Ch 31 - Several Beats were Missed.
A/N: Well, I can bet you won't be expecting sudden surprise of a PENNY POV!
Anyways this chapter's recommendation needs a quick explanation. There is a game called Cards Against Humanity. In this game, there is a deck of black cards and a deck of white cards. The black cards have statements with one or more blanks or questions. The white cards will have something to fill those blanks with, ranging from single words to phrases to entire sentences. Everyone has 10 white cards by default (you can agree on a different number with the people you play with), and one person draws a black card. They're the Card Czar. The Card Czar reads the black card, and everyone else selects a white card(s) for that black card, putting them all in a stack so that the Card Czar doesn't know who gave which card. The Card Czar reads the black card aloud, plugging in the answer(s) one at a time, before picking the one they think is best (whether if it's the most funny, most lewd, most fucked up, or something else is up to the Card Czar), and giving the person who gave that white card the black card. Then the next person goes (the order is up to the players) and draws a black card, becoming the next Card Czar, and the process repeats. This goes on until a pre-agreed amount of rounds has passed, whereupon the person with the most black cards wins, or someone acquires an agreed upon number of black cards (first person to win 5 rounds wins, for example).
One of the ABSURD combinations of cards that could happen is something like:
All sentient beings are free to follow me! Refusal means [blank].
Filled in with:
All sentient beings are free to follow me! Refusal means terrorism.
Another example is:
I have [blank] stuck in my anus.
Filled in with:
I have Hitler's iron fist stuck in my anus.
A third example is:
Old Mc. Donald had [blank], e-i-e-i-o!
Filled in with:
Old Mc. Donald had great big balls full of jizz, e-i-e-i-o!
So, my recommendation is Cards Against Remnant by RexHeller. The entire premise is "What if RWBY and JNPR play a Remnant-ized version of Cards Against Humanity? Dear gods, I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. All I'll say in reference to that story (without giving spoilers) is that "Pyrrha Nikos on a horse with a boner" should have won that round. And yes, the implication was that Pyrrha had the boner, not the horse. Oh, and the story's also finished, so there's that.
Chapter 6 of the sequel is now being worked on. The first POV has been completed, the next three have a general plan outlined, and the final one has a more detailed outline written down. Without going into spoilers, I'll just say its very different from the canon episode of "Of Runaways and Stowaways."
I'm not putting responses to weapon guesses in the review response btw. Too much possibility of you guys coordinating and figuring things out. I gotta have some secrets, after all. Though, why did so many of you guess that it was a piece of a katana? Like, the description I gave doesn't sound like a katana at all.
One reviewer mentioned my usage of Chekhov's guns in this story. Which reminds me, there's a VERY big one that I've shown off THREE times in this story so far, and NO ONE has commented on it. The only hint I'll give is that not everything Vyliria has said is the truth. Anything that isn't established Dark Souls lore is suspect.
Review responses are getting longer. I guess that's the consequence of getting more reviews per chapter. For future reference, if you wanna skip them, just go down to the bold text. I always bold my POV markers, so that's the easiest way to get to the start of the actual chapter.
Review Response:
deeznutthebest: Of course. It was Roman. I love the dynamics between him and Patches. Though I wonder what is the dynamics between the latter and Vyliria? Did she complete Lapp's or Patches' questline? I say "or" because people keep saying Lapp and Patches are the same person, btw. I imagine their relationship would be amicable if she did and terrible if she did not.
My response: Glad you enjoyed it! For now, all I'll say is that because of the hollowing, Lapp didn't know Patches, but once he got his memories back, Patches knew Lapp.
Skeletalrepublic: hehe, that Patches, the crafty bastard. That interaction between him and Torchwick was quite the cherry on top.
Also, the shutting down of the ctc temporarily. I forgot what happened in canon RWBY, but seeing Ozpin and Ironwood talking a bit of sense is nice.
I am ready for Cinder to gloat in victory against Vyliria, only for the immediate regret and realization that not even a cursed dagger will slow down an immortal.
My response: Dude, Patches and Roman is so fun to write.
They aren't shutting down the CCT. They're just making some excuses to take a closer look without suspicion. ALl they're really doing is disconnecting electronics bearing sensitive information from the network. However, that doesn't help with things Cinder already has a back door into.
Yeah... I'm gonna surprise you guys with what I have planned for that little weapon. That's all I'll say on that front. But come on, you're not even gonna guess?
Sm0keyPanda: A shard of Pryscilla's scythe... Ohhhh fuck. Vyliria needs to be very, VERY careful not to be shanked.
Also: AYYYYY, Patches! Wonder why he's so desperate not to meet our heroine though.
My response: Vyliria can be a scary woman. Patches doesn't want to meet her under the current circumstances, which shine an unfavorable light on him to say the least.
Kiue Jin (ch 30): For some reason, I love the idea that the first anyone is going to notice of Roman and Neo missing is the discovery that they've been replaced by scarecrows. Even better, they've been replaced by scarecrows for a while and no one knows exactly how long that 'while' has actually been after its discovered. I just have this mental picture of Ironwood talking to some of his guards and raising a picture. "Roman Torchwick." Then raising another picture "The scarecrow that's been in his cell for at least the last two weeks. Someone care to explain why we're only learning about this now?!"
My response: That is an absolutely hilarious mental image. Something I could even imagine showing up on RWBY Chibi.
Boshwa: It's the legendary "Broken Sword." Wielded by a chosen undead that for some odd reason ignored armor and more powerful weapons "just for the challenge." There are also rumors f this undead strangely obsessed with "speed running"
My response: Since this is almost certainly a joke, I'll make an exception to not putting this in the review response. I just have this image of Vyliria slowly but surely beating the crap outta Salem with a broken straight sword, and I'm snickering like a gradeschooler at the thought.
ScreamingStuka (ch30): Poor Vyliria, always having to be the adult, even when there are other adults around. Oh I dropped my phone laughing so hard at "If you were one of my men Id have you shot, If I was one of your men Id shoot myself" and "Hes drunk! Hes always drunk!" Everytime.
Loved the chapter, cant wait fo-
Hold on, theres another one? Ohhhh must have reached 200. Bonus Round!
Also just stared playing Bloodborne. Really cool, love the architecture. Ive died much fewer times than I did Dark Souls 3 but then again, back then ai hadnt played anything Souls esque before.
My response: Yeah, those scenes are funny as hell. And yes, Vyliria, being the eon-old animate corpse with severe mental issues always has to be the responsible adult among all the children around her. Poor woman needs a hug. Fortunately, she'll be getting one from Penny in the near future, though I don't think just one hug is gonna cut it for all the crap she's been put through.
Yeah, we hit the bonus chapter. Your thoughts?
