Ruby listened in on multiple conversations as she heard her classmates talking about Red Vs Blue. None of them knew she starred in it, but she'd rather not have that kind of attention. Her father's silly little show had attracted a lot of attention from those that played Halo themselves, and while Ruby was happy that her father was happy, she didn't know if she wanted herself going any further than just a voice. Not even her friends knew that her voice was in the show, but they had all seen it. Ruby was very grateful that her father hadn't put in any credits yet, but she knew that he would once it was over. After all, he had only planned for a few, short episodes.
[Shift]
Those "few" episodes Taiyang had planned had extended to a nineteen episode season—maybe even two. Ruby would have been lying were she to say that she didn't like recording her lines for RvB, but she was still uncomfortable with the attention it could potentially bring her, especially if it became as big as her father hoped it would. The man had even changed the URL for his website, mainly because no one wanted anything to do with something with "drunk" in the title. So, Taiyang changed it to Rooster Teeth.
"Why Rooster Teeth?" Ruby had asked.
"Because it's a euphemism for cock bite." Taiyang bluntly said. Summer had been so shocked that the man would say something like that at the dinner table, that she had choked on her food for a few short seconds. Ruby's mother had known what the man was like before marrying him and did not wish to change him, but she did believe that children should not be corrupted by such language. That was something the parents disagreed on; Taiyang believed in conditioning his children for the real world, and Summer believed in coddling them. This caused many fights in the Xiao Long household.
[Shift]
The remaining episodes released without any major problems, but when that final episode was released, and Ruby's name was in the credits, her friends and classmates were shocked that not only was Ruby in it, but so were Port and Oobleck. The teachers openly bragged about their parts as Sarge and Caboose respectively, but Ruby chose not to say much, if anything about her role as Simmons. Taiyang had also managed to rope one of Yang's classmates; Sun into taking the role of Tucker, regardless of the fact that Taiyang had only met Sun a couple of times and had even said he didn't like the boy after listening to him ramble on about how he was into Blake and not Yang, just digging himself a deeper hole with each word that came out of his mouth. This was probably why he was casted as one of the characters Church—Taiyang's character—didn't get along with. Sun's character was a lot like Sun himself in the sense that he never knew when to shut up. This is also why Sun's lines were always recorded last second due to the fact that Sun was physically incapable of keeping a secret.
There was one other woman in the show, and she was played by the school's assistant principal; Glynda Goodwitch. Taiyang had wanted Summer to play such a role, but Summer did not want her voice on a show where they cursed as much as they did. Summer was, after all, a police officer, and required the utmost respect from all those around her. Having her voice in the show might just tarnish that. Taiyang assured her that Tex was a woman just like herself, if just a little more violent. It was at this point that Summer seriously suggested Raven taking such a part, but Taiyang did not want to deal with the woman at any time other than when she payed him child support. Raven had refused any visitation for herself after the two's divorce, but had agreed to pay him bimonthly. For some reason, however, she only ever payed in cash, and that did somewhat worry Taiyang that he was handling drug money.
Soon after Taiyang's conversation with his wife, Oobleck and Port brought the blonde man a replacement for Tex; their boss. The woman had been semi curious about voice acting and seemed to be quietly infatuated with Taiyang's web series, but asked that he leave her name out of the credits in fear of losing her credibility with the school board.
[Shift]
The next few years of Ruby's life went on like this; uneventful, while she continued doing lines for Simmons. The only major changes were that, not only did all the adults quit their jobs for Rooster Teeth, but they bought a small office on Buda. It was a one room office with an L desk in each corner. Ruby only ever visited on weekends and during the summer, where she would aid in their day-to-day work machinimating and what-not.
Ruby had been told that once she graduated, she could come work with them if she wanted to, or she could go to college. She had already made her decision. She was close to graduating already, after years of RvB, she just had to wait a few more months.
While Ruby didn't work in the office everyday like the others, she still went to conventions and fan meetups with them. She had already been to Vale, Menagerie, Vacuo, and Atlas because of Rooster Teeth, and there still was the possibility of going to many other places. Ruby had even managed to establish a friendship with one of the fans on the website; JauneArc was his username and full name. He was probably her best friend, even though she had only ever met him once, and didn't even remember the encounter. But Jaune insisted that she had signed his RvB DvD, even providing a picture of her signature. She regularly spoke to him over Skype, specifically while she played games on her Xbox.
