Beacon – RWBY Dorm – Blake's Point of View
I had a bittersweet dream. It was mildly confusing, but the more I think about it...
Sitting on the edge of my bed, on this delicious Saturday morning, I was offered a pleasant but rather tarty dream in the RWBY dorm: silence. With the other three girls asleep and the Rose family dog silently in a cute cuddle with Ruby it would not be often that I would be annoyed by the small devilish creature the instant just a single one of my feet touched the ground.
The chaos at the beginning was really a confused pain. Too distracted, worried, and thinking too hard and fast to realize that the owner of these emotions are dying.
Placing my hand against my temple, I tried to throw aside these thoughts, partially in fear of living out my subconscious thoughts which annoyed me this previous evening.
But would it really be that bad?
No, Saturday mornings aren't meant to be left in thought, mixed with perhaps the slightest bit of theology, socratic thinking, and just a slight drop of philosophy. Rare moments like this belong as they are offered: taken with coffee, cream, and one sugar and one delightfully massive blueberry muffin. Maybe a pancake or two?
Wait a minute... Where did Drexel go? The empty windowsill at my left reminded me that I tied my bowtie around that tiny head to prove to the others something I knew to be true. I once had the comedic benefit of watching him in the form of a cat fall or make similar blunders, or other times notice things that a person with a more typical visual capacity fail to even take subconscious note of. Naturally, he didn't notice that I was watching.
Now climbing through the open window, came a small black cat... Without any form of black lace tied around any of his appendages, let alone his head. My voice at a whisper, I raised all the menace I could muster despite the messy bed head and disheveled appearance: anyone who thinks that girls wake up pristine as if you had ran into them in the middle of the afternoon deserves to be slapped with a magazine. Repeatedly. As if they had made a Frozen reference in the middle of a cafe.
Yeah. I was there.
"Drexel... Where th-"
"Meow."
A tiny cute little paw raised, pointed to the side of my pillow revealed something in plain sight that I simply had overlooked: the lace for my bow.
"Yeah... Thanks..."
Following this, the black cat jumped down from the sill silently and made his way atop my bed, beside me.
I wish I were some kind of Lore-Master. Turning into a cat can't be that hard for such a faunus, especially when you almost seem to be halfway there.
Looking up at me, I could almost hear a voice, paradoxically without sound from the little creature.
You look broken. I could be wrong, your shadow almost seems to be your semblance...
Quietly, came my response before I could even stop myself. I don't want to be caught into a talk about feelings, but yet again, we aren't too different... Right? Cat Faunus don't differ too much... Right?
"You can see my semblance?"
Naturally. I see energy, and by this method, heat and aura even behave the same for the most part. Just by looking at your aura, I can guess your semblance by its consistency, color, shape, the way it clings to the person... This is where it starts to get deep and rather spiritual.
"Please. You're an engineer, technically even a scientist."
I know what I see. Aura is temporal, flowing and ebbing according to a person's state of mind. They're one in the same, mental health and aura. A negative person will either be very weak, or very powerful in a... Different way.
"Different?"
Such a person's aura almost feels suppresing. As if it exerts almost an evil feeling pressure on anything good you can think of or do. A weight and burden no human, faunus, or grim should be subjected to.
"Wait, wait... Grim?"
Sure they don't have a semblance... But their body heat is off the charts, they stand out as either extreme heat or cold. Very noticable, very obvious from kilometers away... For me. But enough avoiding Blake. I can see what troubles you, and you should not be observing such evils. You were in Ruby's cookies before bed, weren't you?
"Don't tell her."
If these get worse, visit me at home once Steven cools down. I can give you some some sleep meds, the fact that you see what I see in my dreams is an issue.
"Scrying? In my sleep?"
Sure, why not?
"I'm not like you."
A Lore-Master? Why not?
"I don't want to be anything like you, its as if you aren't in control at all."
Trust me when I say nobody is.
"You know things you haven't told us, you lied in 'telling the truth'. Disgusting."
I only found out now, and am still trying to understand these new things. And just because I'm a cat, don't assume I don't have emotions. By the way, Torchwick is dead.
"Thats where you were last night, rather than cuddling with Weiss?"
Where did that come from?
"Uh..." We promised not to even hint to this guy about what happens during girl talk evenings... Shit. I can't talk to Drexel when he's in this form, its as if he knows the effects that a cat irrelevant of what the animal really is can have on people. "Thanks for shooting Yang?"
Yeah, yeah. I should go before that dog wakes up.
"Can't say I like Ruby and Yang's pet either..."
I wasn't talking about that dog, but sure.
"Hey! You can't just bash one of my sisters and get away with it!"
Of course not. But trust me when I say: I saw everything. What the cameras didn't see, my semblance filled in for. I do pity you. Perhaps she is your non-biological sister, but put it in the kitty's perspective: she tried to do you with her primary appeal at your ears. Me? I have the ears and the whole nine yards. Not trying to belittle your pains, but say Yang got me alone should I be stricken by an anti-semblance weapon. I wouldn't even be physically capable of resisting, something I can't even counter, sometimes not even sense. Without my semblance, I am also significantly weakened at the physical level: I wouldn't be limp, but weak.