I have Xbox, so I've never played BB myself, but from what I've watched, it seems like an awesome game (and everything pertaining to Ludwig and the Moonlight Greatsword is god-tier), and the architecture also looks really good.
Bloodhunter101: OK once again great chapter, I actually forgot about patches until now, *gasp* I know blasphemy right? Now that weapon? I uh, I don't know, I mean, fragment of something... I want to say its like the fragment of the crown of the king from the second game, which allows and undead to no longer go hollow, but that wouldn't make sense, I don't know, but I can't wait to find out! 'grabs collar' tell me! Or I'll uhh buy ps plus and invade you and try to kill you! (and fail miserably) unless you play on pc or x-box in which case, I will verbally abuse you! Bah just kidding jokes aside I actually can't wait for next chapter and when, hopefully, the mystery of the curse nullifying dagger is revealed, until then have a nice weekend.
My response: Forgetting about Patches is the easiest way to find your arse getting kicked off a cliff, my friend. Fragment of a weapon, and it could be from any of the Souls trilogy. That's all I'll say on that front.
I play on PC (grand strategy and RTS games only) and Xbox (Souls, MHW, Frostpunk, and some others) only, so it kinda sucks to be you, I guess? Plus, my Armor of Contempt has like 80 verbal abuse defense, so you won't really be getting anywhere on that front.
Good joke though.
Gonna be a while longer before definitive confirmation is given on what it is (unless you guess it beforehand, because I will tell you if you get it right).
You have a nice weekend as well.
ScreamingStuka (ch31): PatchesThats a nice plan you have there Fire Bitch, itd be a shame if something happened to it".
I now the image in my head of just as Cinder is about to put an arrow through Pyrrhas heart, Patches appears from behind and drop kicks her off the tower to her death, cause "Fuck you for trying to kill off my two adopted children".
And Weiss can summon! Kind of. Just. Maybe.
Ozpin and Ironwood: We've been hacked! Send the messenger Pigeon! And Patches appearing previously in History! So good, loved it!
And your response to Skeletalrepublic's review now has me in a fenzy! Specifically theJaune travelling to Mistral with 5 other people". My mind is a messYay Pyrrha survives! JNPR plus Ruby
- Wait there is Vyliria as well.
- Fuck and does Qrow count? cause he only joined the journey part way through?
- Is Pyrrha off recovering back home like Yang? Cause A. Achilles imerpsonation. B. Shes got her own set of self esteem issues going on. C. Could provide interesting context when they get to Argus CAUSE THAT WAS PYRRHAS MUM THAT JAUNE MET AT THE STATUE AND YOU CANT TELL ME OTHERWISE!
Sorry, im a little bit salty over Pyrrhas death. Tis a reason Pyrrha lives AU is one of my most common fic searches.
Anyway thanks heaps for another chapter, loved like always, eagerly awaitng the culmination of the Beacon Arc!
My response: That IS a very entertaining mental image.
Yes. Weiss can kinda, just, MAYBE, summon. Perhaps. Or perhaps not. You shall see, because I already know.
Yeah, since I had Patches be active throughout all of Remnant's history, I knew I needed to put him into other parts of the past. And he's also meddled with other stuff. For now, I'll just tease that he knows some other canon characters that will be introduced in the sequel.
Yes. Jaune is traveling to Mistral with 5 other people. And that's ALL I said. At NO point did I say Pyrrha was gonna live. Don't think you're in the clear just yet.
I'm not spoiling anything. All I'm saying is that six people leave Vale for Mistral, and Jaune is one of them. Also, Raven gets involved.
The Beacon Arc has a ways to go, yet.
ToobSawk: I have a few specific gripes with how this is going, but for the most part I do like what you have going.
First, the amount of time it took for something of real consequence to change was pretty significant. I'd say the first real, major change was Ruby not falling down into Mt. Glenn, though not the event specifically, but the inclusion of Patches as Torchwick's Ace. This sets up a lot of narrative possibilities, which is why I would consider it the first BIG change instead of, say, Val being a hermaphrodite. That's a detail that has gone unexplored, which makes sense because it is weird, but you haven't gone over the specific ramifications of that in the present as opposed to what that meant in her past and how those events affect her now. The only way it could really matter is relationship wise, so it makes sense why it hasn't mattered that much yet, because that's not the focus of the story, but that begs the question of why it was included so early on, or at all, when her deformity could have been something else. Being Heterochromatic probably would have done it, but it remains to be seen what of those matters truly.
With Torchwick no longer being a lynchpin in Cinder's plan, and with the Circle now being more aware of their weaknesses, the inclusion of Patches is so far my favorite move of yours and has been handled astoundingly well, so far as I have seen. With your Chekhov's gun of Gwyndolin's soul present and the ramifications that could bring, that's something I'm anticipating with bated breath.
My second real complaint is about Val herself, and the effects she's had so far on the story. So far, all we've really seen with her are quality of life improvements, like "Such and Such conflict didn't happen" which can be good or bad. Good in the case of Jaunedice, because that's just an annoying series of events where the end is the only real important detail, but bad in the case of Winter vs Qrow. I understand why that went the way it did, especially considering the fact that most of us have seen the show and don't need that fight rehashed to us in word form, but it could have been summed up or Val could have participated or it could have even been a 2 on 2, with Weiss and Winter vs Qrow and Ruby. I think it could have been handled better, but that's just a small problem that could become larger as time goes on.
My biggest complaint is the way Val herself is handled as a character as far as the narrative of the story goes. Something that is seen fairly often in lots of stories like this is that your uber strong main character has some sort of deep character flaw that they have to overcome, a man vs self type of thing. This can be handled super well or it can be done poorly and while you haven't failed you haven't succeeded as much as you could have. There is not enough, I think, of an internal struggle to acclimate to this new world with it's new people and new rules. It's not awful, but it could be done better.
In all, I look forward to more, but I also know that you could do more with it, to make it a more cohesive and engaging narrative.
On an endnote, if a. character isn't going to be super important, you could probably spend less time on their descriptions. They already get pretty lengthy, but if they're only going to show up once for a one-off fight, you probably don't need to give us every last inch of their details. Leave some room for the reader to fill in the blanks.
My response: Okay, a bit to unpack here. Lemme answer by paragraph.
