RUBY:
My alarm sprung me out of bed, even through sleep I couldn't hold my excitement. I've been waiting for this day for my whole life and now it's finally coming true! I had to force myself to go to sleep at the time, I didn't want to deal with Yang putting me asleep again, last time she did she almost crushed me from falling asleep herself.
I looked at myself in the mirror and stretched my body, I rustled my feathers and stretched my claws. "Alright!" I said to myself "time to get the morning routine done, it's a new day but I shouldn't lose track of prepping myself!"
I ran to the bathroom and picked up my toothbrush. My wings could easily hold onto something such as a toothbrush but for something like toothpaste or mouthwash I had to use dispensers for. After brushing and washing my teeth I looked at my rustled hair, Yang was right I really do get bed head easily. I combed my hair to the style I prefer, long bangs with a short back, I liked showing off my highlights though I hoped that they wouldn't disappear from my baths.
Afterwards I ran to Yang's room and slammed her door wide open. "Sis! Sis! Sis!" I sequel, trying to shake her awake.
She continued to snore as I pouted, I took a deep breath and chirped as loud as I could. The ground shook as Yang sprung wide awake screaming "WHAT WAS THAT?" before looking straight at me. "Oh! Ruby" she said in a sudden shift of tone "why are you waking me up? It's only 7 AM"
"Only 7 AM?" I gasped "Yang, did you forget what today is?"
"Uhh...Tuesday?" she guessed.
"No sis! Today's our first day at Beacon!" I jumped up and down, flapping my wings with excitement.
"Huh?" Yang gasped loudly "that's today?"
"Uh, yeah! What did you stay up late again?" I asked
"No! Of course not!" Yang said "well...maybe"
She was a terrible liar, I almost forgot! I have to introduce myself! Please forgive my forgetful mind, it's not to be blamed. I'm Ruby Rose! I'm a fifteen year old Harpy living in the off cost of Vale with my sister, Yang the Ogre and my dad TaiYang the Ogre.
If you asked my dad how to describe me he would say I'm an energetic girl with an obsession with weapons and cookies. I can't really blame the word "energetic" that's in most Harpy's nature! We're child like even in our adulthood. I'm a bit odd compared to other Harpy's though, I'm a bit socially awkward and usually depend on myself. Harpy's are mostly a social race, we stay social in hopes that we'll find a mate to reproduce and to take care and play for our future children.
"Yang," I speak "I need your help putting my combat skirt on!" I depended on Yang to help me with my clothes since my wings made it difficult to put them on. Yang's been changing my clothes since we were toddlers so I'm used to her seeing myself naked.
I guess I should introduce Yang as well, Yang's my older Ogre sister. She's two years older than me and is starting Beacon with me! For the first time I'll be in the same school as my sister! Yang's what you could call a loudmouth, in a good way! She's really lighthearted and loves telling puns, and when I mean loves I mean almost every single day. I swear I can't get past 24 hours without hearing around 62 puns, it's that bad.
Ogre's are a race or humongous beings, compared to my typical 6ft height they're as tall as 10 or even 12ft! Meaning that life can be complicated for them. For Yang and my dad, they have to sleep in even larger queen sized beds, our house has also been readjusted to meet their needs. Door frames are higher, we both go in separate bathrooms (though we do share the same bathtub sometimes) and we also have separate eating utensils. What counts as one plat for dad and Yang is around 3 plates for me, talk about metabolism.
Ogre's are a proud and prideful race, though they are very emotional and love to show it. Yang's a very laid back person though, I've hardly ever seen her sad. Have I seen her angry? Well, that itself is a horror story. If I were to give you one piece of advice on what not to do with an Ogre it would be this; do not make them angry.
Dad and Yang's movements usually shake up the ground so you would think we were in a level 2 earthquake, but if you were to make them mad than I hope you're used to level 4 earthquakes! When me and Yang were kids I would always take Yang's doll, I grew attached to it when we would play and believed my doll needed a friend 24/7. Yang would scream and pound the ground and punch holes in the wall until I gave back her doll or dad would calm her down. If my dad wasn't a stay at home father and Huntsman I would say he would be a home repairer, his skills have grown since mom passed away.
Oh! Sorry, almost got a little gloomy thinking about that. Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah! Me and my sister Yang are going to Beacon! Beacon is a Hunter's school for humanoid creatures like me and her! It's to teach us how to use our monster abilities and weapons for fighting the creatures of Grimm. We know very little about the Grimm except that they pose an extreme danger to our four kingdoms of Remnant. Humans and interspecies creatures like us learn how to become Huntsman and Huntress's to keep them at bay and to save others!
