Weapon submissions are over. Thanks to everyone who submitted!
Age 14
I absentmindedly toy with the bronze ring Jae had given me all these years ago, as I wait for school to actually start.
On that note, I briefly glance up at the clock. 2 minutes to go.
I lean back at my chair, and rub my eyes, trying to shake out the tiredness that still lingers. Freaking classes 8 in the morning. Why can't they delay it an hour or something? Gives us time to, you know, not suffer.
Nonetheless, despite my mental objections, kids start piling into the classroom, until it's full of about 20 or so kids.
My first period teacher, Mr. Leeves, walks up to the front of the room and holds out a paper in front of the room, after some cordial greetings, "So, today is the day you will start to work on your weapon," he says reading off the paper, "yadda, yadda, yadda," he continues as the kids now lean forward in anticipation.
"In the next span of several weeks you will work on designs with your teachers, and find out which kind of weapon bests suits you," he pauses and skims over the paper a bit more, "Today we will just discuss the basics of designing a weapon, what is realistic and practical, and where you should start. But you must know, you won't actually start designing your weapon for a good couple days from now."
He then sighs and flips through the rest of the packet and I can tell that he is lightly reading everything, "And something about how this is a momentous undertaking, which will probably take another 5 minutes to read, which I'm guessing none of us actually want to hear."
He looks up and scans the classroom to confirm his belief, "Good. But, before we actually start, I'm going to give some of my 'Leeves Life Lessons'," he says as he mentions his dubbed name for lectures, "As much as you are excited for this, you do have to understand, this isn't as easy as the TV shows makes it out to be. You most likely won't have some epiphany, it will be a slow and gradual process, that might actually end up with several kids finding out that the huntsmen life isn't for them."
He takes a breath, as he starts pacing around the room, each and every kid following him with their eyes, "But don't let that discourage you, you should be happy that you made it this far, and excited about the future that lays ahead. Now, let's stop moping around like some bumbling idiots, and get to work!"
Some Point Later
"Now," Mr. Leeves says, as he turns off the lights and turns on the projector, "one of the benefits of living in Atlas is the fact that many of our weapons are very technologically advanced, with high funding in order to create and maintain them."
He pauses as we look at a simple graph of the funding towards Atlesian hunters compared to the other kingdoms, "This doesn't mean that you can create a fully functional mech suit, believe me. I tried."
He shakes his head, "But, still, feel free to go nuts with your weapon, we will probably be able to figure it out somehow."
Some Point Even Later
Mr. Leeves walks into the room this time a short woman in a white coat, and her brown hair in a bun, following right behind him, "Today, we are doing aptitude tests."
Half of the kids look at him confused, "That basically means that we are going to test how proficient you are with various weapons."
Some kids still stare confused, in which he sighs, "You will take a test to see how skilled you are at different things."
The confused stares disappear, "Okay?" he continues, "Good. Now don't be afraid if you fail, because you will. Especially you Hunter," he teases.
"But back to the point at hand," he says waving a hand with a smile, "you will do better at some things than other, this is merely to see where you are in skill relative to other kids, to help you create your weapon. Simple enough? Good."
Some Point Late Enough That The Person Creating This Quit, And We Had To Hire A New One
I could write a book on designing a weapon at this point. Problem is, most of it would be negative.
Still, I'm going to save you the trouble of reading my plight, and instead, give you the main points. First off, I'm sorry, but I can't wield scythes, my fighting style and proficiency just doesn't allow for it, as cool as it would be. Second, I'm about as creative as an illiterate blind person. At least in weapons. I keep on trying to modify existing weapons into something of my own, and it isn't working out all that well.
But, I have some good things running for me. I'm one of those kids that are good at a lot, amazing at a little, giving me quite a bit of option to work on. Also, due to the offensive nature of my semblance, I don't have to create an offensive weapon in order to counterbalance what would be a lack of offense.
And all this came together into a beautiful painting of migraines, crumpled papers, and empty caffeine drinks.
"What have you been working on," Mr. Leeves says walking up to me.
I look down at the paper and shake my head, "Just some spear-esque, polearm-esque, long-range pokey-esque weapon, that looks like someone tried to turn a turd into a weapon."
He picks up the piece of paper as I rest my head on the cold hard wood of the desk, hoping it will push out my headache "Well, we can agree on something then," Mr. Leeves says having looked at the paper.
I merely groan as I sit here face down on the desk, "Any wisdom of the old you can depart upon this lost soul? Because I could seriously use it," I groan, twisting my head to the side, to stare up at him.