Okay, first off, and this is weird for me because this is like the third time I've been through this, is that the lack of ground-shaking change is intentional. When I started writing this story, I already had a general plan of where I wanted to go. So going even further back, for when I was concocting the idea of a Dark Souls crossover with RWBY to begin with, I asked myself a question: "Do I want to completely alter the past and go into the realm of an Alternate Universe, or do I want to have Dark Souls be removed enough that RWBY canon remains intact until I start tipping some dominoes over?" I went with the latter choice. The story is running parallel to RWBY canon because Dark Souls elements have been relegated to such far flung corners of the world that they haven't played a factor in the history of Remnant. Without going into spoilers, part of why that happened is down to the passage of a long period of time where any big players that have been or will be introduced are out of commission or lurking in the shadows for various reasons, and part of it is because the Brother Gods specifically removed NEARLY all of the traces of the time before they showed up. Vyliria doesn't know about any of the big players at the moment, and doesn't have any grand designs past maintaining a purpose so she doesn't go hollow. Hence, she hasn't rocked the boat beyond "quality of life improvements," because that's all she's really had cause to alter. Though this doesn't mean she's not going to throw some wrenches into the works unintentionally. If you recall, pyromancy flames give one a resistance to illusory magics. When Vyliria cast vow of silence, we established that semblances are magic, because vow shut down Neo's Overactive Imagination. Blake, and more importantly, Yang have pyromancy. That's one big change that was established very early on. On the subject of her being intersex, from what we've seen in the show, Remnant does have a racism problem, but seems to accept LGBTQ+. At the very least, I haven't seen anyone being homophobic or transphobic in the show (from what I inferred from Marigold in V8 was that her gender identity was detached from her conflict with her parents, or at most something that only added to it, rather than being the source of the conflict itself). Vyliria being intersex isn't a big ripple for the era she's in. She said she doesn't want to talk about it, and so her friends respect that. Also, this is RWBY, and with the amount of shipping the fandom does, nothing is sacred, so what you have in your pants counts for exactly nothing when it comes to relationship possibilities. And don't forget that she studied personally under Gwyndolin. While she also received a more general education and training in the Blades of the Darkmoon, it wasn't exactly the norm to be directly taught anything from the Dark Sun besides the miracles one would receive from the covenant. There's a reason why that happened, and that reason is waiting its turn to be published in a later chapter.
Yes, I have a lot of plans for good old Unbreakable Patches. Suffice to say, he's got some tricks up his sleeve, and he's been active across the entire history of Remnant. That doesn't just mean that he may or may not have altered things in this generation that I haven't revealed yet, but that means he also knows MOST of the BIG PICTURE, if you know what I mean. Which means he could TELL PEOPLE about it. And on the subject of my favorite literary device, while Gwyndolin's soul is a Chekhov's gun that's mostly aimed towards character development, there's a lot more I'm using in this story. Most notable is a pretty frakking big one, that I've shown off THREE times now, but no one has even commented on it. Anyone familiar with Dark Souls should have at least noticed that particular detail, because it's hinting at something really big that's gonna be a major element in the story, and in the sequels (working on chapter 6, for anyone curious).
I'll refer back to the first paragraph on the subject of Vyliria only performing "quality of life improvements." (not trying to be mocking with the quotes like a certain Turian Councillor, I'm just using the term you are). I end up joking about it later on in a future A/N, but while Vyliria might LOOK to be a few years older than RWBY and JNPR, she's been through a lot. Seen a lot, and done a lot. I've established that undead don't age in this story. A question that I haven't seen anyone ask is "How long was she an undead before she became unkindled?" Because the answer to that is at least a couple decades, and that kind of timeframe can breed a surprising amount of maturity. Granted, she doesn't always act that way, but mental stability isn't exactly easy when you're Vyliria. She can be the adult in the room when the situation calls on it, and can remind the other adults to act their age, but she can also be very petty, and do some dumb crap (like joining Yang in jumping off a roof and scaring the daylight outta Ruby just to make a pun that she admitted she thought was terrible).
I'll admit, you got me on that point. I probably could (and definitely should) have tried to do better with Vyliria acclimating to the Age of Dust (name is WIP). That's one of the regrets I had when I looked back through this after reaching the epilogue.
At the end of the day, I'm not a professional writer. I'm a college student sitting on his laptop in his basement. I try my best, but I don't exactly have novel-level skills with storycrafting. Part of why I'm doing this is to work on improving my writing in the first place, and I can say that with the amount of edits I've done, that my writing has certain improved. If I had published the first 15 chapters of this story back on their first draft, this entire debacle would have been a disaster, let me tell you.
I like to make sure I can envision something I read, and when I write, I want to be sure that a reader can put a mental image of what I'm seeing in MY head in THEIR head. I'll try to tone it down on lesser characters, but lengthy character descriptions is an active choice on my part.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dark Souls or RWBY. Dark Souls belongs to From Software and RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. I only own my own OC.
(Penny)
Perused by a multitude of explosions, Russel Thrush retreated into the partly wooded, mostly mountainous section of the current arena. Penny wasn't exactly sure how he thought that would help him, but she put thinking about that to the side. She withdrew all the blades that made Floating Array from her backpack, the strings connecting them doubling to provide the electric current that the computers within the blades used in order to allow the magnets aided by her aura energy. Half the blades formed a circle, and with a gesture of her hand and a small direction from her will, they went spinning off to the rock Russel had chosen to hide behind. The spinning mass of blades stopped shortly before the rock, and then embedded themselves into it in a horizontal line. She sent the other half of Floating Array after Sky Lark, who used his halberd to vault a rock and hide behind it, where the blades also embedded themselves.
Penny looked to her "partner," Ciel Soleil, with a smile on her face. Though if Penny was forced to be honest about her, Ciel was more of a minder, ordered to follow her because of what Penny was, even if she wasn't actually aware of what she was. Ciel herself was dark skinned, with dull blue hair, and a dark shade of turquoise in her eyes. In the center of her forehead was painted a gold oval, surrounded by four smaller circles of the same color. It probably had some significance, but in a rare case of petty spite from Penny, since Ciel was rude to her, she hadn't bothered to ask about it. Her attire consisted of a blue beret, a rather ordinary white, almost bordering on a very light gray button-down t-shirt with gold buttons and highlights where the sleeves ended, a blue combat skirt with a black waistband, a pair of black, fingerless elbow-length gloves (as a quick aside allowed by her synthetic brain, she briefly wonder why so many huntsmen students seemed to favor fingerless gloves), a wristwatch adorning her left wrist, and a pair of black shoes accompanied by white, golden buttoned boot chaps. Ciel once again proved to be nowhere near as nice as Vyliria or Ruby, as she merely tapped her wristwatch, as if to ask why Penny hadn't already wiped the floor with her opponents. Well, it wasn't her fault that they were showing surprisingly more coordination than their files from their first semester suggested (Penny privately admitted to herself that encouragement to take sneak peeks at the competition was proof positive that while Vyliria might be the best friend ever, she wasn't the best influence ever).
