Update (October 1 2013): I realized I didn't put a disclaimer on here. So here it is. Everything in here is not my property but for my original character. RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth and elements from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e belong to Wizards of the Coast.
I dropped out of the sky at least a few miles above the ground. Of course my reaction would be to panic, and so panic I did. My throat ran dry after a couple of minutes of screaming and yelling and calling for my mommy.
When I was finally calm I took note of my situation. I was falling, and the ground was approaching, which if I did nothing in regards to that, I would obviously be smashed to my death. I took a very quick second to focus, bringing my mind to that serene state where I could process everything in a logical and efficient rate.
I was approaching the ground at terminal velocity, or 122 miles per hour. A divination told me that I was three fourths of a mile above ground. Below me was a snowy field and forest of sorts. I couldn't tell exactly if the red and black I was seeing down there were actually moving about as fast as I thought or it was some trick of my eyes. The best solution to my problem appeared in my head and I immediately enacted it.
My body expanded, skin shifting and bones cracking as my form changed. I grew a long tail, two wings and my forearms and feet shifted to the style of a four legged creature with deadly claws. My neck elongated and my face narrowed into the fierce maw of a dragon. Bronze dragon to be precise. I could form into others, but I preferred this form, one I was based off of a friend of mine, Anaglaz the Bronze. It would be inevitable for me to hit the ground so I pulled in my wings and limbs to streamline my body and increase my speed. At a quarter of a mile I leveled myself out, flared my wings to slow my descent. From this distance I could tell with my draconic eyes that below me the shifting field of black and red was actually a red humanoid fighting black beasts, of similar quality to werewolves and their ilk.
My wings began to move massive amounts of air as I flapped them to further slow my descent. The combatants below didn't seem to notice my presence but for a few werewolf creatures on the edges of the melee. But I was a dragon at the moment and such petty things wouldn't be able to hurt me as I was.
As I closed in on the ground, I came to know that the red humanoid was a young girl, probably on the cusp of womanhood. I had been holding in the innate frightful presence that dragons gave off, but at this sight I released it. I was a goodly man and fighting to save a young girl from bloodthirsty monsters would never be an evil thing.
The effect my presence had on the creatures was immediate. As well as the girl, I did not have enough control to only effect the wolf creatures. They all immediately began to cower in fear as I descended from on high. I let loose a loud roar as I landed on the ground, sending snow flying into the air. I had landed on a couple of the wolf creatures and so was surrounded by more. Incidentally, I had landed at the end of the wolves' lines and could see the mass of them either cowering, looking positively murderous toward me, or the girl that was holding a large scythe at the other end of them.
A beat passed between the three sides, me, the girl and the wolves, before on an unseen signal the fight began again. I roared again and a line of lightning sprung out from my mouth, shocking and roasting all in a sixty foot line. Then I called upon my psionic abilities, releasing my serene state of mind in order to let loose a massive wave of fire in a cone to the left. The left and right were mostly dead, with only a few stragglers so I turned to watch the girl charge through the middle. She moved at speeds I had only seen in monks and crazed barbarians and she fought much like a barbarian herself, with her scythe spinning and slashing wildly about all accompanied by the loud banging, a sound I could not place, only sounding slightly similar to those newfangled devices some alchemists were making called cannons.
Actually I must retract my statement about her being a barbarian of sorts, observed more closely, she appeared to be some sort of dervish, her scythe skillfully slicing into her foes while she nimbly moved about the battlefield. I was entranced by her dance, as it was a beautiful thing. I ignored those wolves who made to attack me in my distraction, they did nothing anyway, their claws bouncing and sliding off my sturdy scales. Soon enough her dance was over and my entertainment gone. I absentmindedly skewered the few remaining wolves on my claws and through them to the side.
She struck a pose in the snow, with her scythe across her shoulders and surrounded by the bodies of the wolves. She stared up at me, and I was actually slightly amazed, she was fully fending off my draconic presence. I decided to speak first, being my customary thing. "Hello little one, my name is Alsif, might I ask yours?"
