RWBY Loops

by Leviticus Wilkes

"Stuck repeating everyday? Bored out of your mind? With only your friends along for the ride? Why, it's just like school! Of course, the Infinite Loops are a lot more fun then Beacon Academy, as Ruby Rose is about to find out. Part of the Infinite Loops project.

171. Time to be Huntresses

171.1 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: Good Morning Team RWBY!

"SAAAAAALUTATIONS!"

That single happy word was more than enough to send Ruby's heart pounding, even as she jerked Awake and belatedly realized she was in one of her Atlas bunks. Was this new? Her loop memories-yes, this was new, right after the celebration-

"~Good morning team RWBY!~" Penny chirruped brightly.

"Uggh..." Yang groaned. "What time is it even?"

The gynoid looked at her, holding up two fingers in an anime wink. "Time to be Huntresses, of course!"

Ruby gripped the edge of her bunk and swung out so forcefully that she twirled as she landed, ending up curtsying an invisible skirt. "Huzzah, mademoiselle! A day of true import indeed! Verily, one could proclaim I've waited eons for it!"

"That's kind of a Loopy thing to say," Weiss noted idly, slipping out of her own bunk.

"It's the kind of thing that Anchors her," Yang explained, dangling her legs down.

Blake rolled her eyes, batting at the feet in front of her. "Really keeps us Awake with her enthusiasm, she does."

With every sentence, Ruby's grin grew broader, and she turned at last to Penny with eager anticipation.

"...I will be waiting for you in the mission briefing room!" Penny declared brightly. "You are expected at 0745 hours! I can't wait to see you there!"

It was sheer force of will that kept Ruby's face as happy as it was. "I'll get ready as quick as I can, Penny! I promise!"

"Sensational! I will go and sign you in now!" Penny turned around, walked out the door, and then turned back. "I would be very happy if we could find a mission to take together, friend Ruby!"

"I'll see what we can do!" Ruby agreed with a grin.

"Excellent!" Penny nodded firmly. "I will see you soon!" She marched down the hall with a happy hum.

Yang shook her head, waiting for the gynoid to walk out of earshot. "...Ouch, sis. That has to suck."

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," Ruby agreed, throwing back her head. "And it's my first time through this expansion too! I just thought maybe, if you three were Awake-"

Weiss put a hand on her shoulder with a sympathetic smile. "Well, it is what it is. And at least we'll probably get to kill some Grimm."

"Heh. Yeah."

"Probably just the four of us," Blake mused. "Anybody checked to see if we've got our subspace pockets?"

"Yep," Yang confirmed. "Nothing in, nothing out. Total null loop."

"Check with everyone we can to see if anybody else is Awake," Ruby said, heading over to the dressers, "but other than that... just keep up with whatever you want, I guess."

"What, we're not going to try to figure out what Baseline is this time through?"

Blake stood, stretching her arms. "It's probably going to come from an angle we can't predict, Yang. If we can catch Watts or Tyrian, that'll be a plus, but we shouldn't make it a focus-not at the cost of seeing what else there might be."

"And I'm TOTALLY going to challenge the Ace Ops to a five-on-one duel at some point," Ruby added, organizing the clothes she pulled out of the drawer. "That hard-light training room has to be good for something, after all."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Go easy on the nonloopers, Ruby."

Ruby Rose's smile was the picture of innocence. "Weiss, what kind of person do you think I am?"

"Somebody who values friendship and gets more than a little annoyed and preachy when she encounters high-ranking military officers who don't."

"...Fair enough!"

[-]

171.2 Master_Spoiler

[-]

A Horror of Horrors

(Vale)

"Penny?"

Ruby Rose turned a corner into an alleyway near where she usually found Penny in Baseline, and was met with a green-and-white sphere. As she got closer, she could hear sobbing noises emanating from it.

"Penny, are you okay? I just Woke Up, what happened?"

The ball unfolded to reveal a seemingly traumatized Penny. Her eyes were wide, her pupils comically shrunken, her hair was standing on end, and she was shuddering as if in fright. Slowly, she turned to look at Ruby, terror evident in her facial expression, but also relief at seeing a friendly face. "O-oh... Ruby, thank-k goodn-ness... everything about this Loop is j-just AWFUL!"

Instantly Ruby was at Penny's side, hugging her. "Don't worry, I'm here. Everything is going to be ok. Ok?" she tried to speak in the most soothing voice she could manage. "Now calm down, and explain to me what happened."

Penny took a deep breath. She didn't really need to, obviously, but the motion was something to divert her focus and help keep her mind away from the horror. "Last Loop I had been about to enter a fight when it ended... so when I Awoke this Loop I was startled and knocked over a can of Oil onto my skirt..." the gynoid indicated the stains on her outfit. "There wasn't a towel nearby, and I didn't want to attract attention by extracting the oil in public... so I went to the nearest bathroom."

She shuddered again, and made a horrified squeaking noise that came from either her voicebox or her joints. Ruby pat her head comfortingly. "Don't worry Penny, everything is going to be alright."

"But Ruby... the bathroom was CARPETED!"

This statement came so out of left field that Ruby was stunned for a moment. "Say what now?"

"CARPETED!" Penny repeated. "A-and not just a rug or mat, I m-mean wall-to-wall carpet!" She grabbed Ruby and shook her. "BATHROOMS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO CARPETED!"

Ruby was still reeling from the revelation. A carpeted bathroom? Sure, it was weird, but this was Remnant! Weird was normal here. "Ok..." Ruby started, unsure how to proceed, but Penny interrupted her.

"A-and it wasn't just that bathroom! I checked the next one! And the next one!" Penny's already wide eyes widened even further. "ALL THE BATHROOMS ARE CARPETED! ALL OF THEM, RUBY! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?"

Ruby's mind was currently occupied. She searched through her newest set of Loop Memories, and sure enough, every single bathroom her Unawake self had encountered had every square inch of the floor covered by thick, luxurious carpeting. Heck, even the outhouses had carpeting.

She frowned. "Penny?"

"Y-yes?" Penny responded, starting to calm down.

"The inhabitants of this Loop have committed a grave sin against all of Yggdrasil. Find out who's Awake, and send them a message."

"A message? What?"

Ruby stood up and cracked her knuckles. Her silver eyes glowed furiously. "We're going to war."

(Headmaster's Office, Beacon Academy)

"We're going to war."

Ozpin watched the small screen, showing the image of Ruby Rose as one of his cameras recorded her declaration. He turned to Glynda. "I shouldn't tell her the carpet thing was my technically my idea, should I?"

"If you don't, I will." Glynda responded bluntly.

"I was being sarcastic!" Ozpin groaned in exasperation. "I didn't expect the population of Remnant to take me seriously when I told them the secret to finding happiness was carpeted bathrooms! It was a joke, I swear!"

Glynda just pulled out a scroll and tapped the screen a couple times. "And sending the message to Ruby riiiiight... now."

Ozpin calmly stood up, glared at Glynda, then slowly walked into the elevator. He pressed a button. The doors closed.

The elevator made a loud screeching noise, before promptly rocketing upward, presumably into the upper atmosphere, if not further.

Glynda smirked.

[-]

171.3 diesel, FriTik

[-]

Through the Amber Eyes; Into a Distorted Mind (Part 1)

"You know how disturbing that was to say," Weiss said as Cinder finished recounting her earlier conversation with Yang several loops prior, notably the part about deleting herself.

Cinder nodded. "Yes, and I don't want to be erased. I like living and if I did go off the deep end and try, I would only damage Yggdrasil more, risk everyone here, and risk damaging my mind when I failed. I'm not completely stupid," she said dryly.

"You are missing several pieces," Weiss observed humorously before returning to the topic. "And I'm not concerned about you doing that. Your mental health, yes, but not going thought with something like that. That you got to that point, from a sense of guilt and from feeling that isolated is worrying, this is a severe drop in your mental health."

"What do you expect to happen?" Cinder said looking away for a moment and clenching her fists. "I drove Ruby and Penny to break their minds."

"No, you didn't."

Cinder snapped her gaze to Weiss incredulously, "How can you…."

After seeing she wasn't going to keep speaking, Weiss placed the just raised cup of coffee back onto the table and spoke, "You were one factor, a key one, but neither the direct root nor sole cause. Ruby created chibi-salem both to amuse herself and because she didn't want to face everything herself and held onto miss placed guilt from your mental fracture. Penny never faced or dealt with her own dissonance and you were a symbol of that and a large player, but again, not the sole one and it was her choice to split her mind."

"I was still a key factor!"

"Yes, as was Raven, Roman, Neo, and me for missing the many signs and even encouraging bad behaviours unintentionally," Weiss said patiently, watching as Cinder got up and started pacing the room and almost hitting the Christmas tree. "And please don't knock over the Christmas tree."

Cinder stopped, turned, smirked, turned the tree upside down then kept pacing. Weiss itched to pelt her with the baubles, but held her peace, for the moment at least. She had only just finished restoring her mansion and they were in the middle of a session.

After though, well that was a different situation altogether.

"It was my actions that were the tipping point," Cinder closed her eyes as she stopped pacing and stared out the window towards the ancient mystical forest, "I caused it."

"Penny's loop as Alita was her trigger." Weiss walked over, coffee in hand, and joined Cinder by the window. "Ruby's was more complicated being a mix of guilt, stress from all the nightmare loops, baselines instability, and amusement. Chibi-Salem started as a joke after a possession type Salem that Ruby ran with when she realized, she didn't feel as bad, as sad or angry anymore. Something that got worse over time. You were a stressor, but not the trigger in any of these cases."

Tears ran down Cinder's face in silence, a potent snarl of emotions causing her physical pain that was as clear to Weiss as the tears were.

"You can take responsibility for your actions Cinder, but not for others. No one can control everything, not you, not me, not Ruby, not Marianne. And I know Ruby and Penny don't hold you responsible for their choices."

"Shouldn't you be trying to talk me around to stopping, this is the perfect time to take advantage of my emotional vulnerability to manipulate me to be less of a stressor to Ruby and to take less lives?" Cinder said, needling Weiss on purpose.

"No." Weiss glared at Cinder briefly. "The things that stress Ruby the most are helplessness, people harming her family, loneliness, and how she bonds with non-loopers at the bottom."

"Not boredom?"

"We're loopers, that goes without saying."

"It's still a factor."

"One you're trying to use to justify your behaviours by making things interesting, one that Yang has already agreed with," Weiss said pointedly.

Though the window a large ice snake-like lizard or wingless dragon rose from the frozen forest bellowing as it clashed with a snow-covered Ent.

"Is that actually an Ent?" Cinder said, distracted by the ensuing fight, "You have Ents in your forest?" She laughed. "Wasn't there a moral issue with keeping sapient in your Pocket?"

"They're not Ents per se," Weiss said straight-faced, "I just forgot to monitor the forest properly and things got a little out of hand."

Cinder laughed. "The Revenge of the Honey Badgers?"

"It's not that bad."

"The most random thing evolution produces in everyone's pocket would be a fun game to play at some point. The number of weird things I've found as Overlord…. I swear." Cinder shook her head before looking at Weiss suspiciously. "Did you trigger that fight to distract me?"

Weiss shrugged as she finished her coffee. "Everyone is manipulating each other and making use of triggers and exploiting each other behaviours across the course of loops."

"I doubt everyone does that, you think that Pyrrha or Nora try to manipulate us? And did you do that here?'

"No," Weiss said. "It derailed what I wanted to say, and you've seen the length Nora goes when she wants someone to do something for her or when Pyrrha is motivated."

"I don't believe you."

"Why?"

"This conversation is going exactly how you want it too. And," Cinder paused, "Nora and Pyrrha… touché, but they don't manipulate people over long periods."

"All interaction can be put down as manipulation, as you know full well, and in this case our loop memories and how long we've known each other makes it inevitable, if only for a joke." Weiss smiled. "Candidate one, Yang and her puns, but you're right, not everyone does it for more than that."

No one spoke for a bit as they watched the dragon and tree fight. Weiss was content to let Cinder think before speaking.

[-]

171.4 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: Rise of the Thirsty Moms

"I..." Ruby stared. "I... I have no words."

"I'm telling you, it's the haircut."

"Nora, that's not what-" Ruby shook her head. "Look, these are mothers. Like, with kids!"

"And?" Nora quirked an eyebrow. "You have anything with Jaune finding a MILF?"

"Wouldn't that be MJLF? Cause unless you're planning on joining him with that F-"

"It's an acronym, Ruby, it's not-like, you know, it's just a term. If Jaune fould a MILF he'd be the I, and if I found a MILF I'd be the I."

Ruby conceded the point with a shrug, but turned back to the crowd of giggling woman and flung out her hands. "Look my point is, even assuming they're all single or at least in open relationships, they've got to think of their children!"

"Hey, nobody can be a parent all the time, Ruby." Nora smirked. "And a big part of being a parent is the private fun, you know?"

Ruby leveled a flat look on her. "No, that's a big part of being a lover. But I concede that people can be and often are both at once with different people. I just..." She jabbed a hand toward the woman trying to give Jaune a casserole. "Look at this. This woman could be his mother. And she's doing the flirty gifty thing. WHAT. Can I not say WHAT, Nora? Can I not say that?"

"He's keeping their kids safe, and he's a tall blonde in armor. Of course he'd get their attention."

