shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
Vote closed, the winners are the nevermore and Ruby. Probably a good thing Pyrrha didn't end up as team leader.
-
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Trapped in Amber (RWBY AU)
- Thread starter shepsquared
- Start date
Initiation P3
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
AN: I really shouldn't have stayed up late writing this. It's past 2am! Ah well.
~~~~~~~~
There's no denying that you come up short when compared to nine others who've been training as huntsmen for most of their lives. As everyone else starts to chase after Cardin and the blonde, you make the mistake of looking back at the approaching ball of shadow and bone that is the boarbatusk matriarch. You only intend to stare at it for a moment but that's enough. You feel a chill run down your spine as the matriarch adjusts its course, as if it's aiming directly at you. It's enough to make you freeze in panic, even if it's only for a moment.
Someone grabs you by the wrist, pulling you off of your feet as they start running. It takes you a few seconds to start running instead of being dragged along the ground and when you do you see Pyrrha's the one that grabbed you. You don't have time to do more than smile at her in thanks before she lets go and focuses on running.
The others are well ahead of you, split between grabbing relics from the temple and just heading north. You veer towards the temple, only for a crimson blur to appear next to you. A cloud of rose petals blinds you for a moment and when they're gone you realise Ruby is now next to you.
"Here." She says, holding out one of the relics to you - a golden knight. You grab it and keep running, Ruby catching up to the others in another burst of rose petals.
It doesn't take long for you to leave the temple behind but the howls of the beowolves makes it obvious that they've gotten in front of you. Sure it means the others have slowed down, allowing you to catch up, but that isn't good news. There's a dozen beowolves right in front of you, with many more moving to surround you. Unlike you, the others don't hesitate to charge. Cardin takes the lead, jumping forwards and bringing his mace down on the head of the closest grimm, somehow setting off an explosion that reduces his target to mist and knocks the others close to him off balance. Dew and Nora are just behind him and immediately seize the advantage he's given them - a sweep of Dew's spear sends a tornado to the left, trapping the two beowolves there in its centre. Nora hits the other three beowolves with grenades, pink explosions sending them to the ground. As they run through the gap Ren and Blake finish them off with a spray of bullets.
A spray of feathers launched by the giant nevermore pepper the ground around you. Most are off target, but you're still forced to turn and deflect several with a spin of your staff. The blonde guy is beside you, warding off the feathers aimed at him with his shield. A descending shadow alerts you to the nevermore diving towards you, only for it to almost crash as bullets start to strike its mask. You turn to see May and Ruby running backwards as they continue to fire at the bird, keeping it from trying to grab any of you in its talons. Instead it beats its wings, sending a fusillade of feathers at you as it returns to the skies. There's more feathers this time, enough to force you all to choose between defending yourselves or taking the hit. But none of you have the time to decide before a glowing snowflake appears in front of Weiss, spinning and growing until it's large enough to cover you all, every feather striking harmlessly against it.
By now you've left the forest behind, with shattered stone structures surrounding you. The boarbatusk bursts through a wall in front of the group, clearly intent on forcing a confrontation. Pyrrha is the cllosest to it and she meets its charge with on of her own. At the last second she jumps over the grimm, throwing her shield at the tower rising from the now shattered wall. Yang is the next to challenge the matriarch, her eyes crimson and her hair glowing. Rather than try and avoid the matriarch's charge she meets it head on, striking it with both her gauntlets and setting off a fiery explosion that sends the matriarch skidding backwards, just in time for the tower Pyrrha knocked over to land on it.
The stone doesn't hold the matriarch for long, but it gives you all enough time to group together. The beowolves have almost entirely circled you, forcing you to choose to either go through them, get past the matriarch or flee onto a bridge that'll leave you with no cover against the nevermore. There's no time to talk - you look at May and see she's looking almost as scared as you feel. The pounding of your heart feels deafening, but you're still ready to fight - the wonders of aura.
