Ah shit, here we go again.
I just want to thank you all for 40 favs, and 61 follows! I came into this with low expectations, knowing I'm not a great writer. But this has absolutely made my month! Onto the Reviews!
Guest: I want to thank you for your criticism. It is honestly what I needed to hear, and I'm already planning on doing some me of the things you mentioned.
Artemis-ArcherOfCrimson: oof, three days? Never had to stay up that long, only a full 24 hours. Get some sleep my dude!
Raidentensho: I though I did Salem decent enough. But I'm going to be honest with all of you, I stopped watching Rwby after Volume 3. Never liked the later volumes.
Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!
"Forget not the tyranny of this wall...nor the love of freedom that made it fall..." ~ Unknown, Graffiti on the Berlin Wall
(4 Weeks Later)
It's absolutely pouring outside. Me Adam aren't working today, the wood is water logged. Once wood gets wet it becomes way to much work to chop it. I look around my room bored, Cinder and Adam are downstairs reading enjoying the sound of the rain. My eyes land on my guitar I bought from a merchant when he came through the town. I walk over and grab it before returning to my bed and strumming a few chords.
Hmm what to play what to play...I mean I'm feeling some blues. Maybe some Johnny Cash?
"I hear that train a coming, it's rolling down the bend, and I ain't seen the sunshine since, I don't know when." I'm singing the song like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line. "I'm stuck in Folsom Prison, and time keeps...draggin' on. But that train keeps a rolling, on down to San Antone."
I take a breathe as I continue the song picking the pace of the song up and adding the guitar strumming to the song. "When I was just a baby my mama told me son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns. But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die." I pick up the tempo of the song again. "When I hear the whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry."
I let the song slow to a stop as I finish the first verse of the song. I'm not the best singer, but in a bar when I can play the guitar, I'm able to mask it a little to give a decent performance. I lay the guitar on the bed and head over to my desk where I've kept the map and compass from earlier. I take a seat and unfold the map, I flip it around and look at where I've been taking notes over the past 5ish months.
I pick up a pen as I slowly move towards where I stopped writing previously. I press the pen to the paper...can you get writers block when writing about events that's happened to you? Slowly I begin to write,
'Grimm are weak, like very weak...maybe just perceived as a bigger threat so huntsman are looked at better for more positivity?'
'...Cinders actually very nerdy, which has thrown me through a loop.'
'My semblance is believed to be something that can perceive someone's tell, or rather it highlights something on their person which will clue me in on their thoughts.'
I set the pen aside as I look over what I had written, before folding the map back up and placing the pen on top. I stand up and walk out of the room heading downstairs, straight into the kitchen to make coffee.
"Hey Coal, If you're making coffee make enough for me and Cinder please!" Adam calls from his library study area, Cinder is probably with him.
"Alright!" I pour water into the machine and add grinds to the filter and hitting the brew button. As the coffee brews I open the fridge to grab the creamer and look around for things to make breakfast...hmm we're out of eggs. Looks like I'm eating out today. "Hey Adam, the coffee is brewing! I'm just going to head out to Joe's to eat!"
I hear some shuffling before Cinder shows up nervously in the kitchen doorway. "Can I come, I haven't eaten either."
"Yeah you can come. I'd prefer it actually." She blushed a bit and looked happy.
"Why would you prefer it?" A green glow outlines her feet and hands as she nervously shuffles shifting her weight between her feet and putting her hands behind her back.
"Because eating alone is never fun!" I say with a smile.
"Oh..." The glow moved to her downcast face. Shit...did I say something wrong? Dammit.
"And you are great company to have around." There we go the green glow outlines her smile which already radiated happiness.
"Nice save Coal, nice save." Adam says as he enters the kitchen. "Almost screwed yourself there." He went to the now brewed coffee pouring a cup.
"Save myself from what?" I am confused...what would have screwed me over?
"Oh man, you really are ba-" Cinder just elbowed him in the side getting him to cough, surprisingly not spilling any coffee. "Nothing. Nothing. You just saved yourself let's leave it at that."
"We should head out before it gets any wetter." Cinder days as she leave the kitchen, probably to put on some rain gear. I took her out shopping one day so she would have clothes since, well you know.
As soon as she leaves the kitchen I turn to Adam and whisper. "What did I save myself from?" He leaned closer to me making his voice as quiet as possible.
"Women are scary dude...women are scary." That doesn't answer my question...I think? "You think they are all cute and lovable, then they show you their scary side."
"What are you on about?" I give him a questioning stare.