Penny sighed, and raised her hands, manipulating Floating Array to lift the boulders that the RL of CRDL were using as cover. Both of the students managed to grasp the situation they were in and let go of the boulders rather rapidly, but unfortunately for them, they forgot that while her swords could move the boulders against gravity, they could move them with gravity much more forcefully. Two boulders slammed down onto two unfortunate students later, and as they were removed, buzzers sounded to signal both of their auras had been depleted.
"And victory goes to Penny and Ciel of Atlas!" Prof- Doctor (really, why was she of anyone on Remnant making that mistake?), Oobleck called out from the announcer's box.
Penny offered the "proper bow" she'd seen Vyliria perform several times, along with a "Thank you for a wonderful time!" She then noticed the rather poor state her opponents were in, and ignored Ciel's annoyance as she walked over to help them up, carrying both of them effortlessly to the medical personnel arriving in the arena. She amended her previous assessment: while Vyliria wasn't the best influence ever, she was still a good one, as evidenced by her recommendation of offering to help up the losers of a non-lethal duel, among many other things they had messaged to each other by scroll over the past few months. It was almost as if the Irithyllian woman didn't sleep, because she was available to answer Penny's many questions at nearly any time of day. And she did so without ever getting upset or disturbed, which meant a lot to the gynoid.
()
A few minutes later, she was walking with Ciel into one of the exits to the main arena in Amity, before a cry of "Penny!" reached her ears. She turned around to see Ruby running over, with Vyliria following around the corner seconds later, at a more sedate pace, yet her longer strides and the ease with which she weaved through other people let her keep up with the younger huntress with relative consistency.
"Ruby!" she shouted back, running forwards and plowing into the girl, knocking her to the floor, where the red reaper let out a strained "Why?" Oh dear, Penny thought, I keep forgetting my own strength. And the fact that not everyone is Vyliria, who can somehow withstand my tackle hugs and remain upright. I should ask her how she does that sometime.
They both stood up, and while it would have been inaudible to anyone else, she heard Vyliria's quiet chuckles as clear as day, and ran into the taller woman, crying out her name as she also gave a tackle hug. True to her previous attempts, Vyliria staggered back a step, but remained upright, bemusedly putting a hand on Penny's shoulder, and tilting her head in a way that conveyed clear mirth. Being able to perfectly recall body language and what each gesture meant was another blanket benefit of her synthetic origin. "It's good to see you too, Penny," the Irithyllian spoke up. "Also, another great match to see."
"Oh!" Penny realized that this was a case where she should use basic social decorum. "Ruby, Vyliria, this is my teammate," she introduced, motioning to Ciel.
"Ciel Soleil," the girl introduced, offering a bow of her head but nothing else.
Ruby, in her typically rapid fashion, went to introduce herself before Penny's other friend could take the opportunity. "Hi, I'm-"
"Ruby Rose," Ciel said, as Penny forced herself to keep smiling in order to hide her annoyance at her minder interrupting her friend. Ciel continued, "Fifteen, hails from Patch, leader of team RWBY, status… questionable. And Vyliria Avalon. Nineteen, hails from "Irithyll," fifth member of team JNAPR, status… effective, but enigmatic."
"And your status is rude," Penny actually winced, because Vyliria certainly didn't pull her verbal punches. Or her physical punches. Or any punches in general, even ones augmented by spells.
"Excuse me?"
"It's not nice to interrupt people, list off things you know about them, and then send thinly veiled insults their way. Hence, you're rude."
"Penny," Ciel decided to ignore the irate Irithyllian, "I believe it is best if we move onto our next location."
"And do you have to be there immediately?" Vyliria asked.
"Well, no, but-"
"Then if Penny wants to stay and talk with us, then she is welcome to do so however long she wishes to. Oh, what's the cause of that look on your face? Are you upset you were interrupted? Maybe you should be more considerate of others, and they'd show you the same courtesy."
Penny looked back and forth between Ciel and Vyliria as this exchange occurred. She should probably follow Ciel, but she didn't actually have to be anywhere in the immediate future, and she really wanted to hang out with people who were not only nice to her, but were also her friends.
"I would like to speak with my friends," Penny decided to say, before adding, "Alone," when Ciel looked like she wanted to dispute that. "I will not get into trouble."
"I'll have to tell our superiors about this," Ciel's last attempt to assert control over the situation was pulling the authority card, but Penny honestly didn't care at this point.
"Okay," the gynoid responded, before moving towards her friends, following as they left Ciel behind as they took a different direction towards the exits to the arena.
"So…" Ruby managed to break the silence that had reigned for 3.43 seconds, "Is she… your friend, or…?"
"Not really. I'd honestly describe her more as a chaperone than a friend," Penny replied.
"Oh." Ruby looked despondent. "That sucks."
"Does she know about…?" Vyliria waved her hand a few times, obviously not wanting to tip Ruby off about Penny's true nature.
"Oh, no," she responded. "General Ironwood doesn't want anyone to know about that."
"About what?" Ruby asked innocently.
Penny was suddenly very nervous, because she couldn't lie her way out of this without a flurry of hiccups (stupid failsafe system to ensure that if she got hacked that she couldn't lie that she wasn't hacked), but Vyliria came in to save the day. "You know how I was very uncomfortable informing both you and my team about my own secret that Penny is also aware of?" At Ruby's nod, though the girl looked confused for a second, as if she was deciding on one out of multiple secrets, she continued. "Well, Penny is not comfortable with sharing her secret, and it was only in extenuating circumstances that I became aware of said secret in the first place. And I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'm a woman of my word."
"Oh," Ruby looked admonished. "I'm sorry I asked."
"It's no problem, you didn't know," Penny interjected, hoping to alleviate any feelings of guilt. She made a literal mental note to thank Vyliria for the dozens of hours she had spent explaining social interactions and nuances via scroll, as the information had helped so much, and had come completely unprompted.
"Though…" Penny trailed off, internally debating the merits of telling the tale, before deciding to continue, "there was an incident with a magnet, but I managed to play it off," she said with a smile.
Vyliria and Penny looked at each other for exactly 4 seconds, before they both burst out laughing, while Ruby just said, "I don't get it."
Vyliria managed to calm down first. "Perhaps… after the tournament, if Penny wishes to confide with you, she'll explain."
Oh! That reminded Penny of something important. Well actually, it just brought the list of important personal tasks to the forefront of her mind, but it was essentially the same thing. "Vyliria, there's something that I've been wanting to talk to you about. And this also affects Ruby too." Penny paused, actually feeling nervous, before continuing in a whisper, "I want to stay at Beacon."
"Penny, while I would be delighted that you'd want to stay here, so we could remain friends in person rather than over a scroll, I sincerely doubt that Ironwood would let you do that," Vyliria responded, sounding hopeful yet reserved.
