I do not own RWBY, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, or Bloodborne.
This is pretty much just me writing whatever idea that pops into my head that I think would be fun to write.
(-)
Doll carefully watched as the Hunter paced the length of their room in agitation. 'His control is slipping' she noted idly while along the walls veins that sprouted with her hunters return pulsed violently. They covered every inch of the room except for around where she sat atop the coffin. It looked as if someone had cut a perfect circle around her and the veins had made no attempt to enter it. Almost as if they can't.
"What is troubling you good hunter?"
He stopped and raised his right hand which was quickly covered by an unnatural looking darkness with black wisps flowing off of it.
"The… Dark Hand?" she guessed. Though he has told her of his adventures, and even shown her a few of the more interesting moments when she had asked, she still has trouble remembering them all. She was fairly certain the thousands he had spoken of where only the more eventful iterations. "From the Dark Soul?"
"Yes, though how it's here I have no idea," he answered before resuming his pacing. The veins began pulsating even more quickly. "I don't have the Dark Soul, fragment or otherwise, anymore. I got rid of it myself."
"I thought the Dark Soul did not mean you harm."
"It didn't, doesn't change the fact that it nearly destroyed the world and killed me several million times. It's dangerous, incredibly so, and I would prefer to have not accidently introduced it to this world. They already have their Dark to fight."
Doll nodded in understanding he had explained the creatures of Grimm, his latest prey, and what he suspected were their origins. What was more worrying though was the return of their original worlds Dark and it's apparent grasp on her hunter... and all that entailed.
"…does this mean she's back?" Doll asked.
The Hunter stopped moving and the whole room, veins included, seemed to freeze with him. Doll immediately regretted asking, it never failed to upset him when the Maiden was brought up.
"…no." he answered quietly. He didn't resume pacing; instead continuing to stand there and be so still it unnerved even her. He stood there for the next few minutes, his expression unchanging, before turning to her.
"You are sad," Doll answers the unasked question.
He grimaced and shifted uncomfortably. "I don't like it."
"Most do not," she responds and walks over to him, the circle of unchanged floor following her with every step.
She hesitates when she reaches him before wrapping her arms around him in a tenuous embrace, they've both grown accustomed to touching even coming to enjoy it, but actual gestures of intimacy are still mostly beyond them. If the Hunter hadn't been so terrified of her falling off of the Bullhead, an odd name considering it resembled neither, he never would have been able to hold her before.
"It's not your fault," she whispers. He looks at her oddly.
"Of course, it isn't," he states without a shred of doubt.
"Most would be feeling guilty for what happened."
"Guilt?" he says, tasting the unfamiliar word.
"When you feel remorse for an action you have performed."
He blinks.
"When you feel bad for an action you have performed."
He makes an 'oh' in understanding. He thinks of his past and the fact that almost everyone he has ever met has died by his hand, and then responds truthfully.
"I have never felt that."
"I know," she responds, seeing nothing wrong with this; she hasn't either. He shifts around so that he's facing her and can rest his head in the crook of her neck. Just as the Hunter is about to fall asleep Doll speaks up.
"Would you like me to… comfort you?" She asks with an emotion he can't identify. He ignores his instinctual response of 'no' and studies her face to try and figure out what she is feeling.
'She is shifting around and refuses to meet my eyes,' he notes, 'and she is rubbing her hands.'
This reminded him of something.
…
Oh! This was like with Yuria. She had always grown uncomfortable when he was near. Constantly shifting around and never meeting his eyes. He had even caught a glimpse of her face growing red when he could sneak a look under that hat of hers and then it growing redder when he had tried to check if she was sick. He knew he could be unsettling but he couldn't think of anyone he made as nervous as her, except maybe Patches-
Oh, nervous! That was it. Doll was nervous. He silently congratulated himself on divining the answer to this most important of puzzles.
…
He still had no idea what to do.
Damn! He had deduced the emotion but not a solution.
Fuck it, he was thinking about this too much. He'd just react on instinct like he always did.
He nodded.
"Alright," Doll says and mimics a deep breath. She looks down to him and starts.
"She made her choice and, though it is unfortunate, that was the path it lead to," she explained calmly. "You could not have known what would happen nor should you blame yourself that it did." Doll wracked her brain thinking of something else to add on. "And if it had not gone the way it had… then we would have never met." She finished hesitantly.
…
He wraps his arms around her slowly. Dolls eyes widen and her arms unconsciously tighten around him even as he shifts to get more used to the unfamiliar gesture.
"Do you feel better?"
