Qrow Branwen is a bad luck charm (scareqrow) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-01-18 18:05:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, qrow branwen, ruby rose |
Who: Qrow, Ruby, NPC!Professor
What: Dream injuries give one of Ruby's professors the wrong idea; Said professor also questions Qrow as Ruby's "real" uncle
When: Earlier today
Where: UC Irvine campus
Warnings: Low; References to dream violence
Status: Log | Complete
So. Much. Travelling. Ruby really hadn’t known how long it would take to get to Haven. Patch had been relatively small in comparison but it hadn’t mattered when the group had come across the abandoned village. Oniyuri. It made her feel uneasy. All they wanted to do was just get through it and on their way. There was just… something about it.
But then Ren had heard something and some strange man had shown up. The uneasy feeling had intensified, especially when it was clear he was after her. Ruby didn’t know why. At least until it seemed that he was there at Cinder’s behest. Or not. It was hard to keep up with what he was saying. And doing. It wasn’t like there weren’t injuries or the like when fighting Grimm, but this? This was something entirely different. Even with four of them fighting him, this strange person was managing to get the best of them.
Then it turned out he was a faunus. Not that it would stop them. But each hit she took depleted her aura all the more. Knocked to the ground, Ruby struggled to get up and then somehow… Uncle Qrow was there.
“Hey.”
And that was when she woke up. Turning to pick up her phone, Ruby winced some at the movement even though it had been slight. Okay, not the first time she’d woken up sore because of the Dreams. With all the fighting of Grimm, it was pretty normal, as were random scrapes and bruises, things that normally in the dreams her Aura would take care of but her Aura wasn’t activated at night and so she usually dealt with the injuries. So she didn’t think much of it at first.
At least until she sat up and pain radiated throughout her body that seemed to knock her breath away. Not good. Not. Good. Okay she could do this. Managing to get up, Ruby noticed that even her hands were scrapped up. Well that made sense but she was more worried about the fact her entire body hurt. Going to the mirror, she lifted her shirt and winced both from the movement of her stiff muscles as well as the dark bruising. That would be...fun. But right. She had to get ready for classes and to not worry her dad. Just because he was on the network now didn’t mean she wanted to worry him unnecessarily.
On campus, Ruby was doing her best not to aggravate the injuries, or to let anyone know that she was hurting. At least, that was the plan until she was in one of her classes and not only had her professor noticed that she was moving slower, the hem of her shirt had lifted when she was reaching for something and the bruising was noticed. Which led to said professor worrying that there was abuse going on which was part of the ‘things which are required to be reported’ and Ruby trying to convince them that no, she was fine and her uncle was one of her emergency contacts and he was on campus so really there was no need for any of this fuss.
Okay. The floor could swallow her up and make this all go away. That would be great. She could already feel a headache forming, the type she seemed to get when overcome by guilt in the dreams or just feeling overwhelmed ever since the Grimm had attacked Orange County.
Qrow was in the middle of one of his morning 100 level classes when his cell phone went off, causing the mix of Freshmen and Sophomores to laugh, because apparently their professor had forgotten to put his phone on silent and had broken one of his own rules. Qrow wasn’t sure if it was better or worse that whoever decided that now was a good time to call him wasn’t someone in his contact list. Certain members of his family had their own special ringtones, set one evening after Qrow had downed a bottle of gin and had just never been bothered to change them again. So...at least Beeker wasn’t whining from within Qrow’s leather messenger bag.
On the other hand, an unknown caller could literally have been anyone trying to get a hold of him. One of his other clients. Granted Qrow used a different burner phone for the buying and selling of information, but it wasn’t too unusual for him to occasionally have that number forwarded to his regular phone. Especially if he found himself on campus for more than 8 hours.
“Yeah, yeah,” he held up a hand to quiet his class’s sniggering as he stepped back towards the podium. “This may come as a shock to you, but even us professors have lives outside the classroom. And sometimes those lives annoyingly remind us that they’re there.” A few more sniggers.
