Shattered Feelings

Volume I - Chapter I: Lost in the Woods

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

*Looking for any willing Betas*

The connection between reality and the mind can often seem so fragile—then is it any wonder that we only seem to grasp onto our feelings?

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For the record, Areyn Jet wasn't an idiot, far from it. She knew the waiver in her stupid cluttered gmail inbox was just the newest internet trend going around.

That didn't mean it didn't amuse her though.

For the shut-in seventeen year old, it was the most relatable thing she'd seen outside of fucking isekai anime in a very long time.

Areyn clicked on the link. She blinked away the bright spots in her vision when it sent her to a bright white page. Mildly concerned, Areyn checked the time.

...12:04 a.m? Not bad. Areyn rubbed her eyes. Let's try to go to sleep at 1:00 tonight.

She turned her attention back to her monitor. Yawning, she signed her name and pressed 'Enter'. Then she closed the tab. It brought her to her Google Doc.

Weiss stood over the grave, her

Goddammit, Areyn still had a chapter to write for her RWBY fanfic All Things Must Die... And she had all of half a sentence done. She stared at the blinking cursor. Haha...it wasokay. Today was a Tuesday! Her self-imposed deadline was only on...Wednesday, as in...Wednesday tommorow.

Well fuck, she was screwed. Her reviewers were going to murder her. She'd die of self-imposed shame.

... And there goes sleep, Areyn thought drily, ready to pull an all-nighter.

Weiss stood over the grave. Her eyes turned cold in steely determination. "I'll find her," she promised. "And I'll bring her to justice."

Then her father tore her away. He brought her into his private aircraft. "I've given you ennnnnnnnndjdjdjdsjjsjajajjajsjsbdjf

"...Your decisions have never ceased to baffle me, Brother."

"I'm playing a game of chance, Brother. Something you wouldn't understand, would you? Besides, our power over the world is limited—this is a far better alternative."

"Hm. Humanity must be saved—by any means necessary."

It's so...cold. That couldn't be right. Areyn had her heater on 24/7 in her room. Did the electricity go out?

...And why was her chair so uncomfortable?

Blearily, she opened her eyes. ...Was that the sun? That can't be right...she hadn't seen the sunlight in—

"Gah!" Areyn scrambled backwards. Her back hit against a tree. A tree.

W-What the hell? She was in a forest—she had to be. There was no sign of any buildings from what she could tell. Instead, tall, imposing trees filled her vision. Areyn felt dirt under her fingers and smelled cider through her nose. She heard birds and...oh fucking god, were those howls?

Well, this place had passed the 'is it a dream?' test...unfortunately.

Areyn pulled herself off the ground with the help of a tree branch. She wiped dirt off her butt.

It was a novel experience. Areyn hadn't gone out in three years, much less out in the middle of the woods. Though, now that she's experiencing it, for good reason. The forest is damp and musty and generally on the unpleasant side of things.

Areyn's mind went into overdrive. How the hell had she gone from her comfortable, wonderful headroom to a horrible, crappy forest? She's sure that nobody she knew would pull such a dirty prank—or had the abilities to, for that matter. Had she been kidnapped? Drugged? In that case, why?

She decided that standing in one place was redundant and began trekking through the forest with no particular goal in mind. Getting out would be nice, the fact that walking might help keep her from freaking out was just a bonus.

Areyn ran through the order of events right before this, ahem, incident. She had been on her computer, all day. RWBY Volume 6 had dropped so she threw herself a nice party (as in stealing some left-over ice cream from the refrigerator and sneaking it upstairs) and then she spent the rest of the day analyzing the opening and episode. Then she decided it was high-time she cleaned out her gmail, the red bubble had been ticking her off lately, and she found that relatable spam mail survey. After signing it, Areyn began writing her fanfic and...well, she could only assume she fell asleep somewhere along the line.

That gave someone like...five hours to grab her, drive to the middle of a random forest, drop her off, and high-tail it out of there.

Who the hell would pull off something like this?! Areyn laughed. Come on, the only people crazy enough to was...well, the internet and Areyn was a nobody. Sure, she had a thing going on as a trashy fanfic author and had garnered a measly following from that, but she'd never been hated (or loved) by the internet trolls like the likes of Justin Bieber or Shia LaBeouf.

The leaves rustled. Every once in a while, howls, clicking, bird shrieks, or an ear piercing combination of the three echoed through the forest. Then something that sounded like an explosion or a hammer banging against metal would go off.

Hey, maybe there were hunters? Hunters were people! Hunters had weapons! Hunters knew how to get out of crappy, dirty forests!

A bang! sounded somewhere to the right of Areyn. She hesitated, after all, she didn't feel like getting her head blown off, but after a moment, she surged towards the sound. Slowly. Areyn was of the opinion that you can't be too careful, but then again, she was also the person wandering the woods when the safest option was to just stay put.

Areyn slid between two trees. Bang! Black smoke erupted in front of her eyes and washed over her. She must have breathed it in because it smelled like tar and clogged her throat. She coughed violently, desperately waving away the smoke. It cleared after a few agonizing seconds. Something dropped to the ground. Areyn thought it looked like some sort of animal skull, but she must be seeing things because that made about zero sense. Besides, Areyn wasn't paying much attention to the whatever-it-was because there was a girl behind the dust with her fist in the air like she had just punched the smoke.

