Every tale has its heroes. Those fearless souls who will stop at nothing and risk it all in order to ensure a bright tomorrow.
Likewise, every tale has its villains. Forces of evil who seem to thrive off of chaos as they plan to plunge everything into darkness.
Such duality has existed since the dawn of time, and each story of heroes and villains will unfold in its own unique way.
But when you dig past the heroes and villains, you simply find...the rest of them.
This is the story of the rest of them.
...
A bell went off as the door to the pizza place was opened, indicating that a customer had entered the building. It had been a long and tiring day for Topaz Fossil, after all, he was leaving for Beacon in only a couple days, so most of his day was dedicated to packing his things and getting himself ready. So what better way to wind down at the end of the day but to pick up a slice of pizza? He didn't seem to be the only one who was planning to take it easy that night either. Just on his way to the pizza shop he spotted a group of people, most of which dressed in a rather snazzy black suit getup except the one leading the bunch who was wearing a white suit and hat, heading towards the Dust shop next door. There must have been some sort of party going on there or something.
Topaz rested his mechanical arm on the counter, waiting for the man in the kitchen to finish whatever order he was working on. The one mechanical arm was not the strangest thing about Topaz at a first glance, that honor would go to the eyepatch over his left eye. However, outside of those two distinctive features, his appearance was rather plain, sporting a short beard, a dulled blue coat over a more vibrant blue undershirt with matching shorts and a pair of open toed sandals. Looking up at the menu, Topaz couldn't help but lick his lips. So many good toppings to choose from...
A man washing his hands on a cloth opened up the kitchen doors and walked up to the counter, "Sorry to keep you waiting like that. What can I get you tonight?"
Topaz looked up at the man, slightly caught off guard by his sudden appearance, "Right. I'd like one slice to go, please." he said.
The man behind the counter nodded, "All right then, any toppings on that?"
Fossil placed his hand on his chin, his gaze once more drifting up the menu, "Let's see here. So many options..."
"Take your time." The employee said, "It's a slow night, so there's no rush."
"Hmm...maybe pepperoni?" Topaz mumbled to himself, his entire focus dedicated to the menu. So much so that he didn't flinch, or notice for that matter, the loud sound of shattering glass coming from next door. Nor did he notice the scene that began to play out through the window of the pizza place. Though hearing the noises, the man behind the counter slowly tried to look over Topaz's shoulder to see the ruckus going on outside. All he was able to make out was there was some young girl wielding a rather large scythe surrounded by a group of gang members. The man shook his head, this wasn't something he wanted to deal with today.
"...Nah. I've had pepperoni a lot lately, I need to mix it up..." Topaz continued, still blissfully unaware of the events taking place outside. Whatever was going on out there seemed to escalate as the gang members rushed the girl. However, the girl seemed to be in more control of the situation, easily fighting off each of her opponents.
"Maybe mushrooms? It's been a while..."
The fight continued outside, with the last gang member being flung into the air...and crashing right into the window of the pizza place.
"Oh!" Topaz exclaimed, "Meatballs! Yeah, let's have meatballs be the topping!"
The employee slowly nodded as the henchman slid down the window, landing on the ground unconscious, "...R-right." he said, "I'll get it to you right away..." and with that, he quickly went back in the kitchen.
During the short wait, Topaz simply found himself tapping his hands up against the counter to form a simple rhythm, one that was apparently so enchanting that it made him completely oblivious to the loud explosions going off right outside and the two fighters climbing up to the rooftops. It only took a few minutes for the man to return with the slice of pizza in hand. Topaz happily took the slice, paid for his meal, and walked out the door to the now deserted streets. Stepping over the unconscious man, Topaz spotted the rather large crater in the road and paused.
"Wow..." he muttered to himself, "Those construction guys really need to do a better paving job."
Taking a bite out of his pizza, Topaz happily made his way down the streets, back to his home. It would be a busy next couple of days after all.
...
"...Torchwick, who continues to evade authorities. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact..."
The airship had been making steady course towards Beacon for quite some time now, filled to the brim with new students. Some were simply talking among one another, others found themselves sitting on their own, while more simply sat back and elected to watch the Vale News Network play over a projection. In the latter group, two students, one with curly red hair and a black top hat firmly planted on his head, and the other with slicked back black hair began to quietly laugh between each other.
"Out of everyone, is that seriously the guy who is giving the authorities a run for their money?" The black haired man said to his friend, "He doesn't look like anything special. What do you think, Dawn?"