The younger huntress threw up her hands. "Whatever. Fine. This is happening. And you're okay with it, because of course you are. He was supposed to be cool for the kids, not for the adults..." She stalked off with a huff. "I need to go find something to drown these memories out of my head. Am I legal to drink yet? I don't even know anymore! Birch, explaining this to you guys next loop is going to be awkward as hell..."

[-]

171.5 Tetradrachm

[-]

Never Tell Me The Odds

"Ten lien says we're formally together by the end of the Volume."

Blake stared at Yang, blinking slowly at her wife's bet as they sat snuggled up together in their room in Beacon. "Since when are you in the habit of making bets over something that big with such a tiny amount of lien?" she asked.

Yang grinned. "It was just to, how d'ya call it, get the conversation started. My actual bet is somewhere around five hundred thousand lien, at least, along with one of those weird, cool Variant Watches Nate gave me the last time he visited." She unPocketed an odd, teal-and-orange Yo-Kai Watch decorated with a swirly pattern. "It's called the Opposite Watch, or something—definitely not safe to use."

"He wouldn't want you to be betting that away, though," Blake said, physically shying away from the ominous watch. "And besides, I don't want that thing."

"Ugh, fine...you really don't wanna bet?" Yang asked as the watch vanished. "Come back and snuggle again. It's cold in here."

"No, I don't want to bet," Blake said as she cuddled back up. "I don't really...even wanna think about it all that much."

"What?"

Blake bit her lip for a second. "It's just, we already reject Baseline in everything. Why is it really any different when it comes to who we end up with as a couple? Why worry about it?"

"I get it," Yang said seriously. "Once or twice Ruby's told me she's a bit worried about ending up with Jaune of all people in Baseline, 'cause a few people in the Hub think that's what might happen. I told her pretty much the same thing you're saying to me now...unless this is just about the dancing thing," she finished with a sneaky smirk.

"Come again?" Blake asked, already suspecting what was coming.

"You just don't wanna think about the shippy stuff because it shows that you've got two left feet!" Yang cackled.

Blushing a bit too deeply, Blake muttered, "I will get up and leave you cold right this second—"

"Shutting up now!"

[-]

171.6 Masterweaver

[-]

THE REAL SECRET OF ATLAS

"I've got it," Ruby giggled as she scribbled another line. "I've really got it. I've got it!"

Weiss sighed. "Okay, what have you got."

"The secret of Atlas. The real secret. The actual secret that secretly secrets itself."

"What horrors has my homeland committed this time?"

Ruby pointed at the dry-erase board with a little giggle. "Okay, okay, so here's the thing. I have gone through a lot of the common ships the fans have, alright? And here's a list. A list. Of things. I'm going to give it to you." She tapped the board. "Jaune. We start with Jaune, alright?"

"Alright."

"Now, now since he's the only male among the core eight that isn't pretty much already attached, he gets shipped a lot. With a lot of people. All of us, Pyrrha, sometimes outside the team, you know. Or that's what I thought-I mean, that's what I thought the reason was. BUT. Then, when he gets to Atlas. What happens?"

"The thirsty moms?" Weiss deadpanned.

"THE THIRSTY MOMS," Ruby agreed. "AND! Here's the critical bit AND! Look, look, see, his sister lives in Argus which is an OFFSHOOT of Atlas! Historically speaking. Little more complicated. Point is, there's a path of transmission."

"Alright..."

"Now, now we look at Blake. And I mean, why Blake? Because Ilia and Adam are both from Atlas." Ruby pointed at another bundle of lines. "See? See? Now this isn't perfect, because of the personalities involved and the emotional complexity, BUT. But but but but BUT! Blake's also got Yang and Sun! And because Blake spent a lot of her early life being shaped by Adam's viewpoint-"

"Which we can agree is a negative impact."

"Yeah yeah yeah but this isn't about the abuse it's about the cultural transmission from Atlas through Adam to Blake. Okay? Okay."

"Where do I enter this picture?"

"Wait wait wait before I get to the Schnees, I wanna talk about Qrow in Atlas." Ruby pointed at a third cluster. "See? Clover and Ironwood and Winter and, admittedly much more rarely than the other three, Willow. All giving him looks, on occasion. Like not often with Winter cause, you know, she's got Standards, but sometimes. Okay. So, NOW we get to the Schnees, right?"

Weiss sighed, pinching her brow. "Oh my lord."

"You! There's your team, and Jaune, and Neptune, and Sun, and Ilia too-Ilia's from Atlas, right? And Henry Marigold made a pass but you rejected him but the point is he made a pass. And while Winter and Willow are less open, they don't gent to get offended in loops where random people flirt with them. So, so like, look. Look. Okay. So what I'm thinking, right. Atlas culture." Ruby giggled. "Atlas culture has, like, normalized polyamorous relationships. All harem jokes, all the group lovers, all of that can be traced back to Atlas! It all makes sense!"

"Okay, first of all, this is an absolutely ridiculous level of insane speculation that I presume is the result of you having more than a hundred lonely loops in a row and needing something to occupy yourself."

"Well yeah duh," said Ruby.

"Secondly, counterpoint: The not uncommon Tai/Raven/Summer triad has no connections to Atlas."

Ruby opened her mouth, paused, and then groaned to the heavens. "OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT. How did I miss that?! How. HOW. Did I miss that."

"Okay, you need to destress," Weiss declared. "If this is what you're getting up to, then we need to calm you down a bit. Somehow."

[-]

171.7 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: Variant Formes

"So all the Atlas Grimm have ice chunks in them," Ruby noted as she dispatched a trio of beowolves. "I mean, is it just the environment or is it part of their physiology?"

"I suspect it'll be loop variable for a long while." Weiss summoned a large sword, slicing through a pack of Sabyrs. "But this loop it's a known and understood phenomena."

"Yeah?"

"Freezegrowth. Grimm can be frozen like other creatures, but they don't suffer physiologically from extreme temperatures, so younger Grimm that get frozen just keep growing while they're trapped in the ice until they're strong enough to break out."

Ruby decapitated four manticores with two idle swings of one Crescent Rose. "Hmm. Do they learn as they're trapped?"

"It's generally assumed they don't, freezegrown Grimm act about as intelligent as ordinary younger Grimm." Weiss levitated up a small pack of the creatures in question with her glyphs, letting Ruby handle them. "Of course, that means that they effectively have a stronger base-start to go with."

"Might explain why the Sabyrs are so stupid," Ruby agreed, slicing through stygian flesh. "They just aren't built for zerg rushes, but they keep on coming!"

"Yes, well, I must remind you this is probably a loop-variable detail." Weiss glanced around the landing pad for a moment. "Are you really complaining about the quality of your enemies?"

"Opponents," Ruby corrected, also taking a look around. "My enemies are unfortunately very intelligent and crafty, and they almost never fight me directly. The creatures of Grimm-"

"This isn't going to be about you not hating Grimm, is it?" Weiss relaxed, sheathing her sword. "Because we talked about that-"

"No, no no! Not like..." Ruby pinched her brow. "Okay, okay, so except in rare variants I don't have to worry about a Grimm figuring out how to destroy everything near and dear to me. They're dangerous monsters but they... they don't get under my skin, you know? Not like... Salem's crew." She glanced away. "Not like Cinder and Tyrian and Watts. The Grimm are mooks, and... I dunno, fighting them is less 'I must stop you' and more 'I'm a good fighter' if that makes sense."

"Ruby."

"I'm not saying I put my enjoyment over the job," Ruby said quickly. "I'm not! I prefer saving lives, and killing Grimm is a simple way to do that. But, it's like... sometimes I bring my all and the Grimm just... it feels too easy, and... Silver-eyed warrior, Weiss. A good fight is worth so much more than an easy fight."

"But a fight that saves lives is worth more than both."

"Well yeah! I'm not saying it isn't, I just..." Ruby gestured vaguely, even as a trio of Mantas approached the mine. "It's this weird thing, where the Grimm are supposed to be our world's biggest threat, but we just cut through them like a hot knife through butter. I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking it."

"Ruby Rose, you are the youngest huntress in history-aside from Penny," Weiss allowed before Ruby could object, "and that is because of your experience and skill outclassing huntresses twice your age."

Ruby chuckled awkwardly. "Maybe not twice... ten years older, I could see, but-"

"And that's before we factor in your experiences as a looper," Weiss continued unabated. "Of course what ordinary people find challenging you might see as a bit easier. But that doesn't mean you aren't being challenged-just that you're a little too skilled to notice these days."

"...I suppose."

"Why don't we consider taking a more difficult mission from the board next time?" Weiss suggested. "One above our C-class licenses. I'm sure if we agree to take the whole team and an Ace-Op escort, Ironwood will allow it."

Ruby shook her head. "I'm not sure he would, he... probably isn't as flexible as Ozpin was."

"Well then, we'll just sneak out and do it without his permission."

"Yeah, alright, I'll get the others in on that." Ruby glanced back as the Mantas took off. "Sooooo... you have anything you want to do when we get back to Atlas?"

"You mean casually hang out wise?" Weiss shrugged. "We could hit the clothes shops and see if there's anything there we want for alternate outfits."

[-]

171.8 Masterweaver

[-]

The Price Of Hard Work

Cinder sighed, long and loud and low.

Emerald pinched her brow. "Okay, I like being your henchgirl, but I don't like being your go-to when you need to complain about something. Cause I'm really not equipped to help you and that just makes me feel useless and-"

"Sorry, just... my Domain's going through another society-wide existential crisis."

"What, again? This is the... fifth time, since I've activated anyway, that they had this!"

"Sixth," Cinder corrected. "I never told you about the time they seriously considered whether pie and cake were the same thing."

"How bad is it?"

"It's one of those ones where a good portion of the population is wondering if they actually are who they are and not just some false reflection of a looper by a dark goddess who makes them all dance on strings for her whims," Cinder rattled off blandly.

"...So...?"

"So it's not really impacting production or anything but I walk down the street and everyone just seems distracted, you know?"

"Sounds frustrating."

"It is."

"Welp, not a clue how to help," Emerald repeated, getting up. "I'll go find whoever's Awake, throw them at you, and I'll be trying to pickpocket Robyn Hill if you need me."

Cinder quirked a brow. "Why her?"

"The desperate are much more possessive of their wallets," Emerald explained. "Bigger challenge. Especially with her league of lesbians guarding her all the time."

"...I am very proud of how devious you've become."

Emerald half-hid her blush. "Yeah, well... good mentor. Heh. Uh. Thanks. Going to go now."

[-]

171.9 diesel, FriTik

[-]

Through the Amber Eyes; Into a Distorted Mind (Part 2)

"Was I wrong about people appreciating what I did at all?" Cinder said. "Yang says I wasn't, but she'll do whatever it takes to keep everyone… not happy, but she's a thrill seeker and gets bored more easily than most and she would lie if she thought someone needed it."

Weiss weighed that statement before speaking. "You're a storyteller and like to draw us into the tales you weave. Its why you like DMing so much and that plays into how you act when manipulating people and events. If you want to win then you go for the throat and dispense with the theatrics; otherwise you set things up with hooks and let people fall into roles while also being a player. The latter's not something anyone has a problem with even if it can be infuriating sometimes. But there is a divide between you setting a story, challenging and enticing us to play along, and you laughing as the world dances to your whims and dies just because you feel like it. That you drag us into trying to stop you doesn't change that. You tend to get that line between them blurred or justify it when you go too far even knowing that you are. We've had that conversation before."

The animate tree slammed the ice wyrm into a bolder of everlasting ice. The monster's cry was like fingernails scraping down a blackboard as it squired and escaped the tree's hold by ripping branches apart.

Cinder nodded. "Multiple times, I never really broke that habit but I thought I was getting better at noticing when I was doing it."

"You are overall, but it was a defense mechanism you developed to deal with your cognitive dissonance," Weiss said. "As was your interest in DMing and interest in turning your darker impulses into games, though not that that got very far before you fractured. And I doubt you'll ever be completely free from that tendency."

"It's still frustrating," Cinder scowled as she stared out into the ice forest, "and you didn't answer my question."

"I'm getting to that. When you read the mood properly and decided to, let's say, be a crime lord and take over the Vale Underworld that can be fun. We stick to lower power levels and it becomes a crime thriller, it can be tense, stressful, and infuriating, but still fun. And we don't consider that's you being Red even if it's playing into the same mentality and impulses for you. The same if you're setting up limited political disruption and we're trying to stop you. Or when you Wake early and conquer the world then that can be fun to try to topple or work with. If there is one thing you take pride in, it's running a prosperous civilization," Weiss said as the dragon got the living tree into a pin and began tearing at it. "But the next loop you could ruin it with civil wars that drag Remnant into chaos and caused by you whispering in a few people's ears. The Maidens power handed to Salem and letting her lose to see what happens or usurping the Grimm and turning the White Fang into something from a Nightmare loop. There's no enjoyment in this, no relief at the break in monotony, no reluctant or unspoken appreciation. And while you cause this sort of chaos far less than you used to, you still do."

She turned and walked away from the window as the dragon ripped the tree apart with a howl of victory, setting the table with treats. Cinder didn't move, reflected in the window as the dragon vanished into the darkness.

"But those loops are not normally traumatic or very stressful once they end, we're used to it. Inured to them from baseline, variants, and all the darker loopers, though some loops hurt more than most. Ones that strike at weakness and faults we have, and that at least, you avoid touching as much as possible." Weiss sat in her seat making herself a new coffee and one for Cinder.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Cinder turned away from the window and accepted the cup thankfully as she sat down opposite Weiss. "Or is that something I'm supposed to find out for myself?"

