ωєιѕѕ ѕ¢нηєє (notmadeofstone) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-07-01 21:34:00 |
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Like she did more often than not, Ruby had fallen asleep while working on Crescent Rose. She’d been keeping busy - which was easy with having to prepare for graduation in a couple of months and staying on top of her schoolwork and everything else she did with training and seeing friends. And ignoring what Yang had told her. No, she wasn’t ignoring her, it was always there, but she just couldn’t focus on it. Not really, even as she had started to see if there was something she could do to help Summer get her memories back.
But that was all theoretical and so would stay quiet.
Still, Crescent Rose had needed to be cleaned and the young woman had been at her work station in her pajamas working on her when she’d fallen asleep, weapon still in hand.
Then she woke up and it was clear that she wasn’t in her work room, or her house, or anywhere that looked familiar.
“Huh?”
Crescent Rose in hand, Ruby started to look around. It wasn’t Remnant, so she wasn’t too concerned about Grimm and she was curious to see where she was. And to figure out how to get back.
Weiss had her own cares that tended to keep her up late these days, though likely nothing on the level of most people living in Orange County. She'd just gotten her aura and her glyphs, needed to brush up on the use of her weapon, her brother was constantly on her case. That night she'd actually fallen asleep while doing some research in the magic guild's library. There was nothing there about the 'magic' of Remnant, but she had hope she'd find something to help her control her semblance anyway.
She had no idea what was going on when she opened her eyes to nowhere she'd ever seen before. The cup of coffee she must have fallen asleep holding was still in her hands, and she was still wearing the dress she'd had on that day. It was warm and sticky, wherever she now was. Weiss waved her hand at her face and sighed, "Why do these strange Orange County occurrences never put us in amazing fairy lands with cool breezes and fruity drinks?"
There was an odd tingling at the base of her spine and she realised just in time that it was her aura warning her to turn around. While she'd been complaining, some wild beast had snuck up on her and she let out a very loud yelp. It was taller than her and sizing her up in a way that made her extremely uncomfortable. She tossed her coffee mug at its snout, turned on her heel, and started to run.
Ruby had been investigating the area - still looking for a way back and to try and get home so that her dad wouldn’t worry. Well, her dad always worried, just like Yang. But so far? Nothing was coming up and so Ruby was just getting a lay of the land. It wasn’t even like Mountain Glenn. There had at least been buildings there even though it was destroyed. There was just...nothing. No, not nothing. Just plants and heat and grossness.
At least at first.
Hearing a yelp, Ruby ran in the direction and saw the animal seeming to go after someone. Well, that just wouldn’t do. On the one hand - she remembered what Oobleck said about the mammoth Grimm, how they were so large because they knew how to survive and didn’t go after people often. But this wasn’t a Grimm, and someone was in danger. So using Crescent Rose to propel her forward, and from the air shot the creature and landed.
“Are you o--Weiss?”
Hearing the gun shot go off, Weiss had skidded to a halt just in time to miss falling into some plant life. Thankfully, when she turned around to survey who'd taken the beast out, she saw that it was Ruby. It would have been particularly painful if it had been some stranger again.
She dusted herself off and tried to look less afraid than she was. "I'm not going to call you my hero, but thank you for saving me. I really should start carrying Myrtenaster with me everywhere I go. This is getting ridiculous."
Weiss did a cursory glance over Ruby, making sure she hadn't gotten wounded in the process of taking the creature down. Though she knew better than to worry, most of the time. Ruby could usually take care of herself. "Where do you suppose we are?"
“You’re welcome!” Because why wouldn’t Ruby save Weiss? True she hadn’t known who she was saving but it was the way she was. Why she had wanted to be a Huntress in the dreams in the first place. To help people. “It is pretty Orange County typical. I mean… I was just cleaning Crescent Rose when I showed up here but..well yeah. Better to be safe.”
Thank goodness for Crescent Rose having a resting mode so she could carry it around without raising too much attention and getting questions.
As for the question? Ruby shrugged.
“Not really…No.”
It was definitely one failing of Weiss's weapon that it couldn't be easily collapsed for travel. In the dreams, she never minded; Myrtenaster was a gorgeous weapon and she enjoyed showing it off. But the real world was quite another matter and Weiss was still trying to figure out how to carry it around without getting arrested.
"It has to be some sort of... prehistoric... something. Or maybe someone else's dream world. But you never hear about other people discussing worlds with gigantic killer animals on the network." Weiss shrugged a shoulder. She liked to think she'd studied well during her schooling, but you could only retain so much. "Usually it's just us mentioning the Grimm. I still can't believe you saw some the size of elephants. I honestly hope we never have to fight one of those."