Qrow lifted the flap of his bag and frowned slightly. The number wasn’t in his contact list, but he recognized it anyway as belonging to a university phone line. He also noted that a message had been left. Well, fine. Whoever it was could wait until his class was over. Christ, you’d think a fellow professor would know better than to call in the middle of the morning -- or at least to check the schedule of the person they were calling.
“Alright,” Qrow turned from his bag and back to his class, “where were we…?”
Just shy of 20 minutes later, Qrow’s class had let out and Qrow was listening to one very bizzare message as he headed back towards his office. Apparently one of Ruby’s professors wanted to talk to him. He didn’t really say why, but apparently he wanted to talk to a member of Ruby’s family as soon as possible. Today. Now. There was something about that and the other man’s tone that put Qrow immediately on edge. Given everything that had happened in recent months, Qrow didn’t want to leave anything to chance. He quickly altered his course and headed towards the engineering department.
When Qrow was unable to be reached, Ruby had tried to escape. Promise that there was nothing wrong and please let it go. But her professor refused to budge on the matter and honestly with how stressed she was getting, the headache behind her eyes, the teen just relented to waiting to see if her uncle showed up. Oh the joys of non-Dreamers seeing the injuries from the Dreams and not understanding.
Though at least her uncle would fret less than her dad. There was that at any rate. Ruby didn’t think she could handle that sort of worry right now.
Feeling antsy, Ruby was evasive about the answers she gave to the questions her professor tried to pull out of her just because there was no easy way to answer and it seemed to solidify in his mind that something was going on that he needed to report to the proper authorities. Of course when the question was if it were her dad hurting her and was that why she hadn’t wanted him to be notified? That just made her eyes widen in shock, unaware of the door.
“What? No! Of course not!”
What was with people getting all the wrong ideas?! First the stupid newspaper lady (which still confused Ruby) and now this?
It was then she noticed her uncle and felt herself relax some. It was the same relief (okay so slightly different since different situation entirely) that she had in the Dream right before she woke up, when Qrow had stopped the creepy Faunus’ attack on her and she had known that things would be okay. Oh that blind faith and trust in her uncle.
Considering that Ruby’s professor had taken the liberty to call Qrow in the middle of class and not say in his message why, Qrow had taken the liberty to let himself into the other man’s office without knocking first. He caught the tail end of what the professor was asking and Ruby’s adamant protest that she was not being abused by her father.
It didn’t take Qrow more than half a second to realize what was going on. He and Ruby were Dreaming fairly close together now. He’d Dreamed of arriving just in time to prevent her from being skewered by a faunus with a scorpion tail. Just in time. Had he been even one half a second later…Regardless, if their current pattern of Dream bleedovers were holding true, Ruby must have woken up looking as though she’d gone a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson.
Qrow’s eyes immediately fell on his niece the moment he entered the other professor’s office. Christ, the girl looked tired. Exhausted. She didn’t look as bad as Qrow had expected. Then again, he’d gotten to the fight late. He had no idea what kind of injuries Ruby would be sporting under her clothes.
“Heya, kiddo,” he smiled at her. An easy, reassuring smile. Everything would be fine now. He promised. He gently mussed her hair. “Having an exciting morning, huh?”
“Professor Branwen,” the other man’s voice drew his attention away from Ruby.
Qrow took a step forward, putting himself between the professor and Ruby. “Everything’s fine, Gerrod,” he assured him easily and calmly. “Ruby’s just-”
“Everything is clearly not fine!” The other professor cut Qrow off. “Obviously, something is happening here. Something very wrong!”
“Nothing’s wrong, Gerrod,” Qrow insisted, keeping that easy, calm tone in his voice. “Look, I know what it must look like, but Tai loves his girls. He would never do anything to hurt them.”
“You cannot know that for certain, Qrow,” the other professor argued.
“Of course I know that!” Qrow answered, his patience was just starting to slip. “If you’d just let me explain--”
“You can’t,” the other professor shook his head. “I understand that you and Miss Rose are exceptionally close, but you are not really her uncle. Not truly her family. You have no way of knowing what goes on behind closed doors.”
Qrow stared. Did this guy seriously just say….?!
Qrow’s shoulders went tight. “Excuse me?” It was his turn to cut the other man off mid sentence. “Where the hell do you get off?”