He scratches the bit of stubble he has on his chin, as he thinks a bit, "On the aptitude test, what did you get ranked highest in?"
"I got S-rank in Semblance Usage, and Hand Firearms, A-rank in Rifles, Broadswords, and Spears," I reply with my face still on the desk.
"Well," he continues, "what do you like using the most."
I sit up a bit, still keeping a slouched posture as my faunus ears droop downwards, "I generally used my semblance a lot, although I do kinda like using rifles" I respond.
"Choose one," he responds.
"Well, then my semblance."
"In that case, that means you use a hand, right?" he asks.
"Yeah," I nod, unsure of where he is going this.
"Well," he continues nodding a bit, "what would you put on your hand?"
"Uh…" I stammer unsure of how to respond to this question.
After a good several second he continues, "There's no wrong answer, I'm just asking. What is something you would hold on or put in your hand?"
"A… uh," I stammer a bit, "a chicken wing?"
He frowns jokingly, "Try again."
"A… glove?" I ask.
"Good," he responds, "a glove, now make a weapon out of a glove," he finishes walking off to another kid who is raising their hand, not giving me the chance to ask a question.
Oh?
Almost A Month Later
Upwards of 100 kids sit in the auditorium every one of them bubbling to the chin with excitement at the idea of finally starting the creation of their weapon, conversations filling the air like a thick fog, an expectant feeling hovering over in the air.
Looking up on the podium I see 5 people sitting down on chairs, they all look like your average huntsmen adult, although one is sitting in front of everyone else, giving the obvious impression that somehow he is more important than the others.
And honestly… my first impression is that he reminds me a Qrow. Slacking a bit, small patches of stubble on his face, black hair that looks like it hasn't seen a brush in a year, eyes which say that he'd rather be sleeping than be here, and the fact that he half-glares at every kid who looks in his direction, which includes me.
Well, I'm looking away from him.
Still, for a while nothing happens, as kids continually filter into the room, each one of them finding their own place to sit down and talk.
But, after a good 2 more minutes, Stehlen Frost walks up onto the podium and taps the mic once, before saying, "Greetings. Today is the day in which you will start designing your weapon. This is a momentous undertaking, and all of you should remember this as one of the defining moments of when you become a huntsmen."
She adjusts her stance slightly and continues, "At Mountain Academy, we tend to prefer if your choices were to be refined, and more streamlined. So, as result, we have acquired Senior Weapon Designers and Repairmen from Atlas Academy, which we have assembled behind me."
She pauses for a second, "Now, I introduce to you Jager Blackwall, head of weapon design and repair at Atlas Academy."
And with that, she turns and walks off to the side, as the aforementioned Jager practically stumbles up to microphone, fiddling with it for a second before taking it out of the stand, all the while kids clap, out of common courtesy "Okay," he starts, "listen up. I don't want to repeat myself. Now, I am the Head of Weapon Design and Repair at Atlas Academy, this means that I know a goddamn lot. Which means, if I have an idea, which you don't like, try not to throw a hissy fit and push your own god damn idea."
He takes a second to let that settle in, "That means you will not have a greatsword that acts as an orbital laser or have a miniature nuke launcher, and yes those are all ideas that I have heard before."
A pause to let every kid hear that, "On that note, creating your weapon takes time. It will not happen overnight! That is why this will take the next two months of your life. Do not come whining to be about how long it is taking!"
He takes a deep breath, "Now they want me to give some speech about how important this is, so I'll do just that. So listen up, because this is the most important thing you are going to learn while at Mountain Academy. Your weapon is who you are. Without a weapon, a huntsman is nothing. So for Oum's sake, take care of your weapon. You don't know how many kids come to me saying their weapon is broken because they were too lazy to actually take care of the god damn thing."
He sighs, having riled himself up with his speech, "I know I'm not the nicest person, hell I'm actually quite a horrible person. But hear me out for a second, I'm doing this because I do care for you all. I want you to have a weapon, that when time comes, will save your life. So please, for the love of god, listen to me."
He takes a deep breath, "Anyways, I'll take kids with a first name starting from A through E. This kind man behind me," he says gesturing to the man of the far left of the group, "will take kids from F through J, she," he says gesturing to the next person, "will take K through O, she, will take P through T, and last and certainly least, he," he said gesturing to the last person, "will take U through Z."
He takes a breath, "Any questions?"
Three kids raise their hands.
