Episode VII

The Nuckelevee Incident

"H-hey, everyone," Ruby smiles rather sheepishly. "It's... er... it's time for the Rose-Xiao Long Show, starring me, the... er... the mild-mannered Ruby, and, of course, the bestest, kindest, most forgiving big sister there ever was, Yang Xiao Long!"

The door opens, and Yang steps through, brow furrowed, grimace on her face. Wordlessly, she takes a seat on a nearby bed, crossing her arms as she glares in Ruby's direction.

"So, uh... should we start by... er... describing what's been going on since-"

"A nuckelevee."

Ruby cringes at Yang's words. "You know, about that-"

"You tried to get a nuckelevee into Beacon as a guest star."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" Ruby bursts, backing away and tapping her index fingers together. "How many shows can say they've had a grimm as a guest star?!"

"None," Yang acknowledges. "And I think there might be a good reason for that!"

"It... it didn't do too much damage!" Ruby meekly tries to defend herself.

"The courtyard's torn up, they're going to have to rebuild the cafeteria from scratch, we're all in detention for two weeks, and Ren is still talking in that weird accent!"

"That's not my fault!" Ruby pleads. "I mean... how was I supposed to know he'd had a bad experience with nuckelevees before?!"

"Where did you even find the *REDACTED* thing?!" Yang exclaims.

"I don't know, it was just in Forever Fall! How was I supposed to know it would go wild like that?!"

"BECAUSE IT'S A *EXPUNGED* GRIMM!" Yang shouts. "THAT'S KIND OF WHAT THEY *EXPUNGED* DO!"

Ruby whimpers as she pulls further away. Yang sighs, forcing herself back under control. "Really, you should be thankful I haven't told anyone else how that grimm actually got in."

"You... you haven't?"

"Believe me, if I had, Blake would have murdered you already."

"Wait, why?"

Yang crosses her arms. "Just take us to the next segment and find out."

"Yeah... next segment- yeah, that sounds good."

XXXX

BLAKE'S FILM REVIEW

The camera zooms in on a tall-backed chair, that turns to reveal Blake steepling her fingers over the lower half of her face. "Imagine, if you will, that three men have lived in a cave their entire lives. They are bound by chains and made to stare at the wall, perceiving the world only in the shadows cast upon it. Imagine, furthermore, that one day, one of these men breaks away and-"

"BOOOOOOOOORING!" comes Yang's voice from behind the camera.

Blake scowls. "I'm trying to set a mood, Yang."

"And you're boring everyone! Just get to the point!"

Blake sighs. "I'd much rather be reviewing a book right now, but that nuckelevee destroyed most of my library. If I could find the person who let it in..."

"Ididn'tdoit!" comes a shrill cry from the other side of the door.

"Was that Ruby?" Blake asks. "I thought she'd be getting the other segments ready right now."

"Don't worry about her," Yang waves aside. "Just go ahead with the review."

Blake sighs. "Okay. Well, because all my books were destroyed..." she takes a moment to steady herself, wiping away the venom with which she spoke that sentence. "We decided to just have me do the movie review this time. As I was trying to set up before I was so rudely interrupted, we'll be going over The Truman Show. This one is unusual for plenty of reasons- while there are certainly moments of levity, it's a far more serious film than is usual for its lead actor, Jim Carrey."

"Boooooriiiiiing..."

"Yang, shut up! He stars as the titular Truman Burbank, a rather average individual in all respects, but who is starting to notice some odd things in his life- the same people doing the same things at the same time of day, an odd light crashing into the ground seemingly from nowhere, despite standing on a beach at the time, and a general sense of... oddness."

"He's in the Matrix!"

Blake closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. "No, Yang, he is not in the Matrix. As it turns out, he is unwittingly the star of a reality TV show, the Truman Show, which has documented his life ever since he was born. Everyone he knows is merely an actor sent in to ensure his life remains worth broadcasting, and everything he knows is a product of the show's producer, Christof."

"So... it's the Matrix?"

