A/N: (Reminder that there's a blog at lionheartedfic dot tumblr dot com, with fanart!)
Sorry about the delay on this one, folks. Lots of stuff happened. Should be back on track now!

Somebody did an amazing fanart of a ship and honestly everybody needs to see it. She also made music playlists for a few characters, and they're scarily on point. Are you reading my mind or smth? Anyway, hit up the blog and check that stuff out.


put your new weight in gold and see what it's worth

all of the things that go to make heaven and earth are here

all of the things that go to make heaven and this

success was survival, and kid, it still is

..

the new pornographers - all of the things that go to make heaven and earth


RWBY


2nd Morning, Spring Semester

You wake up before pretty much anybody else, which is so not like you. Maybe you're just excited, although you'd think Rubes would be the one who was the most pumped for this. She's flopped halfway out of her sleeping bag, snoring like a little kid, and - ooooh - her head is resting just barely against Jade's arm, oh snap. Excellent.

... Okay, fine, you know from experience that she's just an asleep dork who's incapable of staying in one spot and magnetized to warm things, but come on, you can dream. You've got the right to ship your little sister with weird foreign homeless girls if you want to.

Jade, for her part, is snuggled up pretty tight in her own sleeping bag except for her head (ears twitching in her sleep) and the one arm, like the fluff and fabric is keeping her insulated from the rest of the universe. Is that a weird or mean thing to think, that she's like, disconnecting herself from life on purpose? Like yeah okay, you're all weird and poetic because you're still groggy, but you've been living with this girl for weeks, and for all that she's fascinated by leaning even the tiniest weird things she's not used to, she seems determined to be more of a tourist than anything else. It's as if, despite the fact that she kinda just enrolled at Beacon freakin' Academy, she's expecting to just take off any day now and vanish back into her weird impossible homeland.

Ugh. The only theories about where all these people are coming from that make any sense at all are the stupid ones, and you've gone through them all, like: maybe they're time travelers, maybe they're aliens. The obvious answer is that they're liars, but... your gut's never stopped telling you that they're not liars, or at least they're only lying by omission.

God, whatever. You should just be glad Ruby's making friends, which you definitely are. She's been... really depressingly alone for most of her life, even if she acts like she doesn't mind. Maybe she really doesn't, but you've always kind of figured she has to be okay with it. When you can't change something no matter what you do, then all that's left is to force yourself not to care anymore.

You'd know.

... Honestly you're kind of happy you're making friends. It seems so pathetic to think it, but spending most of your time taking care of Ruby and absolutely refusing to be anything but yourself kinda left your life weird and empty.

You're startled out of being a downer by Jade yawning. See, that's more like it; she's always the one to wake up first back home. She shuffles around a bit, turns her head, sees Ruby like way up in her personal space, blinks, kind of flicks her eyes around nervously, then slowly and carefully moves away.

Man. You gotta chill on reading into everything all the time. Real life isn't a comic book. People can exist in the same physical space without wanting to get their smooch on. Maybe you're just projecting because you wish you had a crush on somebody, and if someone else close to you does then you can live vicariously through them.

One by one, people nearby are starting to shake off sleep and make various groaning noises. Better get moving; 'initiation' is happening pretty early, whatever that hope it's something exciting and/or violent.

... God, Aradia must be starting to rub off on you.


JNPR


Oh jeez. You're somewhere you totally don't belong, surrounded by really competent people, preparing for some kind of scary-sounding 'initiation' thing, you can't find your locker, and you're afraid of being ambushed by ghosts at any second. This is the worst day ever.

See, over in that corner there's a girl with a grenade launcher hanging out with what looks like an actual ninja, and over there's a kid with a giant scythe. Who even does that? Who has a giant scythe, who makes that life choice? Somebody who isn't useless, that's who; you're sure she has the education to be here and probably passed some crazy test.

So sure, you somehow made an actual friend, that's great and all, but now you can't find her, and you're still not sure where your locker is, and you're kind of thinking in circles, trying not to just go hide in a dark corner and hyperventilate. Six-three-six, that's what the paper says. Easy, right? Except you have this terrible gut feeling that it's gotta be wrong, and even if you didn't have that all the lockers are organized weird. If there's some system to it then you sure can't figure it out.

Maybe you should just... ask someone for help? But everybody is so scary. Okay, no, you know what? You can do this. Just pick a random person, any person, walk up and ask 'hey, do you know where locker 636 maybe is?' or something like that. You've got this.