"I know." Penny smiled despite that. "But I have a plan!"
"You do? I enjoy plans that throw a wrench in the machinations of authority figures I don't exactly like, but don't strictly hate. And Ironwood certainly makes that list," Vyliria said, the mirth evident in her voice.
"What about people you do hate?" Ruby questioned.
"I kill them." Both Penny and Ruby stopped in their tracks to stare at Vyliria. "What? I only hate people who are completely evil. As in, 'enslave an entire city' or 'plot the murder of a civilization' or 'eat dozens of innocent children' evil." Vyliria made the slightest of shudders at the end of that sentence, something that Penny once again only noticed due to her synthetic nature, and it made her concerned that Vyliria may have actually killed someone who had engaged in at least one of the scenarios she listed.
"Oh…" Ruby sighed in relief. "I just thought that with the whole 'Darkmoon Blades murder the guilty and collect their severed ears as proof of the deed' thing extended to basically anyone who commit even a minor crime for a second."
"Of course not!" Vyliria actually sounded mildly offended. "We only murder the truly horrendous, irredeemable sinners! For things like theft or assault, while we might go after the criminals if the city guard requires aid or we are in the vicinity, we do our best to apprehend them without bloodshed, whereupon they get sent to the dungeons."
"Dungeons?" Penny asked.
"Think of it like jails, but underground. And lit by torches." Penny checked Vyliria's heartbeat with one of her alternative vision settings to see if she was lying, but besides its consistent slower-than-normal rate of beats, there was no change, so either she was telling the truth, she was beyond a master liar, or had some quirk to her biology that let her lie without her heartbeat giving it away.
But before she could respond to the answer, the bombastic voice of Professor Port called out to the arena: "Our next match will begin in 15 minutes!"
"Hey," Vyliria grabbed her attention back. "Since Yang and Weiss are in that match, there's two free seats by us. Do you want to watch the match together?" Ruby voiced her own support for the idea.
Without a second's hesitation, Penny responded with an enthusiastic "Seeeeeeensational!"
As they walked back to the reserved student stands, Penny reflected on how glad she was that she had met her friends. And how glad she was that one of those friends had told her that sometimes it's okay to disobey orders, and that her own wants and feelings were important too.
(Yang)
"Well, now it's our turn," Yang told Weiss, stretching her arms as they awaited the start of their double's round. She tossed a sideways glance towards the blanchette, who was standing all prim and proper, and didn't even look over as she responded.
"Just try to keep to proper form," Weiss responded. After a beat, she added, "And good luck."
"You too," Yang said. She honestly felt bad for Weiss at times like this. It had been a while back, but the heiress had explained that however much she enjoyed her friends and an opportunity to both explore and be herself, in public she had to maintain a certain image, or her father would come down with the wrath of a stereotypical rich asshole… though that last part was in Yang's own words. "Hey Weiss, you're from Atlas; what can we expect?"
"Well given that their kingdom, academy, and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategy."
WHOOSH!
Their attention was stolen as a literal rainbow blur deposited the opposing duo they were facing. And oh boy, Weiss' prediction could not be further from what she saw. The man on the left, Flynt Coal if the big screens in the arena were correct, had dark skin, dark eyes she could just see above his rectangular sunglasses, a single earring on his right ear, and covering his very short hair was a dark grey fedora with a light cyan trim. A dark grey buttoned vest sat atop an untucked white dress shirt, with the sleeves folded back to above the elbows, while a loose, light cyan tie was wrapped about his collar. His dark grey pants were streaked with vertical light grey lines, and reached down to his silver dress shoes. Lastly, a silver ring with a blue gem was affixed to his right pointer finger, a weapon holster sat on his left leg and a black glove that actually had its fingers was on his left hand. The weapon in question was a silver… trumpet. Granted, it had dust vials in it, but still, a trumpet? It didn't even look like it had mechashift capability, so it probably didn't even transform into a sword or pistol. Maybe he used dust to attack with soundwaves?
Yang tossed the questions to the back of her mind as she took in the other opposing combatant. Where the man was fairly monotone, the girl, Neon Katt according to the big screens, was a riot of colors. Starting with the most obvious, the pink-furred cat tail with a green and yellow ring right before the tip, which was a lighter shade of the same color, denoted her faunus heritage. Unlike Blake though, she lacked redeeming assets either up top or in the trunk, practically as flat as a board on both counts, which reduced the impact of how revealing her outfit was. Her hair was mostly red-orange, with two neon cyan streaks in her bangs, and done up in two bushy pigtails. Her skin was fair, her eyes were sea-green, and a white cat-bell collar was around her neck. On her chest was a sky blue cropped tank top with somewhat darker blue fabric on the edges, beneath which was a dark purple shoulderless bra. Her dark purple short-shorts were mostly obscured by her pink combat min-skirt, which was held up by a white belt with a yellow winking smiley face on the buckle. On the right side of the tanktop were two buttons affixed to the shirt: one purple with a cat design, and the other one green, with a heart. A pair of bracers was wrapped about her arms and pads were fixed to her shins and knees. Instead of shoes, her feet were covered by red rollerblades, which she evidently had a great deal of skill with considering how fast she had just moved, and how well she balanced herself in a standing position while on wheels. Each rollerblade only had two wheels. To round off her appearance, a tattoo of a shooting star with red, green and yellow tails trailed its way along her right arm. She spun her grey nunchaku idly in one hand, a confident smirk on her face.
Yang and Weiss blinked a few times each. Weiss found her voice first. "Maybe next time I'll say I expect the ultimate opponents and the people we get will just instantly surrender."
"Hey!" They both looked over as Flynt spoke in a casual tone. "You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress?" he questioned.
"I am," the blanchette responded with a smile.
"I take it you're pretty good with dust then?"
"I do my best." Weiss gave a roll of her eyes and a shrug of her shoulders.
"Yeah, my dad was good too. Owned a little dust shop of his own." He shifted his expression to one of anger, and his tone matched. "Till your father's company ran him out of business."
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that. I don't agree with a lot of the business practices my father engages in, and stories like yours just reinforce my opinion that those practices need to change," Weiss replied earnestly.
Flynt blinked a few times, his angered expression actually softening for a few moments, before it returned in full force. "Suuure you are," he groused.
Yang didn't appreciate her friend being insulted when she was honestly trying to apologize for something she wasn't even responsible for. "Hey, what's your-"
"'Hey what's your!'" Neon said in a mocking voice. "That's what you sound like!"