The top hatted man shook his head, "I don't know, Damson. I'm more impressed by the fact he can apparently pull a heist while only using one eye. ...Seriously, how does he see out of that other one?" Outside of the top hat, Dawn sported an open peacoat, that interestingly enough started out a dark blue at the top, but slowly took on a more orange coloring farther down on the coat. Underneath the peacoat was a dark blue undershirt, and a pair of matching pants. Lastly, he was wearing a pair of orange boots, that almost seemed to look more mechanical than anything else.
"Well if you ask me, it just looks like they're having a slow news day." Damson said as he casually leaned against the nearby wall. In comparison to his friend, Damson's outfit was rather plain. He wore a sleeveless shirt and a pair of cargo shirts, both colored in a murky blue. While at a first glance, that would seem to be it, on closer inspection one would notice a set of gills on his neck. His attention returned to the holographic screen in front of them, "See! It's back to another one of those White Fang stories! I swear there's nothing good on anymore..."
Dawn smiled as he turned to face his friend, "Well, if the news has nothing going for it, we could always run by the battle plan again." he paused for a moment, as if he was trying to go over a lot of information at once, "...Remind me, were you able to get the dirt on how this whole thing works?"
"You mean the team thing?" Damson sighed and shook his head, "Nah, I can't seem to pry the info about how they set them up out of anyone. Looks like we're going in blind."
"Right...so there's no guarantee that we'll even get the same team then. Greaaaat..." Dawn rested the left side of his face on his hand, "And here I was hoping we could rig it to get a super cool name or something...I guess it's on to Plan B then!"
Damson rose an eyebrow, "Plan B? I don't remember anything about a Plan B."
"That's because I literally made it up a good five seconds ago."
"Well then," Damson chuckled, "What's your Plan B then?"
Dawn quickly sat up, "Alright. So I was hoping we could just hang around when we arrived at Beacon, but if there's no guarantee on the whole team thing, that might not work. So when we land, it might be for the better if we split up and actually try to meet some new people. I know, the horror." As Dawn continued to talk on, his pace slowly but surely began to quicken, "Given that there are a lot of people heading to Beacon, it wouldn't seem too out of the question that we could come across some other people who are competent enough at what they do. As long as we are able to find a handful of people who know what they're doing, then we should know enough people that even if they make teams by doing handstand contests or something, we'll be teamed with some nice and competent people. And if in the tragic case we don't end up on the same team together, then we can cry about it in the corner, meet up during lunch, and not be on a team with a bunch of random people we don't know." He took a deep breath, "...Got it?"
"...I think?" Damson replied, "It's hard to keep up with someone moving at light speed."
Dawn sighed, "All right, I'll take that one. The point is, just split up, try to find some decent people, and no matter what we'll find ourselves on capable teams."
"Sounds like a plan!" Damson grinned, "...So how much longer is it before we land at Beac-"
He was cut off by a young woman rushing right past the two, almost knocking both of them over.
Dawn blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"
"I...don't think I want to know what her problem is."
...
Raspberry Auryn's problem was that she was very, very, bored.
During the period of time before she got on the airship, all Raspberry could think about was whether or not there would be anyone she knew heading to Beacon. It became apparent very quickly that the answer to that question was a resounding "no". This realization lead to Raspberry being overcome by a large wave of boredom. She did realize however, that there was an instant fix to her whole problem. Find someone to talk to.
Although, that's easier said than done. From the looks of things, it seemed that just about everyone already had someone that they were talking to, and it wasn't like she could just butt into someone's conversation.
...In reality, it was actually closer to she couldn't just butt into someone's conversation again. The first time she tried it the people seemed more weirded out than anything else. It was a shame she couldn't find anyone to talk to, as she had made sure that she was dressed her best for the trip. She wore a magenta dress with a darker short jacket over it, a pair of vibrant red leggings, purple ankle boots, a nice little necklace with a few red rhinestones hanging from it, and a small red fascinator hat, slightly tilted to the left. Interestingly enough, while most of the outfit did seem to fit in, there were two things that stuck out. The first was a black belt with a lot of pouches around her waist, the second was a brown gauntlet placed over her right hand, although the material stretched up well over her arm, giving it a light coat of armor. While the gauntlet itself was mostly rather plain, the backside of it had a rather large jewel embedded onto it.
All that getup and she couldn't find anyone to talk to...But it was a large airship, so she hadn't even gotten a chance to scout the whole place out yet! Who knows, there might be someone on this side of the airship...