"You don't know yet you're young." A lightbulb light in his head. "You can be saved! You can be saved!"
"Adam what the hell are you on?"
"I haven't slept in 2 days." I sigh as I take the cup of coffee from him and pour it out.
"Forgive me father for I have sinned." I sigh as I look back at Adam. "Now go the hell to sleep."
"But I got tax reports I have to do." Shit he's right. "And they're due tomorrow!"
"Well we have the money, just promise to try and finish it quickly, then head to bed." I point at his eyes. "Your bags have bags dude."
"Alright, I'll try to have to done today." He left the kitchen probably heading back to his study.
"Jesus 2 days. I can barely stay up for 14 hours, I can barely think about 48." I shake my head before walking to the closet grabbing a black jacket, as it's currently 37 degrees and raining. I believe we are somewhere near October? Maybe November? It's been awhile since I've seen a calendar...I wonder why that is.
"You ready to go?" I look back at Cinder who came downstairs in jeans and a thin red sweatshirt. I nod as she moves towards the closet grabbing a brown jacket.
"Yep, you got everything you need?" I ask hinting towards wether or not she has her gun on her.
"Absolutely." She pats the left side of her hip. "Right here!"
I nod as I open the door to the outside letting the sound of heavy rain to become present. "Shall we?"
"We shall." She says back with a smile as she goes through the door, which I follow behind closing the door. We begin walking towards Joe's passing by the normal shops and stores. People aren't out today, because well the rain is borderline typhoon levels of pouring.
"It's raining cats and dogs out here." I say loudly to be heard over the rain.
"Why would it be raining cats and dogs?"
"You've never heard that expression before?"
"No should I have?"
"I mean I don't know, it was very common where I come from." Hmm weird, does Remnant not have certain expressions from earth?
"You never said where you came from." I look at her, even though visibility is low in this rain. "All you ever said was that you came from a village somewhere. You haven't even told Adam where you came from."
"I ahh...come from a village called The United States. It was pretty small not really well know, we kept to ourselves." She nodded happily as I continued to talk. "And one day I decided that I didn't want to live there so I left heading into the Emerald forest."
"How did you get to this village?"
"I met two people, their names were Qrow, and Amber." She nods along listening intently. "After I met them in an encounter where Qrow almost killed me. I kinda connected with them and we became friends, the last time I saw Qrow was 3ish months ago? Something like that."
"How close were you too Amber?" That's a little out of the blue. "Did you guys become good friends?"
"I mean I'd like to think so, but I haven't seen her since that first encounter." She walked a little closer to me.
"That's good."
"How's that good?" Good I haven't seen Amber? Hmm.
"That's good you have friends around-where are they now?" The green glow surrounds her hands and feet as she does her feet shuffling and her hands behind her back again.
"In Vale, the work their-huntsman. They work for a man named Ozpin? I think that's what it was."
"They know Ozpin?"
"Who is Ozpin, I've only ever heard him, never got told who he was and what he did." Truth...even though I already know what he does and who he is.
"He is the Headmaster of Beacon Academy." There we go, now I won't look like an idiot when talking about him in front of people now.
"Hmm. Alright then, since we're talking about where people come from where do you come from." I shiver from the cold. "I know it's Mistrial, but I would like to know more if you're okay talking about it."
"Oh yeah! I grew up in Mistrial, I wanted to become a huntress when I was little. But as I grew up it slowly became out of reach." She looked a little sad, did her family stop her from doing it? "My family wasn't really the most supportive of that dream, and as I got older my dreams shifted."
"Shifted how?" I ask curiously.
"I wanted to get into writing and art, which my parents were way more supportive of."
"I don't know the feeling sadly." She looked at me turning her head sideways about. "I wanted to get into Computer Engineering, and psychology. Which my parents were supportive off until they found out I had to leave."
"That's...unfortunate?"
"Yeah. Doesn't matter now...said somethings I shouldn't have said, they said somethings, I left. But it's all in the past now."
We were passing by Billy's when we noticed some guards standing outside. "What's Atlas doing here?" I turn to look at Cinder as she point at the guards insignia. Huh Atlas is here, welp time to find out.
"Hello, is Billy's shop closed down?" I walk up to the guards as they turn and look at me...the more I look at them the more they don't look like people.
"Scanning...Scanning...Scanning complete weapons detected: Activating VIP Emergency mode." Uh oh...that doesn't sound good. They point their guns at me. I quickly jump in front of Cinder, pull out Sequoia and fire a shot...which missed, I really need to work on my aim up close.
