February 21, 2022
"So, who exactly is this kid?" Ruby and Ozpin were talking to each other in his office at Beacon Academy that Monday around noon. "He doesn't seem so special to me." She then took a sip of coffee from a cup, eager to warm herself up from the cold outside.
"Well," Ozpin replied to the redhead. "Ruby, it's because I have not yet told you the truth." He then put his cup of coffee down on his desk and sighed. "I, Michael James Ozpin, believe that Oscar Pine is to be the next body to inhabit the soul that has been passed down for thousands of years that has inhabited me since I was about your age, in fact. You see, the soul is passed down to whoever has a first name that shares a similarity to the previous holder's last name. With me, the previous holder was an older man by the name of William Michel. Thanks to some sleuth, I was able to find the man who will be succeeding me before I have to die to meet him." He then took another sip of coffee with his well-known custom-designed cup.
"I wonder why," Ruby replied, wondering why Ozpin was preparing for something that did not seem likely to happen soon to her. "Surely, you don't except to die soon?"
"Of course not," Ozpin told one of his former star pupils. "However, I still want to be prepared just in case. I don't want the future holder of the soul to be left totally unprepared in today's environment. Even with Salem now gone, there are still great threats to all of us in Remnant, and my soul will still pass on. I truthfully have no idea when it will not, since I previously thought that it would stop with Salem dead, but I guess that is no longer the case." He then pulled open a drawer in his desk and pulled out a notebook that read "REINCARNATION NOTES."
Ruby looked at the notebook, which seemed to be rather old and faded, and asked the headmaster, "What exactly is in this?"
"This contains all of the information I know about the 'Passed-Down Soul' as it is called by those who have it. When I first received the soul from Bill, I began writing down all the info he told me in this notebook in between battles during the Faunus War." He then slowly opened the front cover of the notebook and revealed the first page, which was filled with rather rushed writing. "As you can see, I had to write fast since this was in the middle of a warzone. I'm sure you understand, given your deployment to Menagerie."
"Of course," Ruby replied as she looked over the first few pages of the notebook in intrigue. "Wow... You copied down a lot. Is this notebook full?"
"I just filled it this week," Ozpin replied to her. "I filled half of it during the war, and then occasionally added small parts here and there until this whole deal with Oscar Pine came about. I quickly filled the rest up in about a month." He turned to the last page in the notebook, revealing its contents. "I should probably get a second notebook, Miss Rose."
"Yeah," Ruby replied with a chuckle. "I gotta say, I'm surprised you don't have carpal-tunnel by now, Ozpin." She then closed the notebook as they both heard the door behind them open.
Through the doors stepped foot a younger man, about 20, wearing a black business suit and tie. He had black hair and hazel eyes. He then noticed that standing before him was not just Ozpin, but also the Queen of Vale herself. He immediately stood at attention, surprised by her presence, and stammered out, "Uhh... Headmaster, is... Is this the wrong time? I see you have Her Majesty here."
"It's fine," Ruby replied to him as she pulled out a second chair next to her. "Come. Take a seat. Don't be shy."
As Oscar took a seat next to Ruby, he looked over Ozpin and then her before asking, "So, you said that I will be accepted into Beacon as a student starting with August when the academic year begins?" He had with him a bunch of paperwork in a manila envelope. "I may be two years older than regular freshman students, but that should not be a problem, right?"
"Not at all," Ozpin replied. "We take any recruits whose ages ranging from 18 by the end of the year to 25 by the end of the year, unless, of course, a special order is called by the Headmaster to admit a student in early or late, like with Miss Rose, or as I should say, Her Majesty, here."
Ruby chuckled and replied, "Miss Rose is fine, sir." The three of them then heard the electronic siren of the Beacon Fire Company go off. "Huh... I wonder what they're going to."
Ozpin then received a text on his phone. "Ah! According to Glynda, there's a fire alarm activation in one of the dorms. Nothing major. Say, that's another thing I should bring up." He turned to Oscar. "We have plenty of extracurricular activities here, such as the Beacon Volunteer Fire Company, which as you heard answers emergencies on and off-campus as part of the Vale City Fire Department."