Weiss smirked. "As cliché as it may is, chose who you are and wish to be yourself, decide what you want and how far you expect others to bend and how far you'll bend for them."

Cinder rolled her eyes at the echo of her conversation with Penny.

"More seriously," Weiss continued dropping the levity, "you need to properly distinguish between what you do purely because you want to, and what you're doing as a game for everyone willing to play. Remember one of the principles you use in DMing; the DM must have fun but so must the players. It's the sign of a poor DM that has fun at the expense of the other players. Part of doing this is the need to talk to people about what you do, clear the air and find out what they enjoy, what they don't, and make it clear what you're doing that loop."

"No killing, be good, stick to thievery and messing with politics," Cinder grumbled fully aware that she was being childish. "That gets boring if I stick to that all the time, and even Ruby's idea of seeing how much havoc I can cause without killing get tedious and frustrating after a while. And then the Grimm just take out most of those I've avoided killing."

Weiss gave her a look. "You can spend a million yearlong loop pursuing the same goal, can maintain long term goals beyond loops like your Civilisation, and yet after ten loops, not even always spent consecutively, of doing something you get bored. Your concentration span is baffling."

"New loop, new beginning." Cinder gave a half shrug. "In a long loop I can pursue something and have an actual goal to reach towards even if I can't reach it for whatever reason. In these loops I don't have time to do anything like that, and each loop different people will be Awake, the political and economic system will be different. I can't do the same thing and why would I try when something more interesting could be happening."

[-]

171.10 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: Big Sisters

"Wintaaaaah! My gal, my pal, my girly girl galpal grinning girl gal girl gleegirl granny groovin' gal girl pal pearl girlpal galpearl grand great girlgal pearlpal preppy pretty palgal-"

Winter pinched her brow with an audible sigh. "Miss Xiao Long."

"Missus, actually. Okay, so Blake and I aren't legally married by Atlas law, but psssshhh, technicalities." Yang slammed down her tray of food next to Winter with a big grin. "You know what we need to do? Have a big sister's night out. You, me, and I dunno, a bowling alley? What the heck do you even do for fun?"

"I train."

"Okay, that's one activity. Most people have, what, three? Five?"

Winter very delicately cut into her steak.

"Me, it's training, reading, video games, having hours-long sex sessions with Blake, and dancing."

"I-I'm sorry, what was that last one?"

"Yeah, I know, right?" Yang grinned like a maniac. "You wouldn't expect an island girl to be a good dancer, but I've got moves like you wouldn't believe-"

"No, not..." Winter paused for a moment. "...You are attempting to... tease me, aren't you?"

"Tease, troll, screw with your mind, sure." Yang stabbed a carrot with her fork. "Real talk, Winter? You need to loosen up. I mean that like you, specifically, but also like 'you' in the sense of the Atlas Military and, really, maybe the whole kingdom. You're all so high-strung!"

"We have every reason to be alert," Winter pointed out. "As you well know."

Yang shook her head. "Alert, sure. Staying up for weeks on end and watching for monsters lurking in shadows to a point where you can barely sleep and have nightmares about your home being torn apart...?" She let out a low breath, looking at her own golden arm. "...I've been there. I've... been beyond that point, actually. It's not a place worth living in."

The other woman looked at her arm for a moment. "Miss Xiao Long... Yang. I don't mean to dismiss your experiences, but... I am not in that position. I may be a touch stoic, but I can assure you I am not allowing my emotional state to affect me negatively."

Yang looked into her eyes for a long, quiet moment.

"...alright. I guess that's one less Atlesian I have to worry about." She turned back to her food. "Still, though, we should hang out sometime. Talk about our sisters. The stuff we like, and the stuff we wouldn't ever say in front of them because they would be too embarrassed."

"You want us to gossip."

"Come on, Winter, who else are you going to gossip with? I mean uncle Qrow's cleaning himself up, but I kiiiiiinda think you're not quite ready to chat his ear off."

An amused hmf came from the elder Schnee. "...I will admit, he is a capable Huntsman despite my misgivings. But, yes, I doubt I would discuss this matter with him."

"Sooooooooo?"

"You are going to pursue this until I agree, aren't you?"

"Nah," Yang replied casually. "There's a lot going on in Atlas, if you're not going to entertain me I'll find something else. I wonder what would happen if I juggled bowling balls?"

Winter rolled her eyes. "Very well, I concede. Meet me in the courtyard at 1530 hours, we shall... do an activity."

"I can hardly contain my joy!"

[-]

171.11 Masterweaver

[-]

Who's more mature, anyway?

Maria smiled grimly, stepped to one side-then casually skipped backward to dodge the smear of red that smashed into the ground. "You're getting better at that. I was almost surprised."

Ruby manifested in a grumpy swirl of rosepetals. "Come on, old woman, one glomp isn't going to kill you!"

"Old woman?" Maria tilted her head. "Aren't you trillions of years old?"

"Billions. I'm... maybe a hundred billion. Or two. Probably less?"

"I would have thought with you looping so long, you'd be a lot older."

Ruby bit her loop. "No no no. See, it's like... it takes a while to go from hundreds to thousands, and it takes a lot longer to go from thousands to millions, and a whole lot longer to go from millions to billions, and billions to trillions is longer than all of those combined and multiplied by a hundred by definition, so-"

"But I've heard Weiss say she has a trillion years under her belt."

"Well, uh..." Ruby rubbed the back of her head. "Maybe she got it wrong? I mean, it's not like we count this. Just because we have perfect memory doesn't mean we have... like, the ability to remember how much we remember. We still have to think about it, and... and anyway, when you get past a certain point, words like 'billion' or 'trillion' are just, you know, words, measures of scope, not real numbers anyway-"

"So what you're saying," Maria observed calmly, "is that you lie about your age to make yourself feel better."

Ruby opened her mouth.

She closed it.

She tilted her head thoughtfully.

"...You know what? Yes. Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying."

Maria nodded. "Just so long as we're clear on that. And in that case, I'm thirty-four."

"...You picked that number deliberately, didn't you."

"What?" Maria's smile was utterly, completely innocent. "What do you mean? Is there something about that number I should know about?"

"I know you and Yang talk about stuff, and I know Yang has NO shame when it comes to sex or the internet-"

"I have no idea what you could possibly be implying," Maria said casually, continuing her journey. "But on an entirely unrelated note, how is your relationship with that Penny girl going?"

"HEY! I am very happy to be in a cuddles-only relationship-and and and I don't need to talk about this kind of thing!" Ruby insisted. "I am a perfectly-Maria. Stop laughing. Stop it. STOP-oh my god. Why are you like this."

[-]

171.12 RandomRex6

[-]

The conversation began with a deep breath before proceeding into the thick of it.

"Okay," Jaune started, "It's been a few expansions. I'm a little surprised no one's commented on it. Maybe they're processing, maybe they're distracted by everything else. It's small, all things considered, but I feel it needs to be addressed. But before I throw myself to the lions, I wanted to talk to you first. You're the only opinion that really matters to me, so, please, be honest."

Sitting beside him, the only other current occupant of Team JNPR's Beacon dorm room, was the love of his life. His partner in eternity. His beloved wife. Pyrrha, too, took a deep breath and prepared herself. "Go ahead," she replied.

"What do you think... of the haircut?"

Jaune's question left the room momentarily silent before Pyrrha began her answer. "Alright. Since we're being honest, I will admit, I didn't like it at first."

"I figured."

"But... having had time to process it," she continued, "While I do prefer your hair longer, the new look is beginning to grow on me."

Jaune pondered this. "Good to know. I'm glad we discussed this."

Pyrrha was not done, however, "I think the biggest problem was that it didn't feel like you."

"Beg pardon?"

"Well, you've been, to quote Weiss, 'Tall, Blonde, and Scraggly' the entire time we've known you, and it just seemed so integral. But you're still you anyway. And that's what makes you the man I fell in love with. No matter what your haircut looks like," the spartan summarized.

The blushing blonde rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well, good. Glad that's settled."

Pyrrha gave a playful smirk. "And if all those moms like it..."

"Really?" Jaune sighed.

"I wish I could be in Atlas with you all. Let them know you're off-limits," Pyrrha said with a bit of a pout.

"I know," Jaune commiserated. "I can't even remember the last time you possessed my sword."

Pyrrha quirked an eyebrow, before realizing what he meant, "Oh, yeah, that! That used to happen a lot..."

"What did you think I...?" Jaune trailed off as the instincts of his now adolescent body began to kick in. "Oh..."

Pyrrha, in a fit of confidence began trailing her fingers up Jaune's chest. "You know what else hasn't happened in a while?"

"Yeah?"

[-]

"Pyrrha can I borrow your-?"

The very unawake Weiss's question was cut short as she opened the neighboring dorm room's door. The sight that greeted her was an uncommon one, to say the least.

Tied to one of the beds was Jaune, or rather, The HuntsMan. Standing off to the side was Pyrrha dressed as The Red Huntress.

All three were dead silent, until at last, Pyrrha spoke up.

"It's exactly what it looks like."

[-]

171.13 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: Not By Its Cover

"Clover! Hey Clover!" Ruby rushed up to the leader of the Ace operatives with a big, happy, innocent grin. "Clover, hey! Look, can I ask a favor?"

The man smiled down at her. "Maybe. What do you want?"

"Okay, so I know this is kiiiind of silly, and I'll probably get totally trounced, but I kinda want to take you and the other Ace Ops on one-on-five. You know, like a competitive fight, down to red in the aura, right?"

"Heh. Look Ruby, you've done a lot, I'll admit that. But even the most skilled huntress alive wouldn't want to take on five other huntsmen at once-"

"I know I knoooooow it's kind of a silly little dream but come on, Clover, between all these missions and getting the tower ready and protecting Mantle and worrying about Salem I kinda want to say 'I tried something impossible for the heck of it' because that's a lot of what my dad told me about huntsmaning when we were growing up and I know I'll probably lose I'm okay with it it's not like it'll take that long and maybe you can use the recordings to teach people and I might have kinda sorta made a bet with my sister that I could convince you to do it and I mean it would be super cool to see how far I could get anyway and you know Salem sent somebody to capture me so there could be a whole squad of people she assembles later so it could be good experience and there's the fact that I'm sort of a silver-eyed warrior which means I get super into a good fight you know how that is right and I'm not asking you to drop any of the missions you'd be on ordinarily just get the group together whenever you can and we can have a good spar where we beat each other up and laugh about it afterwards and it would be super awesome if I could actually do anything to you guys-"

"Alright! Alright. Alright, fine." Clover huffed a small laugh. "Just this once. Saturday, ten hundred hours, the training room. Don't be late."

"Oh I won't I promise!" Ruby beamed, jumping with a cheer. "Wooohoo! This is going to rock! I mean yeah the bruises will suck but it'll be worth it!"

Clover shook his head, walking down the hall...

...and so missed when the innocent joy on Ruby's face morphed into something more predatory. "So worth it. So very, very worth it."

[-]

"I'm kind of surprised that Ruby managed to pull this off," Blake admitted as she perched on a counter near the window.

"You think she wouldn't?" Weiss asked.

"Oh, no, I just thought the Ace Ops would be too 'professional' to indulge her."

"She can be very persuasive when she wants to be. Which, admittedly, is not that often, but for this..."

"I am somewhat concerned about friend Ruby," Penny said, a worried expression crossing her face. "I know she is a talented huntress and has experienced multiple combat situations before, but I cannot help wondering if she will be capable of surviving training against the best operatives Atlas has."

Blake and Weiss exchanged knowing grins, before the white-haired girl put a gentle hand on Penny's shoulder. "I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."

"Okay!" Yang sidled in the door, carrying two buckets as big as her head. "Brought the popcorn! Oh, uh, Penny, can you have popcorn?"

"No, I don't eat," Penny said.

"Right. Sorry. Maybe I should have-"

"It is alright, Yang, I understand."

Yang handed one bucket off to Weiss, giving Penny a sympathetic look, before walking up to Blake and leaning against the glass. "So when are we going to get this train wreck rolling?"

"In about two minutes."

Yang glanced down to where Ruby was standing, looking at the door expectantly. "This ought to be interesting, huh?"

"Ooooooh yes."

Ruby, for her part, had Crescent Rose out behind her, idly shifting on her ankles as she waited for her opponents to arrive. Her silver eyes had a dangerous glint to them, one that could give pause to an experienced huntsman if she ever bothered to let them see it. The moment the door slid open, it vanished, replaced by an enthusiastic grin. "Alright! So this is going to be a 'when you get to red you get out' fight, right?"

"Heh. Sure, kid." Marrow gave her an amused grin. "Hey, since you're taking us all on at once, you want us to start somewhere? Give yourself a chance of lasting more than ten seconds?"

"You guys know how you operate best," Ruby replied, waving him off. "Do what you think works! Oh, but we are doing the ruined fort setup, if that's alright with you."

"Rough terrain," Clover noted with a grin, watching the dark cubes rise out of the ground. "I suppose that might give us a bit of trouble."

"A bit," Harriet emphasized.

Weiss quirked a brow as four corners of a square came into being, surrounding a few mounds of cubes. "A decent simulation, I suppose. Ah, Clover's ordering everyone outside the corners, battlefield control."