She cocked her head to the side in an adorable manner before she answered, "Hello Mr. Alsif, I'm Ruby, are you a Grimm of somesort?"
Now it was my turn to cock my head, though in a confused manner, "Grimm you say? I am sure I am not one Ms. Ruby, however I would have to ask what a Grimm is though, I have no idea of what you are speaking."
Evidently at that, she believed me no longer threatening as her scythe shifted and folded in a compact form, fabulous weapon that, before she answered. "You don't know what Grimms are? There evil creatures and I'm training to fight them and protect the world from them."
I gave a deep chuckle in response. Such childhood naivety was so sweet and nice to come by. Though, glancing at the bloody corpses lying about, I wouldn't be sure to call her so very naïve. "Ah then I am no Grimm as you say, I am simply a goodly man who fell through the sky that saw a young girl in danger and decided to lend my assistance."
"Man? But you're not human, your all… all, scaly and wings and tail and stuff. Wait, fell out of the sky? That must have been a far drop." Her face scrunched up as she tried to comprehend what I said.
I decided to be easy on her and let my transformation go as I shrunk back down into my human form. Contrary to popular belief among tales told of myself and my adventures, I was not a very rich fellow. Well not rather rich in dress and how I held myself. I preferred simple leathers as clothes and kept my head bald while keeping a very non assuming posture. My friends would say that I could pose as a monk if I simply chose to wear their robes.
In response to my changing, Ruby's eyes widened to near impossible limits and her mouth hung open.
I smiled a mild mannered smile, "This is my true form, one of my powers is the ability to take the form of various creatures, one of those forms is that of a dragon, or more specifically, a bronze dragon as you have just seen. As for my falling, it is nothing for you to concern yourself of."
I think what I had said was barely processed as she stood frozen for another second following what I said before bounding up to me in a joyful manner, full of energy and poking and prodding me all over. "That was so cool! You said power? Are you a Huntsman or something?"
I was about to respond to her saying in the negative, I was in no way some sort of ranger or fighter, but the way she said it held a bit more gravitas and leaned to a different meaning then what I believed. "I'm sorry to impose on your kindness again, but would you mind telling me what a Huntsman is?"
She popped off to my side and stood their shaking with energy, "Oh oh, Huntsman are awesome. They fight evil and protect everyone. It's what I'm training to be. Well not Huntsman because those are guys, women are called Huntresses, and so I would say I'm training to be one of those. But they both fight evil and protect the people, they're heroes!"
What a decidedly adorable child. "Heroes you say? I guess you can consider me a hero, I've had my fair share of adventuring and going off to defeat evil and such."
"That is soooo awesome!" Ruby was a bundle of energy barely contained as she looked up at me with her eyes wide and amazed. I could probably tell her a tale or two to satisfy her curiosity. But first things first, I would need to find out where I am. Which I would ask.
"I would love to tell you a tale or tale Ruby, but as it would so happen, with my falling out of the sky, I am rather lost and don't know where I am." Whatever thing I would have said after or any action I would make was lost when she immediately reacted, evidently for the chance to hear a story.
"Ok," She said fast and with a quick nod. "Well… right now we are in the Snowy forest. In that direction, is the cliffs, which I just came from and in that direction is the city of Vale, where I'm going." She spun about first pointing in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
I gave a small sigh in my head, with the child's naivety came a small amount of dimwittedness. But she was going to the city and it seemed that she knew what direction she was going. "Well Ruby, how about I walk with you to this city of Vale, it seems to be the best place to find my way."
"Oh sure, and then you can tell me all about your adventures on the way."
I reached down and ruffled her hair a bit before saying, "Sure thing kid, how about I tell you about the time I met my first dragon?"
-Line Break-
The trip back to the city was rather long, but luckily not boring. There was a certain joy in reciting tales of adventure and heroism to others, particularly children with their wide eyes and yearning for such things of victory and battle and triumphing over evil.