Jaune was two years older than Ruby and often spoke of moving from Vacuo to Patch just to work for Rooster Teeth, but Taiyang claimed they didn't need another person working for them at the moment, but as soon as they did, he'd call Jaune.
When Ruby and Jaune first began talking, he asked her how working for Rooster Teeth was. She responded by telling him that the years she had played Simmons were the best of her life, and they were. She had been interviewed by news stations, from the likes of VNN, to Wolf News, and she had many stories to tell about the early years, were her father's company to make it to ten years old.
This time, as Ruby talked to Jaune, she had a stress weighing down on her. She tried not to let it show, but it must have been obvious to Jaune.
"What's wrong?" He asked. She mentally cursed and paused her game, turning to her computer.
"I—I don't know how to explain it." She said, shaking with the thought of telling someone. "Besides, I really shouldn't tell this to anyone outside of the company—not that I don't trust you, it's just… I don't know…"
"It's okay, Ruby." He said. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." The girl looked over at her bedroom door and quickly shut it, dashing back to her desk, she sighed.
"I'm thinking about…" She stopped herself. "Promise me that you won't tell anyone this!"
"I promise." He quickly said.
"Thank you." She continued. "I was thinking about leaving the company." There was a bit of silence between the two of them before Jaune spoke.
"Wow." He said. "Why?"
"I don't know." She said, the stress this was causing her evident in her voice. "I just feel like there's more to life than playing video games with my dad and his friends, ya know?" Jaune was silent as he searched for the words to try and help his friend.
"Ruby," He said. "Most people would consider being able to be apart of your father's company a dream come true. And to be honest, you have yet to really experience Rooster Teeth as a full time job—"
"I know," she said. "I know. But—I've always wanted to join the army."
"The army?!" Jaune asked, concern and shock evident in his shout. "You could get killed!"
"You're probably just worried about RvB." She teased.
"There are tons of people on the website who can do great impressions of you." He said. "But none of them are you. If you joined the army and something happened to you, the world would have lost more than just a voice actress. I would lose a friend, your dad would lose a daughter, and the community would have lost the best member of Rooster Teeth."
"So you're saying I shouldn't do it?" She asked.
"No." Jaune told her. "I'm telling you that if this is what you really want, then you'd better not die." Ruby chuckled a little, feeling the stress lifting from her shoulders.
"Thank you, Jaune." She said. "I'm gonna go talk to my dad about it right now."
[Shift]
Ruby's eyes scanned the post her father had made on the website, reading it and rereading it, waiting for the community to say something. Anything.
"RT Community," It read. "Ruby has just graduated high school and her mother and I are so proud of her. But Ruby's time at Rooster Teeth is coming to an end. At least for now. A few months ago, Ruby, Summer and I had a talk about where she was going after high school. Ruby informed us that she felt she was being pulled away from this company for something she has always aspired towards; joining the army. I'm very proud of the young women my daughters have become, and I have made each of them the promise to always love and support them, no matter what. And that is what I will do for Ruby as she moves onto something better suiting herself. I hope she may one day return, but in the meantime; how will this affect RvB? We have spent the last few months writing and recording all of Ruby's lines for the next few years, so don't lose sleep over it. I won't, I have a daughter in the army to lose sleep over."
Ruby refreshed the page again and five comments appeared. One person said "good riddance I hope your killing simmons". Another said, "Noooooooo :(" Ruby smiled, it felt good every time the community showed care for her and her family. Ruby read a couple similar comments before finding one that read; "Good luck, Ruby! The RT community is rooting for you, no matter what! Do everyone a favor and take care of yourself over there, we'd hate to have to raise an army in your remembrance." Ruby chuckled at that one, small tears falling from her face. She had a huge smile on her face, and she really felt good about herself. She quickly replied to the comment, "Remembrance? If an army is being raised, I wanna lead it!" Ruby hit send and refreshed her page again, now there were hundreds of comments, and Ruby read them all. She replied to the countless comments, making sure everyone who sent her caring messages knew she had read them.
