Ruby at Atlas
By: FunahoMisaki
(A/N: I own nothing and read last chapter)
"By the brothers kid. You just got here and you've already finished two new paintball shooters for the bullheads?" Elm asked a little while later as she came to check on Ruby and Winter, it was close to dinner time and she wanted to snag the fun little runt before all the fun suckers got their claws into her.
"Of course! They're not too complex! I just needed a new and more efficient design and switching mechanism so that they can go from paintball to lethal in less than five seconds." Ruby said brightly as she began to finish up the second one. Just had to put one last plate into place…and done!
"I'll be able to hook these two up outside immediately and I should be able to have all four done before bedtime!" Ruby said brightly as she set aside the finished gatling gun and moved to wipe the grease and oil and all off of her hands.
"Sure they'll need maintenance but it'll mostly just be reloading the bullets, oiling the gears…simple things. If they're destroyed like I did though then they'll probably need more extensive repairs but they're rather simple so pretty much any decent mechanic can do it." Ruby said smiling happily as she dried off her hands and then turned her full attention to her guest.
"And you're still here too?" Elm asked and she knew that Winter had remained here the entire time, aside from brief bathroom breaks, but she wondered what the specialist had been doing. Surely not any of the grease monkey work that the little reaper was doing?
Actually Elm would pay and kill to see Winter working as a grease monkey.
"I've been going through some paperwork and files on my tablet while she was working and reminding her to drink something or have a small snack regularly." Winter said without missing a beat, already knowing what Elm was thinking and giving the muscle-bound woman an unamused look.
"She's also been nice enough to hand me any of the tools on the higher shelves so I don't have to climb on the workbench." Ruby said cheerfully and Winter gave her an unimpressed look.
"I left for a minute to take a high profile call and when I came back you were balancing on two empty boxes that were stacked on the table." Winter said and Elm stared at the girl for a moment in silence before she let out a small burst of laughter.
"I'll make sure that I take all the tools down and put them on the lower shelves for you then. But first- dinner time ladies!" Elm said announcing it as if it were some grand thing and Ruby brightened up at that.
"Really? Yes! I'm starving!" Ruby said and Winter gave her an amused look now.
"You've pretty much eaten a full meal in the last half an hour alone…and you've done that at least twice an hour ever since you got in here." Winter said making Ruby stick her tongue out at Winter.
"My semblance takes up a lot of energy and makes my metabolism super fast! I need lots of food." Ruby said as if it were obvious and Winter paused for a moment. Of course. The girl had a Speed semblance according to all records, and she knew from dealing with Harriet that Speed users could eat much more than other semblance users due to the metabolism being sped up as well.
She'd have to update the girls' medical files to make sure that she got the needed amount of nutrients instead of being kept to the same strict diet as those who didn't have the nutrient requirements.
"Well then it's a good thing that it's time for food!" Elm said grinning and hoisting Ruby up on one broad shoulder and making a mental note to get the girl a mini-fridge in here and fill it with some high metabolism and high calorie snacks. Wouldn't do for the girl to pass out due to hunger while working on something dangerous or while alone.
The girl was too much fun to have around, especially when she took out Harriet with ease! The temperamental speed user was never going to live down the fact that she was taken out by a fifteen year old in one move.
"Yay food! I'll definitely need to eat up since we have class and combat assessment in the morning. I can't wait to see what kind of weapons everyone else uses!" Ruby said with bright happy eyes, wondering what kind of weapons she would see and if her classmates would listen if she talked about possible improvements. Her classmates at Signal always got mad when she was asked to help them improve for some reason, Yang had said it was because they couldn't compete against her.
"What kind of weapon do you use squirt?" Elm asked curious since she hadn't gotten a good look at the runts weapon earlier when she was cutting down turrets, she was moving too fast.
"I have a new tanto that I'm using for close range as a back up weapon since I'm crap at hand to hand combat and my baby is more for medium and long range than anything!" Ruby said smiling brightly as Elm and Winter walked into a large dining hall that was sparkling white and pristine, although thankfully there was some blue painted on the walls and the tables were blue to break up all the monotone white. There were two lines set up as well in a buffet style.
One line for students, as the sign over it read, and one for employees. At each buffet were cafeteria workers putting select amounts of each thing on each persons plate.
"You'll eat out of the employee line today until we can update your file on giving you more food than the regulated amount. You should be able to eat from the line of your choosing tomorrow since they are very effective about this sort of thing." Winter said leading the way to the employee line and Ruby pretended not to notice how some of the students were staring at her or a few were pointing her out to their friends.