I was not the only one speaking for the journey however, Ruby told me about her life. She was attending a school that called Signal, where they teach people to fight. Particularly interesting was her Uncle Qrow, who taught her how to wield the amazing scythe of hers. Its name was Crimson Rose and beyond being collapsible, it was also outfitted as a rifle, firing things called bullets which would generate recoil allowing for her to add momentum to her attacks and movements. The idea of a bullet and those occurred to me as an advanced version of what those alchemists were trying to do with their exploding powder and cannons.
This technological advancement helped me understand what type of world I was on. As well as when I posed the question of magic and psionics. Apparently there was nothing of the sort, but people who used esoteric abilities, or people regularly engaged in combat in general would use what was called their Aura, something Ruby could not adequately describe for me, but what I learned to basically mean, a manifestation of their soul. This Aura reminded me of another style of magic I had found on another plane, called Incarnum.
Ruby further elaborated, or rather explained in layman's terms, that some people used a crystal material called Dust to enhance their abilities and make use of various magic like effects, but the most common sorts were of throwing and manipulating fire, summoning ice, and so on. I was not sure how I could relate that to any of my knowledge, in psionics, crystals are an effective conductor for psionic abilities and effects, most anything psionic related was made out of crystal. But the differences between the two I could perceive left me little room to associate the two.
It was night time when we arrived in the city. On approach to and within the city, I likened it to the many metropolis' I had seen before, with many buildings and several streets, the only really differences being that the buildings here were taller, the streets paved flat and with some other material then cut stone, and a larger presence of metal in the building materials over regular brick or stone. There were a numerous other vehicles about the city as well, all some sort of mechanized cart of some sort. Ruby called the cars.
Loud bangs and the sound of objects hitting glass, floors and otherwise breaking things reached us from a building near us. The sounds of fighting. While I am sure there are guards in this city, it wouldn't due for one such as me to simply ignore the signs of trouble. I turned to my companion, "Ruby, would you like to investigate where those sounds are coming from?"
"Sure, let's go Mr. Alsif."
"Don't call me that." I lightly bonked her on the head as we turned down the street. I had asked her not to call me that but she continued to do so. She was teasing, so it was all in good fun.
"Ok Mr. Alsif," she replied in a lighthearted manner.
The building we were approaching looked different from the rest, it stood separate and was made more of brick then metal, most definitely an older building in comparison to the others. Our approach was interrupted by two figures flying out through a glass window of the building and down onto the street in front of us. There were two, one, a man with neatly cut hair and in a sharp style of clothing looking beat up, the other a girl, with long blond hair like fire.
"Yang, is that you?" Ruby asked. I quirked an eyebrow at that, they knew each other?
The blond, Yang, stood up and looked at her quizzically and saying, "Oh, hey sis." I glanced between the two, and I could not find the resemblance between the two. Were they adopted?
"What are you doing here?" Ruby responded with her hands on her waist.
A moment passed before Yang sighed and replied, "It's a long story."
Ruby jolted as she realized I was still next to her, "Oh, Yang, this is Mr. Alsif, he's a friend."
Apparently, whatever weariness Yang was experiencing was gone as she appeared in front of me, looking me head to toe, "A friend you said Ruby? He's rather cute looking, oooh, my little sis has got herself a boyfriend."
Off to the side Ruby steamed, "He's not my boyfriend, he's just someone I met. He helped me out when I got in a bit of trouble with some beowolves."
"What your sister says is correct Ms. Yang, I am in no way romantically involved with her. Besides, it would be unwell for someone of my age to have such relations with a girl of her age." I said clarify such things. Children and teens typically had a way of misconstruing relationships I had found, especially among my own children.
The two of them both looked at me with questioning looks before Yang spoke up. "Really? But you don't look to be a day older then 19, you're not that old."
Now it was my turn to look confused, "19? That's preposterous, I am well older than that." Forty-Nine to be exact, but I wouldn't be telling them that. Everyone's got to have secrets and I liked having a nice little harmless one as mine. Besides, they must be mistaken, I had long ago passed looking young.
"But you look so young Mr. Alsif, and you haven't changed at all since I met you." Said Ruby.
"Yeah, Mr. Alsif you're kinda a stud," Yang followed up.
