Creeping Dark
A Rwby Tale
Life, it is the epitome of what can happen to a lifeless planet. From the smallest of shrubs to the most complex of organisms, all life is precious and vital. That is not to say that some life is not more precious than others. While it is certainly morally reprehensible to casually rate and classify life based on its importance, when it comes down to it, the reality is that you will pick the pet over the tree and the friend over the both of them.
While all of life posses some essence of a soul, the people that I accept into my academy have both a strong enough soul and the strength of will to compete and train to protect our world and city from the creatures of Grimm. Having reviewed your combat scores both in simulations and against your fellow students, we at have decided to extend a formal invitation to you to come join the next year of students at beacon academy.
Signed: Professor Ozpin
The flaming haired beauty stared at the rough piece of paper, slowly tuning out more and more of the world. She felt like she should crack a joke, but realized the seriousness of the of the subject of the transcribed on the piece of paper , and looked around and thought that it would be a waste, as she was in her room, very much alone, and very much tired. As she thought more, she also realized that she might be too dead to go to the prestigious academy if she failed her class because she didn't finish her paper. She turned her attention, or at least the part that want paying attention to the new episode of Achieve Men. She reviewed what she had written already and began mentally forming an excuse to tell to her teacher for the utter crap of an essay she was about to turn in. After a couple explanations about the state of global warming affecting the state of her room and then conversely the state of her mind, she thought of a more important question. Why is the word long shorter than the word short and why there were long words that she was forced to learn big words for a stupid vocab class while there were free words like Hong that had no meaning. She looked at the clock and realized that twenty minutes had gone by from the time that she had first opened the letter that signaled the next four years of her life as a complete bad-ass in training. She turned her attention once again to her paper and put into action the mantra that had propelled her when she encountered even the slightest resistance in her paper writing, Ctrl-C, ctrl-V that bitch. She opened her flamefox browser and searched for a paper that was decent but believable that she could have written it. She typed in her subject, scrolled until she felt she was deep enough, and clicked in the first link that caught her eye. She scanned the paper quickly, made sure that it fit her criteria, and finding that it was a good enough, she copied it into the essay application on her scroll. She glanced at the clock and realized that her sister was probably shopping for new music to put on her specialized modded scroll that she had hooked her sister up with. Deciding that she might be questioned in class on her paper, she decided that she should at least know the topic. And so, switching between concentrating on the paper, and wondering if people liked grapes, Yang settled down and started scanning.
How does one classify the complexity and importance of life? Researchers at the University of Vale devised a system now referred to as COAL (Classification of Aura and Order of Life). Pioneered by Mark Flynt, the system measured the output capabilities of an entities soul. While slightly erroneous due to the fact that the manifestation of a soul is not a passive ability that is a perpetual shield that can be indefinitely relied upon, it is accurate in the fact that the higher order of beings that posses souls can emit a protective aura that protects and heals in the case of an attack. Digression aside, the researchers did create a system that ranked the creatures in the world of remnant. Inevitably, because of our ego and eternal narcissism, they put humans at the top of the list with an output average of 20. Even though there was no credible evidence of a noticeably lower output from Faunus's, the study was conducted in the reprehensible era of severe and biased Faunus discrimination; they assigned an output rating of 18. After that the amount of output decreased dramatically, with the next closest rating being 11 assigned to a species of canines renowned for their small size and stubby legs. These dogs, for this specific trait are the most often chosen by hunters and huntresses to assist them on missions. However, going back to the etymology of the word aura; the soul was given the moniker of aura before its active ability was discovered and was better understood. Once powerful enough, the power of the soul manifests itself in more than just the passive shield of energy, and can give off a significantly more powerful, for lack of a better word, force. The way that this force is presented varies individually from person to person, or Faunus. This is because they way that it escapes, is like light through a colored glass, except the colored glass is the soul that is, after all of the experiences that it has, unique completely depending on the experience and they way that you react to it. After all of this, the metaphorical light that is created, is different, and as such gives different abilities to the person from whom the light emits from within. The official Output Average that a creature must have is at least 13, with things with lower Output not being able to break the Spiritual/Physical barrier. This powerful manifestation of the soul was unofficially labeled as semblance. The outward appearance or apparent form of something, this is the most powerful appearance of the soul that has ever been recorded, although the power and distinctive form that semblance takes varies wildly with the strength of will being the most consistent ratio of any physical characteristic to power. The power of the soul is, along with the power of dust, the sole reason that humanity was able to prevail against the forces of Grimm, who possess no soul and have never been recorded using dust in any form. To conclude, the reason that we are able to exist without being perpetually fearful of eternal extinction, is fifty percent the sheer power of will and the indomitable spirit of humans and Faunus.