Some things were definitely more complicated to explain in Orange County than they were in the dreams. Like walking around with a weapon. In Remnant, it was perfectly normal. People trained to hunt Grimm and they were necessary for survival. Here? Well. Here, not so much Walking around with a dust wielding glyph creating rapier? Not easy to explain.
“Maybe both? It’s usually both.” At least that seemed to be the way of it.
“And yeah. Some people talk more about their dreams than other people do. I think that because there’s so many of us, the more likely it is to come up.”
It at least made sense to her. Ruby didn’t talk about the Dreams all that much. Part of it was that she hadn’t had many recently and nothing she felt worthwhile to talk about. But also it was more her personality and feeling awkward and unless something was super cool (like the food fight) then there wasn’t much to talk about. Why dwell on the past? She’d rather keep living her life here.
Even if she was getting headaches and was worried and trying to make sense of everything.
“But yeah. They were definitely big but also pretty smart. They don’t come near people and that’s how they got so big so we’re less likely to face them.”
"That's even more terrifying. The idea that the Grimm are actually that smart." Weiss said, nodding her head decisively. She prided herself on doing all of the research and readings, but there were a lot more Grimm out there in the world than Professor Port had ever taught them about, or would. Some he hadn't seen or faced, himself, and others that he probably had never known existed.
And that was scary, when Weiss stopped to give it thought. So instead, she decided to make sure her aura was up, and gazed around the nearby foliage for a makeshift weapon. "There are going to be more of ... whatever it is we're facing. I think I need something to help me direct my glyphs if I'm going to be of any use to you, here."
Oh Weiss had no idea what was in store in the dreams and Ruby honestly didn’t know how to bring it up. The Vytal Festival, the Fall of Beacon… the fight against Salem. She was just better at facing things as they happened, even if she stressed about trying to know what to say about what was coming up.
Still. Thank goodness for aura. It helped in these situations. But then Weiss was mentioning needing something to direct her glyphs and she looked around.
“Would a branch or something work?” It wasn’t like they really had all that many options.
"Unless you think we'll find a mysterious sword hiding somewhere in the bushes..." Weiss replied, trying to use her best joking voice. It was still in need of work, but she was trying to lighten up a little. "A stick should be sufficient. Hopefully someday if I practice enough with my glyphs, I won't need anything like it anymore."
Though of course her weapon would always be a special part of her, just as Crescent Rose was for Ruby. Weiss simply didn’t like the idea of being rendered helpless without it.v cn
Weiss pointed at a nearby tree, where a lower hanging branch came to a perfect point. It reminded her a little of some of the magic wands seen in Harry Potter movies, which she would never admit she'd been watching recently. "Can you cut the end of that one off? I wanted practice but honestly not like this. I hope we can get out of whatever this is unscathed."
“I mean, you never know…” And you really didn’t when it came to Orange County and the things that could happen. So a mysterious sword hiding in the bushes? Not all that impossible really. But she took no insult at the comment as she could tell it was an attempt at lightening the mood - thank goodness for the Dreams in that to help her realize that instead of getting anxious that she had just made things worse.
Seeing where Weiss was pointing, Ruby nodded and made a run for the tree, using Crescent Rose to give her air when she jumped and swung down, getting the branch that Weiss had pointed to. Once landed and Crescent Rose back in resting position, she picked up the branch and headed back to her companion.
“Here you go.”
"Perfect! And you still excell at showing off." Weiss said, still joking, as she took the branch. She adjusted her grip on the thing and slashed it about in the air, to and fro, like she was wielding her old fencing foil. The stick was nothing like it of course, but the weight was good.
Weiss pictured a glyph in her mind's eye and twirled the stick in a small circle, then nodded as the glyph appeared. "There. Now I'm not completely defenseless. I don't think I can handle a time dilation glyph but I should be able to give you something more than trees to bounce off of."
Ruby just blinked at the showing off comment then shrugged it off. Weiss didn’t seem annoyed so she figured it was a joke as well and instead watched as she practiced with the glyph to see if the idea would work. Which it did.
“Yay! I’m glad it worked out!”
Because of course she was. Weiss being able to defend herself was important and they could at least do some things as partners with her glyphs. It was something at any rate.
It was good progress. Weiss felt confident that she could train with the team now, if they even did that kind of thing. She tried another glyph, and then another, before tucking the stick into the belt of her dress. "So what's our next move, Leader? Should we scout around? Make sure the others didn't somehow get transported here? Not that they couldn't take care of themselves. Blake and Yang are obviously further ahead of all of this than I am."