It was like a visible weight seemed to vanish as Qrow entered. She could tell by the smile that things would be fine now. Though it was true that she felt like she’d gone a couple rounds with Mike Tyson even as most of the evidence of that was beneath her clothes besides the scraped up hands as she was in a long sleeved shirt that day.
“Hey, Uncle Qrow… sorry about this.” Because of course she was. All of this was ridiculous and a bunch of things being made out of nothing. Still, she was relieved when it put himself between her and her professor. She knew that the man had good intentions, but he wasn’t listening and while she was used to that based on her age and well, in STEM, gender, she figured her professor would at least listen to her uncle.
That, and she wanted to get the headache under control now that she wasn’t feeling bombarded by questions she couldn’t actually answer and trying to get out of it. She didn’t know if she’d do...whatever it was she’d done before but she also didn’t want to find out.
At least that was the plan. Because even as she knew her uncle would get it sorted, she was still picking up on the insinuations. And the fact that Qrow was beginning to lose his patience with said questions and insinuations. But it was the claim that Qrow couldn’t know what was going on behind closed doors because he wasn’t really family that got to her.
Jumping up, Ruby winced but ignored it because really? Why should any of that matter?! Just how she had said that being a robot instead of having guts and squishy things didn’t make Penny any less human, or that just because Blake was a Faunus didn’t mean she was less than anyone…
“Uncle Qrow is just as much my family as my dad and sister! Just because he’s not related to me by blood doesn’t change that!”
Yep. Ruby Rose. Would just deal with questions and cruel comments aimed at her, but bring in her loved ones and she got defensive. Honestly it was just a good thing she didn’t seem to think Qrow was about to die because then the pressure behind her eyes might be more than just pressure and a migraine.
Ruby’s sudden outburst caught Qrow’s attention and he looked back over his shoulder at his niece. She was on her feet ready to defend him. He couldn’t help the smile. She was so much like her mother.
The other professor also seemed a little startled by Ruby’s outburst. He stood up a little straighter behind his desk. He regarded the girl with raised brows and a clearly startled expression. “I understand you must feel that way, Miss Rose,” the man tried to explain himself, “I didn’t mean to offend you, but that isn’t the same thing.”
Qrow let out a breath and rolled his eyes. Leave it to an engineer to see things in such black and white terms. He was thankful that Ruby at least knew the difference. “We’re done here,” he stated flatly.
“Ruby, we’re leaving. I’m hungry and I think we both could use an early lunch.”
“But, Qrow!” The other professor objected. “Aren’t you at least--”
“No, Gerrod, I’m not,” Qrow turned back on the other man with a gesture as though he were slicing the air. “I know my niece and I know my brother-in-law. If you had just given me half a moment to explain instead of jumping to conclusions, you would have heard me say that I’ve been training Ruby.”
“Training her?”
“Yeah,” Qrow folded his arms. Goddamn how easy these types of lies just came to him. “Her sister’s into MMA, and Ruby was curious. I did a little MMA fighting back in the day, so I volunteered to teach her some moves. You would have known that if you’d let me actually speak.”
“MMA,” the other professor mused. “Mixed martial arts?” Brows still raised, he looked past Qrow at Ruby, “is that true, Miss Rose?”
Could this meeting end yet? Ruby really wanted it to end now. But she also was extremely unhappy at stupid comments about how Qrow wasn’t family just because he wasn’t related to her by blood. He’d always been there for her and her family. It was just the way it was. One of the things she liked most about engineering - why she was so good at it - was because she could look at something and see how things just fit. Well, Qrow just fit with their family and she had always been close to him. And that was all there was to it.
So she nodded at his comment about this meeting being done and getting an early lunch. At least until her professor had to keep pushing. But it seemed that Qrow had an answer to give. Which of course he did. And while she was really bad at lying, it wasn’t so hard to agree to it just by the wording of things.
“Yep. Uncle Qrow’s always offered to train me in things I’m interested in. I’m just really bad at the whole...fighting thing.” At least hand to hand and close combat.