Speaking of humans, we interspecies creatures haven't made much contact with them. What I mean is that we're not known to exist by humans, we're assigned to stay at designated areas. The only humans who know about our existence would be our government officials, they fear that if we're known to humans that racism and prejudice's would increase. Which is totally unfair! I've always wanted to meet a human before! I'm sure they're not that different from us! But the government would beg to differ. There are talks about lifting the act of designated areas and have a cultural exchange between us and humans, but I haven't heard much of it, only rumors. I hope those rumors are true though! I would love to meet a human!
Yang yawned loudly and stretched as she looked up at me "well than, let's get going!" she said with a tired voice. I had to give her a stern look before she could say "but can you give me five more minutes Ruby?" or "can I change fist? Every single time Yang says this she immediately falls back to sleep.
"Alright, alright" Yang sighed as she rose from her bed.
We both went into my room as I picked out which combat skirt I would wear on my first day to Beacon. So many choices...so many cool designs...but I think I'll go with my classic red and black skirt! Hey, can't go wrong with the classics. I laid the clothes on my bed as Yang yawned once more and squinted at my clothes.
"Those ones?" Yang asked "don't you want to try your newest ones?"
"I'd rather go with what I started out with on my first day!" I chuckled.
"But top makes your shoulders more flexible!" she said "it'll allow your flight to last longer and higher an-"
I looked at Yang with widened eyes, there was no way she was convincing me from wearing my new skirt. It's not like I didn't want to wear it, I just wanted to return to the basics for the occasion.
Yang sighed and rolled her eyes at me "Ruby, if you think that stare is going to work on me, you can forget it"
My mind was made up, there was no way she was going to squeeze anything in! My first day, my rules.
"I'll tell you what Ruby," Yang said "I'll let you wear the combat skirt, as long as you promise me you'll wear your new one for scouting assignments"
"Deal!" I yelled without thinking. AH! I shouldn't have said that, see us Harpy's kind of have a bird brain so we're not the brightest bulbs around. Hey, that doesn't mean I'm dumb! I know a lot about weapons and fighting Grimm, thank you very much! It's just that when sudden decisions like that come we make a choice that suits our needs with no second thought.
As Yang was changing me, I had to ask "what's wrong with my old combat skirt? It works and it's a classic!"
"Ruby, you're growing up," Yang said as she tied one strap of my skirt "as Harpy's grow older, the size of their wings change as well. While your old skirt does fit, it won't be long until you grow out of it"
"I-I know that" I pouted "but it's not like I'm going to change that much!"
"Your appearance won't change but your wings will, Ruby" Yang sighed "don't forget that you're a Harpy, and you're best for scouting Grimm, here lift up both of your wings than we'll be done"
I listened to Yang as I lifted my wings as she finished putting on my cape. "All done," she said, she smiled as she saw me "oh Ruby," she said "it's not that I don't love you in that, I'm just thinking out for you"
I looked at myself and ruffled my hair with my wings, hopefully they didn't get ruffled from Yang changing me. I've had days where my style was completely off because of her changing! After I was finished I smiled and twirled.
"Hey, Ruby..." Yang said with a stern tone, I turned over to see her face trying to remain optimistic.
"What's up?" I asked with a soft tone.
"Look..." she said, she sighed and closed her eyes. Shaking her head as she gave up, "never mind" she said.
Something was on her mind, I hate it when I'm left in the dark about something. It was rare for and Ogre to not be honest, so this peaked my interest even more. We're sisters so we have to stick together and tell each other our feelings. "Yang, what's wrong?" I ask her again.
"Are you..." she said as she gulped, this was going to be a tough thing for her to say, I could feel it. "Are you wearing your old skirt, because it's identical to your moms?" she let out, I saw her clench her face as she prepared for a sad or angry response. Poor Yang, she cares so much for me and the family that asking something like that must hurt.
I giggled and shook my head "well...maybe" I smiled. "Y'know, dad tells me stories about how he first met mom. They bumped into each other at the courtyard at the beginning of their school year. At first she didn't like him that much, but than again she never met an Ogre and for us Harpy's, we're sort of intimidated by other species bigger than us. It's sort of in our protective instinct."
"Aw, c'mon Ruby," Yang smiled "dad? Scary? Can you imagine that?"
I laughed at the thought of dad trying to be intimidating to other people. He's a big guy with a soft heart, this never stopped him from his career as a Huntsman. Our dad can lift 3 tons of stuff and crack 4 boulders. But if it's putting fear into the enemy, never let him use words. He's absolutely awful at taunting. But it's common for people to think that Ogre's are scary, they never got a good reputation from their history. Back than, Ogres were fearsome creatures who would storm towns to kidnap people and do god knows what to them. But those day are long gone, they're accepted into interspecies society, but some still fear them.