"Yang!" Blake groans. "Okay, I'll address the elephant in the room- in many ways, one might consider the Truman Show to be a slightly different take on the concept of the Matrix, except it's a television show instead of a computer program. However, I doubt either film took any particular inspiration from the other- it seems more likely to me that both films took inspiration from the same types of things, such as the allegory of the cave I was trying to allude to at the start!" She throws a dirty glare at Yang before continuing. "Much like the man who freed himself from the cave, Truman and Neo both realize there is far more to their world than meets the eye, operated by powers they never thought existed- before, they had seen the world only in shadows. The key difference is that Neo then begins working to release everyone else in the cave, while Truman was the only one imprisoned to begin with- the film is entirely his fight for freedom. It's an interesting concept, also explored in films like Dark City-"

"Or the Lego Movie?"

"Yang, I swear to-" Blake pauses. "Actually... you might be onto something. There is something rather... gnostic about the Lego Movie... those are words I never thought I'd say..."

"Gnostic?"

"A line of thought similar to the allegory of the cave, but applying it to religion in particular," Blake explains. "All these movies could be said to be loosely inspired by the ideas behind Gnosticism, alongside video games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, the Xeno series-"

"Did somebody say Xeno?"

Both girls cringe as the door swings open, revealing Gamer4 on the other side, a manic grin in place.

"Oh, Dust, hurry and finish the review!" Yang squeaks.

"It'sagreatmovie,checkitout,gottago,bye!" Blake rushes before leading the charge through the window, Yang in hot pursuit.

XXXX

THE O'MALLEY CHRONICLES

Nora has an odd look on her face as Ren approaches her with a plate of some unidentifiable matter that may or may not have once been organic upon it. "Thought I'd fix a little supper, Miss," he says with an odd, heavy accent, offering the plate to her.

"Are... are you okay, Ren?" Nora asks. "You've been acting weird ever since the whole thing with the nuck-er... you know..."

"'Fraid I don't know, Miss," Ren shakes his head. "But how many times I gotta tell you? It's not Ren- I'm O'Malley, the Irish Huntsman. You sure you don't want a spot of supper?"

Nora eyes the plate with distaste. Ren sighs. "Very well, then."

"I don't get it," Nora sighs, lying back down on her bed. "So many weird things happening lately- that Cinder woman breaking into the CCT, a nucke- a grimm breaking into Beacon... what's it all about, Ren?"

"I don't presume to lecture about the meanin' of life, Ms. Valkyrie," Ren shakes his head. "But... a long time ago, I was in Menagerie on behalf o' the Vacuan government- they was tryin' to buy the loyalty of the faunus colony wit precious stones, but dey was bein' raided in Forever Fall by a bandit."

"But... Forever Fall isn't between Vacuo and Menagerie," Nora points out uncertainly.

"It was a really roundabout route," Ren waves aside. "Anyway, me n' Team SSSN was all sent in, lookin' for da bandit, and da stones. But in six weeks of searchin', we never met anyone who traded wit' 'em."

"Team SSSN was in on this, too?" Nora asks.

"The point is," Ren ignores her, "it was a few months later that I saw a child in western Anima, playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine."

"A tangerine?" Nora asks. "Ugh, I don't like being the straight man, Ren- I wish that nuckelevee never-"

"Nuck-nuck-nuck- nuckelevee?!" Ren's eyes widen to the breaking point. "I... I... I was in Burma, working for the Vacuan Tangerine... dey was tryin' to buy the loyalty of da thief with the faunus colony..."

"Ren?" Nora asks nervously. "Are you okay?"

"Den one day, I saw a tangerine playing wit a child the size of a tangerine!"

"Ren?"

"A child playing wit a tangerine the size of a tangerine!"

"Ren, you're scaring me!"

"Me n' Team SSSN was workin' for da Vacuan Government, tryin' ta buy da Faunus Colony a bandit tangerine!"

"Ren!" Nora calls out, smacking him across the face. He reels back, then coughs, fixing his clothes as he returns to his feet.