The Burning Light
"It's not bad, but I don't think that I can pass for someone name the burning something or other" still focusing on the universal popularity and acceptance of grapes. She quickly changed the name to Yang Xia-Long and turned back to the horrible parodies of songs accompanied every episode of Achieve Men.
Left foot forward, a bit back, too far forward. Rapier forward, chin up, asses the enemy. Calculate active range for its broad sword strokes. Weiss Schnee wanted to win more than anything. This battle meant to her, the entrance into the elite combat school of vale. It was the culmination of all the effort that she had invested into training not to mention the finances put up by her father. Given that she was one of the daughter of one of the richest, if not the richest person in vale, she had no practical reason for a job, and so all of her time not spent on friends or shopping, was poured into combat training in an all out effort to become one of the best huntresses of her age. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, she had no real purpose in life until she had to take over as the head. That all changed when she found her purpose in life as someone who has more goals in life than quarterly profits and shareholder meetings. Seven years ago she had sets her sights on achieving the rare status of huntress, and with all the determination of a Schnee she had pursued it relentlessly.
"You dunce, pay attention to the match, not your stupid musings and reflections" Weiss turned her attention back to the Iron behemoth that stood before her. She recognized the design, it being one produced by her father's company. Part powered by circuitry, part supplemented by a transferred aura, it was a gargantuan thing, requiring a massive amount of damage to render it destroyed and defeated, and thus earning her the victory and spot into Beacon Academy.
Taking place in a large hall, an almost ironically small ding signaled the beginning of the monumental match. The Robot almost immediately attacked, stepping forward and opening with an overhead strike, causing her to quickly flip back to avoid it. Recovering immediately, she launched off her back foot, launching past it, striking it as she passed. It turned around, launching another overhead. She launched a high flying leap, spawning a glyph, and using it as a base to launch a flurry of small, quick strikes into its upper torso. She however overstayed it her welcome, and she had to block a large sideways blow, not sustaining a significant amount of damage, but being knocked back and jarred. By the time she had regained her bearing, the Robot was halfway there, leaping though the air, and missing as she rolled out of the way in the nick of time. Weiss jumped up and was struck by a crushing blow that she managed to deflect just in time. Glancing up she realized that she had space between her and the robot. Using a white glyph and base for launch, she leapt at it and launched a combination of strikes going from the robot head to down to its knees. Landing, Weiss quickly pivoted, and struck three times at its knee level before leaping over its head, striking its neck once. As she was floating down, Weiss speedily summoned a glyph to jump over a sideswipe but suffered a massive hit when the robot punched her, knocking her back and drawing blood.
"Don't give up, keep fighting, this will decide the rest of your life." Weiss grimaced and lifted her fingers to her left forehead as she felt some liquid run down. Her two fingers came down red and she surmised that she had a non-significant wound on her head. "Give it your all, three minutes for the rest of your life". Weiss clenched her teeth and set her feet on the cold, metallic floor. She reached down deep into her inner will prepared herself to finish the fight. Setting feet and shoulders to the proper stance, she reached to the base of her rapier and twisted the Dust compartment to the red holding container and released it into the hardened silver blade of her weapon. Waiting for the robot to come at her, she waited until it had reached her and then she blocked it with her Dust enhanced rapier. The force of the dust block actually knocked the robot back twenty feet. Seizing the advantage, she rapidly switched to the white holding container using it with her semblance to create a trail of ice, but more importantly trapping the Robot in place. Weiss began sprinting at it, leaping over the blade that was swiped at her. She was able to land on it, riding it until the arm that wielded it swept across the Robots body, exposing the joint between the shoulder and the arm. She left the blade, lunging at the vulnerability. The shock of the blow knocked the Blade out of the gargantuan paws of Hands.
Glancing at its hands as if to confirm that the massive broadsword had truly been knocked out its grip, the Robot then assessed the tactical situation that it had found itself in. The sword had landed next to the pale, purely white girl and was unreachable. The Robot then settled on the solution of transferring to hand-to-hand combat. He rushed at her, transferring a large punch at here, missing and smashing a large hole in the ground. The small white thing darted past him and anchored him to the ground with a glyph before launching him up. As he reached the apex of the toss, five small glyphs were shot at him, anchoring him in mid air.
Jumping straight up into the air, stopping once she had reached a spot slightly higher than the crown of the Robots head, Weiss smiled as she realized that barring a horrible mess up, she had the victory in hand. Summoning the (hopefully) final glyph that she would need, she crouched on the glyph and selected the pure setting on her rapier. The pure setting was white, but it was not the color but a combination of all the different dust combinations. It is the most powerful setting, but it empties the weapon of all the dust. Flying at the Robot, Weiss realized that this moment signaled the beginning of the rest of her life. With two powerful strikes, she disintegrated the automaton and stood while metal dust (the regular kind) rained down upon her. And so, under the light of the shattered moon, Weiss was declared the winner and began her path to Beacon.