My mother was named Summer Rose, like me she was a harpy. She was the leader of her and my dad's team, team STRQ. Her, dad, Yang's mom Raven and my Uncle Qrow were Beacons top team back in the day! Dad and Uncle Qrow love telling us stories of the many adventures they went on.
Though Uncle Qrow isn't afraid of telling the embarrassing ones, to dad's rejection of us hearing them of course. And when you give him too much to drink, he might slip some private stories as well! Trust me when I say you do not want to hear the awkward situations him and dad were in.
My Uncle Qrow and Aunt Raven were Adar Llwch Gwin, they can transform into gigantic birds and rip their enimies apart! What's cool is that they can transform into human like shapes and fit into human society. So Uncle Qrow has told me many stories about what humans are like as well! That's kind of why I wanna meet one, they sound so cool!
My mom and Aunt Raven were partners back when team STRQ was around, according to Uncle Qrow, Aunt Raven went on a solo mission and never came back. The government deemed her MIA for around 7 months until she was deemed dead. Yang was only two at the time of her disappearance so she never got to know her that well.
It wasn't long before dad started falling in love with my mom, and before they knew it I was born! Well, when mom laid me as an egg back than is what I should be saying.
A few years after I hatched, mom suddenly went through the same fate Aunt Raven went through, though I think Dad and Uncle Qrow know more than they say. Whenever I ask about mom they always have grim looks on their faces. Dad sends me up to my room and grounds me and Uncle Qrow just leaves the room, if I had to guess I would say he was out drinking.
"Well, I guess we best go downstairs and get some breakfast. Our ship to Beacon should arrive at any moment" Yang said.
"Hmmm" I pouted "if there's anything I'm going to miss when we're gone it's going to be dad's cooking!" dad always made the best breakfast! Sausage, bacon, pancakes. There was nothing better! I hope the food at Beacon is as good as they say it is, otherwise I'm gonna unnecessarily lose weight!
Me and Yang went down the stairs to storm dad's cooking, her stomping down the stairs from her size made surprising him rare. Because of the size of our house, the were big enough so I could jump off and flutter down softly, I used this as practice for when I go out scouting! A scout has to be quick and quiet! We heard the sizzling of bacon as we slammed down on our seats. I of course sat in my regular sized seat while Yang and dad sat in the seats that best fit for them.
"Is that the best you can do for the morning?" Dad laughed as he laid bacon on the plate in the middle"C'mon, it's a special day today and you're acting like usual"
"Well, what you want us to do?" Yang said "come down screaming like it's the holidays or something? Or maybe one of us should come down expecting a birthday dinner?" she turned her eyes on the pancakes on the table and took around 4 stacks. These pancakes were absolutely ginormous so I could never find myself eating all of them, 1 and a half was enough for someone like me!
"You know what?" Dad chuckled as he sat down, sort of as he sipped some coffee. He looked at me with a curious look "Ruby, you're wearing your old combat skirt? How come?"
"Don't ask" Yang said with a monotone voice, shaking her head.
"I sort of don't wanna know," Dad said rolling his eyes. "So how do you girls plan on getting to the airship to Beacon?"
"There's a stop past the woods nearby, the Grimm usually don't come out at this time so we should be fine" Yang said, shoving food in her mouth as a sign that she was too concentrated on eating.
"I don't really wanna take the airship," I said pouring syrup on my pancakes and bacon "I wanna practice my flying there to see how far I can make it!"
"No Ruby, you're not doing that" Dad said with a stern tone "I'd rather you be alive throughout the school year!"
"Awww" I pouted and sniffed, I really wanted to practice flying to new areas! I've already mastered flying around the house and the woods! "What's the worse that could happen? I need to act serious about this!"
"Well, first off Ruby past the woods lie taller trees than the one's you're used too. You're altitude won't be able to fly past them" Dad said.
"pffft," I roll my eyes "so I'll just go around them"
"And than not to mention there are bird Grimm flying around, the reason why the airship fly's higher is to avoid them from attacking. With your altitude, you'll only attract them and plus you're not even trained on flight combat" Dad continued.
I laid my fork on my plate, the sound was enough to convey my anger "that's not fair! What ever happened to self teaching?"
"There's good self teaching and than there's stupid one's" dad chuckled "and besides, you're wearing your old combat skirt, your wings are growing so you're not going to reach max flight with those on"
"Mamph wuz ah wz tellinz hrr" Yang said with a mouthful of pancakes.
