Okay, before anyone gets too excited, I'm probably not going to update this for a fair while after I upload this first chapter. I have a lot of stuff to do and I just wanted to get this out since I have it. I really haven't got much actually planned out for this story yet, but I thought I should at least release the character trailer.
That being said, this is a RWBY story crossed over with the T.V. series Grimm. I'm essentially integrating the Wesen from Grimm into the RWBYverse. For those followers of mine who don't watch Grimm, most of it will be explained as the story goes on, so don't worry about it. I've been thinking about the pairing, and I don't know whether I should pair my character with Blake or Yang (Blake admittedly makes sense given the nature of the Wesen, but Yang is also in my mind ...), so if you could put your opinion forth I would be most grateful.
Please enjoy the trailer for my OC!
Trailer
The slum district in the kingdom of Vale was mostly filled with Faunus who had to live there to avoid the discrimination of the humans. There were poor humans living down there, of course, but in the slums everyone was the same, struggling to survive in a cold, hard world. Contrary to popular belief, however, the humans and the Faunus were not the only races that inhabited the world of Remnant. This third race went unnoticed by most people; only certain individuals knew of the existence of the Wesen*.
Some believe that the Wesen are merely Faunus who are either a step up or a step down the evolutionary chart, but that is not the case. They are an entirely different race. Faunus merely inherited the ears, the tails, the claws, the most basic traits of different kinds of animals. The Wesen were very nearly entirely animal. They got the fur, the abilities, the instincts, everything. The abilities and instincts of an animal combined with the intelligence of a human/Faunus—it is no wonder that people back before/during the civil rights war were so afraid of them. They had traditions and behaviours that made them … unsavoury to be around.
Most of them had been wiped out in the war, true enough. They hadn't had a particularly high population volume anyway. But were they gone? No. Not even remotely.
They quite often lived in the slums.
Their ability to Woge* meant they went almost entirely undetected by human and Faunus alike, so it was a simple matter for them to go into hiding after all the blood had been shed. Only the most observant of Huntsmen and Huntresses could see through their camouflage.
It is here in these slums that our story begins, dear readers.
The young man in the black overcoat moved through the slums with a purpose. He was a tall seventeen year old boy, his hair a strange colouration of grey with thin black stripes moving through it. His eyes were a brilliant orange and slightly wider than usual. The long-sleeve t-shirt he wore beneath his overcoat was black, patterned to have a water rippling effect, and had the red shape of a tiger's head embroidered at the centre. He never once took his hands out of his pockets.
He was looking for somebody. There was somebody living down there who was causing quite a lot of trouble for quite a lot of people. The young man hadn't been directly affected by this man's activities, but due to the … circumstances he felt obligated to do something.
He moved swiftly through the streets, searching. He knew who he was looking for, but he also knew he would have to be careful in how he approached the situation. The slums were a heavily populated area, very cramped in, and he didn't want to risk anybody else getting hurt as he and the man dealt with their … business. He had found the man a few days before, had watched him in his daily routine, and was very sure of where it would be best to strike.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" came a shout from somewhere in the slums … then what sounded like a loud growl. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU MONSTER!? LEAVE HER ALONE!" The unmistakable sound of a girl crying out could be heard.
"Shit," the young man hissed under his breath. He removed his hands from his pockets, revealing that he wore a thick set of bagh naka* on each hand. He took off in a fast run, narrowly dodging people as he passed them, even shoving a few away from him if they were impossible to avoid. This situation had now become a rescue, and he hadn't counted on that.
He dashed through the slums, going far faster than most humans would find possible to do without some kind of Semblance, and eventually found a woman with sheep ears on her knees and crying.
"Which way did they go?" he asked.
The woman sniffed. She shakily nodded her head down an alleyway.
The young man nodded his thanks. "I'll get your daughter back," he said. Then he took off running down the alley. He sniffed deeply. Yes, he could smell it now; the scent of the man he was tracking was still fresh. He kept running, turning right and then left and then right again, running, running, running. Eventually he came to a dead end in an alleyway, and at the end stood a large man with a beard that covered most of his face. At his feet and backed into a corner, was a little sheep-eared girl.
"Hey!" the young man snapped. The man looked at him and bared his teeth like a cornered animal. "Let her go, you son of a bitch, and maybe we can give you to the cops. Or would you prefer to do this the hard way?"
The man actually growled. "You threatening me, boy?" he asked, his voice rough and savage. "I ought to eat you up, too."
The man's bared teeth lengthened into sharpened points, almost like a dog's. His eyes got smaller, more menacing. The hair that covered most of his face now covered all of it, and his very human ears became wolf ears. The wolf Wesen stood and growled at the young man, who was unimpressed.
"A Blutbad*?" said the young man. He let out a hum. "Admittedly, I had suspected, but I was starting to think you'd be a little more interesting. Oh well. Let's dance, big bad wolf!" He raised his fists, raising his bagh naka in the process. "The Claws of the Jungle are very eager to make your acquaintance."