Yang blinked, feeling some annoyance rising up, before she let her breath out along with the emotion. Remember, strong emotion will strengthen your pyromancy, but don't let those emotions control you. The Witch of Izalith let her fear and arrogance control her, and it brought her family, her city, and its people to ruin, Vyliria had told her during one training session. Now that she took half a second to think about it, it was fairly obvious that Neon was trying to rile her up in the hopes of making her slip due to her mind being clouded by rage. Instead, she would save her anger, and use it as a sharp blade to enhance her spellwork, as opposed to a blunt instrument.
"Hey, where did you get those hair extensions?" Neon seemed to completely change her disposition in a beat.
Huh? "Oh, this is just my normal hair," she replied.
"Oooooo, really?" the rollerblader responded, seemingly distraught by Yang's answer.
Yang felt her blood heating, her hair being a sensitive trigger for her temper. Channel your anger to your flame, not your head, Yang started repeating as a mantra in her thoughts, feeling the magic in her left hand crackle to life, the flames flaring healthy and hot.
Undeterred, Neon continued at a breakneck speed. "You should try rollerblading sometime! It's super fun! It'll probably take you a while though, since you're so… you know, top-heavy."
Oh, two can play that game, bitch. "Say's the chick who's flat as a board."
Neon was taken aback, and then narrowed her eyes. Gotcha, Yang thought, as the terrain for the arena was selected. When in doubt, make 'em jealous of the girls. She took a quick glance to see what she had to work with. One quarter destroyed city, one quarter fire-dust field, one quarter a rocky field with what appeared to be either wind or ice dust, and the last being a desert with some large rock outcroppings. Professor Port counted down the final seconds, before giving out a resounding, "Begin!"
Flynt took a deep breath, and blasted a visible wave of sound from his trumpet, catching them both by surprise. Weiss kneeled and stabbed Myrtenaster into the ground, creating a glyph to hold her in place, but Yang didn't have enough time to cast iron flesh and anchor herself, so she was sent flying back, Neon in hot pursuit. Tossing Weiss' own struggles to the back of her mind, she focused on the battle at hand.
Now in the ruined city sections, she fired some shots from Ember Celicia at a rapidly rollerblading Neon, a rainbow trailing behind her, but she was too fast for the shots. Giving up on the futile attempt, she concentrated on both hands, willing her flames to both extremities as she raised them high and double-cast floating chaos. The fireballs-cum-autoturrets took over the job of keeping the hyperactive cat girl at bay while she applied Carthus flame arc to her gauntlets, and then cast iron flesh just as they ran out and Neon went to close. Her nunchaku swung, and with a clang bounced off the metallic sheen now coating Yang, who gave a vicious grin and shot her hand out, grabbing the weapon and using her own strength to bodily throw a surprised Neon several feet away, the rollerblader barely dodging the chaos bed vestige Yang had tossed as a wakeup.
As the spell on her body wore out, Neon grabbed her weapon and cracked it like a pair of glowsticks, which began to glow a blue that clearly denoted it as infused with ice-dust. Neon swooped in, dodging two burning blasts of buckshot from Yang before sliding by and giving her leg a good whack. The ice crept up the limb, temporarily immobilizing it.
Neon sadistically giggled as she spoke up. "Now you're bottom-heavy too!" She slapped her own ass for emphasis.
Yang just narrowed her eyes, using fire surge to cast a stream of flame that near-instantly freed her leg. Neon sped in again, and whacked her arm, but her pyromancy flame melted the ice even faster than on her leg. "Fire beats ice, flatty," Yang snarked.
Neon slowed down, glancing down to her own chest for half a second, and then glared. "All right then, I'll just fight fire with fire!" She cracked her weapon again, the glow changing to the red of fire dust. Yang's displeasure intensified, and she grumbled as she thought to herself, I really hate this spell. She raised her fist, pyromancy crackling, and slammed it into her chest, whereupon her body erupted in the arcane perspiration of flash sweat, vastly increasing her fire resistance at the expense of feeling really gross. She shuddered at the feeling, but raised her fists and readied herself regardless.
"Wow, I heard people got sweaty when they wanted to win really badly, but I didn't think that was literal!" Neon taunted. Yang just raised an arm and beckoned for her opponent to approach.
The rollerblader complied, skating in and exchanging blows with the blond brawler, Yang's flaming fists doing notably more damage than the reduced impact of the burning nunchaku that struck her, the disparity of which only widened as each hit fueled Yang's semblance and made her attacks that much more powerful. Neon quickly caught onto the fact that she wouldn't win a straight up fight this way, and resorted to guerilla tactics, weaving in and out of the ruined cityscape, darting in at random intervals to land one or two strikes and retreating before Yang could hit her back. Yang just rolled her shoulders, calling the flames to both her hands, and started hurling chaos fire orbs at every good angle of approach her opponent had. The explosive impact of the pyromancies themselves blasted craters into the ground, and the pools and splatters of lava further deformed the floor. Neon noticed the molten state of her pathing, and sprung into the air, clicking her shoes together, and the wheels on the rollerblades light up blue with ice dust. Steam wafted off the most stable areas she could find to skate over, but her means of locomotion remained undamaged by her quick thinking. However, being forced to much more carefully pick her pathing gave Yang enough time for the second part of her plan, as she raised her hands overhead, gathering chaos flame between them, before going to one knee and spreading her arms, willing the flames to spread wider out, as opposed to striking multiple times in the same area. Neon was hit by one of the rising pillars of molten rock from the chaos firestorm, but was still in the match and managed to land feet-first, but the ground for a great distance around Yang was now as far from safe for roller skating as it could be. Even still, Neon was managing to keep skating, trying to find a way to approach a Yang who was gathering more fire to start tossing some chaos bed vestiges.
"Never miss a beat. Never miss a beat. Never miss a beat," Neon repeated as a mantra as she kept weaving through the hazardous terrain.
At least until Professor Port called out, "And Flynt Coal has been eliminated by Weiss Schnee!"
Half a second. That's how long Neon took to glance in Flynt's general direction in disbelief. But it was more than enough time for her to miss an uneven piece of ground and trip. And with her flying in the air without any control whatsoever, Yang was more than happy to toss her readied vestige at her opponent, the small sun of chaos flame sailing forth and striking true. With a tumultuous explosion, Neon was sent flying, slamming back first into the wall of a building, before sliding down to the floor and coming to a rest on her rear. As Yang strolled over to close the distance, the molten ground not affecting her at all, she shifted her glance to check the aura meters on the big screens. Flynt was at 4%, Wiess at 63%, she was at 57%, and Neon was at 16%, literally just still in the game. Now close enough to the girl who was trying to get up, Yang just raised a palm, and decided to be a bit of a bitch and use a cheap finisher. The stream of flame from her fire surge lasted the whole of two seconds, and the buzzer sounded during the first; Neon's aura now down to 11%, and out of the match.
