"Hey guys! Check out what I found!"
Beacon Academy. On a Saturday morning every weekend, each and every team just took the opportunity to either relax, train, or studying (like one certain individual). And today's no different.
Team RWBY were sitting in their dorm, Weiss freshening up for the day, Blake sitting on her bed reading a book (it is not what you think it is), and Yang dozing off after just having gotten done in the shower with a towel wrapped around her head.
But that leaves one question: where is their scythe-wielding, fearless, little speed demon of a leader?
Their door was kicked in with Ruby having one of the biggest and cutest smiles on her face while she held up some sort of a thick Manilla package. Her teammates all jolted up from the surprise entry that their leader had made. Like really, she almost broke the door off it's hinges.
"Ruby! What did I tell you about barging in like that? You do realize we're gonna have to pay for the damages we cause!" Weiss, the oh so ever Ice Queen that she is, scolded her leader. Who even is the leader of this team?
The aforementioned girl rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Right, I forgot sorry."
Weiss just huffed and went back to whatever she was doing. That entrance woke up Yang instantly as the blonde bombshell made her way to her sister's place in the room, "Whatcha got there, sis?"
Rose gasped as she looked down at her mail, "I don't know. I haven't opened it yet."
Her older sister grinned and swiped the package from her grasp, Ruby whined and reached for it, only to fail miserably due to her height, "Well, let's go ahead and open it up!"
Blake shut her book and mentioned, "Yang, it could be a trap. For all we know, it could spill a gas bomb and put us all asleep and we'll wake up in the middle of nowhere days later with no way to return back."
The four in the room grew silent at their black-haired ninja's idea of a plot. The sisters bursted out laughing and Weiss rolled her eyes. She didn't disagree. It could be a trap, just not that extreme.
Blake deadpanned. She was being serious. They've like, what, one hundred enemies in the White Fang and Roman, Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald?
Yang wiped a tear from her eye and chuckled briefly while handing the package back to her sister and leader, "Oh Blakey, you need to step away from those books for at least a week."
At that suggestion, Blake hissed and held her books close to her, "Never."
They all smiled at their little exchange there and now turned their attention to the Manilla envelope.
Ruby shook it and it made a short shuffling noise rather boringly. She wasted no time in ripping the top open and out came three plain white DVD cases with the title "Marble Hornets" written in crude penmanship and a circle with an "x" crossing through it.
They all huh'ed in question as Ruby took the first one that came out and opened it. A note fell out of the case that was folded closed. Weiss picked up the note before anyone else and folded it back open and lo and behold, there was something inside.
She began to read, "To whom it may concern, this package is the only product that will have ever survive the last extinction of the human race on Earth. I am sending this to you because these discs were so influential in their prime as many have loved and held it deep within their hearts. I would want these to keep alive and bring others closer to the unknown and influence them into thinking even further than the average person. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please enjoy."
RWBY had frowns on their faces. This place called "Earth" is extinct and this package is the only thing to make it out alive? It seems that this person wanted them to watch it (to Weiss' chagrin), so they had no other choice than to see what this was at least.
"Poor guy, his race were wiped out from existence. But from what?" Yang wondered softly.
"Hey, this case has the number one on it." Ruby garnered their attention as she pointed out the lone "1" on the back of the case.
"You're right. These have two and three on their backs respectively too. They seem to be in order." Blake held up the other two cases in her hands.
"Since they're DVDs, we need a player to play these on…" Weiss said, even though she'd rather be studying for next week, but one wouldn't hurt she guessed.
"As a matter of fact, we do indeed have such equipment." Ruby mentioned, going under Blake's bed and bringing out a DVD player.
"How did I not notice?" Blake asked herself with wide eyes. She keeps books under her bed too, so why hasn't she seen that before?
"Well, plug that bad boy in and pop number one in, baby sis!" Yang encouraged Ruby, who quickly zoomed through the room. When she finished, a TV had appeared out of nowhere standing on a table with the player plugged and sitting near one leg of the table on the floor.
The four girls all sat on the floor with their pillows under their rears so they won't hurt. Ruby had swiftly grabbed the remote before she sat down. Now Yang wished that she had something to snack on along with Ruby and Blake. Weiss just paid attention as the screen immediately played.
A black screen was what appeared first with this weird, unsettling ambient noise that sounds like it's coming from inside a car. Already Ruby was feeling a bit unnerved, Yang just sat still, Weiss quirked an eyebrow at the noise, and Blake had her eyes glued to the screen.
Then white text appeared in the center of the black screen:
The following clips are raw footage excerpts from Alex Kralie.
A college friend of mine.
"Alex Kralie. Something about that name just doesn't sit right with me." Blake muttered. Weiss nodded in agreement, feeling the same.