"'Pologies, Ms. Valkyrie- that was highly unbecoming o' me. As I was sayin, da point is, dere are people out dere not looking for anything rational, like money. You can't buy dem, bully dem, or reason wit dem. There are people out dere... that just want a tangerine."

Nora lets out a final scream as her face collapses into her pillow.

XXXX

PRANKSTER'S HANGOUT WITH YANG

"Hello, everyone, and welcome to Prankster's Hangout, where I show off the latest and greatest in pranks, tricks, and overall practical jokes," Yang greets the camera. "Well, after the whole incident with the nuckelevee, I had half a mind to prank Rubes this episode- on purpose, this time- but then I came to a realization.

"Y'see, it occurred to me that if that Cinder woman got away with whatever she'd been doing in the CCT tower, it may very well have been something that would have made Ruby sad. And despite my... annoyance with her at the moment, that's still something I can't allow to stand. She must be punished. So, let's get to it!"

She stands before a desk loaded with miscellanea. "For her punishment, we're going to need a record player I stol- er, borrowed from Dad's attic- it had a mountain of dust on it, he won't miss it, trust me- an old Jimmy Buffet record, a secret ingredient I snagged from a good friend in downtown Vale, and, of course, the ultimate weapon in any prankster's arsenal- duct tape!"

She first approaches the gramophone. "Now, first thing's first- we need to take apart this record player so we can insert our secret ingredient. Now, I'm not too familiar with the mechanics here, but how hard can it be? This thing predates Walkmen by at least five hundred years, and I fixed my own Walkman all the time back before I just started putting music on my scroll- how hard can it be?"

She produces a screwdriver and begins looking over. "Hmmm... let's see... if we started here... we could... nah..."

She looks up, tossing the screwdriver to the side. "Plan B- when all else fails, brute force it. HI-YAH!"

With a mighty punch, the base of the gramophone fragments. If one looks closely, they might almost see a single tear running down the side of the speaker.

"Okay..." Yang says slowly, gazing upon all she has wrought. "Well... we got it open. So now, all we need to do is... put it back together. Around the secret ingredient. Right. All according to plan."

The footage speeds up as Yang begins gathering the gramophone's fragments and piecing them together around the 'secret ingredient'- a round, black sphere with a single pair of white eyes painted on.

Once it's all together, Yang wipes her brow. "Okay, now, to make sure it still works!"

She goes through the process of setting a record up. It begins playing... just fine, actually.

"Huh," Yang tilts her head. "Whoda thought? Telling you- duct tape fixes all. Speaking of, it's time for me to make a mask."

She goes, once more, through the previous episode's process of making a mask out of a strip of duct tape before picking up the gramophone. "Okay... now, to deliver it!"

SSSS

Yang fights to keep herself under control as she approaches the cell where Cinder is being kept. "Hello?" she greets.

Cinder appears, looking far more haggard than she did when she first met Ruby. "What do you want?!" she snarls.

Yang looks at a piece of paper in her hand with a crudely-drawn crayon portrayal of a scythe on it- dating back to Ruby's Kindergarten days. "We have a delivery here for you from a Mr... Greek Candlestring?"

Cinder's eyes widen. "Go on..."

"He says the horn blows at midnight- if you wanna hear it, listen all the way to the end. Maybe that means something to you, I got nothing."

Cinder's eyes narrow. "Leave the record player."

"Well, ma'am, I need to-"

"Leave. The. Record player."

"If you say so."

Yang presents the player to Cinder before turning and walking away, smirking at the camera. "Gotta make her feel like she's the one in charge," she beams.

She pauses to position the camera, then leaves the building.

Cinder looks outside her cell, glancing up and down the hallway, before starting the record already on the player.

Now they're making movies in old black and white

Happy endings, where nobody fights

Cinder grimaces. "I hate songs like these," she growls. "But if Torchwick actually has an escape plan on here..."

Her frown only deepens as the song continues.

That's why I wish I had a pencil-thin moustache

The Boston Blackie kind

A two toned Ricky Ricardo jacket

and an autographed picture of Andy Devine

At this point, she was banging her head against the wall behind her. "Make it stop..."