There was, for instance, Yang's arm. Which had never been explained yet, but the tech seemed entirely too familiar. "Wait, is that Atlas tech on Yang's hand? Well if that's the case then they've definitely witnessed more than me. Apparently much more, given the... arm situation."
There were definitely team training things that happened so Weiss joining those would be good. Assuming that the team didn’t completely fall apart because of all the complicated issues of feelings and dealing with trauma and needs and wants being in complete opposite of one another. That was still a major concern for Ruby even though she knew Qrow was right and that there was nothing she could do about it except be there as support and see how things worked out after the initial badness if it got to that point.
“Trying to see if they’re here would be good.” Just in case. But then Weiss paused with her realization about Yang’s arm and the tech on it.
“Um. Yeah. That’s Atlas tech on her arm… and yeah. There’s a lot that you have yet to see.” Which was hard to get into but she would answer whatever questions she could.
"A lot of things that I have yet to see? That seems like a gross understatement. Someone loses an arm." Weiss replied, one of her eyebrows raising up at Ruby.
She knew that Ruby’s approach so far with her had been somewhat hands off, and that was probably for the best. But whatever happened to them in the future just seemed to sound worse and worse. "Is there anything at all you think you should warn me about before I dream it? Or... is it all going to only make sense when I see it with my own eyes?"
The comment on someone losing an arm just caused Ruby to look down. Even though she logically knew that there was nothing she could have done since she wasn’t there…. Hands off approaches tended to work, mostly because it was hard to know what to say and how much was wanted to be known ahead of time. But she also knew that if Weiss actually asked then of course she would tell her.
And not just because she couldn’t lie to save her life.
“Um… I don’t know. I mean vague warnings would just lead to more questions and if you want a basic rundown of what I know at least… then I’ll give it to you. Have you gotten to the Vytal Festival yet? Or are you still at Mountain Glenn since you mentioned the Goliath Grimm?”
Did Ruby want to talk about what would happen? Not really. She just wanted things to develop naturally here without all of that but here they were. Dealing with large animals that were extinct and talking about the Dreams.
"I'm not even sure," Weiss responded, wondering if she really did want a run down or not. Vague warnings would definitely lead to more questions, and the more she asked the more Ruby would have to mention. And she wasn't completely blind to the fact that her captain tended to look down or over off at some trees or just hesitate in general when these things came up. Whatever happened, it had to be bad. If it was things they were all going to dream about, did Weiss really need to put Ruby through recounting it all?
She didn't know. But she did know the answer to the other question, at least. "We completed the team component of the festival and were about to decide who would go on to the semi-finals. Maybe it would be better if I just dreamed it all myself, but... does anything happen to me? You don't have to tell me what it is, but I'd like to prepare myself for whatever it is. I think that might be a good compromise."
Okay. Ruby could do that. It was still hard to really explain without some detail but the things that were really hard to talk about, like Penny and Pyrrha? Well… she didn’t need to go into those for what she was going to tell Weiss. Especially since it was clear that Weiss was going to get there rather soon from what she was saying. Definitely a good thing to warn her then.
“At the finals, things go really bad. They’d been starting to because everything was being manipulated from the shadows…. A bunch of people, panic and fear….” They knew what that was a recipe for. “Anyway, in all of that is when Yang lost her arm… we were all separated doing different fights. Afterwards, apparently your dad made you go back to Atlas.”
Shrugging, Ruby rubbed the back of her neck. Yeah that wasn’t helpful at all. But that was all Ruby really knew about what happened with Weiss. They’d been teamed up to go find Pyrrha but that… well…. It wasn’t as necessary to the story.
“We eventually meet up again though, so you don’t stay there but I don’t really know the specifics about everything up to that point.”
Fear and panic at a festival with that many people attending was definitely a recipe for disaster. Weiss knew they'd come across some evil plot during their first mission together. It had been assumed that they had captured the person involved and saved the day, but perhaps there was more to it than that.
She guessed she'd find out sooner or later. The warning about her father made her stop for a moment, and she winced. "Well, that will be... a nightmare, when I get to it. I'm glad you warned me, though."
And about their team scattering. It felt a little like that these days, already. "Maybe we can find ways to keep the team together, here in the real world. Or get them back together. Or... something. First, by making sure they aren't getting chewed on by anything gigantic."
Ruby gave a small nod. At least the warning was appreciated. It was always complicated in knowing what to say or if she should say anything or had been the case with Pyrrha and Jaune… not knowing what to say.
As for the team? All they could really do was see what happened and hope the best.
“That’s definitely a good first step.”