Dad stared at her eyes directly to say that again properly. With one big gulp and one swoop of the napkin, Yang repeated herself. "That's what I've been telling her," she said "but she insisted she wear her old one"
"Didn't you say not to talk about it with her?" Dad smiled at Yang.
Yang's eyes widened as she took another bite of her pancakes. We heard a soft "ammmmmmmmmm" as we assumed it was her freaking out over dad's tricks, or it could be because the food was delicious. Stupid Dad! Trying to change the conversation in favor of him! I guess I'm not the only birdbrain in this house.
"Look, dad" I say in my attempt to keep a positive tone. "I just thought I would wear this to remember mom..." I closed my eyes, prepared for Dad's rant over my choice. To my surprise however, he chuckled.
"Ruby, you're already reminding me of your mother" he said "but than again, this might all might be in a Harpy's nature. You stick to what you want no matter what, almost like the mentality of a child. This makes you vulnerable to tricks by other people"
"Yeah...don't remind me" I moaned, remembering Yang tricking me to bring my new combat skirt. I was hoping my nature wouldn't effect my grades at Beacon.
"You're free to wear whatever you like throughout the year, Ruby" Dad said.
My eyes widened in excitement as a bounced up and down in my chair "really? Oh Dad! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"But take it as a learning experience, Ruby" Dad continued "take it as a learning experience to grieve and keep moving forward"
"Huh?" I asked, that came out of nowhere. What is he talking about? Is he trying to trick me again? Well no matter! I won't let anyone take advantage of my nature! Today is the day Ruby Rose: Harpy Huntress is born!
With food still shoved in her mouth, Yang looked at the time. Her eyes widened in what I couldn't tell was fear or excitement. She took one big gulp and spurted out "Ruby! We have to go right now or we're gonna be late for our airship" as she stood up from her seat.
The force from her movement shook the whole table as I gasped, I had hoped that Yang wouldn't be responsible for my clothes dirty yet again.
"No running" Dad immediately blurted out. Yang turned around and wrapped her arms around his back, she squeezed so hard that I swear Dad's face was turning purple!
"Alright kid, alright, let's not have another strength contest just yet!" Dad laughed.
"Will you still be available for visits and holidays?" Yang squealed in excitement.
"Of course," Dad smiled "wouldn't want them to keep you away from me for forever now do we? Now get you two get your butts moving!"
With one peck on the cheek, Yang jogged as quietly as she could out of the door. Though I could still feel the vibration from her footsteps, nice try sis. I stood up and smiled at Dad "can I at least fly to the airship stop?" I asked with curiosity and hope.
Dad laughed "as long as you stay above Yang's height and she's able to see you, now come here kiddo" he said. I had to do all of the hugging of course, due to Dad's size one squeeze could break my spine! I wrapped my fluffy wings around him and smiled. "Will you still be able to take me to mom?" I asked softly.
"Of course I will, kiddo" Dad replied "and hey, I hear Uncle Qrow might be visiting Beacon a couple of times this year"
"Really?" I ask, my wings still on his shoulder "I thought he'd be back teaching at Signal or out on another mission"
"He and the headmaster go back, way back" Dad said.
"Oh..." I said "hey, Dad does that mean you go back with the headmaster as well"
"Well...sort of" Dad said rolling his eyes.
"Sort of? Hey! Don't hide something from me!" I chirped "I wanna know!"
"I'll tell you some other day kiddo" Dad said as he lowered my wings off his shoulders and ruffled my hair. Ah! I hope his massive hands didn't ruin my hair style! It was hard without a mirror, but I tried straightening my hair back to what it was before.
Dad laughed as he shook his head "It looks fine, Ruby" he said "now go, Yang hates waiting"
I nodded excitingly and began to run off, I heard a small grunt from Dad as I turned around quickly. That grunt sounded like he had one last thing to say. "Dad?" I asked "is something up?"
"Huh? No, nothing" he said "c'mon, Yang's waiting"
"You sure?" I asked, my curiosity was only peaking.
"No, Ruby I'm fine...I just" he paused as he stood at me with sparkling eyes "just...don't ever let your life has a Huntress change you Ruby...people love you for who you are, and if there are people out there who don't accept you...just promise me one thing"
"What is it?" I asked curiously, this is the first time I've ever heard something like that come from him.
"Just...be yourself Ruby" Dad smiled "don't be held back by something, keep moving forward in life"
"...Right" I said in a soft voice. Something in me hurt hearing him say that, I wasn't sure what it meant, but I can only guess he's been wanting to say that for awhile. "I love you Dad..." I smiled at him, he looked at me and smiled back.
"I love you too Ruby...Yang as well...you're both my special girls" he smiled.
I kept that smile on my face as I turned around and ran of the door, as I left I could have sworn I heard sobbing.