"I don't know," he answers truthfully. "Thank you." He's certain that only Doll knows him well enough to hear the unsaid 'for caring enough to try'.
She 'smiles' and nuzzles into his hair.
The moment was eventually ended a few minutes later with someone knocking at the door. The Hunter barely resisted shooting it.
(-)
The door opened and a blonde woman with a cape and wand was standing outside it. He got ready to jump out of the way of the sneak attack, but when she didn't move except to look at him he relaxed.
'Logan' raised an eyebrow in question.
"Ozpin wishes to see you," Glynda answered the unspoken question, "do you remember the way to his office?"
He shook his head.
"Then if you will follow me, I shall escort you," she paused in thought for a moment before grimacing slightly, "Will the… coffin be coming with you?"
He looked back into the room and Doll waved goodbye. He waved back and turned to Goodwitch. "She is staying."
Glynda glanced into the empty room and frowned in confusion. "Very well, please follow me," she stated and turned to go.
'She?' Glynda wondered.
(-)
Ozpin peers down at the paper before him and, once more, ponders its full significance and all the implications it brings. Half of it was the printed font found on all Beacon registration forms, but the other consisted of what looked like actual chicken scratch placed in all the points a student would fill out their information. If it weren't for the fact that some of the scratches resembled each other and, upon closer inspection from both him and Oobleck, did seem to form a pattern, he'd think a student was nearly wasting their chance to learn at Beacon for a joke.
A series of beeps told him that Glynda had returned with the 'perpetrator'.
The elevator doors slide open with Glynda and Logan stepping out.
It was almost amazing how many other questions Ozpin had that were answered in just the time it took for Logan to walk up to him, and how many more it rose. Just like last time, the moment Ozpin was in sight Logan's eyes jumped straight to him. Something about Ozpin clearly put the young man on edge, though you could hardly tell from his body language. Still completely relaxed and radiating the same apathy to everything around him as always. But the way his eyes never left Ozpin definitely suggested that he thought of him as a threat. 'Or at least the primary one,' Ozpin thought when he noticed that Logan had positioned himself just close enough behind Glynda to be able to enter her guard before she could successfully turn to attack.
But there weren't any signs of him faking his nonchalance, so that meant he was legitimately at ease even when he felt threatened? If so, that brought forth more questions. All of which pointed towards Mister Grey having a violent past. Unfortunately, that wasn't an especially rare circumstance for a hunter. Ozpin only hoped that the scars would be minimal and that Logan would be all the stronger for it.
Though it did bring to mind the fact that he had paused during their first encounter long enough to put down the coffin. Ordinarily Ozpin would have choked this up to Logan wanting to not be restricted but he had shown a considerable attachment to it and whatever was inside. So, he was fine with himself being in danger but not the coffin, and whatever its contents might be?
Interesting.
He turned the paper around and pushed it towards Logan. "Could you please explain what this is?"
Logan glanced at the paper for only a moment then returned to staring at Ozpin.
"Paper."
Glynda frowned at the response but Ozpin held up a hand before she could reprimand Logan.
"I meant what's on it."
"Words," Logan replied without missing a beat.
Ozpin couldn't tell whether or not he was joking.
"Can you read this?" he pointed towards the scratches.
Logan nodded.
"What does this say?" he pointed to the one next to Name:
"Logan."
"And this?" he pointed to the word immediately next to it.
"Grey."
He pointed to the one next to Age:
The same set of symbols appeared in multiple places on the form, including Mother's Name:, Father's Name:, and Place of birth:.
"Unknown."
"You don't know how old you are?"
Logan nodded his head. By the time he had learned you were supposed to keep track it was already too far gone.
"And this?" He pointed to the symbol next to Next of kin:
"Doll."
…
Ozpin could feel the headache coming.
(-)
She was being chased. By what she didn't know and for now she didn't care. All she knew was that whatever it was had her instincts screaming at her to run and if she stopped she would die. The snarls and growling coming from just a few feet behind her did nothing to discredit this notion. Whatever they were they were fast, maybe not as much as a Beowulf, but definitely enough to outrun most humans. It was only thanks to her being agile enough to duck and weave through the trees around them that they hadn't managed to catch her yet.
One of the things chasing her barked, if the grotesque gurgling sound could be called that, a signal(?) they gave out whenever they were about to lunge, maybe to worn the others to get out of the way. She ducked down just in time for it to go sailing over her and into one of the grey trees. She only spared it a glance before continuing to run but what she saw was plenty motivation to move even faster.
The beast laden with eyes rose and resumed the chase.