"Good," he says, "so no questions."
So it's been something like two hours, or so.
The first half hour was spent watching kids walk in and out, each kid with varying expressions on the way out. Until I finally felt like I would either have to claw my eyes out or risk chronic insanity.
Next half hour was spent fiddling with my hands and trying to entertain me with completely random stuff, like a potted plant which is in one of the corners.
And the next hour was me giving up and going onto my scroll to dick around, because at that point I had decided that I wasn't going anytime soon, seeing that they had just started the 'B's', and I was, quite obviously, in the 'C' category.
I mean, not much has really happened in the first place, after he finished his speech, they walked into their own individual room, and every once in awhile you would hear someone be called to go and help design their weapon…
"Caerus Ferrum," the headmistress says from the podium, eyeing me slightly, "Head to room 202."
Surprised, I get up, slightly too giddily, and start walking my way towards the said room.
Getting to the doorway, I cautiously open the door and step inside, and my impressions are that Jager is as tired, if not more tired than me. He sits there impatiently tapping his foot, as he slouches, and rubs his eyes, all the while just giving off an aura of just being plain exhausted.
As I walk in he says, "What's up, uhhh," he looks at a computer next to him which seems to have my info, "Caerus. Ferrum."
He then mutters under his breath, "What kind of parents name their child that."
"Uh," I stammer a bit, having heard that due to my faunus enhanced senses, "I'm an orphan."
"Well shit," he says obviously surprised, "sorry 'bout that," he pauses for a second, "but come on, we're wasting daylight."
I pull up a chair and sit next to him, pulling off my backpack and putting it next to the chair.
"So what you got?" he says as I pull out some sketches from my backpack.
"Uh," I start, "I was thinking about some sort of gauntlet type weapon. I ranked highest in Semblance Usage, and lighter weapons, so I thought that maybe a gauntlet weapon would be useful, since it is both lights, and would allow me to use my semblance."
I obviously didn't say that I stole a bit of my idea from Jae's weapon.
He humms a bit and says, "Give me a sec," he twists around and types on the computer nearby, glancing over his shoulder, I can see that he is pulling up some more info on me.
"So," he asks, still facing the computer, "your semblance is lightning?"
"Yes," I merely respond.
"Elaborate," he says turning around to me.
"Well, uh, I can channel lighting into my hands and discharge it, into the form of a lightning bolt," I respond.
"So you can discharge through gloves, and/or metal?" he then asks.
"Yes."
He then continues, "How do you generally use your semblance in fights?"
"Uh," I stammer a bit trying to guess what he means, "I generally just dodge around my opponent, and try to hit them with my semblance once I think it will hit."
"So you generally use it from range then," he concludes.
"Yes."
"Okay," he pulls out a paper from his desk and grabs a pencil starting a rough sketch, "then you don't want bladed gauntlets," he says drawing a different style of gauntlet, "the problem with those is that you have to get very close to use them properly, and from what I heard, if you do that, you'll get turned into shredded cheese."
He continues drawing for a good second, "The idea of a gauntlet that is able to channel your semblance though is a smart idea, but the weapon type completely contradicts your fighting style."
For a good couple of seconds he then just continues drawing, which leads me to ask, "What do you have in mind then?"
He continues for a second before asking, "The idea with gauntlets, something most people don't realize, is that you have two general forms. Either adding to your fists, like blades, or some sort of cycling mechanism, being some sort of ammunition, or some grenade-like explosive."
He then takes a second to glance at my aptitude test again, "Seeing that you got ranked S in handguns, I'm assuming you'd prefer that, right?"
"Yes, I would," I respond.
"Okay then," he continues, "In that case, I would say that we should go with a wrist mounted ranged weapon…"
He pauses for a second, and taps the pencil on the paper, "You know what, hold this for me."
He hands he a thin rod of some metal, and pulls out some other device that looks quite like a voltmeter, and attaches it to the rod, "Now I want you to electrically charge up the rod… Can you do that?"
I nod, and focus my attention on my hand, lending it some energy as it starts to become charged up.
"Good," Jager says looking at the voltmeter, "Now just throw it somewhere gently. Not at me though."
I gently toss it onto a nearby desk.
He stares at the voltmeter for a second, and then, seemingly satisfied with his conclusions goes and picks up the metal rod, "So as I thought. It will remain charged for a short period after leaving contact…"
"So that means," he continues, putting the stuff away and going back to the drawing, "You want utility or damage?"