The door to the shop flew open revealing a Winter Schnee who looked really distraught. "STAND DOWN!" The robots immediately lower their weapons and returned to their original post.
"Can we come in?" She looked over at us with a Sorry look noticing Sequoia in my hand.
"Ye-Yes I'm so sorry, please come in." I sigh as I turn around to face Cinder.
"Let's just camp out here for a bit. No need to stay out in the rain when obviously something is happening here." She nodded as she got closer to my body...most likely shaken up from the encounter we just had. "Hey it's alright you're good, I'll protect you."
"Th-Thanks." She hugged my arm as we walked in.
Me and Cinder are currently sitting side by side on chairs that Billy pulled out. He is currently talking to Ironwood and Winter about lodging. Apparently they were heading to Vale when the storm kicked up and they had to stop somewhere. I just got unlucky when I walked passed that the sensed the weapons on me and Cinder.
"Hey Coal...what are we doing here anyway?" She leans her head into my shoulder shivering.
"I'm interested in what's going on here" I take off my jacket, making her lift her shoulder and I hand it to her. "Here wear this, you're freezing."
She takes it from me, adding another layer stoping her shivering a bit. She scoots the chair over and hugs me, I can feel the cold seeping through the jackets. "Thwanks, C-Coal " she tries to say through her shivering.
"Mhmm" I wrap my arms around her in a attempt to warm her up. "Can't let you get a cold now, can we?" I feel her nod in my hug.
"Ah Coal my dude, now let me properly introduce to my friend James Ironwood, and his assistant Winter Schnee." Billy says as he walks out of the back room.
"Hi, can I ask why you have robots who threaten to shoot people on the Frontier with weapons?" Because honestly I'm still pissed about that.
"We are in a unknown area, I only knew one person so I put them in protection mode." Seems legit I guess. "Though they shouldn't have detected a threat unless you were pointing a weapon at one of them."
"I literally walked up thinking they were people. Then they tried to shoot me and my friend here." I pointed at the still shivering Cinder. "And I did not appreciate it."
"Once again, I am sorry. I'm pretty sure they malfunctioned and detected weapons where there were none." Ironwood stool his robotic hand out. "I give my sincerest apologies."
"Apology is accepted, just make sure they don't shoot innocent people please?" He nodded before gesturing towards Winter.
"This here is my associate, and since Billy has only room for one person, he said you and your boss Adam would have enough room to share for her." My eye began to twitch, like horribly...even Cinder's looking at me weird
"Y-Yeah, sure let's go with that shall we." My gaze turned to Billy who started to sweat a little. "Billy I expect free ammo next time I see you." He nodded hurriedly.
I began to sit up, Cinder falling suite. I look at Cinder and gesture her to follow us as we step back into the rain. Wait did I leave my jacket inside? I look back at Cinder who looks warm in 3 layers...nope it's just being used.
"Are we really going to walk in the rain?" I turn around to see Winter still in the doorway hesitant to walk out side.
"Yes-yes we are." I point at Cinder. "Me and her have to go and get food, you are welcome to follow. Or you can just go to the house and meet Adam."
"Where is the house?" I pointed to the south where the house is, which is probably a 5-6 minute walk. "I think food sounds nice when I think about it."
I sigh as Cinder hugs my arm again and we finish the last minute walk to Joe's. I walk in with Cinder and Winter right behind me. Cinder takes both of the jackets off and places them in the coat hanger revealing her thin red sweatshirt.
"Alright well as you can see this is Joe's bar. There's pool on the right, poker in the back and the actual bar on the left." Me and Cinder walk over to the bar and sit down. Winter sat down to the right off me while Cinder was too my left.
"Ah, Coal And Cinder nice seeing you two here again." After we got drunk and all that we kind of stopped talking for a bit, it was only for a 2 weeks. We smoothed it over...but those were the most awkward two weeks I've ever had. "And who's this? You know Coal, the more times I see you the more women surround you."
"Shut the fuck up." I gesture towards Winter. "This is Winter, her and Billy's friend are staying in town until the storm blows over."
"I know her. She and Qrow used to come by with the Atlas general when the worked together."
"The why the hell did it ask then?"
"To make fun of you."
I sigh as I put my face in my hands, Cinder patting my back sympathetically. "You know Cinder, you're the only person I can trust." I roll my head to look at her. "You don't make fun of me like the mean people."
"I do, you're just not listening half the time." Really? Does everyone I know make fun of me? I mean I make fun of me...