(-)
Ozpin stared. He idly noted that Glynda was doing the same but at least had the benefit of Logan not staring back at her.
"You…" he gestured towards Logan. Logan continued to stand there wearing his perpetual apathy like a second skin. "You're married?"
Logan shook his head.
"We shall spend the rest of our lives together," he answers with neither hesitation nor sarcasm.
Ozpin hopes he doesn't look as confused as he is.
"That's the same thing," he explains.
Logan frowns in confusion.
"I thought marriage was for making children?" Human ones, at least, there was a multitude of ways for making Great One children.
Ozpin shoots Glynda a look that can best be summed up as: 'What'.
Glynda shrugs helplessly.
"No," Ozpin stated slowly.
"Huh," Logan murmured absently. He supposed it was a good thing that Annalise had declined then, besides the fact that it would kill her. "Then where do babies come from?"
Ozpin dropped his head into his hands and contemplated jumping out the window.
(-)
The forest had eventually ended, not even tapering off just stopping in a straight line, and she had ended up in a clearing that stretched farther than she could see. The beasts, whatever they were, had noticed the abrupt lack of obstacles for her to dodge around and had quickly blocked her off from reentering the forest, showing intelligence that she was incredibly glad the Grimm didn't. Now they were circling her, each one silently watching, an act made even more unnerving given the fact that half their bodies were made of eyeballs, and waiting for some unknown signal to lunge.
Then one of them barked and the next second they were barreling down on her. She raised her arms to try and guard what little she could from damage and-
Everything froze.
The beasts, the trees, even her, the whole world stopping as if someone had hit pause on a movie.
She only had a moment to freak out before something caught her eye. Specifically someone.
Where just a second ago there had been no one now a man was standing at the edge of the tree line staring at them. All she could make out of him was a mixture of black and dark grey with a pointy hat. Though even if she could tell what he was wearing his color would have stood out more. Now that she was looking at something with it she noticed how grey everything else was. The trees, the beasts, even the sky were the same dull shade. She wasn't even sure how she could see there wasn't any light coming from anything but, then, there wasn't any dark either.
Where was she?
Then the man was suddenly standing in front of her, arm raised to her face and-
(-)
-he flicked her forehead sending the girl careening out of the Dream and back into the Waking World. The Hunter frowned at the frozen beasts floating beside him and noted the terror that filled every one of their numerous eyes.
"Bad dogs," he stated and flicked his hand. Each of them dissolved and faded into the Dream without a sound.
He looked back to where the girl of red, though here she lacked even that, had been and studied the ground intently. He turned and followed the trail she had taken through the woods. He wanted to make sure she hadn't left anything. The dream was annoying enough to maintain without any outside influence.
He inevitably shuddered when the thought of how Headmaster Ozpin thought human procreation worked came back to his mind.
All that touching.
He shuddered again and desperately tried to forget.
(-)
Meanwhile Ruby Rose jolted awake in bed from a half remembered dream and Ozpin tried his best to his best to forget with a 'special blend' of coffee.
(-)
Omake: Why the Hunter became a… Hunter…
"How would you like to be a part of my school?"
The Hunter doesn't have to say yes. There is literally nothing compelling him to and he doesn't need anything so having a job is irrelevant at best. But there is also no reason to decline either. With just him and Doll for the rest of their, possibly endless, lives they would no doubt grow bored eventually. Napping and stroking his hair had to grow dull at some point.
The Hunter internally shrugged and nodded.
He had nothing better to do.
~Alternate 1:
The Hunter thinks about the fact that he literally doesn't know how to do anything else but kill things. He'd tried to learn some other craft before. He'd even gotten a job as a baker. His kill count had risen exponentially. Even he had found the mountains of corpses he left in his wake obscene.
He doesn't even hesitate to nod.
~Alternate 2:
The Hunter turns to you, "I'm The Hunter, what the fuck else am I gonna do?"
Omake 2: Innocent
Doll stared into the Hunters eyes and gently leaned forward.
The Hunter felt himself growing warmer until she stopped just before touching him.
She stared unblinking into his eyes and he stared back.
Then she spoke, each syllable rolling off her tongue with a pleasure that almost bordered on the obscene.
"Go fish."
He pouted and drew another card.
Doll was insanely good at card games.
Yeah, I can't write romance. Also 2 omakes to make up for the short chapter.
And a bit of trivia!
Did anyone know the shaft to a scythe is called a snaft? Well it is, and it does not look nor sound like a real word. Have a nice day/night/whatever.