"Uh…" I stammer unsure of what he is asking.
He seems to get the message as he takes a deep sigh and rephrases the question, "I was thinking of either a wrist-mounted crossbow, with variable ammunition, or a wrist-mounted gun, with a bit less variable ammunition."
"I think the wrist-mounted crossbow sounds cool," I say with a small grin.
He frowns, "It's not what sounds cool, it is what you think would be the most useful."
"Oh, uh," I say in reply, "Well, either way, I still think that the crossbow would be the most useful."
"You sure?" he questions, eyeing me with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes," I reply, not sounding nearly as confident as I would've liked.
"Very well," he says, going back to putting all his attention on the drawing.
And for a couple minutes, we remain silent as he continues drawing several sketches, all from different angles, labeling each part, and adding other symbols in order to make it as defined as possible.
"Okay," he says shaking his arm and leaning back, "let's recap what we have so far. We have a wrist-mounted crossbow, with variable ammunition, some of which will be able to channel your semblance. Okay?"
"Okay," I say.
"Good, now I was thinking, that for the material we should probably make the majority of it out of titanium. For the variable ammunition system, I was either thinking we could go with some manual reloading system, or we could go with an automated system," he continues showing me different sketches for an automated and manual system.
"I think an automated system would be good," I respond.
"Good," he continues, "so that… wait… hold up a second…" he pauses and looks off into the distance in thought, "can you channel lighting from lightning dust?"
"Yes," I respond holding up the ring that Jae gave to me several years ago, "this ring has a bit of lightning dust infused in it."
"Shit," he says a bit more excited than I thought he would be, "that means we could pump the gauntlet full of lightning dust, both as the power source, and to help your semblance."
He takes a second to grin, "Shit, even I'm getting a bit excited now."
"Anyways," he comments, going back to the paper, "I think that is the majority of the important topics… maybe… yeah."
He then pulls out another sheet of paper, "That only covers one hand, however, and you could have one gauntlet on both hands, but that is kinda redundant and stupid, so I was thinking," he says looking back at my info, "since you got rated well in broadswords," he draws a bit, "that we could have a long sword in your other hand, for close range encounters. You okay with that?"
I pause for a bit, staring at the design.
"Do you not like it?" he then asks.
"I don't know," I respond shaking my head, "it just doesn't seem to fit."
"What," he says with a both jokingly and slightly insulted tone, "does a sword seem too basic for you, too simple?"
I shake my head fervently in response, "No… maybe… yeah, kinda."
He lets out a deep sigh, "Yes. It is very basic, but there's a reason why it still works. While I can't force you too, I'm going to say, you should use a straight sword as your secondary. It's simple, easy to manage, and very effective."
"Fine, fine," I say waving a hand, "I'll try it out."
"Good," he says with a grin, "but… I think that is about everything. Of course, you'll have to iron out several kinks with the weapon and experiment around for a bit, before you finally finish it, but I think that's all we've gotta do today."
I take a second to glance at the sketches.
"So," he continues, "Just take those, and uh, once you finish the weapon, come and show me. I wanna see how this turns out."
I merely grab the papers, shove them in my backpack, turn around and give him a large grin, "of course, and thanks for the help."
He returns that with a nod of the head.
And with that, I walk out of the room, and back the auditorium, my backpack hanging off one shoulder. All the while feeling a bit enlightened, and a bit happier.
We reached 100 followers! Woooooooooo! Now, as per the usual, I really wanna thank you guys, as in just 6 chapters, we were able to reach this milestone. Now, I do wanna do something extra, probably an extra scene, but I'm unsure of what if it would be if I would even do so, so what ideas do you guys have?
Anyways, thanks to FierySprites for winning the arbitrary award of being my 100th follower.
Also, there was an overwhelming consensus, (Overwhelming being one person), saying that I should stick with this chapter length, so from henceforth, it's going to be this long.
Now, as I stated, I couldn't get everyone's weapon idea into this, and I'm extremely sorry that I was unable to. However, I did get some amazing ideas, that did help me lead to how I'm developing the weapon, so even if your weapon isn't referenced to, it probably did help me in some way.
And per usual, I always feel something is wrong with this chapter, but eh. So just review what you think, I'm always up for suggestion, and I need to become better at taking criticism anyways.
Also, Mr. Leeves is based off one of my teachers… and well, if you go to my school, and you had him, you'll know it's him, by some subtle clues I gave. Curious to see if anyone will recognize him.
Anyways, Till Next Time.