Qrow grinned at her and nodded. Good girl. When he looked back at the other professor, however, the grin was gone and replaced by a very annoyed look. “Are you satisfied now, Gerrod? Or do you want to embarrass and alienate your student even more?”
The other’s professors lips were pursed together. He looked between Ruby and Qrow once or twice before shaking his head. “Well, if that’s what the girl says, what choice do I have but to believe her.”
You’re damn right you’re going to believe her, you pompous, self righteous, ass--
“Good,” Qrow nodded. He turned around and motioned for Ruby towards the door, “C’mone, squirt. I didn’t have breakfast this morning and I’m starving.”
While lying usually made her super uncomfortable, it wasn’t a real lie since Qrow did train her in things and she was bad at fighting. But also, if it kept her dad out of trouble and didn’t lead to her professor trying to file some sort of police report because of school rules? Well… she was okay with it.
And he believed it, which was a major relief given everything that was on the table.
“I didn’t either, probably explains the headache.” And why she couldn’t give an answer before when questioned. Well that and just how overwhelmed and bombarded she’d felt. But it would at least give a reason to an insistent, if well meaning at the end of the day, professor. And she could then tell her uncle about what actually happened even though he probably put it together since that was how Qrow was and because he did understand about Dream crossover.
Qrow guided her towards the door. With one more annoyed look shot at the other professor for good measure, Qrow and Ruby were finally out of the man’s office and in the clear. “Whew,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair. The two of them started making their way through the engineering department and towards the cafeteria. “That was an ordeal.” He glanced down at his niece walking next to him. “Sorry about all that, kiddo. I take it you Dreamed about fighting that scorpion guy, huh?”
And that answered that question on if Qrow would know just what had happened. Which made it at least a little bit easier to explain. Mostly. It wasn’t as if Ruby actually knew why she’d been targeted. And it was just that. She’d been targeted, it wasn’t just a random run in with a bandit or something.
“Yeah… he was very focused on getting me. He made me uncomfortable.” There was a lot that Ruby didn’t understand. “He said something about his goddess? But it wasn’t Cinder.” It was a lot. Okay so all of it was a lot. But really, being targeted like that was a whole different level.
“Goddess?” Qrow repeated with a frown. The name Salem came to mind, but he didn’t know why. Outside of a city in Massachusetts famous for witch trials, the name meant nothing to him. At least, not yet. So without any further information, Qrow kept the name to himself. He sighed and shook his head. “We’ll figure it out eventually,” he said. Not like they had a choice. They couldn’t even ask Yang anymore. “In the meantime, if Dream injuries bleed through and someone asks you about them, just stick with the MMA story, alright? You don’t have to make it fancy. Just say I’m teaching you a few moves. It’s not exactly a lie. I am training you.” He smirked at her. “How’re you feeling otherwise? Sore?”
So Qrow didn’t know either, well. It wasn’t like he could know everything even if sometimes it felt like he did. Oh well. It wasn’t that important. Yes she would like to know why she was being targeted (well Cinder would have at least made sense) but if not, she’d deal with it. “Yeah, I guess we will.”
Because that was the nature of the Dreams. Besides, there was the more pressing matters, like the fact that this clearly wouldn’t be the last Dream she woke up from with injuries and she might need to explain them away.
“Okay, I can do that.” And she could. As for the question on how she was doing? “Yeah. Definitely sore. Also I keep getting headaches. Probably just because of the whole… lighter colored iris or something.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, but he wasn’t sure about that either and it concerned him a little. Something he was going to have to keep an eye on. Him and the rest of Ruby’s family. He ruffled her hair again. “For now, though, let’s worry about lunch, huh? I’m thinking maybe we go off campus and treat ourselves. Whaddya say?"
Ruby had been planning to ask Ozpin about it, to see if it tied into the Silver Eye thing as her uncle hadn’t mentioned it when he told her about them in the Dreams but he’d been all….creepy about the angel thing so that had never happened. But it was either just the light sensitivity of lighter colored irises or realizing that it always was when she was feeling overwhelmed and pulled in different directions or extremely stressed. And that meant introspection and thinking about all the trauma from the Dreams and guilt. Nope. Easier to accept the light colored iris theory.
So for now?
“Definitely!”