Raspberry moved a strand of blonde hair out of her face and clasped her hands together (which was a little bit difficult to do considering the gauntlet covering one arm) and began to scan the area. There was some girl in red talking to a blonde, some guy talking to what looked to be some sort of bird Faunus, someone with short black hair sitting on their own reading a book...
The young woman smiled, perhaps she could strike up conversation with him? He was reading some sort of book, and she liked books too! This shouldn't prove to be all that difficult.
Before getting any closer, Raspberry quickly examined the young man. He sported a rather simple long sleeved black undershirt with matching pants, a purple doublet littered with black patterns that almost looked like leaves, a matching cape skirt, a pair of tall purple boots, and a silver pendant with a star embedded into it around his neck. The book he was reading looked to be rather bulky...though Raspberry wasn't quite able to make out the title.
Raspberry approached the reading man, with a skip to her step. The man didn't seem to notice that she had approached him.
"Hello there!" Raspberry suddenly said, an air of cheerfulness to her voice. The man glanced up from his book and quickly looked around to make sure that she was talking to him and not someone else.
Upon realizing that he was the only one around she could be talking to he let out a small sigh, "...Hi."
Raspberry didn't pay any mind to the disinterest in his voice and continued just as happily, "I couldn't help but notice you were sitting all alone, soooo I figured that I would come over to talk to you! After all, I'm sure no one wants to come to Beacon all alone. I'm Raspberry Auryn! What's your name?"
The man turned the page in his book, not even looking up, "Eminence LeFay."
"Oooh." Raspberry started, "That's a really fancy name! ...Sooo, are you excited about going to Beacon? There are tons of cool people on this airship alone! Imagine everyone working together to beat up some Grimm! Man, that's going to be so cool!"
"Yeah, sure." Eminence plainly replied, barely paying attention to the conversation.
"Oh yeah! If you don't mind me asking, can I take a peek at the book you're reading?" Raspberry asked.
For the first time, Eminence looked up from his book, "Umm...I'm not sure if it's your kind of genre."
Raspberry smiled, "Nonsense! I love all kinds of books! Is it a history one, or maybe some horror novel?"
Eminence started to shift around, "No, I'm sure you wouldn't be intereste-" he was cut off as Raspberry started to lean in closer to get a look.
"A quick peek wouldn't hurt anyone!"
"Wait!"
However, before Eminence could get out of the way, Raspberry had moved the book away from his face to see what he was reading. But instead of being greeted by some paragraphs of text, she was greeted by some...rather explicit images of two men in the bedroom.
They both sat there in silence for what felt like hours but couldn't have been longer than a few seconds before Raspberry stood up, "Well, it was nice to meet you Eminence but look at the time, I gotta go. Bye!" she quickly got out before leaving in the other direction. Eminence simply sat there looking on for a few more moments before shrugging and going back to his "reading".
...
Raspberry had made her way back to the main deck, all alone once more. The very first thing she noticed was a hologram go out the moment she had arrived. For a few moments, she started to wonder what exactly she missed, really hoping that it wasn't anything super important. This train of thought was was quickly cut off when Raspberry noticed quite a few students heading towards different windows on the airship. Curious to see what was going on, the young woman walked towards one of the windows and took a look outside.
She was greeted with the sight of Beacon itself, not too far in the distance, "Wow..." Raspberry mumbled to herself, "It's a lot prettier up close like this..."
Raspberry continued to keep her eyes on Beacon for quite some time, it was only when she heard a suitcase slam to the floor and some grumbling that she was torn from the window and decided to turn around. Nearby was a young man with short brown hair reaching into a briefcase, putting on a blue shirt and a blue jacket over it, muttering something to himself.
Raspberry slightly tilted her head, "Umm, excuse me, but are you doing all right?" she asked.
The man looked over, "Well, I WAS doing all right, everything was going just peachy, but then some weirdo vomited all over my nice shirt! Who does that!?"
"Someone puked on you...?" Raspberry asked. She was expecting a lot of new and exciting things to happen at Beacon, but somehow that wasn't one of them, "Man, that really stinks. Sorry to hear about that."
The young man sighed, "Thanks...Sorry for immediately lashing out at you like that, I was still in the moment. My name is Topaz. Topaz Fossil." he stated as he held out a hand.
Raspberry was very quick to reach out and shake his hand. Had she just accidentally made a friend? And all she had to do was stare out a window for a few minutes, "I'm Raspberry Auryn! It's a pleasure to meet you!" she happily stated.