Oh, I could be anyone I wanted to be

A suave Errol Flynn or the Sheik of Araby

If I only had a pencil-thin moustache

Then I could solve some mysteries, too

Cinder seems on the point of crying out for death when she spies Neo Politan approaching down the corridor. "Your boss has a sick sense of humor, you know?"

Neo raises her hands to her chest with an expression that screams, Nooooo, him? I'm offended you would even suggest such a thing!

"Why would he hide the escape plan at the back of a Jimmy Buffet record? He knows I hate that hack!"

Neo tilts her head in confusion. Cinder reacts with similar confusion. "Wait... if he didn't send this, then... who-"

She is interrupted by a sudden, intense beeping. "WHAT THE FU-"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Neo is thrown backwards, slowly pulling herself up from the ground to spy a Cinder Fall now pitch black and covered in soot, revealing only a pair of blinking, bewildered eyes.

SSSS

Yang cackles as she reviews the footage. "And THAT'S what happens when you tussle with these sisters!" she crows. "Results may be... explosive! Until next time, remember, ladies- if the guys don't find you pretty, they should at least find you punny!"

XXXX

INTERVIEW WITH A ROSE

"Hey, guys!" Ruby greets us as she walks through the halls of Beacon. "It's about time for me to interview someone, but... well, I don't want to talk to anyone who's mad at me, or anyone who'll figure it out... so..."

She halts when she spies Neo seemingly skipping along the hallway. "Oh, Neo! Mind if I interview your team for the show?"

Neo pauses, raising a hand to her chin in contemplation. Finally, she smiles- moreso smirks- then nods.

"Okay, you mind showing me to your room?"

Neo nods emphatically, before turning and taking the lead. As she walks, she takes out a scroll and types something into it before turning and offering it to Ruby.

Ruby takes it, going over what Neo's written. "Oh- I see. Are you sure?" Neo nods. "I mean, I thought they'd be pretty broken up about it."

Neo adjusts her face into one of thought, then shakes her head rapidly.

"Well, I'm sure you know better than me..."

Neo beams and pats Ruby on the head before turning and opening a nearby door.

"What is it, you worthless mid- ah!"

Emerald Sustrai gasps when she sees Ruby standing on the other side of the door.

"What's she doing here?" Mercury asks from his position on his bed, not sounding like he cares too much.

"I just wanted to... er..." Ruby pauses, remembering the advice Neo offered her. "I wanted to offer my condolences... about the whole situation with Cinder."

Emerald's face seems to suck into itself, as though she was just force-fed a particularly sour lemon. "I... I see."

"Yeah, I know you guys didn't really care for her much anyways, but-"

"Wait, what?!" Emerald gasps, eyes widening. Even Mercury looks up from the comic he's been reading.

"Yeah, I heard you guys didn't actually get along- something about having to put up with her after she was held back all those times, and she still doesn't get it... between that and how she treats you, they say you really didn't like her."

"Who said that?!" Emerald shrieks, as a smirk crosses Mercury's face- a smirk matched only by the expression on Neo's face as she nodded and egged Ruby on from her relatively safe position behind the others.

"Oh, you know... just... rumors," Ruby shrugs, chuckling nervously as she takes a few steps back. "They say she wasn't... er... that she was... er... how did they put it... an arrogant *REDACTED*hole... unliked even by her own team... they say you guys knew what she was up to all along, but couldn't say anything because she was lording over you..."

Emerald has returned to her sour-lemon expression. "Get out."

Ruby looks to Neo, who fights back her smirk and shrugs.

"But I-"

"I said OUT!" Emerald yells, slamming the door in Ruby's face, still oblivious to Neo nearly falling over in wild, silent laughter.

On the other side, Ruby's lip curls out in a pout. "But... what did I do? I only did what Neo said to..."

Somewhat dejected, she turns and begins the march back to her dorm.

