"It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts."-Oscar Levant


The crowds always bugged him.

Menagerie could be a beautiful place, but it had its downsides. One of them was certainly the sheer amount of Faunus that were packed onto the island. It made carrying a bag of groceries to your house much more of a chore than it should have been.

"The humans must be taught that we will not back down!" Halting at the voice, Silk turned to look. Up on a stool stood a member of the White Fang, a dog Faunus by the look of his grey-furred ears. Silk couldn't stop himself from wandering closer, whether it was anger pulling him or sheer morbid curiosity.

Pushing through the crowd, he again found himself annoyed. Of course, he could've just lowered his hood. People always parted for that.

But he decided to keep it up for the present. The peaked hood was specifically designed to keep his upper face hidden in shadow; he had made it himself. The hoodie it was part of was white and covered with an intricately woven design of black threads. Below them he wore black jeans, the bottoms of the legs laced with numerous dangling threads, giving them an almost hairy appearance. He wore no shoes; never liked the things.

"If you are willing to stand up for yourself, then join us!" the dog-eared Faunus went on. "And we will teach them a lesson they will never forget."

"What, like what happened at Beacon?" Silk spoke up. The Faunus turned to look at him. "Is that your idea of helping our kind?"

"Hey, I had nothing to do with that." The Faunus's smirk made it clear he would've eagerly participated. "But I don't have much sympathy for humans. Every one of them is a lowlife piece of scum who wants nothing more than..."

It's kinda hard to finish your rant when you're falling. This Faunus learned that personally as Silk's anger at him boiled over and his foot swung out, kicking one of the stool's legs and shattering it. The Faunus's words turned into a yell as he toppled to the ground.

Turning without another word, Silk marched away. The White Fang member scrambled to his feet.

"You'll pay for that!" he snapped. Silk held up a hand as he walked, some sort of metallic glove on it, particularly noticable with the pieces reaching down the length of each finger. All but one of those fingers lowered as he kept on his way, already admonishing himself for losing his cool.

Later that night, he was sitting in his house minding his own business. Nearby sat a picture of his team, the three humans who meant the world to him, and who he couldn't stand to hear insulted.

In the image, his partner Jacqueline had her arm on his shoulder, trying to subtly pull his hood down as he held it in place. Beside them, their other teammates, Morgana and Nitro, were holding hands as they grinned at the camera. Silk gave a small smile as he recalled how they had leapt apart moments later, not having realized they were doing that.

How he wished he had some word from them. They had all been scattered in their own corners of the world when things went to hell. The plan was to meet here, at his place in Menagerie, and so he was waiting, hoping that they would find their way. He wasn't sure how much longer he could stand to do it.

Looking up, he frowned. His acute senses picked up the sound of voices outside. Standing, he walked to the door and opened it, finding several White Fang members gathered around his home. Among them was a familiar dog-eared man, holding a molotov in his hand.

"Look, fellas, that's not necessary." he said. "Trust me, it'll be better for you all if you just turn around and go crawling back to whatever rock you've been hiding under."

"Yeah?" The dog-eared Faunus snarled. "And let a no-good, human-loving traitor like you humiliate me?"

"Your attitude towards humans already humiliates you." Silk told him. "But if you want me to do it further..." Holding out his arms, his gloves each extended a sharp, thin, needlelike blade from each finger, forming two hands of claws. "I'll gladly do so."

Several of the other White Fang members looked at each other nervously.

"Uh, maybe we should just go, Grey..." a sheep Faunus said nervously. Silk almost laughed. He knew he must be an eerie figure, standing in the dark with his hood and claws.

"Not a chance!" Drawing back an arm, Grey hurled his molotov.

Before Silk could react to it, a gunshot blew it apart midair, the flames landing on the ground and burning out on the pavement. Leaping down from the rooftops, two figures landed on either side of him. Silk glanced at them, one a female cat Faunus, the other a male monkey Faunus.

"Looked like you could use some help." The monkey Faunus said. "Mind if we join in?"

"Hmph. The more the merrier." Silk shrugged.

"Get them!" Grey drew two gleaming short swords and charged, the others following less enthusiastically behind him.

Running to meet his attacker, Silk slid across the ground at the last moment, passing between his legs. Holding back his hands, webbing shot from holes on the underside of his wrists, latching onto the back of Grey's legs. Rising, Silk yanked them out from under him, sending him falling facefirst into the dirt.