"Let's go then!" The blonde guy yells, charging towards the center of the beowolves and their alpha. Nora laughs before striking the ground with her hammer, sending her flying towards the pack with a laugh. Cardin and Yang glance at each other before following their partners, Yang reloading her gauntlets as she runs.
"Amber!" Ruby calls out to you, drawing your attention to her. You can see Pyrrha and Blake running towards the bridge and bite back a curse before moving to join them. A final glance back shows Weiss preparing to receive the matriarch's charge as May, Dew and Ren spread out to surround it.
You and Ruby quickly catch up to Blake and Pyrrha, the other three shooting at the nevermore as you run. It doesn't seem to do anything more than annoy the bird, but at least it isn't shooting back this time.
The nevermore swoops down to try and grab you, but the four of you are too quick. Blake and Pyrrha dodge to the side, taking the chance to slice at the bird's wings. You jump towards the nevermore, spearing it in the shoulder and propelling yourself higher above it. From here you see Ruby propel herself toward the diving nevermore with a gunshot, clearly hoping to use the combined momentum of her and the nevermore to cut through its wing. Though her scythe does bite deeply into the grimm's wing, it gets stuck on the bone and traps Ruby on top of the nevermore as it returns to the sky.
Instead of gaining altitude so it can divebomb you again the nevermore dives into the canyon, banking sharply as it flies out of your sight. You land next to Blake with a roll, looking to her for answers as she peers over the edge of the bridge.
"What could it possible gain from descending?" You ask, only for Blake's eyes to widen.
"It's going to destroy the bridge supports!" She says and immediately sprints further out onto the bridge, towards a solitary rising out of the canyon. Pyrrha is already at the edge of bridge, too far from the tower to jump to it. You follow Blake as the bridge starts to shake, the sounds of numerous collisions below you proving her right. The ground starts to fall away behind you, forcing you both to speed up in panic.
Blake easily leaves you behind, calling out to Pyrrha as she does. Pyrrha turns and falls into a crouch, holding her shield up as a platform for Blake to jump off of. With Pyrrha boosting her Blake manages cross most of the distance to the tower, throwing a blade that imbeds itself in the tower and lets her swing forwards on a ribbon attached to it.
You're too slow on foot - the collapsing part of the bridge has caught up to you, making every stride perilous. A misplaced foot almost sends you tumbling into the canyon, but you feel a new wave of energy surge through you. A flick of Equinox sends you flying forwards, the wind propelling you far faster than you could run.
When she see's you coming Pyrrha tries to jump for the tower herself, but she doesn't have the momentum to cross the distance. Instead you grab her wrist at the apex of her jump, forcing the wind to carry you both upwards. You only need a bit of a boost to carry you both to safety, landing right as the nevermore screeches at you. A glance down reveal it flying straight up, shredding the stone of the tower with its talons as it does. You can see Ruby still caught on the bird's back, her scythe now firmly embedded in its back. The three of you in the tower pull away from the nevermore's attack, Pyrrha shielding you from the spray of rubble with her shield.
Moments after the nevermore passes you a gunshot rings out. Less than a second later Ruby lands on the platform with a mad grin.
"Amber! Can you out fly the nevermore?" She asks. You take a moment to watch the nevermore bank back towards the tower before responding. It might be strong, fast and insanely durable, but you can definitely outmaneuver it.
"For a minute or two? Hell yeah." You declare.
"Great! See if you can get it to ram the tower again." Ruby says. You nod and run forwards, trusting that she has a plan. You dive off of the tower and let yourself fall for a moment, enjoying the rush of the wind around you as you find the nevermore. Apparently it hates having to chase you all down, since its taken the time to send what little bridge remains on the other side of the tower plummeting to the ground. When it sees you it screeches and sends a barrage of feathers flying towards you.
You easily dodge them by immediately catching yourself in the air, your cloak spreading out like a your own pair of wings. Below you the feathers fail to even strike the tower, blown off course by a downwards gust of wind. You laugh in glee as it the grimm fires more feathers at you, this time speeding upwards and toward it, watching the feathers miss you with no real effort from you.
