Jaune looked at his friend skeptically. Ren was already facepalming. Pyrrha was curious. Nora thought this would be a blast.
Ruby grinned as she looks at her friends. "It'll be fine! And fun! C'mon, with the power out in Vale, we don't have anything to do! So, we make our own fun. Aren't I a genius?" She takes a pose as if telling them 'praise me'.
Weiss groans some. "Ruby, we're not going to have a karaoke session without an actual machine for it."
Yang raises a hand. "Actually, I have an app that acts like one. I can share it with you guys so we can all have our playlists be part of it."
Blake looks between her friends and acquaintances. "I think it sounds fun."
"You see! Even Blake wants to do it! So come on, guys!" The youngest Huntress at Beacon pouts at her male friends, seemingly the biggest barriers to this.
"Okay, so how are we doing this?" Jaune looks at his friends in their pajamas. The app had been shared over lunch, and not that it was nighttime, the eight students were all in JNPR's room because the four beds on the ground afforded more space to sit and watch than RWBY's haphazard bunks.
"Well, I was thinking we can spin a bottle to choose who sings first, and we use a random scroll until we've used everyone's!"
"Ruby, do you even hav-" An empty bottle of soda is brought up in front of Weiss. "Of course. How do we choose a random scroll?"
"We use Zwei!" "What?!" "We tell him to pick one at random, and the-"
"I'm not letting your dog touch my scroll!"
"Awww, Blake~!"
"How's this, then." Ruby turns to her partner curiously. "We set the bottle on the floor, and everyone takes turns closing their eyes and putting their scrolls on the floor in a circle while no one else is looking. When you, Ruby, see that everyone has put their scrolls down, spin the bottle to see who's scroll we use first."
"...Weiss, that's brilliant! OH!" Ruby smacks her fist into a hand as an idea pops up. "But before we do individual songs, each team has to do one together!"
"What?!" "Oh boy..." "Must we?" "That sounds fun!" "I LIKE IT!" "Nora, please don't yell."
In short order, and after a bit of giggling as some people bumped into each other, Ruby was spinning the bottle and picking up a random scroll. She put the rest on Nora's bed for now. "Okay, let's see, hit random... Team RWBY! ASSEM-...actually, uh, mind if I take this one on my own?" The silver-eyed girl grins a bit as her teammates all give varying responses to her breaking her own rules. "Just... please."
Yang knows that look. "Alright, girls, let's let her."
Ruby takes in a breath, and lets it out...
Play: Red Like Roses Part II
I couldn't take it, couldn't stand another minute
Couldn't bear another day without you in it
Jaune was a little taken aback by
All of the joy that I had known for all my life
Was stripped away from me the minute that you died
the sudden heavy intro to karaoke night.
To have you in my life was all I ever wanted
But now without you I'm a soul forever haunted
Yang smiles sadly, watching.
Can't help but feel that I had taken you for granted
No way in hell that I can ever comprehend this
Weiss looks to her partner curiously. She didn't have training, or even a good singing voice...
I wasn't dreaming when they told me you were gone
I was wide awake and feeling that they had to be wrong
How could you leave me when you swore that you would stay?
Now I'm trapped inside a nightmare every single f'ing day
But she certainly had a lot of feelings to put into these words.
It's like a movie, but there's not a happy ending
Every scene fades black, and there's no pretending
This little fairy tale doesn't seem to end well
There's no knight in shining armor who will wake me from the spell
I know you didn't plan this
You tried to do what's right.
But in the middle of this madness
I'm the one you left to win this fight
Ren and Nora glance at each other.
Red like roses
Fills my head with dreams and finds me
Always closer
To the emptiness and sadness
That has come to take the place of you
To think Ruby had this inside her...
I know you're broken down by anger and by sadness
You feel I left you in a world that's full of madness
Wish I could talk to you, if only for a minute
Make you understand the reasons why I did it
"Hey, doesn't this song have tw-" "Hush!"
You wanna tell me that I'm all that ever mattered
Want me to know that, for eternity, you're shattered
You tried so hard just to protect me, but you failed to
And in a prison of abandonment you've jailed me
You never planned that you would leave me there alone
I was sure that I would see you when you made it back home
And all the times you swore that it would be okay
Now you're nothing but a liar, and I'm thrown into the fray
This bedtime story ends with misery ever after
The pages are torn, and there's no final chapter
You didn't have a choice, you did what you had to do
You made a sacrifice, but forced a bigger sacrifice on me
Pyrrha wonders how the karaoke app would grade Ruby for changing the lyrics like this.
You know I've lived a nightmare
You caused me so much pain
But, baby, please don't do what I did
I don't want (I don't want, I don't waaaaant...) you to waste your life in vain...
Red like roses
Fills my head with dreams and finds me
Always closer
To the emptiness and sadness
That has come to take the place of you.
You're not the only one who needed me; I thought you understood
You were the one I needed, and you left me as I always feared you-Would I change it if I could?
It doesn't matter how...
The petals scatter now...
Every nightmare just discloses
It's your blood that's red like roses
And no matter what I do
Nothing ever takes the place of you!
Blake looks to Yang curiously before focusing on her leader again.
Red like roses
Fills my head with dreams and finds me
Always closer
To the emptiness and sadness
That has come to take the place... of... you!
Ruby pants as she finishes singing, looking up to her friends. They all applaud her, drawing a slight smile to the Rose. "Okay... JNPR, why don't you guys go next?" Jaune nods, and goes to see what options were on the scroll as Ruby sits with her team. A blonde gives hugs, white hair puts a hand on her shoulder, and black hair gives her free hand a squeeze before retreating.
"Alright, how does this one look?" "Hm. Not like a song that four people can sing, I think." "So we take turns, Renny! That shouldn't be too hard." "I don't know this song though..." "Say Ren, you know that one musica-" "Jaune, I am not!" "Do it, Ren! The Queen commands you!" "Ugh..."
Ruby looks over to her friends, seeing Jaune and Nora highfiving, Pyrrha looking amused, and Ren resigned. "We'll do a duet Nora, I think that'll fulfill the rules." "YEAH!" The diminutive orangette grins at her taller teammate as Jaune and Ren take position.