"Putting him and Vine on opposite sides does increase the probability of Ruby being caught in a cross-reach," Penny noted. "And Marrow can drive her back toward Elm and Harriet-"

Blake chuckled grimly. "Clover shouldn't have left Marrow on his own. He's going to regret that."

"Shhhh..." Yang waved them down. "It's about to start!"

Ruby Rose, the childish young huntress, shut her eyes in preparation.

Ruby Rose, the billions-year-old time looper, opened them and smirked in mischevious glee.

Her finger twitched as the buzzer sounded and she was in the air, twirling once to take in where her foes were. Vine and Clover had already hooked their respective corners and were ascending them, Elm and Harriet had split to contain the edges, and Marrow was rushing to opposite Elm-staring at her, yes, but not stopping. In less than a second she swung Crescent Rose back and fired again, heading toward the suddenly startled young man and plowing into him before he could react.

"Called it," Blake quipped. "Only ranged weapon, and with a semblance she doesn't know how to counter? Marrow goes down first."

Marrow, to his credit, was able to flip up to his feet in a second and bash Ruby back with his rifle-one he immediately pointed at her, pulling the trigger. He wasn't quite able to land a hit on the girl, since she'd dug the point of her baby girl into the ground and ran a spiral up the wall, shooting just as her haft was straight and launching herself back into the center of the fort. Harriet, who had been rushing around the corner, doubled back as Elm tried to close in; Ruby's somersault was redoubled by another blast from Crescent Rose, leaving her on the opposite corner of the fort, where she twirled Crescent Rose to bat back a fishhook from Clover and slice through an auric projection from Vine.

Penny gasped in astonishment. "She just-she just jumped across the battlefield!"

"High position, leaves the runners unable to get her," Weiss mused.

Ruby flipped Crescent Rose to her carbine configuration, taking a few potshots from her new vantage. Vine dodged one and Elm backed off from another, while Clover found his footing undermined by a third and Harriet cursed when Ruby hit her with a fourth.

"Marrow!" Clover shouted, and Ruby grinned as she saw the dog faunus run around the corner, his weapon in the form of a boomerang. His eyes widened at the sight of Crescent Rose partially folded, but he was already committed to his current stance and threw the bladed weapon at her-

"Thank you!" Ruby chirped.

-and in the span of three seconds, she had shot its flight into a new direction, grabbed the black handle, and twirled to bash the Ace Op leader sneaking up on her in the face with her new toy.

"Oh wow," Penny breathed.

Ruby backflipped off her perch, incidentally dodging another grab by Vine and flipping the weapon in her hand back to its rifle mode. Elm tried to swing her rocket-powered hammer at her, but all she hit was a brief cloud of red rosepetals before Ruby was low on the ground, pointing both the guns in her hands at a suddenly very startled Marrow Amin. Between the stream of the rifle's shots and the counter of the carbine's forcing him into it, his aura was chewed and shredded in seconds. Ruby tossed him his gun as he fell, flickering, against the outer wall. "Take your weapon as you go!" she said cheerfully, flicking Crescent Rose back to her scythe form.

"Harriet!" Vine shouted, and the speedster responded immediately, rushing Ruby from behind while Vine swung his chakram in an auric arm.

"¡Olé!" Ruby cried, spinning Crescent Rose on her hips and clapping her hands above her head-which, not incidentally, meant she could snatch the chakram from the golden hand above her while the rib of her baby girl smacked the lightning bruiser aside. She took a look at the weapon in her hands before sticking it over her blood-red hair. "Hey Yang! Crown of Thorns!"

Yang burst out laughing. "Oh wow! That's a good one!"

"Not entirely appropriate," Blake pointed out, though she was also grinning a little.

Ruby pulled her scythe off its hula route only to find a hook and string wrapped around her blade. She didn't even look back-she just threw it haft-first at the charging Elm (somehow managing to tap the trigger after she'd let go so it had more thrust) and, while the giant of a woman dodged, she snatched the fishing rod out Clover's hands when he stumbled past her. "Mine now." Clover barely had time to blink before she jumped over a swing of Elm's hammer-one that actually managed to hit the man instead of her.

Faint squeaking made Weiss glance sideways at Penny, who was slowly but surely developing a disbelieving grin as she bounced in place. A sly smirk crossed her own face as she looked back to the battle before them.

Ruby reeled in Crescent Rose, hop-twirling over Vine's golden arms as she retook her grip on her baby girl and vertispun over the rough terrain. A particular swing sent the fishing rod entangled round her weapon in an arc that wound with it smacking the tall man across the eyes-"Sorry!"-and then swooping low to swipe at Harriet as she rushed toward Ruby. The unexpected sideswipe wasn't enough to throw her off, but it did mean that Harriet's eyes were off Ruby for a moment as she grabbed the fishing pole-a moment that was long enough for Ruby and her scythe to burst into rose petals, baffling Harriet's senses as she rushed through the cloud. The lightning bruiser skidded to a stop, spinning around to look for her quarry...

...which meant she didn't notice how the rosepetals had actually curved over her head before reforming, and she certainly didn't see Ruby's devilish grin as she tossed Crescent Rose into the air, flipped open the two red panels on the back of her robotic arm enhancements, and send a pulse of aura through them before catching her scythe on the way down. The woman only realized something was off when her fist coverings suddenly became uncontrolled rockets, sending her flailing about the room.

"Ooooo." Blake cringed. "I didn't realize Harriet made Ruby that mad..."

"The woman has a lagomorph theme, a speedster who says Ruby's semblance is different from speed, she does that whole 'we're not friends', looks cool on the surface but tends to be a bit taunty..." Yang shrugged. "Yeah, I wouldn't say mad so much as 'constant low-level irritation,' but I can get where Ruby's coming from here."

"I'm going to have to schedule a psyche session," Weiss sighed.

"Elm!" Clover called, rolling past Ruby-who halfjumped up and thus took only the full brunt of the massive hammer swinging at her instead of being knocked down. Still, it was enough to get her out of the way of Clover's attempt to snag her ankles with his regained fishing pole, he clearly wasn't expecting her to ride the hammerhead around. Elm herself wasn't expecting it either, stumbling out of the swing as Ruby went flying and bounced off the wall; she caught sight of the young huntress shaking her head as she stood, rooted herself with her semblance, and rose her hammer with a roar.

Ruby sat on the blade of her scythe, pulled the trigger, and rode just under the arc of the mighty hammerblow. The look of sheer astonishment on the giant woman's face was responded to by a cheeky grin, a wink, and the backspikes of a scythe head to the chin.

Blake's ear twitched and she glanced at Penny, whose servos were just audible as her bouncing sped up. It seemed, thankfully enough, that Pietro had designed her voicebox so that the pitch of her quiet enthusiastic squeal would not hurt faunus hearing. That, Blake decided, was very forward-thinking of the man.

Elm pulled a hand off her hammer to punch Ruby in the face, a prospect that was rather ruined by Ruby ducking and sliding between her legs. Vine, having recovered from his temporary blinding, attempted to reach out to grab her-but was knocked aside by the still flailing Harriet trying to regain control of the rockets that were her arms. Clover took a glance at the situation and, with a huff, swung his fishing pole-snagging Harriet's weapon from her back and reeling it in to deactivate it. The lightning bruiser bounced to the ground, standing up and shooting a brief glare at Ruby-who gave her a grin as she hopped over Elm's hammer again.

"Yah know, with that knock from the hammer I got earlier I might go down in one hit!" she pointed out.

Harriet was up like lightning, fist about to go into Ruby's sternum-and then Ruby sidestepped in a blur of rosepetals and Harriet's eyes widened when she saw Elm's hammer swinging toward her.

"Ooo." Elm flinched as the speedster went flying. "Did not mean to do that."

"Second time too," Ruby quipped from her perch on the woman's shoulder.

"Wha-?!" Elm tried to slam her off with a fist, but Ruby hopped to her other shoulder with a laugh.

"Okay she's just showing off now," Blake deadpanned.

"Something wrong with showing off?" Yang asked.

Harriet snatched her weapon from Clover's hand and left the battlefield with an angry huff. Clover sighed, turning back to where Ruby was twirling around Elm with Crescent Rose and ineffectually landing a number of small kicks on the large woman.

Vine came up to him, clearing his throat. "She seems more crafty than we've given her credit for."

"Adopting some rather unusual strategies," Clover agreed. "Using our weapons against us... do you think you can retrieve yours?"

"Perhaps... if I can catch her unawares."

"Hey are you conspiring over there?!" Ruby shouted. "Cause you look like you're conspiring."

Weiss groaned. "And now she's rubbing it in."

Elm folded her hammer to its compact form, slinging it over her back and jetting out of rang of Ruby's harassment. Ruby accepted the break with a rebound up to the wall behind her, folding Crescent Rose back into her carbine form and focusing her fire on the giant woman. The powerful shots did little to bother her, though they did take a chink of her aura level with every hit they landed. With a shrug, Ruby backstepped off the wall to the outer boundry, running round the corners of the fort and taking a potshot every time she reached a gap. Clover dodged the first, Elm flinched at the second, but before she could take the third golden arms wrapped around her and dragged her into the center.

She grinned at Vine. "So, you watch much hentai?"

"No," Vine deadpanned. "I have heard all the jokes, though."

"Must be tedious," Ruby offered sympathetically.

"It can be," he admitted, unsummoning one of his projected arms to reach for the blades she was still wearing as a hat-

-and then Ruby rolled her neck, swinging his weapon into his still-existing semblance arm and cutting it before slamming her folded-up carbine into her ribs. At the sight of his aura flickering, she tipped the chakram and tossed it toward the door.

Penny was by now oscillating as rapidly as a piston, her clenched hands serving as a dual metronome to the rapidly shifting squeal of joy as her wide eyes and smile stared down at the battlefield. Yang couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, but whatever she was going to say was cut off by a warning finger and knowing smile from Weiss.

Ruby parried Clover's fishing pole with her carbine. "You know I was taught the art of the sword by at least three different expert fencers," she said casually.

"Really?" Clover quirked a brow even as he jabbed a fist at her.

"Yep," Ruby replied, deflecting the fist by unfolding Crescent Rose into his arm. "Qrow Branwen, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, few tips from Pyrrha Nikos..."

Clover smirked as he stumbled back. "Well, it sounds like that Beacon education was good for you."

"Well it taught me to listen for the sound of a strong woman unfolding her warhammer," Ruby admitted, sidestepping the massive hammer that smashed into the ground.

Elm actually laughed at that. "Of course! You've dueled Nora, that's why you've got a good read on me!"

"Dueled? No." Ruby twirled Crescent Rose to deflect a hook from Clover. "You don't really 'duel' Nora, you just learn to survive Magnhild."

"Truth," Weiss opined.

Ruby glanced between her two remaining foes for a moment, before shrugging and shooting herself into the air. A twist of her scythe and a pull of the trigger had her arcing rapidly to sandwich Clover between herself and Elm, a situation she took advantage of by swinging her baby girl and bashing the man toward the woman. Elm tried to step around him, but Ruby altered her assault to keep him between the two of them; Clover parried the scythe with his fishing pole but found himself backing up constantly from how aggressive the girl's attack was. For a moment, it seemed like a stalemate-right up until Elm grabbed Clover one-handed and placed him atop her shoulders.

"Huh," said Ruby. "Right."

She stepped back a bit, carefully backing away from Clover's fishing hook as she reassessed the situation. That unfortunately brought her back into the range of Elm's already moving hammer, and it was only a matter of time before one or the other clipped her. As it happened, she managed to dodge the first swing by hopping over it, but her ankle did clip the rear end of the hammerhead as passed, tripping her flat on her face with a startled 'meep!' She didn't even bother trying stand, just getting to her knees and lunging as the metal mass slammed down. Ruby's fingers gripped the mound of cubes in front of her as she pulled herself up into a kneeling position, and only after that did the faint scent of smoke make her glance back.

Apparently, the rockets on Elm's weapon had actually set the edge of her cape on fire. Ruby looked at the burning cloth and heaved an exasperated sigh.

"You know, you've done pretty good," Elm pointed out. "If you want to quit-"

"No no," Ruby reassured her calmly. "I can work with this."

"Your clothes are on fire," Clover pointed out.

"Technically, it's one cloth, singular," Ruby countered. "And while I love my cloak, it's not in direct skin contact with me so the fire doesn't-"

And then she interrupted herself by shooting herself toward the pair, catching them off guard long enough to plant her foot against Elm's chest. A twist of her ankle sent the burning edge of her cloak across her face, and the giant woman stumbled back as she brought her hands to her eyes with a yelp. Clover barely retained his footing, and Elm managed to recover in four seconds, trying to grab her hammer-handle, but her hands grasped on thin air and as her vision cleared she saw Ruby next to her folded-up weapon, smirking smugly as she pointed it at them.

"...You're a devious little scamp," Elm noted with a grin.

"Devious little brat," Ruby corrected, turning on the rockets and watching the jetpack shoot forward.

It slammed into Elm, of course, and though she was able to quickly turn it off again her aura level dropped into the red before she could. Clover dropped to the ground as Elm walked off with a chuckle, giving Ruby a considering look. "Did you plan this?"

"What, did I deliberately enter a combat situation against a highly-trained quintet of Atlas Military Operatives with an idea of what to do and how to do it?" Ruby quirked an eyebrow. "Now what in the world would ever give you that idea, mister Ebi?"

"...Fair enough." Clover checked his scroll. "We're both pretty far down, though. We keep fighting, it'll be hard to tell who knocks the other into the red first."