The nevermore isn't bothering with its feathers anymore. Instead it accelerates, clearly intending to meet your charge with one of its own. You fly right for it, aiming Equinox for its eye as if you were a charging knight on horseback. Given the nevermore's size and speed any head on collision between the two of you would probably shatter your aura and send you plummeting to the ground. Its a good thing you're playing chicken and not really intending to hit the grimm.
At the last moment you dive, narrowly avoiding the nevermore's beak and talons. Its screech of fury is swiftly followed by it diving to follow you, turning as fast as it can. You fly a tight spiral as you reorient on the tower, accelerating before the nevermore can catch you. At this point you're pretty sure your main advantage in the air is that the nevermore corners like a bird, while you can apparently turn on a lien. It can probably fly faster than you too, but you have an undeniable advantage over short distances. Which is what this entire canyon is when you look at the grimm's wingspan.
You turn once you're close to the tower, seeing the nevermore is right behind you. It has you right where it wants you, until you stop flying and let yourself plummet again. As you start to fall you see its left eye explode, causing it to sceech in pain and flail in pain before it hits the tower. You halt your fall and start flying up, seeking to regain height before it can chase you again.
To your shock you see Blake jump off of the tower, aiming right for the nevermore. You can just about make out Ruby and Pyrrha as they continue shooting at the nevermore, but you focus on Blake. She's falling too fast for you to be do anything before she reaches the nevermore, but if it doesn't grab her you should be able to catch her.
But it doesn't look like you'll get that chance. Blake's jump was perfectly aimed and you see her plummet right towards the nevermore's beak. Just before it can swallow her whole you see her body twist. You watch as a second Blake somehow jumps off of the first, throwing her ribbon at the nevermore's talon as the first is swallowed. Moments later you hear a muffled explosion and watch as the nevermore's chest seems to collapse in on itself.
The grimm's wings beat futilely as it starts to fall, apparently no longer capable of flight. The second Blake has swung towards you rather than fall with it, her ribbon trailing behind her. You catch her automatically, stabbing Equinox into the tower to serve as a hand hold.
"What just happened?" You ask her. Blake frowns as she watches the nevermore fall.
"My semblance apparently works really well with gravity dust." She says, grabbing Equinox and pulling herself up to crouch on it.
"So its too heavy to fly?" You say in shock, before realising the fall won't be enough to kill the nevermore. "We need to kill it before it gets back up."
"Ruby's way ahead of you." Blake says, pointing at the top of the tower. You look up and see Pyrrha and Ruby in midair, Ruby throwing Pyrrha as high as she can. While Ruby obviously aims for you as she falls, Pyrrha instead fires her rifle again and again, propelling herself towards the nevermore as if she was holding Ruby's gun. She accelerates so fast that she hits the nevermore just as it hits the ground, decapitating it with her shield. You let go of Equinox in as you watch the spectacle, seeing the nevermore's head start to disintegrate before its body even finishes hitting the ground.
"Eeeeeeeeeeee" The sound of Ruby squealing in excitement as she falls snaps you and Blake out of your reverie and you both move to help Ruby. But she doesn't give you a chance to do anything, grabbing Blake's ribbon as she falls past you and bluriiing into motion as she touches the tower, somehow managing to circle it three times before coming to a stop in a cloud of rose petals.
"I told you it would work!" She calls out, presumably talking to Blake. "Sure we used up all my gravity rounds - but it was worth it!"
"So you're okay?" You ask her, watching her bob her head as she hangs from Blake's ribbon.
"A bit dizzy,, but I'm fine." She says, giving you a thumbs up. You look at the sheer canyon walls and the shattered pillars of stone that once reached the ground far above you.
"So whats the plan for getting out of here then? Because I'm pretty sure the best I can do while carrying you guys would be a slow glide that inevitably turns into a crash landing."