There! The closest person is this tall Faunus girl in black and green who's way too classy for you to even look at without being embarrassed, but you have to just do it or else you'll get cold feet again and pass out from stress, and then you'll be doomed, so...

"There you are," she says to somebody else just when you're about to open your mouth. "I hadn't seen you last night and thought that perhaps you simply vanished into the night."

"Nope!", the last voice on Remnant you ever want to hear says. "Just doing some haunting."

It's her. It's the ghost. She's standing right there, how could you not notice?!

... Wait. But this other girl... talked to her. She said nobody but you would see her or hear her, soyou figured this was just how you finally discovered your sixth sense or something. Then how... oh god. Now that you're looking closer at the bat girl, you can see she has fangs even though she also has ears, and don't Faunus only have like, one animal trait? You're almost sure you remember hearing that in school once, probably.

Spooky, wears all black, has fangs, can talk to the dead... you can only think of one logical explanation for this.

There's a real, actual vampire going to Beacon Academy.

You have to get out of here before one of them sees you, so you turn as quick as you can and try to run for the opposite side of the locker rooms, and -

"Oof!"

- run right into something that stops you like a brick wall.

"I'm sorry! Are you alright, Jaune?"

"O-oh, hey, Pyrrha." She's got her hand outstretched, palm open against your breastplate. Holy crap she's strong. Is everybody else at this school as cool and tough as she apparently is? You're so outclassed."Yeah I'm - well, it's just -look over there,do you see that girl?! Tell me you see her."

"... Which one? I see some girls."

"That one! With the horns and the -"

... oh my god. They're nowhere in sight. Do they know you saw them? Are they coming to drain your blood while you sleep and leave you a withered corpse, or turn you into a dark creature of the night, or possess your body and make you do terrible things, or... oh, man. There's no point even thinking about it. If ghosts and vampires want to destroy you, it's not like anything you could do would stop them.

"... N-never mind. Uh. It's nothing."

"Are you sure? You're looking rather pale." Oh no, she has a really concerned expression on her face, it reminds you of one of your sisters. You didn't mean to make anyone worry about you. Sometimes it feels like that's all you do; make people worry about you, get in their way, turn everything dumb and awkward.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me. How, uh, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well. I must admit, coming here has been a bit overwhelming, but... well. I suppose dreams are always that way."

"... Yeah. Pretty much."

You feel a little bit better, knowing even somebody as cool and together as her gets stressed about this stuff sometimes. It's sort of a relief. And hey, as long as there aren't any ghosts around anymore...

"You wouldn't happen to have any idea where locker 636 is, would you?"

"I'm afraid not," she says, and then smiles, like she doesn't even think you're an idiot. "Can I help you look anyway?"

"Can you ever."


NJKA


30 minutes later

You don't regret signing up for this, not really. It's intense and a little scary, but you think you can handle yourself, you've been through lots of crazy stuff, Dave thought it was a good idea, and it's not like you're alone here; you feel in your bones that you can count on Ruby, and the others are all nice people too.

So no, you definitely don't regret it, but now that you're standing here all lined up at the edge of a huge cliff overlooking a huge forest that's probably full of monsters with no idea what anyone is supposed to be doing here, you come pretty close.

... It's just frustrating to have to be worried about falling. You ought to be able to fly and teleport! Height should mean absolutely nothing to you of all people. It's jarring and depressing and it makes you feel naked and small.

Headmaster Ozpin and the stern woman with the riding crop - Goodwitch, maybe? - are watching all of you students with interest and vague contempt respectively as the last few stragglers take their places on their assigned suspicious metal squares. You were hoping all the teachers here would be as nice as Ozpin, but you guess that was wishful thinking. Maybe she's not as mean as she looks? She's holding a scroll in one hand and toying idly with the crop with her other and you have the weirdest feeling that Rose would like this woman a lot.

The headmaster clears his throat. You guess everybody must be here, then.

"For years you have trained to become warriors," he says, and oh boy, you sure haven't, "and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Goodwitch eyes the nervous (and in a few cases, not-so-nervous) kids like you're fresh meat.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams.' Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. Today."