"Oh, are we engaging in psychological warfare now?"

"I think you've been engaging in psychological warfare for a while."

Ruby beamed. "Yep!"

Clover chuckled. "Alright. All the way, I suppose."

At this point, Penny was almost hitting the ceiling every three seconds. "She's doing it she's doing it she's really doing it oh my gosh she is doing it oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh-"

Weiss gave Blake and Yang a sly look, leaning toward the gynoid. "Hey Penny? She's single."

Penny froze in midair, her feet clacking to the ground as she landed utterly stock still. After a few seconds, a monotone beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep emitted from her mouth.

Yang wove a hand in front of her eyes for a moment before giving Weiss a Look. "If Pietro can't unlock her, I'm telling Ruby this is your fault."

Ruby and Clover danced in the center of the battlefield, the fishing hook looking for an opening as the scythe deflected, before pulling the man away from a swing of the girl's blade. Both fighters had focused smiles, but their eyes were different; the green pair was narrowed in concentration, while the silver was wide with enthusiasm. The fire on the edge of Ruby's cloak had gone out, a few embers still clinging to life, but the fire in her expression was bold and everpresent. Clover's clothes were a bit askew by the various tumbles that he'd taken, but his own face was still as professional as ever.

Then Ruby jammed her blade into the ground and pulled the trigger.

"...Huh." Clover blinked as his aura hit red. "That was kind of anticlimactic."

"Yeah, well, I just wanted to see how you all would do." Ruby folded up Crescent Rose. "If I were actually invested in this I might give a speech, but this was all just for fun."

Clover rose an eyebrow. "Just for fun."

"Yep!"

"You took on the Atlas Ace Operatives and somehow managed to pick us off one by one with our own weapons... just for fun."

"Yep!" Ruby replied with an innocent smile.

"I'm going to be honest, I'm still not sure how you did it."

Ruby examined her nails idly. "We can go over the recording later, if you like. I can explain why I did what I did."

"I would appreciate it." Clover cleared his throat. "Well, now I've got a team of probably very confused and annoyed operatives to tend to. If you'll excuse me..."

"Get them some cookies from me!" Ruby shouted after him.

[-]

171.14 Innortal, ThanatosTiger, WookyWok, Masterweaver.

[-]

A Most Grievous Decision

"You have a choice, Ruby," the villain said. "One shall die: your sister... or your weapon!"

Ruby Rose stared up at the solid steel cage and red scythe dangling over the molten metal, biting her lip. "..."

"...Seriously!?" yelled Yang.

"Crescent Rose can be fixed," Ruby murmured, "but she doesn't have aura. And Crescent Rose has never stolen my cookies or teased me... But Crescent Rose never took on fantastic adventures in a red wagon..." She looked up at the villain plaintively. "Can I have like 10 more minutes? Maybe, like an hour?

Yang pinched her brow. "Forget it." She unfolded her own weapons and proceeded to blast her way out herself.

"Foul Villain!" Ruby cried triumphantly. "You've fallen into my deception!"

Yang rolled her eyes as she tossed the shredded remains of her cage into the molten slag below. "Uhhhhh-huh. Sure." She turned and punched the villain into a wall, before glaring at Ruby. "I can't believe you had to think about it!"

"You could have easily won if you pled your case and bribed me with chewy chocolate chip cookies," Ruby pointed out, catching Crescent Rose before the metal could touch the heat below.

"I'm your sister!"

"So you have no excuse for not knowing better!"

Yang stared at her for a moment, before crossing her arms with a stern glare. "...No cookies for you!"

Ruby stuck out her tongue. "Now you know why I was siding with Crescent Rose."

[-]

171.15 diesel, FriTik

[-]

Through the Amber Eyes; Into a Distorted Mind (Part 3)

Weiss hummed. "Just to clarify, do you think that each reset means the previous one means nothing and what you do doesn't matter if you don't hurt other loopers permanently?"

"No," Cinder said flatly.

"Can you explain why?"

"Yes."

Cinder smirked and Weiss rolled her eyes. "I walked into that. Then answer my question."

"No please?"

"I don't think you deserve it."

"A loop ends, and it's cached and filed in Yggdrasil to either be deleted, restored, or reused as the Admins need," Cinder said, her smile from teasing Weiss fading. "Gone, maybe to never have existed once the Ever-distant Spring comes to Yggdrasil and the loops end. By the rotting eternities, we know from Marianne that loops are generated randomly, they exist for that short time and then they are gone purpose fulfilled, the Tree lives one loop longer. It doesn't matter to us, all those people dead and gone, it's all undone, every iteration is disposable and our actions meaningless on the grand scale. All that matters are that the loops continue so Existence can."

Cinder sipped her coffee, "But at the small scale, it's not, what we do matters. Looper and non. They are embers, fleeting things that are barely there, but in that moment, they love, hate, fight play, create and destroy, make stories and give the world depth. And what's the point in a silent eternity and dead universe, empty of everything that can observe it. It's useless. Meaningless. If I kill someone, their story ends and it impacts other peoples, creating a web of change and starting new chapters in other lives. And it doesn't matter as nothing does. But it still has an effect beyond that loop, as I chose to do that and I remember that choice, it reinforces behaviours, settles into patterns of thoughts and world views. And other loopers remember as well and it affects them, just like if I was to open a soup kitchen and end faunas discrimination. In the end, we remember and that continues. Every action matters; go too far in one direction, put too much stress on a relationship and the feelings will rot and if I do that, I'll be alone once more."

Cinder shook her head as she finished the monologue. "I understand what I do and the consequences, I just can't care like you, Ruby, and everyone else. The average person means nothing to me, I just don't care."

"That was almost word perfect to what Yang said last time I asked that, with a different conclusion though," Weiss noted. "And the same view you gave the last several times. And I can tell you're being truthful."

"I did ask to be here," Cinder pointed out.

"And I needed to confirm things before we went further." Weiss countered putting her cup down, "Back to the previous point, no one expects you to change even if we would like you to. No different than we don't expect Ozpin to stop scheming no matter how infuriating It can be. Your actions are more divisive but it's something we accept and deal with without too many serious issues."

Cinder swirled her coffee, "You're encouraging people to engage in doublethink," she said narrowing her eyes at Weiss who had started on a piece of gingerbread.

"We all do that," Weiss said, summoning a whiteboard from the corner and starting to draw a blank roadmap. "It's the basis for most of our relationships in the loops, looping and non. We talk about treating non-loopers with the same respect as looper while also treating them as passing refection and are always happy when one of us Wakes up. Knowing that that means the person unawake can very easily be considered dead but not thinking about it. Or just shrugging it off when the loop ends and a universe has just ended. If it wasn't for the way we segregate loops and interactions between people in different situations, the entire family tree would implode. As a relevant example I would never want to interact with Neo, Roman, Raven, or you if it wasn't for the loops and the way we layer our perceptions and feelings across them. But despite that I still do like you all."

"I know that." Cinder looked at the roadmap that Weiss had drawn up, knowing she would be expected to fill it out. What she wanted, how she thought she needed to get there, interim goals and long-term ones. It was a common way of sorting things out. "But not what I want."

"Then that's what we need to focus on," Weiss said, writing Companionship, Competition, Control, and Choice in one corner. "Would you say these are the things you need most to be content and happy, or is there something else that need to be changed?" These were the concepts Cinder consistently put as the most important, even if the words used changed, and they had been defined long ago.

Cinder studied the board and kept studying it.

Weiss quirked an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong?"

"You're missing a concept, but I can't think of a word that sum it up that starts with C," Cinder admitted.

"I didn't write them all with C on purpose," Weiss said amused. "What concept is that?"

"Not harming those I care about."

"We can include that under companionship," she decided. "It's not perfect, as you don't care about everyone you interact with when lonely, but you can hold those divisions in your mind."

Cinder nodded. "Now what I consider most important," she said, resigned. She had always hated this part.

"If you can."

It was a long time before Cinder answered the question, the food having pushed to the side as they played duel monsters on the table. It took a long time for a looper to go through everything, all the memories and links and emotions, to sort them out and playing a game like this was a good way for Cinder to relax and enjoy herself in a way that didn't take too much thought.

But finally, Cinder put down her hand and walked over to the whiteboard and wrote a 1 next to companionship, and 2 next to the rest.

Weiss nodded. "You've never been able to place one above the others before."

Cinder sat down and pushed her cards to the side. "Everything is linked, and I can't separate them." She picked up a bottle of a black blood blend and poured herself a few fingers into a shot glass of everlasting ice retrieved from the aged wood and ice display cabinet by the wall. "And I don't want to. I hate being lonely more than anything, being alone. But spending too long as any one thing makes me agitated and I can't…" She trailed off.

[-]

171.16 Masterweaver

[-]

Time to be Huntresses: Tuxedos and Nyans!

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey there kittycat!"

"Hey yourself, walking stereotype."

"Ouch!" Neon Katt clutched her chest with a wounded expression, though the twitch of her lips suggested she wasn't quite as hurt as she pretended to be. "Tell me how you really feel, Blakey-poo!"

Blake rolled her eyes. "I'm amused but impressed with how far you're willing to go to paint yourself as one giant 'screw you' to the latent passive racism in Atlesian society."

"...okay, you're going to have to run that one by me."

"You could have just let your cat tail be the only thing openly 'faunus' about you, but you've doubled down ridiculously hard into the catgirl image. Hair in buns, paw hoodie, bell on a collar-and you throw on the ludicrous rave outfit as well, making sure everybody notices you, and then you decide to troll everyone with your banter. Most so-called forward-thinking Atlesians think faunus can be as good as humans, or rather that faunus can be good in spite of being faunus, but you're throwing what they think of as your cultural identity in their face whilst being a huntress-in-training good enough to go to the doubles in Vytal. And on top of that, you deliberately go against the orderly grain of typical Atlas tactics, which indicates that you aren't being mentored by some 'wise old atlesian.' Basically your very existence is a flagrant disabuse of the notion that conforming to a standard set by humans is necessary for faunus to be worth respecting."

"Or I could just like colorful clothes and teasing people," Neon pointed out.

"You say that, and yet you stick around here."

"Touche." The girl skated alongside Blake for a moment or two. "Hey, so, since you brought it up though... what's your thinking on the whole faunus thing?"

"Well, I used to be with the White Fang-I never killed anybody!" she reassured Neon rapidly. "Well... okay, I never killed anybody while I was with the White Fang," she corrected herself. "But after me and my dad convinced everyone in Menagerie to go up to Mistral and dissolve the group, one guy decided to chase me down and try to kill me and he just wouldn't be talked down, so... I had to kill him. He claimed it was because I ruined everything, but honestly I think it was just because we used to date and he could never understand that I wasn't a posession. He was... pret-ty much a delusional psychopath, really. Like you joke about yanderes, but this man was ACTUALLY yandere. Cut off Yang's arm during the fall of Beacon. Also pretty much was the driving reason the White Fang went as bad as it did..."

She took in Neon's baffled expression.

"...My dad's Ghira Belladonna," she explained.

"Oh, the chieftan of Menagerie?" Neon nodded. "So you're basically the princess!"

"Not-it doesn't work like that. I mean, sure, I've got an education in societal..."

Neon gave her a knowing smirk.

Blake sighed. "Yes, fine, I'm the princess of Menagerie, and I've traveled the globe and seen how faunus are treated, so I have... very complicated opinions on the 'whole faunus thing.'"

"Yeah, I guess you would."

"For one thing, it's different depending on where you go. People from Vacuo, it doesn't even register for the most part. Human or faunus, vacuons are vacuons. Which..." Blake waggled a hand. "Nice in theory, but it does mean that Sun Wukong wasn't really sensitive to what other faunus went through."

"Right, right, and here in Atlas it's..." Neon glanced around, lowering her voice. "It's like they're trying to erase the idea of faunus as a culture. Like, people would be a lot more comfortable if I just acted Atlesian and happened to have a tail then if I pulled traits from the time of the great war. I mean, sure you'll get the ultra-racist 'stupid faunus like you' comments but a lot of the time you just get the sense that being a faunus isn't... fashionable."

"Vale's got the whole 'if it was a problem they'd bring it up' issue, where most people agree it's wrong but nobody really knows how to solve the systemic problems. Nobody wants to step on anybody's toes. And Mistral-" Blake chuckled wryly. "Mistral's got a lot of history with faunus, but after my Dad brought a literal army to stop the White Fang from blowing up the communications tower there, a lot of the 'anti-faunus sentiment' became 'anti-White Fang sentiment' and Dad's using that to implement as much change as he can."

"...Hey, what's it like in Menagerie, though?" Neon rubbed her arms. "I mean, you know, I've never been there-obviously-but you hear rumors. Probably racist ones. Like, I heard faunus there are more... feral? In touch with their-uh, your animal side?"

Blake considered for a moment. "...Sort of. Not what you probably think, mind you, but... well, in the rest of the world, there's a sort of social pressure to conform-even in Vacuo, where people don't mind faunus, traits are more treated like 'you have a nifty skill' then 'it's a part of you.' Like me using my ears to hear things, sure, that'd get a pass, but..." She frowned, trying to put it into words. "There's... a nocturnal distract, in Kuo Kuana. And a marketplace in the shallows, where aquatic faunus can literally stand in the water to sell wares. My family-we're almost all feline aspects, and we do, uh, you know, headbump. Like cats do. That would be weird anywhere else, but... we don't need to conform to human standards, entirely. We don't abandon them-there's not growling or hissing or whatever, people will usually still live in houses, it's just..."