Spinning around, he raised his hands and used his claws to block a sword swinging towards his face. Grabbing the Faunus wielding it by the wrist, he spun and flipped them to the ground. Planting his palms on the pavement, he swung a kick to the side to knock another Faunus away.

A goat Faunus charged him with an angry yell and Silk swung a foot up, kicking him under the chin hard enough to launch him into the air. Shooting a web up, it stuck to the Faunus's chest and Silk yanked him down, bouncing him off the ground and kicking him away. He slid to a halt next to the sheep Faunus who had wanted to leave earlier.

As Silk turned towards him, he turned and booked it. Silk smirked as he shot webbing that wrapped around his upper body. There was a slight blue glow around the base of his gloves as the Dust there activated, being channeled down the connecting webline. In a flash, a block of ice formed around the Faunus's body, only his head sticking out.

Silk looked over to where the others were fighting. The monkey Faunus was using a staff, effortlessly downing his opponents with sweeps and twirls. Behind him, the cat Faunus wielded a sword and its sheath in tandem, blocking a swinging sword and smacking its wielder aside.

"Heads up!" Silk called, pulling on the Faunus he still had attached to him. The sheep Faunus let out a scared bleat as the block he was in slid along the ground and Silk released the line, sending him bowling into a group of his comrades as the other two dove aside.

The cat Faunus dodged to the side, leaving a shadowy clone in her wake as a bullet whizzed through where she had been standing. Her sword transformed into a sort of grappling hook and she hurled it, passing through between the Faunus responsible's legs and bouncing up off the ground.

Shooting a web, Silk caught it and pulled, the ribbon tied to her weapon catching the Faunus's leg and flipping him off his feet. Smoothly slicing the line, he sent her weapon back to her and she caught it.

Dashing forward, she knocked back another cat Faunus trying to leap at Silk from behind, landing beside him.

"I know you." Now that he got a good look at her, Silk recognized her. "You're the chieftan's daughter, right?"

"Yeah. Blake Belladonna." She introduced as she used her sword to deflect a gunshot. "And that's Sun Wukong."

"You can call me Silk. Only name I go by." he told her. A bull Faunus tried to swing an axe towards him and Silk ducked under, raising an arm and pushing the attack up so it wouldn't strike Blake behind him. Firing a pair of webs down and catching the Faunus's hooves, Silk ducked past him and leaped up, wrapping them around his horns and leaving him crashing to the ground thus tied. "What are you two doing out here?"

"Looking for these guys." Blake told him, using her clones to dodge past a lizard Faunus and smoothly striking him in the back off the head. "We've been working against the White Fang on the island, trying to stop them."

"Noble goal." Seeing they were about to be surrounded by charging opponents, Silk raised a hand. "Up."

As Blake sprang into the air, Silk knelt and slammed his palm to the ground, creating a burst of ice around him in the form of blunt-ended spikes that struck the incoming Faunus and knocked them away.

"Retreat!" A feathered Faunus with a dangling chin yelled. The others scrambled up, taking off after him, a few of them helping their trapped comrades get free.

"Tsk. Chicken." Silk muttered.

"I think he was a rooster, actually." Blake said as she landed next to him. Silk laughed.

"I like you." he told her.

"You..." The two of them turned as Grey glared at them. Flicking his wrists, his swords split into segments and extended into long whips of blades. "I'll shred you!"

"Sun, go after the rest!" Blake called. "We got this one."

"You sure?" Sun called over. Blake nodded and he ran in the direction of the fleeing members, springing up towards the rooftops to chase after them from above.

Silk and Blake leaped aside as their opponent's whips struck the ground where they had been standing. Silk flung out his hand, Ice Dust sending frozen spikes shooting forward, but Grey retracted his whips, the whole things pulling back and forming into their sword states quickly enough to block the attack.

Blake leaped into the air and fired her weapon down, Grey swinging his swords and deflecting the shots. Swinging one, it turned back to a whip and Blake narrowly dodged aside with a clone before it could strike.

Trying to take advantage of his distraction, Silk shot a web towards his foot, but Grey slashed down and cut through it with his other sword before he could pull his legs out again. Swinging his extended whip around, Silk leaped over it as the blades passed under him.

Blake landed near Grey and swung her blade, the dog Faunus blocking with his own. Shoving her back, he went on the offensive with a flurry of blows, Blake blocking or dodging them as she manuvered around him.

Silk aimed his hand to fire another line and realized he had used too much webbing; his body's reserves were done for. Growling in annoyance, he charged forward.