"Can I get down now Ms. Elm?" Ruby asked making Elm pull a face up at her and drop the little reaper who floundered for half a second before twisting slightly to land on her feet.
"You can drop the Ms. part squirt. I'm not that old." Elm said and Ruby was tempted to pull a face at her like she would Yang but then remembered she wasn't supposed to do that since she was supposed to be professional now.
"If you say so." Ruby said instead and Winter snorted slightly into her hand while ahead of her Marrow had a suspicious coughing fit.
"Uh…" The cafeteria worker stared at Ruby confused before glancing at Winter and Elm, even though Elm was silently working her mouth as if to say something but wasn't sure what she wanted to say, in askance.
"She's the new weapon smith and technician as well as student. She has a speed type semblance and we've yet to update her file on her nutritional requirements." Winter explained immediately and the worker just nodded her head in understanding before loading up a plate that was double the size of Winter and Elms and handing it to Ruby who beamed brightly.
Winter was glad to see someone else stagger under the girls cheer as the cafeteria worker blinked several times and then nodded jerkily when Ruby thanked her happily.
"If we could weaponize her cheer then the Grim would never stand a chance." Elm muttered softly to the teacher who got in line behind her, the red haired woman just raising a curious eyebrow.
"What would you like to drink?" The next cafeteria worker kindly asked Ruby who looked at all of the options wide eyed for a moment.
"Milk please! Yang says I need to drink lots of milk to grow big and strong like her!" Ruby said brightly and the man smiled as he placed two cartoons of milk on her tray.
"Thank you." Ruby beamed again and the man smiled slightly and looked like he wanted to pat her head but thought better of it. Especially with the glare Winter was giving him.
"Milk's good for your bones." Winter said smiling down at Ruby who smiled back happily.
"Mhm! It's supposed to help with my Brittle Bone disease, that's what dad says and it's why Uncle Qrow taught me how to make sure my aura passively shields my body all the time." Ruby said cheerfully and Winter and Elm both froze at that, as did the other professors in hearing range.
What did she just say?
"Brittle bone disease?" Winter asked in a forced light voice and Ruby nodded her head as she followed Winter to a table that was apparently being claimed by the staff, if the teachers making their way to sit at it was any indication.
"Yep! It has some fancy name but I don't remember how to say it right so Yang told me it's basically a brittle bone disease. My bones are weaker than most peoples and so they break a lot easier. That's why I'm always passively shielding myself and primarily a long to medium range fighter." Ruby said happily as she opened her milk cartoon.
"I'll make sure I add it to your file to give you some extra calcium, that should help a bit." Winter said quietly after a moment, sending off that message to Ironwood and the medical team just in case.
"Thank you! The person in charge of that at Signal said no such thing existed and that we were just making up the doctor reports and all so they didn't put it in my file and I had to take extra calcium pills cause they wouldn't let me have more milk. Those calcium pills are gross. Like someone tried to compress cotton candy and milk at the same time but forgot to make sure the milk wasn't expired." Ruby said nodding her head sagely at the end as if that was the most important part of the conversation. Elm's spoon was bending into a tiny little ball in her hand and the other teachers nearby didn't look too happy either.
"That does sound gross. I'd rather drink a lot of milk too instead of take those." The red haired woman said pulling a face and drawing Ruby's attention to her, causing the little reaper to seem to shrink in on herself slightly. New people. Uh oh. She wasn't good at dealing with new people.
"Here. They always forget I'm lactose intolerant and give me milk with this meal. Since I can't drink it you can have it." The red head said, carefully not reacting to seeing Ruby shrink in on herself a bit, as she slid her cartoon of milk over to Ruby who blinked slightly.
"That's dumb. Why would they give it to you if you can't drink it?" Ruby asked confused and making the woman give the girl a small smile.
"Well I might be lactose intolerant but that doesn't stop me from eating ice cream sometimes. I have medicine for it, I just prefer not to have to use it when drinking milk." The woman said as if sharing a secret and Ruby blinked before nodding solemnly in agreement.
"Yeah taking medicine sucks, especially when it tastes bad." Ruby said making the woman nod just as seriously in agreement.
"I agree with you there. My name is Kendo Itsuka. Ms. Itsuka while in class, and I teach how to fight without weapons. It's nice to meet you." The red haired woman said holding out her hand and Ruby stared at it curiously for a few seconds before warily reaching out her own hand.
"Ruby Rose. I'm letting you know now that I am likely going to fail your class."