XXXX

Ruby is looking somewhat dejected when Yang reenters the room. "Is... is Ren okay?"

"He's still calling himself O'Malley, if that's what you're asking."

Ruby looks down, pressing her index fingers together. "I really messed up, didn't I?"

"Do I need to say it again?" Yang crosses her arms. "You brought. A nuckelevee. Into the school."

"What happened to forgive and forget?"

"It was destroyed along with the trophy room, the gym, half the classrooms..."

"I get it, I get it, I get it!" Ruby quickly cuts her off, flapping her arms. "...Does Weiss know?"

"I'll answer that question with a question," Yang responds, lowering her eyelids halfway. "Are you still alive?"

"...She doesn't."

"Now you're catching on."

Ruby sinks further into her bed. "She'd hate me if she found out..."

"Even more so if she knew about the Censors."

"The Censors?" Ruby asks, immediately sitting bolt upright. "They... they're still after us?!"

"What, you think just because they lost one excuse, they're gonna give up on taking us down?" Yang scoffs. "They're the most evil people in the world."

...And somewhere in the world, a woman with chalk white skin marred with black cracks sneezes.

"I think I can shut them down on my own this time," Yang assures her sister, "but you can't keep pulling stunts like this in the name of the show- these sick *EXPUNGED* will take any excuse they can to shut us down."

"Okay, I get it," Ruby nods forlornly. "Never again, right?"

"Just... from now on, run any guests by me first, okay?" Yang suggests.

"Right," Ruby nods. "Well, the show must go on..."

XXXX

SISTERLY ADVICE WITH RUBY

"Hello, everyone, and welcome to my advice corner," Ruby says, still not looking as happy as we've seen her in the past. "Before we get to the main segment, here's a free piece of advice- don't invite grimm into your school, no matter how cool it would be. Especially nuckelevees. That one's on the house."

She clears her throat. "Today, we have a request from a... confidential source that definitely isn't the champion of Mistral! But she- er, they, it could be anyone- want to know how to get a teammate to notice her. Let me begin by saying... don't drive them insane to the point that they forget their own nationality. That's a bad way to start.

"Unfortunately, I can't say too much personally on this subject- I haven't really had a boyfriend myself. Anytime anyone tries to confess to me, they suddenly transfer schools not too long afterward."

"Yeah... transfer..." comes Yang's voice from behind the camera.

"So, the only advice I can really offer comes from watching Yang and her boyfriend."

Yang's voice comes out again- coughing and spluttering wildly. "RUBY! Ix-nay on the oyfriend-bay!"

"Huh?" Ruby asks, question marks appearing in her eyes. "Yang, I don't speak Mistralian."

Yang groans.

Ruby shrugs. "Now, the way Yang got her boyfriend to notice her was to put herself in danger so that he could bail her out. Of course, she could have done it herself, but her boyfriend's a bit on the timid side, so it was cool to give him a chance to play the hero. He pulled through- he faced his fears and bailed her out- it was amazing."

"Ruby, we're ending this segment."

"But there's so much more I can-"

"Remember, everyone!" Yang calls out quickly. "She's standing with you- you're all in this together!"

XXXX

ADVENTURE TIME WITH PYRRHA AND JAUNE

Hello, again! Pyrrha here, and I suppose it's time for me to relate what's been happening since we got back to Beacon.

It was a shame that we didn't manage to get to the dance- I was really hoping Jaune might... well, that's not really important anymore. I have a feeling that something truly magical might have happened if we weren't off dying of thirst in the middle of the desert.

At any rate, once we finally caught up on everything that happened in our absence, I quietly submitted a question with Ruby and Yang, asking them how to... do something. Some... general life advice, I guess you could say. Upon receiving their answer, I decided that what I needed to do was get myself caught in a haunted mansion, then call out to Jaune to rescue me.

It didn't take me long to find a suitably spooky house- an old mansion on a hill just outside of town. I'd arranged for Jaune to arrive a little later, whereupon I would play the damsel in distress, using my semblance to fake some hauntings that he could save me from.

