As what seems to just be normal at this point, this took a little longer than I was hoping. Turned out rather info-dumpy too, but that makes sense since it was all stuff Ruby needed to learn. So, hope you all enjoy.
"Think I can?" Ruby questioned her friends as they stood to the side of the fountain in front of Beacon, her mentor still asleep after her first proper magic training yesterday. In her held out palm were the two old coins, silver eyes staring like they would tell her the answers of the universe if she did it long enough.
"Of course you can!" Nora assured, throwing an arm around the youngest's shoulder with a large grin. "You're Ruby!" She said the name with such certainty, it was clear that failure wasn't a possibility as far as the utilizer was concerned.
"You can." Ren agreed, voice calm but reassuring. "You're smart. Strong. You will." Slowly a small, almost shy smile appeared on the black and red haired girl's face.
"Yeah...yeah, I can." Certainty filled her, just like her two friends felt. As long as she was slow, careful, everything would be fine.
"It takes practice." The pink eyed boy stated, picking up the two coins with a glow of hot pink magic.
"But you'll get it! We know you will!" His best friend added, jumping up with a cheer when she got two smiles.
"I was wondering where you went Kiddo." Everyone turned at the voice, coins dropping back into the littlest's hand, finding a yawning Qrow in his rumpled clothing walking up to them. "Oz said you didn't go see him today." His apprentice nodded, pulling the goggles from her neck to cover her eyes.
"Nora and Ren have the morning off." She explained, getting her own nod.
"Well, sorry to break your time short, but I've got another training planned for today." The youngest's eyes widened behind the goggles.
"Oh, um...okay." She agreed, turning to wave goodbye to her friends and darting to his side. "Where to?"
"Well, it can be anywhere..." The archmage paused, looking at the two other children. "...How about here?"
"Can we watch?!" The orange haired girl asked quickly, somehow beside him already.
"That's what I was thinking." He revealed, getting a hug before the utilizer darted back to make the younger male sit down beside her. "Actually, Ren, maybe you can help me with this." The boy's eyes widened before quickly standing, walking over to the adult while the sitting child pouted.
"Ren's helping?" Ruby's eyebrows pinched, showing confusion.
"Yep. Because I know he's done this already." Qrow stated, nodding to himself a little. "Kiddo, pull out your weapon for me."
"Okay." The little girl took a step towards the building, to go grab the wooden replica she'd been training with, only to be stopped before she could get any further.
"I mean your actual weapon Kiddo. Crescent Rose." She blinked several times, startled, before giving a slight nod. The small, pale hand reached slowly to wrap around the metal charm hanging from the chain keeping her cloak closed...a deep breath was taken before it was pulled off, growing in her hand to reach about half a foot taller than her.
"..." Ren, without a word, drew his hands into his sleeves. A moment later a green sickle was in each hand, the blades a little...wavy and odd but seemed good. The blades were about as long as his arm.
"Good, both of you. Now, Kiddo. Notice anything odd now that you're holding your actual weapon?" There was a different feeling to holding Crescent Rose than there had been the wooden replica. It was strong, almost frighteningly so as the goggled girl's mouth slowly opened.
"...Magic. It's...trying to get it..." The weapon tugged at the magic within her, as though wanting to pull it free through her hands. Her body, still so afraid of what magic could do to her, wanted nothing more than to drop it. Instead the shaking hands held firm, knuckles going white.
"It's okay Kiddo." The archmage assured calmly, kneeling to her level. "There's no way for this to go wrong, I swear. Ren can even tell you." And that was why he was here, wasn't it? Because her uncle knew that his niece didn't always trust his judgement on magic after the first disaster of an attempt.
"It's okay." The boy agreed, causing her hands to loosen their grip a little. "It's safe."
"Now, this might sound scary but it's perfectly safe. Just like Ren said."
"...Okay."