Topaz nodded before turning back to close his briefcase, muttering something along the lines of, "And now it's all going to smell like dried vomit. Fantastic."
As Topaz got up from the floor, Raspberry continued to speak, "I hope this doesn't come across as rude or something...but what's up with the eyepatch?"
Topaz smiled, "Oh, that? Yeeeeaaaahhhh, I may or may not have had some pretty nasty encounters with some Grimm when I was younger..."
"Oh!" Raspberry almost jumped in the air from surprise, "You actually lost your eye? That's awful!"
The young man simply shrugged, "It was bad at the time, but I've gotten used to it. Besides, it does look pretty cool at the end of the day. It's the same deal with this." he said as he held up his mechanical arm.
"Whoa, I didn't realize that was a prosthetic arm." Raspberry said, "I thought you were just ripping off my style..." she quietly said to herself, her gaze moving to her own gauntlet.
"Yeah, it's all because of those stupid cursed blades."
Raspberry rose an eyebrow, "Cursed...blades?"
Topaz reached behind him and removed a silver hooked blade with a black hilt from a strap on his back, "Yeah, this is The Cursed Dutchman...well one of them, the other one is still on my back. These things have been handed down my family for quite a while now, and while they're pretty useful in a battle, both of them are completely cursed." Raspberry rose a finger, ready to say something before Topaz cut her off, "And no, I'm not making that up! I wouldn't have lost any body parts if these things weren't cursed, and now that I think about it they're probably the reason why that guy puked directly on my shirt out of everyone there! Sure, I think some girl got some on her shoes, but I swear he was aiming for me the second time around."
"He threw up twice in a row?"
"I think he's still throwing up."
"Eww..." Raspberry said to herself before popping a potato chip into her mouth.
Topaz shook his head, "But yeah, those are just the major offenders. I'm sure just about everything bad that has happened to me are because of this stupid blades, but it's not like I can just get rid of them. They're really effective, and for all I know the curse would be transferred to any other weapon I pick...up..." he tampered off as he just noticed Raspberry eating, "...Where did you get that food from?"
Raspberry looked up, "Oh, the chips? I always keep some snacks in my utility belt in case I get hungry!"
"Oh, that's neat." Topaz said. Both were silent for a couple seconds before he continued, "...Actually, can I have some chips too?"
"Sure!" Raspberry smiled as she pulled out a small stack of potato chips from a pouch on her belt, "I should have enough snacks to last for a few days!"
Topaz happily took the chips, "Thanks! Nothing like a little snack to make you feel better after your good shirt gets ruined..."
Outside, there was a loud sound as the airship had finally reached Beacon and had begun its landing procedures. A number of students made their way to the bridge, hoping to get off of the ship as soon as possible. However, Raspberry and Topaz simply looked at the school before them, crunching on some tasty chips.
...
Author Notes
-Ooh boy, let's go over some basic stuff. First of all, thanks for checking this out! It's super appreciated!
-I'm not going to beat around the bush here, I am generally not the kind of person who shows up to write some fanfiction, especially ones that have OCs as the main focus, but here we are. This whole thing started as a small joke when someone in a small group of friends I'm in decided to put our names together in a RWBY team fashion. ...It spelled DERT. We immediately found this very amusing and ideas slowly but surely started pouring in...and here we are now!
-I do want to give massive shoutouts though to GAvillain, JCMorrigan, and 73Windman. While I'm the one doing the nitty gritty writing parts, these three have been helping out a ton with designs, ideas, jokes, and proofreading my mediocre English. Super shoutouts to all three of them!
-There are two rules I am abiding by when it comes to this fic. I am well aware the...danger that can emerge from fics like this, namely having crummy Mary Sue OCs everywhere. It's my first rule and goal to avoid this as much as humanly possible. We're here to read something interesting gosh dangit, not something about everyone swooning at the sight of the OC of the week.
-Which leads to my second rule, which I think makes writing this a little bit more fun. That being I am not allowed to interfere with the canon events of RWBY whatsoever. I can and will add events to fill in parts of canon that simply aren't covered in the show proper, but you're never going to see someone jump in to help RWBY fight Torchwick in a mech or something, because that's not how it happened. I want it to be done in a way that you can put the two side and by side, and there will barely be any contradictions. It makes coming up with the plotlines a lot more fun to say the least.
-I really don't have a whole lot of actual notes for this first chapter. It's a bunch of introductions, we got to get them out of the way. There are a few more coming in next time, but after that the OC Train must take a rest for quite a while. We don't need it to get too crowded in here.