"Nice," Oscar replied as he looked out the window. "I'll consider it."
February 23, 2022
Before attending another Advanced Firefighter-Paramedic class, Ruby spent a day at the firehouse running calls and the like. She had gotten up at 5, got a briefing from staff at the Royal Palace, and then drove the 15 minutes to the firehouse in one of the many vehicles owned by the royal family. While driving, they got a call for a fire alarm that she made Truck 201 for. After that, it had been quiet.
Then, around 12:26, the pagers went off for the second time that day, this time for two EMS calls that came in at the same time. "Vale City Fire Alarm on the air with two EMS calls at Box 221 and Box 236 for Vigilant Fire Company 5. The first one will be a Delta-response at Box 221 for 27 Park Slope Road for a 47-year-old male with a seizure out front. The second will be an Alpha-response for Box 236 to the intersection of Market Avenue and Park Slope Road for a request by PD for an evaluation of a 17-year-old female. Repeating, Vale City Fire Alarm on the air with two EMS calls at Box 221 and Box 236 for a Delta-response at Box 221 for 27 Park Slope Road for a 47-year-old male with a seizure out front. The second will be an Alpha-response for Box 236 to the intersection of Market Avenue and Park Slope Road for a request by PD for an evaluation of a 17-year-old female. Time is 1227 hours, Dispatcher 602."
Ruby grabbed her gear and made her way to Ambulance 201B as the two paid firefighters and two volunteers hopped aboard Ambulance 201, which would handle the first call. As it sped out of the station with its lights and sirens going, she put her gear on due to the cold weather as she said to another volunteer, "Want me to drive?"
"Sure," the volunteer replied. "We got a crew of 3 here. We should be fine." The two of them then hopped into the ambulance before Ruby started it up. For this call, it would respond non-emergency.
4 minutes later, Ambulance 201B arrived at the intersection and pulled over to the side of the road, Ruby flicking on the lights to warn traffic. As the three of them got out, they saw that there were 4 police cars, including a detective car, on scene. Ruby said to herself, "Oh boy... This doesn't look good."
As another detective car pulled up, Ruby walked over with a BLS jump bag while the other two volunteers picked up the stretcher. She saw a female police officer talking to a woman who was sitting on the ground, wiping away tears from her eyes. The female police officer said to her, "Alright, you're gonna get checked out, okay?"
"Thank you," the woman said as she tried to contain herself.
The detective then said to Ruby, "Okay, we got called after she called 911 and said she got sexually assaulted. She's pretty shaken up."
Ruby paused as she looked at the woman. She then cleared her throat and said, "I see... So that's why we got no info over the dispatch..."
"Yeah," the detective replied. "Don't get too invasive or anything."
"I won't," Ruby assured the detective before she turned to the woman. "Okay, so, I know that given the unfortunate circumstances, you may not be comfortable with what we're doing, but you do understand that we may have to use body contact and stuff. It's only to make sure you aren't hurt any more than you already are. Remember, none of this is your fault. All of this lies on whoever did this to you, and only them."
"I know all that," the woman replied. "Do what you must. I won't stop you if it means that he won't harm someone else." She was clearly angry at the man who had violated her, and was even more so angry at the thought of him doing it again to someone else.
"Thank you," Ruby replied as she opened up the med bag. "Did whoever do this to you hit you or strike you anywhere?"
"He did slap me on the right side of the face," the woman replied as she pointed to the right side of her face. "Other than that, he didn't hit me. He "only" forced me down."
"I'm sorry if I'm making you repeat yourself with what happened," Ruby replied. "I really am." She then grabbed a flashlight. "Can you open your mouth up? I wanna see if he caused any bleeding in there. A hard enough slap can do that."
The woman nodded and opened her mouth up, allowing Ruby to use the small flashlight to look into her mouth. She then took out the flashlight. "Anything?"