"Let your magic fill your weapon. That's all you have to do. Just stop holding it back." The idea sounded more insane than scary, but the charmer gave a slight smile to reassure it would be alright. Silver eyes focused on the black, red and silver weapon...memories of the calm she'd felt from the other apprentices magic filled her mind and spread through her body until that same calm consumed her. Finally, she did as told, the magic feeling like it dripped into the weapon rather than a flood like she'd expected.
"See?" Her male friend asked, and she did. On the shaft where her hands held the dripping magic spread beneath them, the area around those hands starting to glow red.
"That's it, just keep going." It wasn't that scary actually, not really. It didn't feel out of control or wrong in any way, rather it felt completely natural. The black and red haired girl continued to watch, almost transfixed by the growing glow. It felt warm, somehow...like Crescent Rose was happy to be getting the magic. After what felt both like seconds and hours the whole scythe was filled and covered with the bright red that signified her magic.
"You did it!" Nora's voice broke the little mage from her concentration, causing a slightly startled jump and head to look in her direction. The weapon still glowed, full of magic even without the focus. The older girl pwas jumping up and down in joy, making what would have been quite the little scene if it was anyone else.
"And that's all I want you to practice Kiddo. Well, that and stopping it." The red eyed man had that slight pride in his voice that showed his niece that she'd done well.
"That's it?" Ruby asked as she looked at him, head tilted in confusion. It couldn't really be that easy, could it? The magic light from Crescent Rose hadn't faded, meaning she didn't even need to focus on it.
"Pretty much." Qrow informed, making a slight motion to Ren. In the blink of the eye his weapons were aglow with hot pink. "I want you to practice to make it fill faster." Her uncle explained, the glow vanishing only to reappear a moment later before her eyes.
"Why?"
"Remember how civilians can't hurt Grimm?" She nodded. "That's because only magic can hurt Grimm. So you have to have magic in your weapon to hurt them." He pulled Harbinger out as it grew in his hand, holding the blade out to his apprentice. The inside edge glowed crimson, now that she was looking closely enough to notice. "Eventually you'll be able to control it enough that you can put magic just into the part that will connect with the Grimm, but until then practice filling it up." And the large scythe became a charm again, returned to where it hung.
"And if you fill it with magic then you can use it to help channel your magic!" The orange haired girl added from the sidelines with a large grin.
"...Channel?" The black and red haired one looked down at her weapon again, eyes a little wide.
"Weapons help control magic, it's their main purpose for apprentices. Ren?" Immediately she looked up to watch, pink eyed boy's sickles glowed hot pink as that light as it seemed to shoot out from the weapons, and disappear into the water of the fountain, a second passing before a hand sized ball of water surrounded the glow lifted into the air.
"Woah..." The silver eyed girl breathed, amazed.
"Mage weapons keep magic from going out of control. Pretty useful when you're not used to it yet. Force magic is the only magic not practiced by apprentices with their weapon, since it's difficult for it to go wrong. At worst the object shoots off, but we have ways of blocking or stopping it." The black haired man stopped, running a hand through his hair and 'sneakily' reaching for his flask.
"Uncle Qrow?" She couldn't do anything but watch as he turned his back to her and took a drink, capping the flask and putting it back under his cloak. The frown she wore had become more worried when he turned back.
"I shouldn't have tried to teach you magic without your weapon. I'm...so sorry Kiddo." He looked so upset, like he did when her mom was brought up...the youngest girl hated it.
"It's okay." The frown became a smile, she'd smile for him so he wouldn't be sad anymore. "I'm learning now." Had her not wanting to use magic really upset him so much? It must, to make him look like that. Did he feel like he was failing her mom? ...'Cause she did, not using her magic. That was why she'd asked Ren so much about it lately, working on feeling that calm he could make so she wouldn't be scared. So she could make Summer proud.
"Yeah...yeah you are..."
I was originally going to have Nora say that Ruby is "Ruby Rose" instead of just Ruby, but decided pretty quickly that might just make her feel worse. Yes Qrow, let's immediately throw your magic terrified apprentice into using her magic more...brilliant. It was nice focusing on Ruby again for a change though, had a lot of inner thoughts and kind of monologue here. Hope you all enjoyed.