Ruby lets out an anxious little whine off to your side. You ignore the urge to say something reassuring; you don't want to get in trouble instantly. Also, honestly, you feel pretty much the same. You hope they assign you someone you actually know; one person in particular, and anyone nice would be good, but... if you're stuck on some sort of long-term team, it would be so great for them to at least be people you don't have to hide very much from.

The person you're really hoping for doesn't fit that condition, but she'd be worth the trouble.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well," Ozpin says, picking up for Goodwitch for some reason. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"Whaat?!", Ruby whimpers. A few other students are muttering similar things; a girl somewhere tells someone else 'see, I told you!'

You can't even bring yourself to show your own massive spike in worry. This is a terrible system!Why is it like this? Is this some weird thing where the teachers are going to be manipulating the outcome, or just a dumb tradition they haven't bothered changing? Is the headmaster secretly a Time player who already knows what's best?

"After you've been partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along your path; do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die."

"Yes!", Aradia, Nepeta, and Yang all say at the same exact moment. A boy you don't know lets out some kind of weird stress-laugh while the girl who was talking to her friend giggles in excitement. Oh boy. You bet she'd get along great with everybody.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path, containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir?" The guy who was stress-laughing raises his hand.

"Good!", Ozpin says. "Now take your positions."

Well, that's mean. You guess everyone has a little bit of a mean streak, but it still makes you kind of sad to see it. While you're thinking that, a bunch of people settle into various ready-stances; you don't actually think you have one of those unless you're about to shoot something, which kind of amps up your nerves another notch.

"Uh, sir?", that kid says again. "I've got, um, a question."

There's a loud sproing! and one of the metal platforms shoots upward and hurls someone high into the air like a catapult. You stare at the white streak of her body across the sky - is that the girl who was going to hit Ruby? - for a second or two before you really process what just happened.

They are shooting you off the cliffand into the forest, with no warning at all.

"So, this landing thing, uh, what - what do you mean by that? You're, like, dropping us off or something?" Oh jeez. He didn't see her get launched at all, did he?

"No. You will be falling." A few more students blur off into the sky; the headmaster and Goodwitch both just stand and watch. Ozpin seems mildly amused and Goodwitch looks like she's hiding a sadistic smile, which seems to fit with your impression of her so far.

"Oh, I see, so... like, did you hand out parachutes for us?"

"No." Ozpin almost sounds ike he's trying not to laugh. "You will be using your own landing strategy."

There are less and less students down the line, now, as the spring-loaded platforms go off one by one. Nepeta and Aradia are among them, grinning like crazy. You're glad somebody is having fun; you're feeling a lot like this other boy. This sucks! This is terrifying! You can't believe you lost your powers a month before getting shot off a cliff!

Okay, you'll just have to, um. Grab a tree on the way down? No, no, you're not quick enough for that. Maybe you can just shoot a lot of bullets and slow yourself? Aagh, you'll have to, but that's not going to be enough for this amount of momentum, not even close.

There goes Yang, stealing part of Dave's personal style and then blasting off like a rocket. You turn desperately to Ruby to ask her for advice, but she doesn't even notice; she looks totally focused and prepared. Are you and that other kid the only ones who didn't plan for something like this?

"Hey, Ruby? Do -" ... oh. She's suddenly gone, just a smear of rose red arcing across the forest. You're... oh crap oh god you're next, you have to figure something out, you have to -

Your footing goes out from under you with a lurch that feels like your insides are being squished down practically into your legs, and your breath is ripped away into a huge blast of cold morning air while you tumble, not even able to scream, clouds and trees trading places above and below you over and over and over and over.

Some kind of survival instinct kicks in and you somehow wrestle yourself out of your spin, dizzily facing the forest and the horizon, and oh god you are maybe going to actually die? You've barely started learning to use your aura, even though you've started out with a weirdly intense natural talent for it, and you don't think you can take a lot of punishment before it drops. Is this enough force to wipe it out and splat you like a bug?

The trees are getting closer and closer, you have to slow down somehow, any way you can, crap crap crap crap!You don't trust yourself to control the recoil on your anti-materiel rifle mode, it might just hurl you into an even worse spin all over again, so you just... whip out your freshly-named Continuum, click into burst-fire mode, and start blasting.

It helps, a little bit.

But it doesn't help enough.

The treeline is closer and closer, and suddenly your clip's run dry - god, it's so easy to lose track when you're panicked and shooting wildly - and there's one big, huge tree right in your path, bristling with huge branches ready to turn you into what'll look like food for a giant shrike, and you can't shoot yourself away to the side, can't slow down, and is this... is this it?