The Blutbad snarled at him. The child apparently forgotten, he leapt forwards, raising his hands—which now had claws instead of fingernails—and swiped at the young man. Said young man simple moved to the side in a fluid, speedy motion that the Blutbad had apparently not been expecting. He looked at him, incredulous, for a few moments, then leapt at him again, growling savagely in rage.
The young man had a smirk on his face the entire time. He ducked and dodged and jumped to avoid the claws, simply watching as the wolf-like Wesen continued trying to claw him. Then the Blutbad started lunging and making grabbing motions, trying to grab him, likely wanting to tear his throat out with his teeth. Eventually the young man grew tired of avoiding the attack, and dodged one final time, lifting a leg and delivering a kick to the chest of the Blutbad when he failed to land his attack on him. The Blutbad snarled and glared at him.
"My turn now, wolfie," the young man said with a grin.
He charged towards the Blutbad and delivered a hard punch to his chest. The bagh naka on his knuckles sunk into the flesh of the Blutbad's chest, and he howled in pain and rage. The young man delivered punches and kicks—the kicks being much less lethal—and drove the Blutbad backwards, away from the child he had been intending to eat.
It was all going well until the Blutbad delivered an unexpected strike of his own. As the young man was preparing to deliver another kick, the Blutbad managed to grab onto his leg, showing a blood-thirsty grin, and then brought a clawed hand up and swiped it across the left side of the young man's face. Blood oozed from the four shallow cuts that now marked the young man's face.
"That," said the young man, his voice coming out as a growl, "was a bad move, wolf boy."
The Blutbad stepped backwards, shocked, as the young man began to Woge before his eyes. The young man's grey and black hair seemed to spread, sprouting up on his hands and the rest of his body with much thicker black stripes. His eyes changed shape, becoming more feline-like in nature, as did his ears. His hands gained actual claws to go along with the spikes on the bagh naka, and his teeth sharpened into fangs. Two particularly large fangs protruded from the upper mouth of the young man, making him resemble a sabre-toothed tiger.
"A Mauvais Dentes* …" the Blutbad said in disbelief. He began to look scared.
"Oh, you know the different kinds of Wesen, good," said the Mauvais Dentes. He was grinning, showing off his fangs. "At least that means I don't have to waste time explaining it."
Before the Blutbad even had the chance to respond, the Mauvais Dentes was upon him. The sabre-toothed tiger-like Wesen clawed at his chest, his face, his arms, his legs, everywhere. The Blutbad howled in pain and anguish as the Mauvais Dentes pummelled him brutally. The Blutbad seemed to give up on fighting, merely standing there as the Mauvais Dentes drew back his hand and brought his claws across his throat.
The blood-loss killed the Blutbad before it even hit the ground.
Breathing deeply, the Mauvais Dentes began to have his fur sink back into his skin. His claws vanished, his teeth became normal, and his eyes reshaped. The young man once again looked human. He turned to the little girl and smile weakly.
"You okay?" he asked.
The little girl nodded, dumbfounded and more than a little afraid.
"You don't have to be scared, I won't hurt you," the young man said to reassure her. He walked over and knelt down next to her, holding out a hand for her to take. "My name is Richie Parker. That man there has been eating children like you for a few weeks, so I had to stop him. You understand?"
The little girl swallowed, smiled a little, and nodded.
The young man smiled brightly at her.
"Come on," he said, "let's get you back to your mother."
More about the history of the Wesen in the RWBYverse will be explained as the story progresses.
It just occurred to me that I don't even have a theme song for this guy ... okay, could you guys please suggest some music that you think would go well with this guy? I'll listen to it and decide what to use.
*Wesen (pronounced: Ves-sin; German for a 'being' or 'creature') are creatures with animal-like appearances, instincts and abilities that transform into human form in order to remain hidden.
*Woge (pronounced: Voh-g; German noun meaning a high, powerful wave of water, or a large undulating mass of something) is the ability to transform from Wesen form to human form and back again.
*Bagh naka are claw-like weapons of Indian descent that is designed to fit over the knuckles.
*Blutbad (pronounced: Bloot-baad; a combination of the German words 'blut', which means 'blood', and 'bad' which means 'bath') are a wolf-like species of Wesen (plural: Blutbadden).
*Mauvais Dentes (pronounced: Mo-vay don-tez; a combination of the French words 'mauvais', which means 'bad', and 'dents', which means 'teeth') are a sabre-toothed tiger-like species of Wesen.
I'll explain the different terms as they show up, as I know they can be difficult to understand otherwise (and I know how tedious it is to Google everything; trust me, I had to do it a lot). I likely won't be updating this for a while, but I thought I might as well lay the groundwork. Once again, any help on the pairing is appreciated (it's between Blake and Yang).
Props to anyone who can guess what I'm referencing with my character. I'll give you a clue: it's a novel, not a fairy tale or a myth.
Thanks for reading!