"Oh. Oops." Ruby says with a sheepish grin. Blake sighs in resignation.
"This is the next four years." She mutters. The sound of someone climbing up the tower keeps you and Ruby from responding. Looking down you see Pyrrha has reached Ruby, clinging to the stone with her fingertips.
"I think that went wonderfully." She says cheerfully. You and Ruby return her grin and the three of you wind up looking at Blake before she smiles a little back.
"We''l be fine." Ruby declares.
---
Between your flight and Blake's ribbon it doesn't actually take too long to return to the ruined bridge and see what happened. The other eight are there, all looking to be just as tired and thrilled as you feel. The walk back to Beacon is devoid of grimm, letting you swap stories of what happened freely. It seems Weiss' group managed to vanquish the boarbatusk matriarch by wearing it down - May shot out its eyes and shattered one of its tusks, Weiss and Dew trapped it in a localized blizzard that slowed it down and Ren managed to cut it down the length of its spine before Weiss and Dew could impale it through its belly.
You finally get the blonde guy's name - Jaune - as Cardin Yang and Nora start bragging about their 'plan'. It sounds like Jaune managed to keep the alpha beowolf's attention solely on him while the others cleared out its pack. Apparently he kept cutting clean through its limbs, only for one of the lesser beowolves to suffer the injury in its place. In the end the alpha forced all four of them to fight it, but when it suddenly singled out Cardin the others managed to hit if with so much its defenses were overwhelmed, leaving it wide open for Cardin to crush its skull.
The worst part about all of it was still to come though. When you arrived back at the cliffs you were quickly ushered back to the auditorium, apparently the last students to leave the forest. As the twelve of you walk people start to cheer. You look around in shock, counting the people standing in the room - there were at least twice as many people here than when Ozpin gave his speech yesterday. You watch in a daze as the other initiates are called up to the stage, their teams named to applause and cheers from what must be Beacon's entire student body.
Soon enough it's your turn. Jaune and Weiss had been named as the leaders of Team JNCY and SLMD respectively, leaving just the four of you that took down the giant nevermore. You robotically follow Pyrrha up onto the stage, the smile on your face getting wider and wider. After everything that happened, after all your doubt, you'd succeeded. You were a student at Beacon now, all but guaranteeing you'd become a huntress. You grin at the crowd when you're all introduced as team RANB and whistle when Ruby is named as your leader. She'd certainly earned the position.
Fortunately there's no party after the ceremony, allowing you all to start relaxing. You take the time to congratulate the others and laugh as Yang showers Ruby with affection until she's futilely trying to squirm free of her sisters arms. There's a hundred little moments like that, with everyone celebrating their success. But you're too tired to notice any of it. When your team eventually finds your dorm and retires for the night you don't even bother to change or shower. You just collapse onto the closest bed and let sleep claim you. It's only as you fall asleep that you think something coherent again.
It's too bad we couldn't do this for real.
~~~~~~~~
What do you dream of?
[ ] Childhood and Hope
[ ] Disaster and Betrayal
~~~~~~~~
There's no denying that you come up short when compared to nine others who've been training as huntsmen for most of their lives. As everyone else starts to chase after Cardin and the blonde, you make the mistake of looking back at the approaching ball of shadow and bone that is the boarbatusk matriarch. You only intend to stare at it for a moment but that's enough. You feel a chill run down your spine as the matriarch adjusts its course, as if it's aiming directly at you. It's enough to make you freeze in panic, even if it's only for a moment.
Someone grabs you by the wrist, pulling you off of your feet as they start running. It takes you a few seconds to start running instead of being dragged along the ground and when you do you see Pyrrha's the one that grabbed you. You don't have time to do more than smile at her in thanks before she lets go and focuses on running.
The others are well ahead of you, split between grabbing relics from the temple and just heading north. You veer towards the temple, only for a crimson blur to appear next to you. A cloud of rose petals blinds you for a moment and when they're gone you realise Ruby is now next to you.