The girl was tall, much taller than Areyn (though that wasn't saying much). She had the reddest hair Areyn had ever seen, tied in a ponytail that went down to her waist and vibrant green eyes that would put most contact lenses to shame. Okay, that was okay and all, Areyn just managed to run into a supermodel out in the middle of the woods, that was a totally normal experience. You know what was weird? The girl casually wore Spartan armor and a golden circlet like she was an Amazon or something.

Areyn was pretty sure the style went out a couple dozen centuries ago. Just a hunch. Though she couldn't help but feel like she'd seen it before. In a show, maybe? Okay, what was a cosplayer doing out in the middle of the woods?

But still, when a tall, pretty convincing Amazon supermodel stared you down, Areyn couldn't help but feel like she was the weird one. Her completely normal messy brown hair, cheap hoodie, and $5.00 t-shirt were suddenly called into question. Oh, and she was wearing socks.

Discreetly (not really), Areyn looked down at the girl's feet. Crap, she wore high-heels! Areyn couldn't compete with that!

...Wait, how the hell did she get around the woods in high-heels?

Areyn quickly flipped her attention from the high-heels to the girl's face. Because that was probably more important.

The girl stared at Areyn, who, for the record, was still stuck between two trees. She blinked, like she was confused or something. Well, Areyn could relate. Then the girl tilted her head, realized something, and suddenly looked very disappointed.

Thanks a lot. No need to rub it in. Even to strangers, Areyn managed to be a disappointment. Man, her ego was getting obliterated!

"..."

"..."

"Ah, hello," the girl finally said.

"...Y-Yo." Areyn felt her soul wilt with her response. But to be fair, this girl was the first new person she'd spoken to in three years. Well...if you didn't count the psychiatrists.

Areyn stepped backward, unlodging herself from the trees. Human contact kind of freaked her out so...yeah. "...Lady, you don't happen to know a way out of this forest, do you?"

At least her vocabulary still worked, though her voice came out kind of croaky and dry.

The girl blinked. She finally lowered her fist. "No? I don't—Why? Is the Initiation proving too difficult?"

Areyn stared at the girl and some part of her registers the fact that she was muscled, but Areyn was more concerned about what the girl was saying. As in, she had no idea what the hell the girl was saying.

"Uh…" Areyn said. Clearly, she was the eloquent type.

The girl's eyes widened. "Oh! I didn't mean to insinuate that you were a bad student! My apologies." She became flustered. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos, I suppose I'm your partner now...and for the next four years."

... Eh?! Areyn's brain short-circuited. She opened and closed her mouth a few times.

Here were a few things she registered:

Amazon girl's name was Pyrrha Nikos— coincidentally the name of a certain character in a certain show that died a certain death.

Amazon girl was dressed like said character in said show that died said death, which was stupidly obvious now but Areyn hadn't really thought about the possibility before so it hadn't come up in her mind.

Amazon girl was saying something or another about an initiation and long-term partners.

Amazon girl looked resigned to her fate as the long-term partner of Areyn, something Areyn had not agreed to in the slightest, by the by.

And finally, Areyn was still gaping like a fish and should probably stop before she freaked out Amazon girl— Pyrrha too much.

Areyn faked a cough. It was about as convincing as Pyrrha's high-heels, which practically defied Newton's laws. "Wait, wait, wait, wait... wait."

Areyn held up a hand. Pyrrha stared. Areyn's mind reeled. Okay, so she was stuck in the middle of a forest with a very convincing, logic-defying Pyrrha Nikos who believed that Areyn was taking an initiation and had become her partner, somehow.

Ah, there was a simple explanation to this, really—AND IT MADE NO FUCKING SENSE!

So Areyn made a 180, put one socked foot forward, and walked away.

Pyrrha raised a hand. "Wai-"

See, Areyn had been so busy repeating ' what the fuck?!' over and over again in her mind that she hadn't noticed the black shadow that had been creeping up behind her, which was now right in front of her.

It lunged.

Dulled from three years of wasting away in front of her computer, Areyn couldn't even fully process the creature, much less the action the thing took and reacting to it. So, she stood rooted to the ground like a spectacular idiot with a death-wish as she watched the clawed monster move in for the kill, also known as Areyn.

A shield flew pass Areyn. It blew her hair forward as it went by, then it curved and lodged itself in the monster. The monster burst into black smoke. Its skull clattered to the ground, followed by the shield.

"Are you okay?!" Pyrrha rushed towards her.

Areyn stared at the smoke. It faded to a whisp, then vanished into the air. It smelled of tar and clogged her throat. "...No."

She puked all over the ground.

A/N: Ah, self-inserts, the ultimate love/hate relationships. Let's see how this works out! I'd like to avoid as many bad self-insert tropes as possible, so if anyone has any they particularly detest, put it in a review!

And for the record, I know Arryn is the name of Blake's voice actress. I can't help it, it's a good name.

~ See ya!

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