"What makes you say that, Blake?" Ruby asked innocently. Blake couldn't answer as the screen faded into footage out the window of a vehicle of someone driving through the suburbs. Visible are houses, fences, industrial structures.
The team waited more, easily intrigued as more white text appeared at the top of the screen, overlaying the footage:
In 2006, Alex was in the process of shooting his student film, entitled Marble Hornets.
Over the three months that this took place, his film crew complained of his increasing levels of stress and irritability.
Near the end of shooting, Alex halted production indefinitely and dropped the unfinished project.
He told me it was due to the "unworkable conditions" on his set, which was less than a mile away from his house.
"That's the title of this show!" Ruby and Yang yelled out in unison.
Weiss was in deep thought. This Alex person had lost his crew due to stress and irritability, so something must have happened to him that made him like that. And the student film seemed to be very old. If the show dated back to 2006, then how long has it been now? She'll have to wait and see.
Blake however, paid more attention to the "unworkable conditions" that was near his house. What kind of conditions were they that made it difficult to keep on with his film? Was he being stalked, threatened? So many questions…
The footage faded slowly to the black screen again. The ambient noise continues:
I asked what he planned to do with the countless number of tapes he had filled.
"Burn them."
"What?! Why?!" Ruby yelled in disbelief, not understanding why he would throw away his work like that.
"Remember Ruby, it was all because of those conditions that made him stressed out and like any director, who is always busy, couldn't keep up with all the things that were going on. He choked and gave up." Weiss recalled, BY agreeing and nodding at W's answer.
Ruby pouted, "Well, I'd never burn my work…"
The footage from before fades back in. This appears to be from the front of a car, as the sun is setting and dusk is falling. Visuals of other cars driving, streetlights, and small businesses along the side of the road can be seen. White text appears over the top of the screen again:
Being a film student myself, I hated to see all of his work go to waste.
And after some coercing he agreed to give them to me.
Under the condition that I never mention it to him again.
"Yeah! See? There ya go! Now that's what I call a good friend!" Ruby jumped in her seat for joy, Yang and Blake giggling at their leader's attitude. Weiss rolled her eyes, but smirked in amusement at the young leader.
The screen had cut to some footage of later evening. A treeline and various power lines and towers can be seen, black silhouettes against a darkening blue sky. The angle is lower. More white text:
Soon after, Alex transferred to another school and I haven't seen him since.
At the time, I was too unnerved to look through the tapes, and eventually forgot about them.
"Well, that sucks." Yang blatantly said at his friend's decision in leaving, Ruby frowning at this person's decision in running from his problems. Weiss merely scoffed at their cowardness and Blake shaking her head. How bad can they be? It's a student film. This Alex person is making it way more difficult than it has to be.
The camera is angled towards the road ahead again rather than the treeline. The footage fades to black again. The creepy ambient noise remains. More white text:
A few days ago I found them filed away in the back of my closet.
After three years and zero contact with Alex, I have decided to look through them.
All the tapes are unnumbered and missing timestamps. Other than taking place in the summer of 2006, it is impossible to determine the exact order or date of each.
Should I find anything in any of them I will upload it to keep as a permanent record.
The ambient noise fades out finally and the video ends. Ruby stopped it before it finished wholey and turned to her teammates, "Well, that was something."
"Yeah, this whole thing is weird and very mysterious. I wanna watch some more!" Yang cheered.
"I have to agree it does pique my interest mildly. I don't mind watching more of it." Blake admits, the sisters cheered together as they all turned to the most difficult person in this entire school' Weiss Schnee.
The heiress wasn't ashamed to admit it, "It does have that charm where anyone would want to keep watching, so I confess that it certainly does make me want to see more."
Yang gasped and mockingly states in horror, "What? Weiss Schnee is choosing movies over homework? What has the world come to?!"
"Shut up, you brute! I'll have you know that not everything is pencils and papers with me, so shut it!" Weiss screamed in her face, with the other three in the room laughing. Weiss huffed and sat back down, "So, are we gonna keep watching or what? I would really like to see who this Alex Kralie person is and what his deal is."
"I want to know what this narrator finds in those tapes that his friend gave him. What could be on those tapes?" Blake muttered to herself. Yang agreed and wanted to know what happens next with the two friends.
"Ok, let's keep watching!" Ruby said excitedly. Little red's mind was flowing with questions as well. What are those tapes for? Who is Alex Kralie?
None of them knew what horrors awaited them.
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A/N: Hiya. I'm this story's author and I've gotta say, this is one of the most bizarre ideas anyone has ever had. Team RWBY reacting to Marble Hornets, the two greatest web shows that have ever lived?! I'd buy it.
As you know, MH is owned by the amazing Troy Wagner and Joseph DeLage. RWBY is, as you know, owned by the late and great Monty Oum. I have no connections to these two great shows in any way, shape, or form.
And I had this in my head for a while and I said, "Hey, why not?"