...Needless to say, it came to my surprise when real ghosts appeared and trapped me inside a painting.

Perhaps Jaune will elaborate on what happened further next episode- I don't know much about the succeeding events, seeing as I was trapped in a painting the whole time. Trapped while missing one of my gloves, one of my boots, my tiara, the letter I wrote to bring Jaune in, and without even my weapons. Not that they were much good against the undead in any case...

It was a few hours later that Jaune appeared- a true knight in shining armor. The ghost that captured me attacked him, taking on the guise of a giant grimm, but Jaune reached into the pockets of his jeans and produced a large vacuum-like object that he strapped to his back. The battle raged for another hour before Jaune finally overcame, sealing the ghost away in the vacuum.

He took my picture out of the mansion and to an... eccentric older gentleman living on the mansion's outskirts, who used a strange device to return me to my former state of being. It was a rather... painful process, but the tears of joy Jaune shed upon seeing me safe and sound made it all worth it.

The old man gave us some presents before sending us back to Beacon- he allowed Jaune to keep the vacuum, while giving me a pair of goggles that, according to him, 'pierce the illusions of the world to reveal the one and only truth.' ...He talked like that a lot.

We returned to Beacon, where it was a struggle not to admit to Jaune that the whole thing had been entirely my fault. At last, I gave in and revealed the truth, but... wonderful man that he is, he forgave me, saying that in the end, the most trouble had been caused by the ghosts, and no other. I played up my own fear over the event, and begged to sleep with him that night- strictly for comfort, you understand.

He agreed.

And I slept better that night than I ever had before.

XXXX

THE LONG MAIL BAG

"Mail time!" Ruby cheers, taking a seat with a large sack on her lap.

"That's a pretty big bag for just three letters," Yang comments, sitting across from her.

"It's all about style, Yang!" Ruby explains, as though it's ludicrously obvious.

"Style... right," Yang replies doubtfully.

"Anyways, first letter!" Ruby cheers. "Hmmm... MahinaFable has a suggestion for a new segment!"

"What kind of segment?" Yang asks. "Celebrity cameos?"

"No," Ruby shakes her head. "A baking segment, headed by me!"

Yang pales. "No."

"No?" Ruby asks, sounding somewhat taken aback.

"Ruby, you may have blocked out the shoehorn incident from your head, but I haven't," Yang crosses her arms. "Now, I'm not going to blame the whole incident on your cooking, but it would have been at least a little less traumatic."

"Harsh," Ruby mutters, looking away and almost instinctively tapping her index fingers together. "Next... next letter, I guess. Agalvantula found a letter addressed to us- Hello, we are about to launch an all-out attack on your houze. Sincerely, the Zombies."

Yang sighs. "I'll call Dad right after we finish this recording. You left all the plants at the ready, right?"

"Of course," Ruby sighs. "This is what we get for building our house on an old pirate burial ground."

"Yeah, what did we expect?" Yang rolls her eyes. "Still, I'm sure he can take care of it just fine. Those plants have never failed us before."

"True, dat," Ruby smiles. "Okay, final letter- from Spidershadow5!"

"The guy who threatened my duct tape?" Yang asks, immediately flaring up.

"Yeah, but I think he's backed off now!" Ruby says quickly. "Actually, he wants to know what you'd do if Thanos snapped your duct tape out of existence- then destroyed the infinity stones before you could get them back."

Yang lowers her head, glaring at the camera with all her might. "First, I would track him down- there is nowhere in the universe that he would be able to hide from me. I would punch him so hard that his head flies off, soaring through space until it falls into a black hole, killing him and inventing space golf in one stroke. Then, I would punch a hole through time- both for the purposes of getting the stones back, then killing that ball-chinned *EXPUNGED*again. And again. And again- I would lock him into an endless loop of pain and misery!"

"Even harsher," Ruby comments.

"I really hate that guy," Yang crosses her arms as she leans back.

"Well, he did do that one thing you liked..."

"He did, but we're not talking about that," Yang waves her aside. "The Censors would have a field day with that."