"Traitors...all of you." I look back at Joe. "Can I get an omelette or something?" He nods, moving on to take orders from Cinder and Winter.
"How do you know Qrow?" I look at winter who was trying to begin conversation. "No offense, you just don't look like you would be friends with a huntsman."
"Friends is a loose term." She looked at me curiously. "He's a dickhead who almost blew my brains out when I first met him, reminds me of my younger brother almost."
"The almost killing you?"
"No the dickhead part." She nodded as the door to the bar opened.
"What is this? A family reunion." Holy shit. Qrow's here. I look at Winter seeing exactly what you would expect. Pure unbridled rage. "Oh shit and you have Ice Queen here."
"What are you doing here Qrow?" Winter looks really, really close to snapping with him just being here.
"Came here to see my good friend Coal. Can I not do that?" Qrow, please stop antagonizing, I'm the only one in the crossfire and I don't want to die.
"Hmph!" There's the pretentious noise. I might as well step in before this gets worse.
"Qrow can you stop antagonizing her using me? I really don't want to die today, or ever do that matter." He turned to me noticing Cinder who was sitting close to me.
He pointed at her. "Who's She? Someone I should know" Jesus is everything around here going to go at a mile a minute?
I slam my head into the table loudly and sigh, getting another sympathetic pat from Cinder. "Can we just like...calm done? I haven't had coffee yet and you're already going to give me a migraine."
"Alright, Alright I'll calm down. I won't do anything unless Ice Queen does something."
"And seriously. Why are you here?" I lift my head up, my forehead throbbing from when I hit it.
"Amber wanted to say hi, but couldn't come so she sent me." Alright reasonable enough. I feel Cinder wrap around my left arm after he said that. "Though, I think you have that situation under control." I look a Cinder seeing a green glow surrounding her eyes that radiate jealousy.
"Well tell her that I said hi back when you leave." He nods sitting down next to Cinder, as she hugged my arm harder. Mind out of the gutter Coal, Mind out of the gutter. Two 'mounds' were really pushing against my arm.
"You got it bud." He leaned over the counter be fore yelling. "YO JOE BRING ME MY USUAL!"
I look back down at Cinder seeing her face look very...passive? I don't know? I nudge her a little bit. "Hey what did you order?"
"The same as you." She mumbled into my shirt. "Didn't know what else to eat."
"Order up" Joe slides 3 omelettes towards me, Winter and Cinder. "Coal the coffee is still brewing, I'm assuming the usual there?"
"Yep good ole coffee." He probably means Irish coffee, which is my favorite. Joe grabs a bottle of whiskey before sliding it down to Qrow who gave a grunt to signal thanks. I take a sip of coffee, tasting the whiskey in it and smiling.
"Thank you Joe." Cinder unhooks from my arm and began eating, I do the same.
I begin whistling a tune, it's In Hell I'll be Good Company's opening whistle. Great song and I love the banjo, just sounds so good always had a addictive taste afterwords where you just wanted to keep listening.
"Coal what song are you singing this time?" Joe asks drinking from his own cup of coffee.
"It's aaaa song from my old town." He nods as I take a sip from my coffee. "It's called In Hell I'll be Good Company."
"Sounds...cheerful?"
"I mean, it's very bluegrass. And the lyrics themselves sound like something from a blues song." I take a bite of the omelette smiling after putting some food in my gut. "Perfect as always Joe."
"Thank you. It used to be my fathers recipe." He continued to drink from his coffee. He looks at Cinder before his jaw drops looking at an empty plate where an omelette used to be, I followed suite. "D-do you want more?"
"Yes please." She was nodding her head very excitedly. You know so far so good, I learned that Cinder had a huge appetite and that Qrow and Winter don't like each other. Speaking of those two.
"Have you two seen where Winter and Qrow went." I look around the bar seeing just me Cinder and Joe inside. "Because I don't see them anywhere."
"Oh they went outside, you were off in your own world." He pointed to the open door. "They were arguing and I told them to go outside."
"We're fucked..."
Hello, welcome to my humble abode. Did you enjoy the chapter?
So I might as well clear a few things, the Grimm in this version of Remnant will be weaker. I want Huntsman, and other people being the main villains. Will Salem make Grimm more powerful in this world idk at the moment. But what I do know is that I'm having Grimm be weaker, and only be perceived as deadly. Won't be a huge plot point, but it is one! Another thing is pacing, I need someone to tell me if my pacing is good, I don't know at what chapter I should do certain things etc.
As always Follow and Favorite if you enjoyed, leave a review on what you think I should do differently.
See you all next chapter!