This is such an amazingly stupid way to go out that you can only halfway believe it's possible. If only you could do something, swoop around like the god tier you were or just blink out and place yourself somewhere more convenient.

... You close your eyes. If nothing else, you'd rather not see it coming.

There's a weird and sudden lurch, the inside of your body bouncing around like a can of shaken-up soda, and the wind is gone, you're not moving, or at least you can't feel yourself ... did you die?

Wouldn't you have felt it, if you died like this?

Something's cool and tickling against your skin, and the sweet smells and sounds of the forest are all around you. You're scared to open your eyes. What if you do and it turns out you have a big tree branch stuck through your body with your guts dangling everywhere, and you're just somehow in shock so bad you don't feel it? Is that possible?

You make yourself do it anyway, sloooowly forcing your eyelids open, trying to brace yourself mentally, and...

... and you're lying perfectly safe and unharmed on the forest floor, nestled in short grass. That big tree is behind you, as if you're on the other side of it, impossibly. No, you must just be turned around, that doesn't make any sense.

None of this makes sense.

You can still feel Continuum's cold, comforting weight in your arms; you didn't even drop it when you hit the ground, if you hit anything at all.

It's actually not even hard to sit up, soyou think you really are totally unharmed. Did someone save you? If so, who did it, how did they do it, and where are they? You 're pretty sure you're alone here.

The sun warms your skin in patches where it's pouring like liquid through the leaves overheard, and the morning air feels even more crisp and beautiful after a near-death experience. Bugs and birds chitter and chirp all over the place. Tiny rustles in the brush off dozens of feet in random directions mark the likely positions of small animals.

You hardly know how to process the sudden change, and as the adrenaline fizzes away in your veins, you start to laugh. What else is there to do? You're alive and you don't even know why. It's okay. You're okay.

Alright, then. You should... start moving, you guess! It's hard to get your mind in the game, but you do still have an initiation thing to take care of; a partner to meet, monsters to probably fight, and a relic to snag. You can just barely hear what must be other students in the distance; there's the occasional gunshot, too, and those are crystal clear.

You load a fresh clip into Continuum, shake your head in another vague attempt to clear it out, and get to walking. Your best bet is to find a partner as fast as possible; two people will be a lot safer than one, and maybe someone else will have some idea how the heck to find a temple in the middle of all of these trees.

There are so many sounds you could chase, so many scents.

One of them is strongest, though, and it's familiar, but it's not what you'd... well, there's no point lying to yourself. You'd been hoping you'd be partnered with Ruby if there was a team system here. It's dumb, but somehow you just feel... safer when she's around, like it's easier to breathe.

Plus, you'll be really, really upset if something bad happens to her. You know she can take care of herself! She can probably do it better than you can. But even still... you'd rather be there to help put some bullets in any monster that thinks she looks tasty!

Maybe she doesn't feel like you owe her anything, but the thing you haven't had the guts to explain is that you want to owe her something.

So, yeah, the smell here isn't the one you wanted. It's not gunsmoke and roses. But it's not like pairing up with someone different means you'll be taken away from Ruby, it just probably means you won't be in the same dorm room or whatever. That shouldn't be a big deal.

And at least the scent of sea salt and cat fur means you can stick with someone you won't have to lie to every day.

You push through bushes and grass, flick away weird bugs, struggle to resist the mighty urge to chase down a squirrel or two, and keep your gun ready. You know you could get jumped at any second, and you're not actually sure what Grimm smell like, or how loud they are.

Shoving aside one last cluster of shrubs, you finally see your new partner, who you guess you're consenting to hang out with for possibly a bunch of years!

"Hi!", you say, smile and wave when she turns to face you.

"I thought I heard salmon over there," Nepeta says, meeting your eyes and locking your weird school destiny in place for good. "Guess that's it, then! Um, you kind of weren't the pacific purrson I was looking for, but I'm glad it's you and not some weird human!"

"You... sort of weren't mine, either, and also hey, I used to be human! But... yeah. I guess that makes us partners, then."

"I guess it does!"

You stare at each other awkwardly for a few seconds. Nepeta scratches the back of her neck; you fidget with your gun. This is... kind of surreal!It doesn't feel like you just gambled on a really big life choice, but when does it ever?

All you can do now is hope it was the right one.