The cat then began to leave through the window, but paused to turn his head back.
We can deal with your problems another time, to hell with mine. But they're starting to wake, and I need to check on Steve to ensure that she didn't hurt herself badly. Say some evening, we go for tuna? You really seem to need some therapy, and should start as soon as possible, and probably not from me. Talk to your girls, things will ease up. Trust me, I see the future.
Simply nodding, I simply watched him leave. The instant he left sight, I could hear Ruby yawn, beginning to wake followed by Weiss talking in that annoying voice to the small dog who was 'just too cute'. What self dignified non-human could allow itself to be subjected to that treatment, let alone enjoy it?
Yet again, maybe being a cat isn't all I think it to be.
Drexel's Cave House – Cinder's Point of View
"I love what our absent host did with the place, but not what he did with our only engineers and copy of what we knew about argentum."
Taking a sip of my coffee, I continued on in my typical voice which some would go as so far as call seductive. Why not play the part? Even pursing a little class isn't too much when sitting in the same armchair that the unaware homeowner uses to read, smoke, and even snooze in.
"Are you sure you can't get into Drexel's computer?"
Nodding firmly, the Lore-Master fire ferret faunus in front of me, who had put down her tea and saucer submitted her verbal reply.
"The encryption is beyond the highest Lore-Master standards by at least two hundred years. Not surprising, considering what he his and that the traitor can scry... We're looking at code using fractal encryption, also known as the mandelbrot set, at five dimensional planes: we don't have any computers that can even accept four dimensional planes of processing. I know what this is... But its scientifically impossible based on the resources he should have!"
There was no doubt as to if this old compatriot was trying her hardest with all of her true loyalty to assist me.
"Steven? Put it into words I can understand, you're the Lore-Master and the math geek."
"Drexel uses security that should not exist based on what even the Lore-Masters know now. In order to crack security, you need to understand it. Since cryptographers refuse to even accept that this is possible... We can't get into his database. Its impossible."
Putting my coffee and saucer down, I reached for a cookie on the plate and table which divided us two ladies. Shifting more comfortably on her couch, Steven scratched her neck.
"Dearest Steven, couldn't you even try to at least seduce him? He's a male, they all break eventually."
Shaking her head again, I received another rebuttal.
"Every time he thinks I might go into mating mode, he tries to lock me up and run away. Natrually the lockup doesn't last forever, but pursing him is useless. A black Lore-Master cat in the night? Good luck. Besides, you're the veteran at this womanly charm deal, you should do it.
"If Drexel really killed Roman and destroyed that supposedly secure location? I'm probably next, if he thinks I have the argentum, or am a threat. No, if Drexel really is as powerful as you say, capable of sapping, draining, and consuming auras?"
Finishing the last drops of my coffee, I put the small plate and cup of china back down.
"I can't fight that, not directly."
As we both got up, we started to walk together to the door.
"I should leave now, Drexel will be back soon."
But before Steven could trigger the door into opening, a particular teenager on the other side had opened it. Clad in a black cloak and dress shoes, Drexel tilted his head to his right, with disappointment. Then he spoke.
"Would you really leave with intentions on not even saying hello to me? Not even allowing myself a moment to make me a coffee and join in on the cookies?"
As he stepped forwards and hung his cloak on the single hanger at the door, we stepped back.
"I thought I meant something at least to you, Cinder." With sadness, he even then continued. "You two are really all I have left from my past, would you really be so cruel?"
As I walked up to my old boyfriend, the door gently slid itself closed behind him. In truth, the whole ordeal was secret and never had been called off. As I slipped beside him and took his arm, I noticed a split second glare of bitter disapproval from Steve. Did Drexel see it too?
"Only if the rumors of Weiss falling for you, and you replying in same are true. You're breaking my heart."
That brought a light chuckle from all of us, but more so Drexel. "I always seem to be the last to hear and know about these bitter things called rumor. Weiss has indeed taken the bait, but I can't say I enjoy being the bait."
As we took up our seats, there was a slight adjustment. Steve took Drexel's armchair, to my partial dissapointment. Whatever my plotting with Steve, the tall faunus has meant something to me. Choosing seats on the sofa instead, I somewhat snuggled against the guy's arm. Then, he spoke all the words I wanted to hear, that Steve and I had agreed on which would clear him of our little investigation.
"Where's the other smoker?"
With genuine incredulation, Steve announced her surprise.
"Torchwick? You honestly don't know what happened to Torchwick?"
Shaking his head, Drexel turn to me.
"Where is he? Honestly, I'm worried: I saw the residual pressure release consistent with a massive dust based explosion last night, did he mishandle some of the shells you had him store in warehouse seven?|
Looking into his eyes, I honestly replied: "I don't know how, but there is one thing we can prove. He's dead."
Then came the silent shock, a paralysis of emotion that the pair of us had anticipated from the boy.