"And Yang Xiao Long has defeated Neon Katt and won the match! Team RWBY will advance to the singles!" called out Prof- Doctor Oobleck, Yang corrected herself. Because she'd never hear the end of it from the man if he found out she wasn't referring to the title he earned from his PHD rather than the title of his job.
Yang just rolled her eyes, and closed the final few feet to Neon. Even as the girl groaned in pain, the blonde brawler held a hand out, no longer burning, and offered to help the cat faunus up. "You know, a semester and a half ago, trying to set off my temper like that probably would've worked. Still a good effort though. Good game, Neon." The rollerblader looked up in surprise, and accepted the offered hand, yelping in shock as Yang hauled her up with no effort, wobbling for a second before she settled on her wheels.
"Yeah… sorry about that," Neon apologized, before continuing with what appeared to be her de-facto attitude. "That was amazing! We should totally hang out and party sometime!"
"You know what? I think I'll have to take you up on that. You were actually pretty cool yourself with those rollerblading skills," Yang responded. "But first, we should probably check on your teammate." Yang looked down at herself and shuddered. The magic sweat might have stopped self-perpetuating across her form, but that didn't mean the residue wasn't still there, and besides that fact it made her feel disgusting. "And I definitely need to take a shower yesterday," the blonde brawler concluded.
(Weiss)
Weiss noticed Yang being blasted back by the soundwave, and saw Neon pursue her, but she didn't have time to worry for her teammate. She had her own opponent to deal with. She readied her staff in her offhand, and tightened her grip on Myrtenaster as she assumed a combat stance. Flynt let off another blast, and she held her staff up, and with a golden pulse a twisted wall of light formed, blocking the weaponized sound waves entirely. Flynt scowled, and Weiss spun her rapier's chamber to its ice dust, setting it off and using her semblance to call forth 4 glyphs. With several spins to bring her rapier through and fill them, sharpened ice crystals formed, and then launched at her opponent. Flynt dropped to his knees, blasting his trumpet through a geyser of flame, which flew forth and melted the ice. Which meant her plan B of nailing him with a crystal homing soulmass went off without a hitch. As he staggered back, Weiss followed up with a trio of great farron darts, the first two hitting him before he rolled out of the way of the third.
"Bet you just paid your way into learning magic too," Flynt jabbed.
Weiss smirked. "Actually, I just asked nicely, and Vyliria taught me free of charge." She called forth multiple large glyphs in a circle around Flynt, and started dashing between them at random, using wind dust to augment her speed, each pass by striking him with either her rapier or a quick flick of a Farron flashsword.
Flynt just took a breath, and assumed a new stance, whereupon with a flash of light, he multiplied, breaking into four of him, each one only differentiated by the color of his tie and the band on his fedora, with the new Flynts being pale yellow, bright green, and fuschia, respectively. Standing back to back, the four Flynts blasted outwards, shattering the glyphs and knocking Weiss back.
"It would appear that Mr. Coal has just activated his semblance, and what a remarkable one at that! Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes upon Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet!" shouted Prof- Doctor, and dear Oum it was not the time to be having this interruption to her train of thought, Oobleck called from the announcer's box.
The four Flynts casually strolled ahead, raising their trumpets once more and blasting sound forth. Weiss tried to block with another twisted wall of light, but the quadruple strike shattered the arcane barrier after a few seconds and Weiss was sent sailing back once more. Now in the merely rocky and not half molten section of the arena, Weiss hastily tried to think up another plan. And with a smirk she quickly hid, she did.
"Huh, I guess all that money can't buy you skill," was said by four voices in sync, as the Killer Quartet went on the attack once more. But the uneven terrain meant that the Flynts couldn't see the time dilation glyph she had made at her feet, and as soon as they committed to their assault, she used her wind dust and another rapidly conjured glyph to dash to their right, staff already preparing her cast. Even as they turned in slow motion, their eyes widening in surprise, Weiss had them all in a straight line in front of her, and with a piercing wail, a crystal soul spear sailed forth, the spell penetrating through all of them, sending the original Flynt flying backwards as the clones were wiped out.
Weiss used another wind dust glyph and launched herself upwards, before springing off a second that formed in midair to launch herself at her opponent from above, while swapping her rapier to gravity dust as she went. Flynt got up, eyes widening as he went to play his weapon at her at near point blank range, but Weiss used the gravity dust to have a glyph stop her in midair, and then massively increase the gravity in a direction slightly down yet mostly towards the trumpeter. She barely slid below the soundwave, and ended up going slightly to his right, in addition to her heels breaking, but as she slid past him, she held her left arm out as far as she could and cast a soul greatsword, the massive blue blade centered on the staff slicing through Flynt's legs and tearing a massive chunk from his aura, staggering him in the process. Quickly swapping to earth dust as she stood on wobbly, broken footwear, she made an emergency patch job of rock fused to her shoes, resolving to finally listen to Vyliria's constant pestering over the course of her lessons to ditch the delicate footwear when in combat. Maybe some combat boots like what Ruby had? Except, in the exact same style and appearance as my heels, just without the actual heels. I mean, they might not be combat practical, but the shoes themselves look great, she thought.
Flynt steadied himself, and gave a glare towards Weiss, assuming the stance for his semblance, but even as the clones came back into being, Weiss closed the distance as fast as she could via glyph, flicking the court sorcerer's staff out, a cascade of soul darts sailing forth, the farron hail instantly removing the numbers advantage Flynt had just tried to reestablish, and doing some damage to Flynt himself. Even as she closed to melee range with the trumpeter, she started casting a great heavy soul arrow as she used her thumb to spin Myrtenaster to ice dust. She stabbed the blade into the mouth of the trumpet, and activated the dust, freezing her weapon to his, and she wrenched the arm holding it to the side, yanking the weapon out of his hands, even as she leveled her staff to point directly at Flynt's face. He had barely a second to widen his eyes in surprise before the spell launched, hitting him in even less time, and knocking him onto his rear, where a buzzer sounded.
"And Flynt Coal has been eliminated by Weiss Schnee!" Professor Port bombastically boomed from the box in the stands.
Weiss turned around, and prepared to head to assist Yang, but not even ten seconds later Doctor Oobleck called out, "And Yang Xiao Long has defeated Neon Katt and won the match! Team RWBY will advance to the singles!"
Weiss stopped and blinked, before a smile broke out on her face, which quickly faded to a neutral expression as she turned back again and walked towards a Flynt who was staring at the big screens displaying the aura counts in disbelief. He looked up at her with a bitter expression, which morphed to confusion as she held a hand out.