"I'm gonna say it anyway," Ruby smiles.

"I'm gonna bleep it out," Yang warns.

Ruby takes a deep breath, then rushes out- "She likes it when he *REDCTED* the *EXPUNGED* to *REDACTED* *EXPUNGED* in the *REDACTED*, *REDACTED* *EXPUNGED* into the *REDACTED*!"

Yang smiles. "I can only imagine what our followers will think of that."

Ruby pouts. "Well... I guess we'll find out, won't we?"

XXXX

WEISS'S GAMING EXPERIENCE

Weiss sighs as she takes a seat in front of her gamestation. "I suppose, if there's any upside to this nuckelevee business, it's that people are finally forgetting about Batman... but I don't think I'm quite safe enough to play that one yet... so this week, I'll be playing Prototype instead! It's been on my queue for a while, and I hear that it's loosely inspired by a particular Batman comic arc, so I figure this will be close enough for now. Aside from that, I know... literally nothing about this one, so let's get started."

She commences the game, watching as a group of soldiers walk right past a car being corrupted by what seems to be liquified grimm. "Area secure," one of them says.

Eyes widening at the hellscape surrounding them, Weiss scoffs. "Secure? That's their idea of secure?! What kind of world do they live in when this kind of devastation is considered secure?!"

She falters as one of the soldiers seemingly goes rogue, gunning down the others. When his bullets run out, he is surrounded by darkness that eventually clears to reveal a completely different person dressed in a hoodie, who's arms transform into large, blade-like appendages with which he tears the remaining soldiers apart.

The only thing that could match her surprise after this is when she is given control of this monster.

"What... what kind of game is this?" she wonders. "A... a shapeshifter, caught on an island consumed by darkness and plague... a hero only because everyone else around him is even worse... and... and he transforms by... by..."

Her eyes nearly pop out of her skull as her character grabs someone else and seems to absorb them into himself, before transforming into them.

"They... they did it!" she screams. "Kirby... oh, Dust, oh Dust, I remember! I remember everything! Kirby- he arrived in this world! And the scientists must have created the plague- all these mutants- even my character- they're all products of experiments on transferring Kirby's abilities to normal humans! But they can't fight him- even this character can't fight him- he will absorb all! He'll always absorb all!"

Her sanity seems to break even further as another soldier is consumed. "You... you monsters! You maniacs! YOU RUINED IT! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! *REDACTED* YOU! *REDACTED* YOU ALL TO HELL!"

XXXX

Yang and Ruby cringe as they watch the remainder of the footage of Weiss. "Time to break out Plan FierySprites?" Ruby asks.

"Definitely," Yang nods. "By the way... why didn't you bleep out 'Hell?'"

"It doesn't count as a curse word if we're talking about a place, right?" Ruby points out. "So, blocking it out would be spitting in the face of people who believe that, right?"

Yang breaks into a grin. "We'll make a proper Censorship-dodger out of you yet," she smiles, affectionately ruffling her sister's hair.

"You're not mad at me anymore?" Ruby asks, sounding hopeful.

Yang sighs. "Look... as stupid as it was, I know you only had the show and its best interests in mind. You didn't mean to see anyone get hurt, and... I'm sure we'll get Ren the help he needs soon enough. As long as you promise to never do anything like that again, and run any decisions like that past me from now on... I can let it go."

"I promise," Ruby smiles.

"Good," Yang nods, before bending down and pulling her into a hug.

...before whispering in her ear, "And now I have some leverage on you- you don't want Blake, Weiss or Goodwitch finding out, do you?"

Ruby's eyes widen as they break up. She chuckles nervously. "Heheh... so, on that note... um... thanks to Gamer4, our producer, GeorgeKYST, our editor, Breenut, our set designer, and the Red Green Show, our inspiration..."

Yang's smirk remains unbroken as she delivers her lines. "Remember- don't wait too Long, there's Rose more coming your way. Care to object, Ruby?"

Ruby chuckles nervously again. "Nope... nope, you can say whatever you want, sis!"