She gestured at Neon. "Like your tail, right? You move it sometimes to express certain emotions, and you don't do it consciously it just feels right? But when you were growing up, there was probably something like 'oh no, what will everyone think' and you tried to keep it under control. But there's not that in Menagerie. It's that thing, allowed to grow a little. We're more willing to express ourselves-which, yeah, does mean you get motions that aren't associated with human gestures, but it's not that we're more animal, just more... open. I think, anyway."

"...Yeeeeeeeeah I don't know if I got all that," Neon admitted. "I mean I sort of do? But you know, I'm not really a deep thinker. I just want everyone to have the most fun they can. And for me, that means dressing up in neon clothes and messing with people's heads."

"A worthy cause," Blake conceded with a grin.

"So, hey, any hint on how I could get my huntress license early?"

Blake chuckled. "Trust me on this, you don't want to know the price. Also it's technically classified."

[-]

171.17 Masterweaver

[-]

Of Names And Defiance

Jacques Schnee was sitting at his desk, looking over some files on his computer, when a strange sound reached his ears. It sounded like the faintest snapping of twigs, over and over and over, backed by a strangely quiet howl. He looked around curiously, eyes traveling the shelves and the ceiling, till at last they fell on the heavy wooden door to his office-one with ice crawling out of it, encasing it, even as he watched. Before he had a chance to even stand, the whole thing became frozen-and then shattered, frosty splinters lining the carpet as a girl strode in. A figure he found quite familiar, though in garb he had never afforded her.

"Twenty-odd years ago, you claimed the daughter, the estate, and the legacy of Schnee. With this claim you promised to safeguard your new acquisitions, ensure the continued growth and rise thereof, and to become worthy of the very name you took as your own. Yet in the years intervening, you have destroyed the legacy through mechanisation and exploitation. You have squandered the estate so that its myriad halls remain empty of any emotion that is not cold. And you have abused the daughter-and not stopped there, taking her children, your own blood, to task for failing to comply to your command at every turn. And now, a reckoning has come."

Jacques rose to his full height, glowering down at the girl. "Weiss Schnee, I don't know what the hell you think gives you the right to break down my door and-"

"I am taking the rights you have so thoroughly desecrated," the girl said coolly. "I hereby claim the name of Schnee, and all that it is attached to-both its triumphs and its failures. And of those many, many failures, I see fit to strip only one of my name-that being the one standing before me."

"This childish display is nonsensical."

"You will be allowed to retain your money," Weiss said. "Lein is not printed with the Schnee's name upon it. And your clothes-those that bear not the emblem, you may hold to that as well. Food, hygiene products, many of the books on these shelves, they may follow your exile from this mansion. But you cannot stay here, for it is a Schnee residence. You cannot go to meetings of the Schnee Dust Company board, and in fact you will not be allowed to be employed by the company at all. And as to me, my mother, and my siblings? If I discover you within half a mile of them, I will force you back."

"If you think you can defy me so flagrantly without any consequences-"

Weiss held up her debit card. A flash of ice, and she shattered it.

"...Perhaps you are not thinking clearly," Jacques offered. "There would be others affected by this choice. I'm not sure your poor mother-"

Weiss held up a bottle of vodka in the palm of her hand. A flash of ice, and she shattered it. Her eyes did not break contact with Jacques for a moment.

"You really think you can just march in here and undo everything I've accomplished?"

"It will take time," Weiss admitted.

"...I will not stand for this," Jacques declared. "I don't care how much ice Dust you have, there is no way you could possibly-"

"I see you are still operating under the assumption you understand what you are dealing with," Weiss said, her tone so cold that frost began to coat the very walls. "And perhaps you understand my personality. But you have severely underestimated my ability. This meeting is a formality, Jacques Gele, nothing more. If you are not ready to leave by the time the bell tolls midnight, I will deal with you more... directly." She turned away from the man-

"Weiss Schnee, if you step out of that door I will call the authorities."

-and didn't even break stride.

[-]

"Welp," said Ruby.

"Yep."

"So..." She leaned back and looked up. "How long are we going to leave him up there?"

"Oh, he had the cops chasing me for, what, twelve hours?" Weiss shrugged. "I think he can survive, mmmm, four."

"He doesn't have active aura," Ruby pointed out. "The cold of Solitas-"

"I know, I know, I'll have droids blast him with hot air every thirty minutes."

"Right. And James is okay with you hanging him on top of his academy?"

Weiss was strangely quiet.

"...you haven't told him."

"He's not Awake, and he's under a lot of stress anyway-"

Ruby sighed in exasperation. "Fine, fine, I'll go talk to him. You handle the Schnee situation."

"Thank you."

"...Hey Weiss?"

"Hmm?"

Ruby smiled gently. "You've come a long way."

Weiss returned the smile. "Thank you."

[-]

171.18 RandomRex6

[-]

Penny Has Her Thoughts

"I'm so glad you're awake this time, Penny!" Ruby remarked cheerfully, with a bright spot finally appearing in the endless supply runs Yggdrasil had forced upon her.

"Agreed," the red-headed robot replied.

"I can't remember the last expansion that was this long," Ruby commented. "We have so many opportunities now, it's just... this is the best luck I've had in a while."

"Should we give Clover a thank-you present?"

"Still feeling that out, but I'll think about it," the young anchor considered.

Penny laughed, but then quickly grew solemn.

Ruby looked to her girlfriend with concern. "What's wrong?"

Penny sighed before attempting to explain, "You have gone through these events without me. And will continue to do so several times."

Ruby's mood dropped a bit at the reminder. "I mean, yeah. Just... part of being the anchor. But it's not a... major problem for me. Not as much as it used to be anyway."

"It is like..." Penny searched for a proper comparison, "a doctor's appointment. Something you don't look forward to or enjoy, but recognize as necessary and accept."

"Kinda," Ruby agreed. "Why?"

"I..." Penny hedged before continuing, "there was a loop where we had a Stealth Anchor, recently. And I went through this expansion without you as well."

"Penny, I'm sorry..."

"Don't be," the puppeteer interrupted. "There is... more I should mention."

Ruby grew more concerned, as she braced herself for whatever would be next. "Yeah...?"

Penny grew more solemn as she explained. "I had a loop where I woke up during, to use Hub terms, Volume 4. At the time, I had just been rebuilt, and no one else was awake."

"What did you do?"

"Went about my business, mostly," Penny remarked, "Atlas at that time is still highly loop-variable. But then, a few months went by, and I received a Ping."

"Who was it?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know," Penny confessed. "I chose not to respond."

Ruby became befuddled. "But... why wouldn't you... you stealthed?"

"It was merely an impulse at the time," Penny explained, "I had never lived through that time in Atlas before, and I was curious what would happen. I didn't think much of it at the time."

"I get it... kind of..." Ruby began, "We all need some 'me time' now and then."

"That is what I thought, too, until I was put in that situation again."

"Again?" Ruby exclaimed.

"The situation was similar enough, and I chose to repeat that course of action," Penny revealed. "I have now lived through Volumes 4-6 alone in Atlas a total of 53 non-consecutive times."

"Wh-why... why would you do that to yourself?" Ruby asked, stunned.

Penny reached out her hand to grasp Ruby's. Taking it, firmly, yet tenderly, into her grip, she answered, "Because it is the closest I will ever get to knowing what you go through."

"You don't have to do that."

"But you do," Penny reminded her, "and while I will never truly know what that is like, I wanted to gain some perspective on the concept. And if you break again, I will be more prepared to cheer you up after."

Ruby smiled a bit, "You do that just by being you."

"Oh, Ruby." Penny's words gave way to revealing she was using a body that was capable of blushing.

"Next time, though, if you're the only one awake, maybe go cheer up Weiss," Ruby suggested.

"Which I could then leverage into joining her escape from the manor..." Penny continued.

Ruby's smile grew wider, "And joining us at Haven. And if I've woken up by then..."

"It will leave time open for Mistral dates!" Penny finished. "That sounds sen-sational!"

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

[-]

171.19 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: At least the tundra's scenic!

"...Penny, can I ask you a personal question?"

"I suppose?"

Ruby jerked a thumb at the truck driver next to her. "What do you think of this guy?"

"...That is an Atlesian Knight," Penny replied.

"Yeah, but-okay," Ruby gathered her thoughts, "so I have a corgi-very intelligent, unlocked aura, actually can fight Grimm with us, but you know. Corgi. And there are huntsmen and huntresses that ride horses. You know. Right?"

"Right..."

"So, I'm kind of curious how you-as a synthetic individual-view your relationship to Atlas Knights and, really, all the automatons Atlas makes. Are they horses, or dogs, or are different models different... companion types...?"

Penny considered the knight with new eyes. "...Well... they aren't as responsive as trained animals. There's no real personality to the Atlas Knights-outside the display mode, and that's preprogrammed. They'll react, but they're pretty... faceless. Oh, but the patrol drones do remind me of rabbits!"

"They do," said Ruby, clutching at her seat but keeping the fear out of her face.

"Well, not actual rabbits. But they are curious. And adorable."

"I think that would be more of a cat thing," Ruby mused, relaxing her grip. "But I guess they could make interesting pets."

"Maybe I should try to take one as a pet."

"Maybe you should."

Penny giggled. "I don't think General Ironwood would approve."

"Does he have to know?" Ruby asked slyly.

"...he would have access to the requisition records," Penny pointed out.

"Hmmm. He would, wouldn't he."

The two of them rode in companionable silence. Ruby let out a small sigh of contentment, leaning toward Penny for a moment.

"Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say how excited I am to be working with you in a professional capacity," Penny announced. "As friends!"

"Heh, me too, Penny."

"Relationships are so interesting and varied!"

"Oh, wow, we're doing this now?"

Penny blinked. "Doing what now?"

"Sorry, sorry." Ruby shook her head with a grin. "You just have no idea how adorable it is hearing that from you."

"Oh." Penny tilted her head. "Adorable? How so?"

"Heh, well. I don't know how to explain it, exactly. It's just super cute. But then," Ruby admitted, "I kind of think of a lot of things about you as 'super cute,' so..."

"You do?"

"Yep."

"I see."

"So..." Ruby glanced over at Penny, not for the first time cursing the fact she wasn't Awake. "How're things with you? Have you made any new friends since the Vytal festival?"

Penny's face fell into a more formal expression. "Now that I'm the official protector of Mantle, I don't really have a team anymore. General Ironwood says I don't have time for friends."

Ruby flinched. "Oh." She glanced over her shoulder, toward the back of the truck where Clover was playing cards with her uncle. "So... how do you feel about that?"

"I feel like I wish I could do both the things I need to do and the things I want to do." Penny sunk into her seat a bit, giving Ruby a wary look. "Is that normal?"

Ruby gave her a reassuring smile. "That's about as normal as it gets, Penny."

"Everything going alright up there?" Qrow shouted

"Well I haven't seduced Penny yet, but other than that we're good!"

Penny blinked, startled. "Seduced me?"

"Oh yeeeeeeeah," Ruby drawled, "me and Clover arranged this to be a double date."

"Ah. Well. I, well, I was not prepared for-"

"Penny." Ruby put a gentle hand on the gynoid's knee. "I'm joking. I wouldn't ask you out on a date without letting you know it was a date from the beginning."

"Oh." Penny nodded. "I... do not understand the humor."

"Mostly it's me trying to poke fun at my uncle," Ruby admitted. "He used to try to fluster us with stories of his saucier adventures, so now I'm throwing it back at him with the whole 'oh no, your innocent niece is actually developing a saucy sense of humor' thing."

"Oh," said Penny.

"Helps that you're cute," Ruby admitted. "And that... I may actually be considering possibly asking you on a real date? At some point? I mean if you're not comfortable with that-"

"I am not experienced with... that level of relationship."

"It's okay! It's okay. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

Penny stared at her for a moment, before shaking her head. "Ruby, I... feel I need time to process this."

"Of course. I did, uh, kind of drop that on you without warning... Oh, hey, penguins!"

"Hmm?" Penny looked out the window. "Oh yes! They are native to the tundra, after all."

"...But we're at the north pole," Ruby pointed out.

"Yes." Penny gave her an odd look. "Penguins are found at the north pole, everyone knows that."

"Right... Remnant..."

"What?"

"So, seriously though! About Clover. I kinda think he's flirting with my uncle?"

Penny glanced back. "I am very inexperienced with that level of relationship."

"I mean, if the two of them wind up together and they're happy, sure, I'll be happy for them, but at the same time..." Ruby shook her head. "It's kind of abrupt, you know? I mean, I've been used to the idea of Qrow as this wandering womanizer, not really striking up any serious relationship, and then suddenly this guy comes in? And I honestly don't know that much about Clover-you know, outside him being military. What's his family like? Does he like cookies? Is he the right person for Qrow?" Ruby spread her hands. "It's just-you know, uncle Qrow's going through a lot, he's finally starting to kick his alcohol habit-and I'm proud of him, don't get me wrong, but it's still a bit of a struggle for him, and I'm not sure he's in the right mindset to start a relationship, but at the same time having someone to support you that isn't just your family-cause your family will support you through anything-but having an outside person say 'hey you're doing great, you're worth it,' that could be good for him, so I want to support this relationship but I'm worried it's going to wind up hurting him and I don't know how to balance those two concerns and oh look a blockade."