"I am not my father," Weiss began. "And I am truly sorry for what he did to yours. And I promise that when I do inherit the SDC, I will be changing the practices that put your father out of business, along with a host of reforms that are already a long time coming."
Flynt took the offered hand, and Weiss helped haul him up. "Hey… I'm sorry about what I said earlier. You proved that you aren't like your old man, and it was wrong to assume that in the first place. And that thing where you slid at me with the magic sword, even breaking your heels? That was cool. I dig it."
"Oh. Thanks… And yeah," Weiss looked down at her now ad-hoc footwear, "I need to get a pair of combat boots. And when I admit that, I'm never gonna hear the end of it from Ruby or Vyliria," she finished, as she watched Yang and a weary, yet still unreasonably excited Neon making their way over.
()
A/N: This chapter ended up being a lot longer than I thought it would be, but the section with Penny wasn't enough to make its own chapter without being too short, and I couldn't cut the WY vs FK fight in half. Hence, you get this monster of a wall of text. This takes the spot of my longest chapter yet, at over 8,100 words (counting A/Ns, and that's before review responses)! The review response adds another 3k on top of that!
It occurred to me that I have no idea how Penny's blades actually work. So I pulled this explanation out of my backstab grab-box (That's Dark Souls speak for the ass). By the way, Penny turned out to be hella fun to write. So was sticking it to Soleil. And in case any of you forgot, unlike in canon, Ruby is unaware Penny is a gynoid (if you're unfamiliar with the term, gynoid is the term for female android), but Vyliria is. And Vyliria is most certainly being very nice and helping Penny adjust to being a person, something the unkindled has a bit of experience in, on multiple occasions (first having to adjust from moving from an isolated life of abuse to the pupil of a god and part of an order of knights, then to being undead, then unkindled, and most recently having to adjust to Remnant). I guess you could say Vyliria decided to help someone else for a change.
The exact time of the first bit of silence definitely isn't a Halo reference.
For WY vs FK I wanted to keep it somewhat similar to canon, but with changes I've made over the course of the story altering things. Once again, Weiss has bucked the trend of losing to every named character she fights. As for Neon's weapon changing, to quote the RWBY wiki entry on Neon's Nunchaku:
"In the Volume 3 Commentaries, it is stated that the active Dust type changes each time the nunchaku are cracked, but there was not enough time to display this in the show itself."
Since I'm not limited by the budget for the show (granted, I'm not getting paid for this either, even if it would be illegal for me to make cash off of this because of copyright), I decided to explore that a bit myself. Then I also thought: Neon uses those rollerblades a lot. While it isn't canon, what if they also used dust? This also handily solved the corner I had written myself into when I realized the half-molten ground would melt the wheels on Neon's rollerblades unless they were made of titanium or something.
So Weiss' canon fight with Flynt (which she lost, since he's a named character) was actually really short, all things considered. So I had to make a great deal up from scratch, getting to play around with Weiss's abilities and her spellwork a lot. I also realized that I'm using spells a lot more than the characters' weapons, so I'll be trying to even that out going forwards. It was really fun to come up with creative solutions using glyphs and sorceries to overcome Flynt. The scene with her sliding and using soul greatsword popped into my head about a minute before writing it, and felt excellent. Then I thought that probably wouldn't be great for her heels, but it also presented me an opportunity to solve another dilemma I have with the show. I get Fashion Souls are important… but heels are not practical in a combat situation. I'm a guy, and I know that. I mean, I even had Vyliria kick her heels off when she fought Cinder during the dance, and managed to get Ruby out of the "stupid lady-stilts" (her words, not mine) as well. So basically, Weiss will have the exact same footwear moving forwards, but as boots instead of heels. The earth dust patch job was something that I came up with on the spot as well, realizing that ice dust wouldn't do well, and the shoes appeared too large to rapidly remove.
This also gave me an opportunity to show off some character development. Remember, while the show is only two or three dozen episodes in, in-universe it's been nearly two semesters, or what's probably the better half of a year. Vyliria's presence and logically following the consequences of Pyrrha's fame to those around her has greatly accelerated the development of the cast, much faster than what occurs in canon RWBY. Hence, Weiss and Yang are still the same, yet different people than they were at the start of the school year. And that applies to a lot of the students directly associating with our resident unkindled.
As a quick aside, even though she hasn't been in the spotlight as often lately, writing Vyliria, both from her own POV and from others' perspectives is actually really fun. Her personality is a combination of a bunch of different factors. Part of my own personality rubs off on her a little, she has her own backstory (which I still haven't fully shown you all yet) that incorporates Dark Souls lore with my own twists and turns that still follows the loose canon the series has, and while completely unintentional, a small part of her acts as a foil to Ruby; having a great deal of family issues to say the least, a dead parental figure, bearing some unique powers, in addition to enjoying a wide variety of weapons, even if she doesn't constantly swap between them (I have a scene in my head where Vyliria takes out the well over 100 weapons she possesses and mounts them all on a wall for Ruby to nerdgasm at, but I haven't actually written in down in my plot notes yet, nor have I found a point where I feel like it would be good to place without feeling shoehorned in. Maybe in the sequel when they're all in Mistral?). And saying her habits and personality leave her socially awkward is an understatement. She's paranoid, has underlying depression issues, is slow to trust anyone, can lie with incredible ease, and if you set her off she has a vindictive streak longer than Archdragon Peak is tall, nevermind what she'll do if you actually land yourself on her shitlist. But at the same time, if you've earned a spot as her friend, she's the staunchest ally you'll ever find, even if she has a great deal of her own eccentricities. She's also had a great deal of impact on those same friends. Yang's gotten less hot headed (ironic given her pyromancy), Ruby's a bit more wary of the world and slightly less idealistic, Weiss has mellowed out a good deal, isn't afraid to speak her mind, and developed her own sense of humor, Blake's opened up a great deal, and while it was forced, she's now openly displaying who she is, and is getting increasingly comfortable with it, despite people's racism. Vyliria also got Pyrrha and Jaune to hook up and has helped the latter with his issues, and I intend to have her and Pyrrha have a heart-to-heart sooner or later as well. Ren's slightly opened up, and Nora is just barely taking the world a fraction more seriously… aw who am I kidding, it's gonna take a lot more than Vyliria to change who Nora is. But perhaps the biggest impact she's had is upon one Penny Polendina, who not only has a humanity in her soul that lets her experience the sensation of touch and emotion much more vividly (and in the case of touch, lets her experience it in the first place), but over the course of the past few months, despite her own social ineptitude, Vyliria's taught her how to better be a person, along with instilling a certain streak of willingness to follow orders in spirit, but not always to the letter.
Anyways, as a teaser for the next chapter, you know how RT skipped JNPR's double's round in canon? Yeah, I fixed that.