"Here." She says, holding out one of the relics to you - a golden knight. You grab it and keep running, Ruby catching up to the others in another burst of rose petals.
It doesn't take long for you to leave the temple behind but the howls of the beowolves makes it obvious that they've gotten in front of you. Sure it means the others have slowed down, allowing you to catch up, but that isn't good news. There's a dozen beowolves right in front of you, with many more moving to surround you. Unlike you, the others don't hesitate to charge. Cardin takes the lead, jumping forwards and bringing his mace down on the head of the closest grimm, somehow setting off an explosion that reduces his target to mist and knocks the others close to him off balance. Dew and Nora are just behind him and immediately seize the advantage he's given them - a sweep of Dew's spear sends a tornado to the left, trapping the two beowolves there in its centre. Nora hits the other three beowolves with grenades, pink explosions sending them to the ground. As they run through the gap Ren and Blake finish them off with a spray of bullets.
A spray of feathers launched by the giant nevermore pepper the ground around you. Most are off target, but you're still forced to turn and deflect several with a spin of your staff. The blonde guy is beside you, warding off the feathers aimed at him with his shield. A descending shadow alerts you to the nevermore diving towards you, only for it to almost crash as bullets start to strike its mask. You turn to see May and Ruby running backwards as they continue to fire at the bird, keeping it from trying to grab any of you in its talons. Instead it beats its wings, sending a fusillade of feathers at you as it returns to the skies. There's more feathers this time, enough to force you all to choose between defending yourselves or taking the hit. But none of you have the time to decide before a glowing snowflake appears in front of Weiss, spinning and growing until it's large enough to cover you all, every feather striking harmlessly against it.
By now you've left the forest behind, with shattered stone structures surrounding you. The boarbatusk bursts through a wall in front of the group, clearly intent on forcing a confrontation. Pyrrha is the cllosest to it and she meets its charge with on of her own. At the last second she jumps over the grimm, throwing her shield at the tower rising from the now shattered wall. Yang is the next to challenge the matriarch, her eyes crimson and her hair glowing. Rather than try and avoid the matriarch's charge she meets it head on, striking it with both her gauntlets and setting off a fiery explosion that sends the matriarch skidding backwards, just in time for the tower Pyrrha knocked over to land on it.
The stone doesn't hold the matriarch for long, but it gives you all enough time to group together. The beowolves have almost entirely circled you, forcing you to choose to either go through them, get past the matriarch or flee onto a bridge that'll leave you with no cover against the nevermore. There's no time to talk - you look at May and see she's looking almost as scared as you feel. The pounding of your heart feels deafening, but you're still ready to fight - the wonders of aura.
"Let's go then!" The blonde guy yells, charging towards the center of the beowolves and their alpha. Nora laughs before striking the ground with her hammer, sending her flying towards the pack with a laugh. Cardin and Yang glance at each other before following their partners, Yang reloading her gauntlets as she runs.
"Amber!" Ruby calls out to you, drawing your attention to her. You can see Pyrrha and Blake running towards the bridge and bite back a curse before moving to join them. A final glance back shows Weiss preparing to receive the matriarch's charge as May, Dew and Ren spread out to surround it.
You and Ruby quickly catch up to Blake and Pyrrha, the other three shooting at the nevermore as you run. It doesn't seem to do anything more than annoy the bird, but at least it isn't shooting back this time.
The nevermore swoops down to try and grab you, but the four of you are too quick. Blake and Pyrrha dodge to the side, taking the chance to slice at the bird's wings. You jump towards the nevermore, spearing it in the shoulder and propelling yourself higher above it. From here you see Ruby propel herself toward the diving nevermore with a gunshot, clearly hoping to use the combined momentum of her and the nevermore to cut through its wing. Though her scythe does bite deeply into the grimm's wing, it gets stuck on the bone and traps Ruby on top of the nevermore as it returns to the sky.
