but it sounds like she knows a lot more about this stuff than your teammates. You think you can trust her to keep what you'd told the others private, but you're not sure she won't ask more questions.

    ~~~~~~~~

    What do you do?
    [ ] Accept Weiss' help
    [ ] Reject Weiss' help

    Of course right as I settle into a routine writing work suddenly has stuff for me to do again. I'll probably be updating slower for a bit.
     
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