As I reached into my belt for a mirror in one of its pockets I responded to her, "I assure you, I am nowhere near 19 Yang, and please, call me Alsif, your younger sister is simply being stupid…" I trailed off as I looked at the image of me in the mirror. The girls were right, I did look young. Like I was a boy barely setting out on his first adventure. But how? No magic or any of the sort had affected me but the… of course! Something happened to me when I had appeared in this world. I don't know what, I still don't recall what happened beyond screaming and then falling. Something made me look younger. I took a deep breath and focused in on myself. This was a required skill among egoists, to be able to look at one's body in order to be able to modify it or repair correctly when changing forms or anything of that sort. Lo and behold, for all intents and purposes my body was that of my nineteen year old self, or rather exactly, how I looked and was at the age of eighteen years, seven months and twenty three days. I would say I was in a bad situation but luckily I could still feel the power in my mind, as strong as ever. If I wanted to, I could rewrite reality. That was good, I was not as weak as I was before, I did not need to rely on my allies to win fights for me, and I was still strong enough to destroy my foes.
Apparently I had been focused on myself too long as when I opened myself up to the outside world again, the two girls had begun talking to each other.
"So you say he's lost Ruby?"
"Yea, so it's the nice thing to do to help him out, besides, he's so out of it right now."
"Alright alright, but what'll we tell dad. He won't like this you know."
"We'll just tell him the truth, Mr. Alsif fell out of the sky, helped me out, and we're repaying the favor by letting him stay a bit."
"Ok sis, let's snap him out of his current funk and get him home."
"Yes! Mr. Alsif, are you still in there?" I opened my eyes to see Ruby standing in front of me, waving her hand back in forth.
I sighed at her antics. As adorable children were, their actions do begin to grind on the nerves. "Yes I am Ruby, I am fine. I have received some troubling news, but at the same time, received good news as well."
"That's good, so hey! Since your lost and all, why don't you stay with me and Yang for some time, so you can find your way? If that's ok with you."
"Are you sure Ruby, a young man like myself staying with two young ladies such as yourselves would surely be misconstrued, nothing to say of your parents." It was a kind gesture, but certain appearances must be maintained, and I would not make myself a burden to the two, be it financially or socially.
"It's ok Mr. Alsif, I've got my Dad covered. So let's go then." Yang was standing off to the side while Ruby was trying to convince me. I sighed before replying.
"Alright Ruby, just please call me just Alsif."
She giggled in response, "Yea, yea Mr. Alsif. Let's go already!"
Ruby began walking off while Yang walked up next to me before saying. "Ruby just has a certain way with people you know?" She walked on leaving me in my thoughts.
I did know, I could see it and recognized it from the many people I had met. Some people just have a charisma to them that would make them into great people that others would be happy to follow. I wasn't one of those, but was happy to serve with one such person before.
Ruby was already a distance away before she turned back to me, "Come on Mr. Alsif. It's already late and I do not want to explain this to Dad if we arrive after midnight."
She had such a nice smile on her face, I smiled too.
AN: So its a new story for those who are following me. I'm sorry I haven't updated either of my others, I just can't bring myself to write very much more in a timely manner. This won't be written in a timely manner. So you can expect to see updates for this close to each other, or maybe a couple months a part.
But on to addressing the story. The OC, Alsif, is based off a psion I was running in a campaign. For those people who understand DnD, he is a Level 20 Psion, no dips, no multiclassing. Yes he is OP for this, considering he has the ability to change reality, but he has a mindset of using not much power. He won't simply blast his way through obstacles, he'll actually try to solve them and when this joins with the RWBY timeline, he's not going to be an ace in the hole for the RWBY characters. He's old and understands the value of growing up, which he'll let the other characters do by letting them face their own challenges. I am hoping he doesn't turn out into either a Marty Stu or Mary Sue. Be free to call me out on that if he does. I've actually written up a character sheet for him, so if anyone wants it, I can send them a link to the myth-weavers sheet for him.
I hope I got the characterization for everyone right and thank you for reading.
Review please and send me a PM if you're particularly interested in anything.