Instead of gaining altitude so it can divebomb you again the nevermore dives into the canyon, banking sharply as it flies out of your sight. You land next to Blake with a roll, looking to her for answers as she peers over the edge of the bridge.
"What could it possible gain from descending?" You ask, only for Blake's eyes to widen.
"It's going to destroy the bridge supports!" She says and immediately sprints further out onto the bridge, towards a solitary rising out of the canyon. Pyrrha is already at the edge of bridge, too far from the tower to jump to it. You follow Blake as the bridge starts to shake, the sounds of numerous collisions below you proving her right. The ground starts to fall away behind you, forcing you both to speed up in panic.
Blake easily leaves you behind, calling out to Pyrrha as she does. Pyrrha turns and falls into a crouch, holding her shield up as a platform for Blake to jump off of. With Pyrrha boosting her Blake manages cross most of the distance to the tower, throwing a blade that imbeds itself in the tower and lets her swing forwards on a ribbon attached to it.
You're too slow on foot - the collapsing part of the bridge has caught up to you, making every stride perilous. A misplaced foot almost sends you tumbling into the canyon, but you feel a new wave of energy surge through you. A flick of Equinox sends you flying forwards, the wind propelling you far faster than you could run.
When she see's you coming Pyrrha tries to jump for the tower herself, but she doesn't have the momentum to cross the distance. Instead you grab her wrist at the apex of her jump, forcing the wind to carry you both upwards. You only need a bit of a boost to carry you both to safety, landing right as the nevermore screeches at you. A glance down reveal it flying straight up, shredding the stone of the tower with its talons as it does. You can see Ruby still caught on the bird's back, her scythe now firmly embedded in its back. The three of you in the tower pull away from the nevermore's attack, Pyrrha shielding you from the spray of rubble with her shield.
Moments after the nevermore passes you a gunshot rings out. Less than a second later Ruby lands on the platform with a mad grin.
"Amber! Can you out fly the nevermore?" She asks. You take a moment to watch the nevermore bank back towards the tower before responding. It might be strong, fast and insanely durable, but you can definitely outmaneuver it.
"For a minute or two? Hell yeah." You declare.
"Great! See if you can get it to ram the tower again." Ruby says. You nod and run forwards, trusting that she has a plan. You dive off of the tower and let yourself fall for a moment, enjoying the rush of the wind around you as you find the nevermore. Apparently it hates having to chase you all down, since its taken the time to send what little bridge remains on the other side of the tower plummeting to the ground. When it sees you it screeches and sends a barrage of feathers flying towards you.
You easily dodge them by immediately catching yourself in the air, your cloak spreading out like a your own pair of wings. Below you the feathers fail to even strike the tower, blown off course by a downwards gust of wind. You laugh in glee as it the grimm fires more feathers at you, this time speeding upwards and toward it, watching the feathers miss you with no real effort from you.
The nevermore isn't bothering with its feathers anymore. Instead it accelerates, clearly intending to meet your charge with one of its own. You fly right for it, aiming Equinox for its eye as if you were a charging knight on horseback. Given the nevermore's size and speed any head on collision between the two of you would probably shatter your aura and send you plummeting to the ground. Its a good thing you're playing chicken and not really intending to hit the grimm.
At the last moment you dive, narrowly avoiding the nevermore's beak and talons. Its screech of fury is swiftly followed by it diving to follow you, turning as fast as it can. You fly a tight spiral as you reorient on the tower, accelerating before the nevermore can catch you. At this point you're pretty sure your main advantage in the air is that the nevermore corners like a bird, while you can apparently turn on a lien. It can probably fly faster than you too, but you have an undeniable advantage over short distances. Which is what this entire canyon is when you look at the grimm's wingspan.
You turn once you're close to the tower, seeing the nevermore is right behind you. It has you right where it wants you, until you stop flying and let yourself plummet again. As you start to fall you see its left eye explode, causing it to sceech in pain and flail in pain before it hits the tower. You halt your fall and start flying up, seeking to regain height before it can chase you again.