Penny blinked, looking out the front window. "Ah. So there is. Mister Branwen? Operative Ebi?"

The two men walked up to the front of the truck. "What is it?" Qrow asked. "Grimm?"

"No," Clover stated, narrowing his eyes. "Worse."

"Nobody likes politics," Ruby agreed.

"Heh. You two with me, Penny, stay put and keep an eye on our six. We may need an element of surprise."

"Affirmative," Penny agreed with a nod. "I will plan for six possible outcomes."

Ruby grinned as the truck slowed to a stop. "You are so adorable."

"A-heh..."

It wasn't that hard for Ruby to swing across Penny's lap and out the door, giving Qrow and Clover a look as her feet hit the snow. Both seemed very serious, though Clover quickly put on a mask of cordiality. She rolled her eyes as he stepped forward, spreading his arms.

"Robyn! Well, if it isn't Mantle's home town hero." Clover's smile grew more stern. "Is there a reason you're blocking an official military transport?"

"Clover." The tall woman put a hand on her hip, smirking. "I'm so glad you're here. Maybe you can help me understand why this truck that's supposed to be taking construction materials to fix Mantle's outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere? Are you lost?"

"I think I like her," Ruby murmured to Qrow.

"It's pretty easy to get turned around out here in the tundra, everything looks the same." Clover turned away. "Thanks for checking up on us though. We'll be on our way now."

"I was hoping you'd play it straight with me. What's Ironwood doing with Amity at the old SDC mine?"

"Oh, that." Clover turned back around, all smiles. "Just giving her an annual checkup."

Ruby sighed, pinching her brow. "Really, Clover?"

"The next Vytal Festival isn't anytime soon. Only automated drones and a few select Atlas scientists are allowed out here. And Amity's getting invaluable resources we need in Mantle to protect against Grimm." Robyn narrowed her eyes. "Seems like more than just a check-up."

Clover's smile faded. "You've been scoping it out."

"We can't fix the wall without the supplies on these trucks. I think Mantle deserves to know what they're being used for." Robyn stepped forward, holding out her hand. "It doesn't have to be difficult. Just tell me."

There was a moment of silent tension. Ruby tilted her head as she looked at Clover-

"I'm going to have to pass on that."

-and threw it back with an exasperated groan.

Robyn quirked an eyebrow as everyone present turned to look at the young huntress. "Something you want to say, pipsqueak?"

"Clover, just to clarify: My huntress license is a standard one?"

Clover frowned. "Yes..."

"So technically I'm an independent contractor?"

"Technically. However, the contract does set down regulations on discussing the mission."

"Fair, fair. But, as an independent contractor, I can request to consult my employer, which in this case is you, if I feel the need to."

Clover glanced at Robyn for a moment, before jerking a thumb toward the back of the truck. The pair of them stepped behind Qrow, letting him keep an eye on Robyn and her companion.

"Ruby, I know you're used to telling people about important things, but operational security-"

"This isn't about operational security," Ruby interjected quickly. "It's... look, the White Fang started out as a missionary protest group. They only turned to violence when they got desperate, and kept at violence once they were convinced it was the only thing that would work. Desperate people do desperate things, but if somebody gives them something, if there's somebody that at least appears willing to help, then they... it's called relief for a reason, right? It makes them less desperate."

"Ruby-"

"I'm saying that right now, you have a chance to prevent the next fall of Beacon. Right now, at this moment, you can give Robyn Hill, the leader of Mantle, something. Maybe not Dust, maybe not the actual truth, but something. 'I'm sorry, I can't talk about that.' 'I'll pass your concerns to Ironwood directly.' Anything at all would be better than just stonewalling her."

"I can't violate operational security. Besides, people like Robyn Hill are exactly who Salem uses."

"No," Ruby said flatly. "Salem uses people who have nowhere else to turn. I don't know much about Robyn Hill, but I know she offered her hand, that she was willing to talk things out. I'm pretty sure people like Robyn Hill are the kind of people that Salem fears."

"...We'll have to agree to disagree on that."

"So you're not going to give her anything?"

"There's nothing I can give her."

"Fine. I'll talk to her-with your observing so I don't violate your precious 'operational security,'" Ruby assured him quickly. "I won't reveal anything classified."

"Ruby-"

"You can file your report with Ironwood about my 'insubordination' when we get back. I mean technically, I'm an independent contractor so it's not insubordination, but you know."

Clover rubbed his temples. "I'm not going to be able to talk you out of this, am I?"

"Nope!"

With a sigh, Clover gestured toward the front of the truck.

Ruby marched past her uncle, smiling broadly. "Sorry about that. Clover's still salty that I managed to trounce him and his team."

Robyn crossed her arms. "Really. You took on the Ace Ops and won."

"I have a video," Ruby said, holding out her scroll. "I can send it over to you."

Clover frowned. "Ruby-"

"What?" She smiled at him innocently. "It's not classified material, is it?"

"...I suppose not..."

Robyn pulled out a scroll of her own. "Okay, this I've got to see."

"Right, here's the file." Ruby tapped the screen of her scroll. "For the record, I had assumed these supplies were skimmed from the wealth of Atlas-I mean it's rich enough already, you know, and I'm pretty sure most of the mansions don't need constant updates. I'm definitely going to be reviewing my contracts more thoroughly in the future. Maybe even talk to James to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"Ruby-"

"You know the general?" Robyn asked over Clover's warning.

"Oh, we go waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back," Ruby said casually. "You know, he actually commissioned a new arm for my sister after she lost hers. Honestly, I think he has a good heart, he does genuinely want to help everyone, it's just... after the Fall of Beacon, he hasn't really let himself rest and he's kinda, sorta, not quite recognizing a number of minor but crucial details. You know?"

"Maybe it would help if he came down from that office of his more often."

"Maybe!" Ruby agreed. "But, hey, look. I'm kinda obligated to ask you to step aside, since I was technically hired to make sure these supplies reached their destination, but that's just business, you know? You seem nice. And that is a really cool weapon you've got there-I have a thing for weapons. Maybe we can meet up later and talk shop?"

"Maybe." Robyn smiled. "Maybe we can talk now, while I ride with you."

"That won't be possible," Clover said firmly.

"Yeah, space is tight in the truck," Ruby agreed sadly.

Robyn glanced between the two of them carefully. "...well. I hope you don't get too cold on the trip."

"And I hope you two keep each other warm." She cleared her throat. "I'm so sorry, I never got your name miss, ah..."

"...Fiona Thyme," said the other woman, her sheep ears twitching.

"Fiona. Hey, uh, I don't know how insensitive this question is, but my sister is married to a faunus with cat ears on top of her head. Your ears are on the side, do you only-"

"I only have two ears, yeah."

"So you don't get the reverb with heavy metal."

Fiona shrugged. "I don't listen to heavy metal anyway."

"Fair enough."

"Are we done here?" Clover asked flatly.

Robyn nodded. "For the moment." She gave Ruby a considering look, before turning toward the barricade and sliding it open.

"Good luck with the election!" Ruby said as she swung into the truck. "I'll be rooting for you!"

The vehicle rolled forward, passing through the gate of corrugated metal. The cabin was silent for a few minutes.

Then Clover put a hand down on the back of the seat. "Ruby Rose. What was that."

"I told you, if somebody looks willing to help the desperate, they become less desperate."

"You were skirting the line-"

"Did I reveal any classified information?"

"...no."

"Did I violate the contract in any manner?"

"No."

"Are you just upset because I undermined your authority?"

"...No," Clover said, his tone professional.

Ruby smiled up at him. "So, please, tell me what I did wrong."

"...I would have handled the situation differently."

"True," Ruby agreed. "But I got us through the barricade without anybody getting violent."

"This is going to have consequences."

"We can discuss that when we get back to Atlas."

"Hey." Qrow put a hand on Clover's shoulder. "Lay off her. We're on the same side, aren't we?"

Clover glanced at him, then at Ruby, before sighing and returning to the back of the truck.

"...Kid, I don't know if what you did was the right thing." Qrow pat Ruby's shoulder. "But I don't think it was the wrong thing."

"...Thanks, Uncle Qrow."

[-]

171.20 ThanatosTiger

[-]

Snake Wrasslin

[Pokémon/RWBY]

"So, how do you guys feel whenever she does that?" "Yang asked as Jessie and Seviper fought.

"We normally just feel grateful it didn't happen to us." James said

"Dat's basically it."

"It doesn't bug you at all?"

"Jessie seems to be handling Serviper well, we'd probably get in the way."

"Best to wait on her signal, her Fury Swipes are almost as good as mine."

"She seems to be doing some brutal damage."

"Listen Twoip, I could give ya several excuses. She ain't doing much more damage than most Pokémon, that Seviper gave her as good as she got, that Jessie had dat Seviper attack her in a Contest. But it wouldn't change the fact that Seviper would Poison Tail you his or herself if you backtalked Jessie. Jessie and Seviper care about each other, and do anything for the other. And if Jessie ever even thought of crossing the line, me and James would not let that slide."

"We're terrified of Jessie, but even us crooks wouldn't abuse our partners. None of us would."

"I mean look at how sloppy she's fighting!" Yang paused, a critical gleam in her eyes. "Jessie isn't terrible, like I said, good damage, but even if I lost that much hair, I wouldn't just flail around like that. I'd be in more control of the battle for sure.

"Jess ain't a brawler, never really fought professionally."

"Team Rocket never taught us self defense, we normally wouldn't be fighting the Pokémon Mano a Mano."

"Seems like I'll be teaching her myself. You can join in if you want."

"And lose another of my 9 lives? Fat chance Twoip, I'm not fighting no broad that can burst into flame and punch me to Unova and back."

"That's fair. Don't forget to catch it Jessie!"

"Right, of course!" Jessie paused, "And who exactly are you again?"

"Your new personal trainer!"

[-]

171.21 diesel, FriTik

[-]

Through the Amber Eyes; Into a Distorted Mind (Part 4)

"I sometimes wonder if your Ascension permanently altered your soul." Weiss sat next to her pouring a glass of the blood herself, drawing on the old and rarely used vampire imprint she had. Drinking the blood in her normal form would be insanity. And sharing a meal or drink was a powerful social interaction especially in a way the other person rarely got to share. "The way you alternate between dark and light, Red and Green, is similar to how you acted before but more moderated. Not having the ability to choose either way causes you extreme stress and emotional turmoil and it's one thing you have never been able to resolve or mitigate."

"All loopers have different personas they switch between," Cinder said staring at the glass Weiss had poured. "Are you actually going to drink that?"

Weiss smiled, her subtly too sharp teeth glinting in the candlelight. "You're not the only one with a vampire template in your soul. And yes, all loopers have personas but that's not what I'm talking about."

Cinder was silent for a moment. "Do you think it really altered my Soul?"

"I don't know. It's a hypothesis I toss around occasionally given how you act and my inability to really accept that an Aborted Ascension wouldn't have some consequence on your mind and soul." She held the glass to the light studying the liquid for a moment, how the light played across the dark liquid. "And if it did, it doesn't matter as you don't want to change the core of who you are any more than I want to change my core." She raised the glass to her lips to take a sip. "You know who you are and wish to be, Cinder, and you have for years. And have known the consequences of what you do for far longer."

The madness tainted liquid burned as it poured down her throat, spicy with corruption from temporary vampire nature and with that indescribable sensation of damned souls she was familiar with from her Weapon physiology, it was rather pleasant, Weiss noted with some surprise.

"But right now, you're taking responsibly for the choices other people have made and doubting yourself because you had assumed something that had never been stated." Weiss took a breath as Cinder stared at the glass Weiss was drinking from in astonishment. "Your games and your fun," she put a sarcastic lilt on the word, "are different, and you're mixing them up if you even defined them separately in your mind. Some of us were aware of this, Ruby even told Penny that she knew you were doing what you did because you wanted to help, however twisted it was, when they were getting back together."

"…You do realize that had souls blended into it right?"

"Part of the appeal, I am a Demon Weapon after all, as much as you are a vampire," Weiss said taking another small sip.

"Would you like a bottle?" Cinder pulled another bottle from her Pocket and offered it to Weiss who accepted it and turned it over in her hands to examine it. "I still have seven in storage."

After contemplating the bottle for several seconds Weiss shook her head and handed it back. "Sorry, I can't drink Black Blood without turning into a vampire and I dislike this form. I prefer freshly hunted souls anyway, it's the fight and working with Ruby that makes it most appealing."

A smirk slowly grew on Cinder's face, "I understand completely. The hunt, the thrill of chasing down the prey, the satisfaction of victory as life, emotions and memories are consumed. It's rare I get to hunt with someone else, maybe you and Ruby would join me on a hunt one day?"

Weiss raised her glass. "Only if it's a legitimate target, I can't take the innocent after all."

Cinder laughed and met the toast. "Of course, the taste of evil is more pleasant anyway."

"Back on topic, you do know what I'm talking about and what you should do, correct?"

Cinder grimaced. "Yes. I know when I try to end the world or whatever it's for me alone even if I justify it to myself that I'm making the loop more interesting, yes, I don't mind if I lose, but I've never got that mixed up. When I want to play, I make it clear in my hints that I'm not going too far and normally lower the stakes…"

"Except when you don't lower the stakes."