Hearing him coming, Grey extended his weapons and spun, Blake taking a lash that flung her back before she could avoid it. Retracting them, he blocked and moved back as Silk slashed and stabbed at him with his claws. He had to admit, the man wasn't totally unskilled as a fighter.

As Blake rose again, Grey leaped away and lashed out with a whip. Silk twisted his head aside as it passed by, slicing through his hood. Spinning without missing a beat, Grey used his other whip to wrap around Blake's waist, spinning and flinging her away, smashing through a window and into a building. Silk realized it was his own house and cursed at having to fix the window now.

Grey turned back to him as he snarled with a cocky smirk, but it faded as he took in his foe's appearance. Silk's sliced hood had fallen, revealing a mop of wiry white hair atop his head, along with the feature that the hood was meant to hide. Grey took an unsettled step back as eight dark eyes glared at him from Silk's face.

Silk tapped into his Semblance and in his vision a silvery glow appeared throughout Grey, a particular well in the center of his being and a network that extended out all across him, his Aura, ready to defend against damage. Silk quickly determined how much he had and grinned as his claws glowed a faint blue with the Ice Dust in his weapon.

As he charged forward, Grey swung a whip down and Silk caught it in his claws, pushing it down and freezing it against the ground. He rolled past, swinging his claws against a particularly dense point of Aura in Grey's leg and leaving a trail of ice. His hand came down in an arc to finish the blow, connecting the ice to the ground.

Leaping up, he slashed across Grey's upper back, continuing to focus on similar points of concentrated Aura. The defensive shield absorbed the blow and Silk grabbed the ends of the ice trail left, crouching and connecting them to the ground.

As he moved around his foe, Grey tried to twist and swing his other sword at him. Grabbing the blade, Silk twisted and pressed its flat against Grey's own back, freezing it in place.

"You bas..." Grey's snarl was cut off as Silk's hand clamped over his mouth and trapped it under a layer of ice.

Silk continued to strike at him, leaving ice trails that he connected to the ground and each other in a complex network. The whole time, he kept an eye on the glow within Grey, watching it slowly get dimmer and dimmer with each strike.

Stepping behind him, Silk retracted the claws on his weapons and struck the small of his back with a final four-fingered jab. Grey's Aura absorbed the shock of the blow before it finally broke and flickered out.

Walking out in front of him, Silk stepped back to admire his work. Grey was trapped within dozens of ice trails, almost looking like a web as they held him in place. Nodding in satisfaction as Grey glared at him, he held up a hand, showing his claws weren't out.

"That last blow could've been lethal." he said. "Think on that."

Turning, he looked towards his house as Blake made her way back out. The whole business of trapping Grey had taken only a matter of seconds. As Blake looked at him in surprise, Silk waved.

"It's all good. I got him." he said.

"Watch out!" Silk spun at the combination of Blake's yell and a cracking sound behind him, realizing his mistake too late.

Grey had managed to retract the extended whip, the force of it being pulled back in shattering the ice trapping it and sending out a chain reaction that broke him free. Swinging out an arm without missing a beat, the hilt of his weapon slammed against the side of Silk's face before he could use his Aura, sending stars dancing in his vision as he fell to the ground.

When he regained his senses, Blake was crouched beside him, looking at him in concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. I think so." Silk winced and rubbed at the sore spot. "Missed my eyes by an inch or so, thankfully." He looked around, finding no sign of the man responsible. "Where did he go?"

"Ran. Guess he wasn't up to fighting us any more." Blake shrugged. "I would've gone after him, but I had to make sure you weren't badly hurt."

"Thanks for that." Silk pulled himself to his feet, shaking his head. "I'll make it. And I don't think those punks will be brave enough to come back here."

From above, Sun leaped down to land on his feet beside them.

"Sorry, Blake. They slipped away." he informed.

"Really? All of them?" she asked in surprise.

"They had help." he said simply.

"Ah." Blake nodded. "Ilia. Right. Figures she'd show up." Silk noticed a tone of concern in her voice.

"Don't worry. We'll figure it out." Sun assured.

"Well, thank you both for helping out." Silk offered a hand. Blake shook it, as did Sun, looking to him for the first time since he'd showed back up.

"Whoa. The eyes are cool. Kinda creepy, but cool." he said.

"Sun." Blake hissed. Silk laughed.