To your shock you see Blake jump off of the tower, aiming right for the nevermore. You can just about make out Ruby and Pyrrha as they continue shooting at the nevermore, but you focus on Blake. She's falling too fast for you to be do anything before she reaches the nevermore, but if it doesn't grab her you should be able to catch her.
But it doesn't look like you'll get that chance. Blake's jump was perfectly aimed and you see her plummet right towards the nevermore's beak. Just before it can swallow her whole you see her body twist. You watch as a second Blake somehow jumps off of the first, throwing her ribbon at the nevermore's talon as the first is swallowed. Moments later you hear a muffled explosion and watch as the nevermore's chest seems to collapse in on itself.
The grimm's wings beat futilely as it starts to fall, apparently no longer capable of flight. The second Blake has swung towards you rather than fall with it, her ribbon trailing behind her. You catch her automatically, stabbing Equinox into the tower to serve as a hand hold.
"What just happened?" You ask her. Blake frowns as she watches the nevermore fall.
"My semblance apparently works really well with gravity dust." She says, grabbing Equinox and pulling herself up to crouch on it.
"So its too heavy to fly?" You say in shock, before realising the fall won't be enough to kill the nevermore. "We need to kill it before it gets back up."
"Ruby's way ahead of you." Blake says, pointing at the top of the tower. You look up and see Pyrrha and Ruby in midair, Ruby throwing Pyrrha as high as she can. While Ruby obviously aims for you as she falls, Pyrrha instead fires her rifle again and again, propelling herself towards the nevermore as if she was holding Ruby's gun. She accelerates so fast that she hits the nevermore just as it hits the ground, decapitating it with her shield. You let go of Equinox in as you watch the spectacle, seeing the nevermore's head start to disintegrate before its body even finishes hitting the ground.
"Eeeeeeeeeeee" The sound of Ruby squealing in excitement as she falls snaps you and Blake out of your reverie and you both move to help Ruby. But she doesn't give you a chance to do anything, grabbing Blake's ribbon as she falls past you and bluriiing into motion as she touches the tower, somehow managing to circle it three times before coming to a stop in a cloud of rose petals.
"I told you it would work!" She calls out, presumably talking to Blake. "Sure we used up all my gravity rounds - but it was worth it!"
"So you're okay?" You ask her, watching her bob her head as she hangs from Blake's ribbon.
"A bit dizzy,, but I'm fine." She says, giving you a thumbs up. You look at the sheer canyon walls and the shattered pillars of stone that once reached the ground far above you.
"So whats the plan for getting out of here then? Because I'm pretty sure the best I can do while carrying you guys would be a slow glide that inevitably turns into a crash landing."
"Oh. Oops." Ruby says with a sheepish grin. Blake sighs in resignation.
"This is the next four years." She mutters. The sound of someone climbing up the tower keeps you and Ruby from responding. Looking down you see Pyrrha has reached Ruby, clinging to the stone with her fingertips.
"I think that went wonderfully." She says cheerfully. You and Ruby return her grin and the three of you wind up looking at Blake before she smiles a little back.
"We''l be fine." Ruby declares.
---
Between your flight and Blake's ribbon it doesn't actually take too long to return to the ruined bridge and see what happened. The other eight are there, all looking to be just as tired and thrilled as you feel. The walk back to Beacon is devoid of grimm, letting you swap stories of what happened freely. It seems Weiss' group managed to vanquish the boarbatusk matriarch by wearing it down - May shot out its eyes and shattered one of its tusks, Weiss and Dew trapped it in a localized blizzard that slowed it down and Ren managed to cut it down the length of its spine before Weiss and Dew could impale it through its belly.