"Often that's me escalating for attention." Cinder shrugged. "And I am aware of how that sounds and that it's me being selfish. Other times it's because that iteration means I can set something larger up without people getting too worked up." She threw back the rest of the blood before pouring another few fingers worth. "Right now, I guess, know, I need to work out what things people enjoy and talk to everyone…"

"Everyone you care about," Weiss corrected. "You don't care about Neo and talking to her would only make you agitated."

Cinder shot Weiss an irritated look at being interrupted constantly. "And find out what things they enjoy and what they don't, maybe take requests for things, or work out… who would like to join me in the next space opera loop in building an empire. Then I can shape what I do around who's awake and minimize stress. Not everything I do is meant to be a game, but it should help." She drained the glass again and poured a larger measure of blood. "What happens if everyone wants me to stop everything?"

"Then you accept it, decide what you want to do next and move on. You started and continued to do this for yourself first and foremost, there is no obligation to stop or continue to do so unless you wish to." Weiss said. "The most important thing is the loop's stability…."

"You mean Ruby."

Weiss forged ahead refusing to rise to the bait, that it was true was beside the point, "and that's not in danger. Anything else is up to you and do you want to stop?"

Cinder gave Weiss a flat look, "No, and I don't think I could. I enjoy the thrill of the challenge too much, of seeing things crumble, taking what others have and bending it to my ends while weaving stories to deceive and confuse my opponents. And honestly?" She gave a self-deprecating smile. "Of doing something I know is wrong."

"Then the ball's in your court." Weiss arched an eyebrow. "I look forward to seeing the outcome, after, of course, you spend the next few loop planning on how to manipulate us to get what you want," she said dryly.

Cinder nodded, matching Weiss's deadpan tone. "Naturally."

"While I give the rest of my team a heads-up and set things up in our favour," Weiss finished primly.

Cinder laughed and raised her glass in a toast before downing her drink, "May the best woman win."

"I intend to." Weiss matched the salute and drained her blood, stretching as she got up and her vampire form slipped away.

Before Cinder could react a dark glyph spun into existence under the tree Cinder had messed with earlier launching the ornaments at high velocity, towards Cinder who tripped over Weiss's foot as she tried to dive out of the way, the Fire Witch retaliating with a barrage of candles.

[-]

171.22 Masterweaver

[-]

Time To Be Huntresses: In the winter mists

It was always interesting to go against Winter in a summons battle. Baseline or looping, there was just something about it... about having the same power, the same ability, if used in different manners. A connection that channeled through the duel. Weiss could analyze the motions of the spectral beowolf and easily counter them with the blade of her knight, and yet there was something even now that made it... a fun challenge.

The ghost of armor dodged misty claws, bapping the pommel of its sword into the chin of the canine monstrosity and grabbing the summon with its other hand. The beowolf was almost thrown into the air, but grasped the kight's visor on the backswing, redirecting its arc to slam a foot in its back. An armored foot slid forward before the knight fell backwards, slamming the beowolf into the ground-the impact releasing the grip on the armored visor. With a twist of its waist the knight was off its opponent, swinging low with its blade as the beowolf lept up and overshot the prone form. By the time Winter had turned her summon around Weiss's was on its feet, twirling its blade in a defensive shield against the swipes of the claws. A flick of the wrist sent the broadsword forward, impaling the ghostly beowolf just as it bit down into the knight's helm.

Weiss stood, brushing off her shoulders as the summons dissipated. "You almost had me there, for a moment."

"Your technique still has those maddening sloppy touches," Winter noted. "But you've learned how to make them work for you. You've made them your own."

Weiss shook her head with a smile. "A compliment from the cold Winter? Will wonders never cease."

"I-I didn't intend it that way."

"Oh?" She turned around, looking at her sister. "Oh, of course. My mistake. I had thought, for a moment, you were expressing actual emotions. Horror of horrors!"

Winter paused, staring at her for a moment, before shaking her head in amusement. "You've grown up a bit, haven't you? You're not the little girl clinging to the family name anymore."

Weiss considered her words carefully. "...I'm not a little girl, no. And what Jacques has done with the name... I can't agree to that."

"Jacques?"

"I do not consider him to be a Schnee," Weiss explained. "I certainly don't consider him to be my father... at least, not in any meaningful sense." She gave Winter a warm smile. "I feel the ones who actually raised me are more deserving of my appreciation."

"...that is an interesting view to take," Winter admitted. "But whatever the case... I am glad to see you've moved on. We can move forward without him, together." She put a hand on Weiss's shoulder. "I know general Ironwood would have a place for you."

Weiss's smile fell. "...I know that this place... that the military has helped you, Winter. And I am glad you are happy here, but..." She took the hand off, stepping aside. "My place is with my team. As Ruby's second. I would appreciate the offer, and if Ruby took it I would accept it, but... somehow, as Ironwood is, I don't think that will be possible.

"Really?"

"When I look at Ironwood as he is, it's hard to see the man I respected," Weiss admitted, sitting down on a nearby block. "He still does care, obviously, but he's becoming more closed off, more paranoid. And his actions echo through Atlas, our entire kingdom fearful and withdrawn... we should be opening our borders, listening to everyone, helping the world, not hunkering down."

"We will, though. Once we've weathered the storm-"

"Ironwood is preparing for one sort of storm, but I don't think it's the right kind."

Winter sighed. "I know the general hasn't done everything perfectly, but he's doing what he thinks is right."

"...dangerous," Weiss murmured. "What is right... who can decide? Even with-with what I know," she corrected herself hastily, "I still doubt sometimes. Everyone tries to do what they think is right, but it is easy to act in a manner that protects them and what they value most. To not question yourself... to be so confident in what you know..."

"Doubt can lead to hesitation."

"Or reassessment." Weiss turned to look at her sister. "You don't doubt him, do you?"

"No."

"Why?"

Winter frowned for a moment, not quite meeting her eyes. Then she visibly drew herself up. "Come with me. There's something I want to show you."

[-]

It was a short trip, all things considered, to a hospital of all places. Weiss had to quirk a brow at the nurses that walked through the halls, at the bright sterile lights. Were the rooms themselves different? Were the patients treated well, or just comforted in their final moments? And what, who, could Winter be taking her to see?

Armed soldiers guarded the doors to the stairway Winter led her down, into a hallway with many cameras. The level of security, the Atlesian knights that protected a single doorway... a suspicion began to form in her mind. And when Winter led her into a small chamber overlooking a patient's room, her suspicions were confirmed-an old woman, clinging to life, rested on a hospital bed.

Weiss turned to look at Winter, who gave her a reassuring nod before she shut the door, before looking back through the one-way window... and noticing the pods in a corner of the room. A slow breath escaped her lips as Winter walked past them, greeted the patient and opened a cabinet to prepare a tray of tea.

Her thoughts whirled as the old woman and her sister conversed in voices too muffled to hear. Connections were made, realizations, a faint sense of lingering dread began to creep up on her. She backed away from the window, pressing herself against the wall as she took a few deep, calming breaths. "Easy, Weiss. This is... another revelation. You just take it in, and you can collapse next loop. Tell everyone, next loop."

By the time Winter had stood and left, Weiss had composed herself and taken a formal stance. She didn't so much as twitch when her sister entered the chamber.

"...Convenient."

Winter blinked. "What?"

"You being named Winter, and being chosen to be the next winter maiden."

"Ah." Winter hummed in amusement. "Yes, I suppose it would be."

"And Qrow and Raven can turn into birds... do you think, perhaps, this little conspiracy of Ozpin's has a fondness for appropriate names?"

"Perhaps." Winter tilted her head. "You... seem to be handling this well."

"My sister has been chosen by the man who groomed her entire military career and who I currently believe to be in the process of a slow mental breakdown to become the next super-powered gatekeeper in a war against the witch-queen of the grimm," Weiss replied genteelly. "I have gone so far beyond panic as to approach serenity from the other side."

"I understand your concerns," Winter assured her. "I... had my own doubts when the general proposed the idea. But the more I thought about it, the more I saw it as a privilege, a chance to do some real good for Atlas. For Remnant."

"A privilege..." Weiss took a breath and let it out slowly. "A privilege. Alright... Yes, I think... I think I can accept that. I would have thought you would be uncomfortable with others choosing your destiny for you, though."

"Perhaps, but I'm choosing it now. I've made it my own. And I take great pride in it. That has nothing to do with Father, or the General." Winter smiled at her. "That belongs to me."

"I know how that is," Weiss agreed, smiling back. Her eyes turned to the old woman, as her smile faded. "But... what if you're not the last woman she thinks of?"

"I'm the only person Fria's allowed to see," Winter replied. "I don't see how-"

"Her name is Fria?"

"...Yes."

"Norse," Weiss murmured to herself.

"What?"

"...Winter, fate can change without warning. The destiny you're preparing for might not come to pass as you expect it. I just... I want you to be ready on the off chance you don't become the maiden."

Her sister looked at her oddly. "...what do you mean?"

"I..." Weiss braced herself. "I have something important to tell you-"

Winter's scroll beeped, and she pulled it out. "Huh. It would appear father-"

"Jacques."

"...that Jacques is hosting a news interview."

"If I'm elected Councilman, I've made it no secret I will be opposing General Ironwood and his senseless embargo that is crippling all of Atlas," said the man on the screen. "It is my belief that these measures are not only reckless, but criminal. With no shipments allowed to enter or leave the kingdom, I know many are suffering. And my family has been weathering the same storm as many of you."

Weiss snorted. "Oh, yes, and if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you."

"Effective immediately, I am forced to shut down all nonessential SDC operations. If elected to office, I will make the changes necessary to fix what Ironwood has broken."

"And now he's trying to start riots," Weiss grumbled.

"I hope you ask yourself before the vote, can you trust anyone else to stop Ironwood? Will Robyn Hill be able to get your jobs back?"

"Oh, he's holding their jobs hostage." She threw up her hands, stomping off a bit. "I swear... he's going to be rigging the vote, isn't he?"

"I... wouldn't put it past him," Winter admitted. "But we have no way to prove that."

"Not yet," Weiss said firmly. "But believe you me-"

[-]

"-the moment I get my hands... on..."

Weiss looked around the familiar ballroom of Beacon and sighed.

"Oh hey, Weiss-"

"Ruby." Weiss glanced around, quickly pinging and checking to see if she had her looping powers. "...We need to talk about the last expansion."

[-]

171.23 Masterweaver

[-]

She's a woman of many talents

"Oh yeah, Weiss tends to be the one to collect random powers and not tell anyone until it's relevant," Ruby explained. "Her honey badgers, turning into a flamingo, teleportation... I was kinda surprised when she turned out to have vampirism too, but yeah, by that point I was used to her pulling sudden abilities out of thin air."

Maria hummed thoughtfully. "You know, of all the loopers who would do such a thing, I would never have ascribed it to Weiss. She seems too... bold to hide such things."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But I think it ties back into her perfectionism, kinda? Like if Weiss gets a new ability, she wants to make sure she knows it in and out before she shows it off. Plus, you know, the looks on our faces when she suddenly Just So Happens to have a convenient ability-sure we ham it up a little, but I think she likes the moment of 'whoa she's so cool' that she gets every time." Ruby smirked. "Not that she'll ever admit it, of course. She's got one of those egos that tries to never admit she has an ego."

"Oh, yes, that's been clear the whole time I've known her." Maria hummed, watching Weiss hawk her wares to the astounded nonloopers around her. "Never thought she'd be into carpentry, though."

"Usually she keeps herself to therapy couches," Ruby agreed. "But those coffee tables are high-quality, I've got to admit."

[-]

171.24 RandomRex6

[-]

Hot and Cold

Emerald entered her team's guest room at Beacon, scroll in hand, still very confused. "Okay, Merc, what's wrong?"

A quick glance around the room answered that question, as Cinder was splayed out upon her bed. The occasional groan would escape her mouth, but she was otherwise nonresponsive.

The cyborg killer wasn't having it. "She's been like that for almost two hours now," he complained. "She told me to get you, and leave. Which I am more than happy to do! Whatever's up, fix it!"

Mercury's order was punctuated with him storming out of the room, and slamming the door in a huff.

Emerald brushed past this and moved to her... well, to Cinder's side. "What happened?"

"Please tell me you're awake..." Cinder barely groaned out.

"Yeah, I'm looping."

Cinder sighed and finally sat up straight. "I had a hub loop. Caught the new expansion."

"Oh," Emerald replied, cautiously. "Haven't had the chance, myself. Were you in it?"

"No, but that's a headache for another time," the fiery witch continued, "The Winter Maiden."

The illusionist needed no further explanation. "Oh..."

Cinder, however, was more than happy to rant. "Do you know what it's like to be me, knowing where the Winter Maiden is? Knowing I could kill the old bat without even trying? Knowing I could even pop over right now, take the power, and catch Oz completely unaware? But I can't! You know why?"

"Because the others would be upset," Emerald answered.

"Worse! Disappointed!" Cinder collapsed backward onto the bed. "I'm trying to be better, I really am. I know everyone's on edge, so I don't want to screw things up worse! But... but... power, Emerald! Awesome Baseline magical power! It's practically gift-wrapped!"

"I'm not really equipped for this," the green-haired girl admitted. "This is more Weiss's wheelhouse."

"Sure, I'll get right on that," Cinder snarked, before flipping face-down into a pillow. "I will, eventually, but... let me wallow a bit, first, okay?"

"Long as you need," Emerald agreed. "Want I should get takeout?"

"Please and thank you," her friend grumbled out.