"Most people start with creepy and leave it at that." Stepping past them, he walked towards his house. "It was nice fighting with you two. Good luck with your fight against the White Fang."

"You want to help?" Sun asked.

"Love to, but I don't know how long I'll be here." he told them. "My team could show up at any moment." Opening his door, he looked back. "You guys are clearly Huntsmen too. You have a team?"

"Yeah, we both do." Sun told him. Blake seemed to tense up at the question. "We're not on the same one."

"It's a crazy world out there." Silk told them. "Don't stay away from them for too long, you know what I mean? Keep them close."

"Uh...sure?" Sun scratched his head nervously. "Same to you."

"Yeah." Silk frowned. "Same to me."

Waving a last goodbye, he stepped inside and closed the door. Sighing, he looked to the broken window and reached up to touch his torn hood.

"Gotta fix this..." he muttered, moving and locating a basket of thread and a needle. Glancing at the photo of his team nearby, he nodded. "Then...I coming to find you guys."


Character Profile

Name: 'Silk'

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 135 lbs.

Age: 26

Sexuality: Straight

Place of Birth: Menagerie

Based On: Arachne

Bio: Living in a world full of monsters that are drawn to negative emotions, it's only natural that there are those who seek to remove such things entirely. Though the war to remove artistic expression was lost and people these days tend to name their children after colors, there are still those who subscribe to the other side of the equation. Silk was the child of such people on the Faunus-populated island of Menagerie. His parents not only refused to accept artistic expression of any sort, but even believed in the supression of all emotion, both positive and negative, under the belief that the latter could not exist without the former. Silk was given a plain name and raised to follow in their footsteps, but unfortunately for them...he was terrible at it. He had a major prideful streak and a short temper that constantly served as a source of trouble, not helped by his unique appearance even among Faunus. As he grew, there came a point where his parents realized he would never be what they wanted of him, and so they cast him out, maintaining their blank-faced refusal to express emotion the entire time. Frustrated and furious, Silk wandered the world with no plans, his dark state of mind nearly bringing his end several times were it not for the efforts of a wide variety of Huntsmen who came to his aid. Along the way, he slowly developed a fascination with art, specifically in his case, weaving. After learning of the past war and how people choose names in this day, he decided to change his to something more expressive of himself. Ending up in Vacuo, he elected to become a Huntsman so that he could defend others as had been done for him in his time of need. He met his closest friends and the first people to truly accept him for who he was, in personality and appearance, in his teammates and slowly mellowed out over time, though his old temperamental side remains under the surface, especially prone to being unleashed when said teaammates are threatened or insulted.

Weapon: Weaver Claws-Twin open-palmed gloves that extend needlelike claws from each fingertip. The base around the wrist is fitted with Ice Dust that can be utilized to enhance Silk's attacks in a number of ways. It can be used to launch dagger-sharp ice spikes as a ranged attack, focused into the fingertips to leave an icy trail behind a slash, concentrated into a burst attack, and even channeled into Silk's natural webbing to further immobilize a bound target. With Aura enhancing them, the claws can also be used to dig into most surfaces for quick climbing of walls and other obstacles.

Semblance: Eye of the Spider-When active, Silk can visibly see people's souls and the network of Aura that comes from it. Not only does this render stealth useless against him, but it enables him to see specific points of focus for their Aura, letting him wear it down much faster by directing his attacks towards them. Through training, Silk has learned how to expertly gauge the level of Aura a person has remaining as well through its brightness, allowing him to always tell how close an opponent is to defeat.


(A/N: Forgot to double-check before I uploaded last time, but I went back and looked, and I KNEW I was misspelling Beringel! It always gets me! Fixed that.

You know what I realized while I was writing this? I was thinking back to the spider Faunus we saw in RWBY, Trifa back in Vol 5, and it dawned on me that the only reason she was a spider Faunus in particular was so that they could get Blake tied up in that scene without having to animate characters getting out ropes or awkwardly cutting to an away shot. That's totally it, isn't it? That blew my mind a bit, but I can't unsee it now XD

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this look at the next member of Team JSMN (pronounced Jasmine, just on the off-chance somebody is wondering). Two more characters to go; I'm thinking probably early-to-mid April I'll have Morgana's chapter ready, and then Nitro should go up in late May or early June. The actual JSMN story will begin next year, probably early on in the year assuming nothing comes up to delay me. Reviews are always appreciated (thank you, jamisomersley, for yours; glad you're enjoying), and I'll see you all next time. Mewtwo, out!)