You finally get the blonde guy's name - Jaune - as Cardin Yang and Nora start bragging about their 'plan'. It sounds like Jaune managed to keep the alpha beowolf's attention solely on him while the others cleared out its pack. Apparently he kept cutting clean through its limbs, only for one of the lesser beowolves to suffer the injury in its place. In the end the alpha forced all four of them to fight it, but when it suddenly singled out Cardin the others managed to hit if with so much its defenses were overwhelmed, leaving it wide open for Cardin to crush its skull.
The worst part about all of it was still to come though. When you arrived back at the cliffs you were quickly ushered back to the auditorium, apparently the last students to leave the forest. As the twelve of you walk people start to cheer. You look around in shock, counting the people standing in the room - there were at least twice as many people here than when Ozpin gave his speech yesterday. You watch in a daze as the other initiates are called up to the stage, their teams named to applause and cheers from what must be Beacon's entire student body.
Soon enough it's your turn. Jaune and Weiss had been named as the leaders of Team JNCY and SLMD respectively, leaving just the four of you that took down the giant nevermore. You robotically follow Pyrrha up onto the stage, the smile on your face getting wider and wider. After everything that happened, after all your doubt, you'd succeeded. You were a student at Beacon now, all but guaranteeing you'd become a huntress. You grin at the crowd when you're all introduced as team RANB and whistle when Ruby is named as your leader. She'd certainly earned the position.
Fortunately there's no party after the ceremony, allowing you all to start relaxing. You take the time to congratulate the others and laugh as Yang showers Ruby with affection until she's futilely trying to squirm free of her sisters arms. There's a hundred little moments like that, with everyone celebrating their success. But you're too tired to notice any of it. When your team eventually finds your dorm and retires for the night you don't even bother to change or shower. You just collapse onto the closest bed and let sleep claim you. It's only as you fall asleep that you think something coherent again.
It's too bad we couldn't do this for real.
~~~~~~~~
What do you dream of?
[ ] Childhood and Hope
[ ] Disaster and Betrayal
- Location
- Florida
[X] Childhood and Hope
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Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Childhood and Hope
- Location
- United States
[X] Disaster and Betrayal
- Location
- United States
[X] Childhood and Hope
Thinking if she's had nightmares for awhile then its certainly time for a good dream.
Thinking if she's had nightmares for awhile then its certainly time for a good dream.
- Location
- AR
[X] Disaster and Betrayal
- Location
- United States
Wait a moment, it just occured to me (unless I'm remembering wrong) but wasn't the book Blake was reading when Ruby went to talk to her about someone having two souls or something? But now Blake and Ruby are on the same team as someone who does currently have two souls.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Disaster and Betrayal
- Location
- Florida
Yeah I'm pretty sure that was a thing the night before orientation. I wasn't thinking of that when I voted for Ruby, but now I'm twice as glad I did lol
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Is there anything about the book in canon? I can totally buy a plot thread where Blake is low key picking up that Amber is suspiciously similar to the MC of her book.
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[X] Childhood and Hope
- Location
- United States
I just checked the rwby wiki article involving literature and apparently its called: "The Man with Two Souls" and its Remnant's version of: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Also its apparently called back to with Oscar Pine apparently.
shepsquared
Erratic Aussie
- Location
- Melbourne, Australia
You've managed to mix up the options somehow. This isn't a valid option.
Because hope has never been seen as a bad thing.
kadehex
The Miraculous Owl
- Location
- NC,USA
Okay I fixed it
[X] Childhood and Hope
- Location
- Somewhere
um...
I think this still isn't a valid option?
kadehex
The Miraculous Owl
- Location
- NC,USA
Why not one of them could have a bad childhood and one of them could have a good childhood making the childhood and disaster choice
- Location
- Somewhere
Eh...shep doesn't seem to really allow write-ins in this quest? But we can wait for the QM to weigh in.
also
"If it wasn't a nightmare, then why are you so sad?"
"Because it ended."
kadehex
The Miraculous Owl
- Location
- NC,USA
Hope can be a bad thing that is why there is false hope which would destroy people when it collapses