"Nope," the redhead replied. "When he... Well, did he penetrate you anywhere with his genitals?"
"Vaginally," the woman replied as some tears fell out of her eyes. "That's it, thank God."
"Was he rough at all? I know that sounds odd, but if he was rough enough, he could have caused injuries down there."
"I don't know," the woman replied. "You can check. I hope he didn't." She gave a slight chuckle, almost as if to try to find some kind of thing to distract her from the awful situation at hand, a common coping mechanism for many survivors of sexual assault.
"Got it," Ruby replied as another volunteer walked over to see what she was doing. "Hey, Johnson. I'm just checking her out to see if the rapist did any damage to her genitalia."
"Got it," he replied. "You doing alright, Rose?"
"Yeah," Ruby replied. "I'm fine. I'm not letting this get to me, if that's what you're thinking." She smiled to reassure him. "I can handle this."
February 25, 2022
Ruby was doing another 8-hour at the firehouse from 4 to midnight when she rolled out on the ambulance for a call involving an emotionally-disturbed person at an apartment building. By the time they arrived, the police had already cleared them for entry, allowing the 4-man crew to enter the apartment alongside two police officers.
As Ruby walked in, she looked around at the rather bare-looking apartment and wondered who it belonged to. It was as if someone had done almost nothing to the interior of the apartment when they had rented it. "Over here," motioned a police officer as he directed her into a bedroom. There, Ruby could hear the faint sound of crying.
As she walked in, she introduced herself with, "Hello, my name is Ruby, and I-"
Suddenly, as she looked at her patient, she stopped dead in her tracks. The patient, a girl with rabbit ears and brown hair, looked at her in complete shock, "Ru... Ruby?!"
"Velvet?!" Ruby herself was equally shocked. "Oh my God... I had no idea..."
Velvet then got up as a stretcher was wheeled into the room by several firefighters. "I suppose you're here to take me to hospital, mate?" Her accent was still ever present. "I suppose it's the right thing to do." She then sat down on the stretcher and laid on it before a police officer handcuffed her to the stretcher.
As Velvet was rolled out, Ruby asked a police officer, "What happened to her?"
"Some sort of bad PTSD," the cop replied to her. "Neighbors called and said she was yelling and screaming at some enemy that wasn't there. She calmed right down when we got here and talked to her."
The explanation he gave shook Ruby to the core. She herself had dealt with a less severe case of post-traumatic stress disorder ever since the Battle of Beacon, and it had only grown worse due to the August 23rd attacks and her subsequent deployment to Menagerie as a sniper. "I... I see... I can't say I don't fully know what it's like to be in her shoes."
The officer patted her on the shoulder and told her simply, "Same here, Rose. Same here." He had on his uniform two ribbon bars that said "BEACON 2015" and "USC 2021," indicating he was present at both events, which made Ruby feel sympathetic to the officer. "Granted, it's nowhere near as bad as that girl's PTSD, but it's there for me."
"Thank you," Weiss replied in a tone that was sarcastic but subtly so as she talked on the phone to a secretary down at HQ around 6:20 in the evening from the rec room. "You are helpful as always." She then hung up and grumbled, "Jesus fucking Christ."
Ross noticed her in a bad mood while walking with Penny and Ruby and asked her, "Cap, what's wrong?"
"It's HQ," Weiss replied with a groan. "I call them and tell them that we only have 1 paid guy and we're missing the paid lieutenant that is supposed to be here, and they tell me they already sent a guy to fill in for him. Well, where the fuck is he?!" She then showed him a clipboard that she had written a name down on. "It says here his name is Lieutenant John... Uhhh... How do you pronounce that?"
Penny looked and spelled out, "D, y, c, k... Oh my... You gotta be kidding me. This is perfect." Both she and her now-boyfriend cracked with laughter as Ruby also looked to confirm before she began laughing too.
Weiss caught on and realized why they were laughing before she chuckled. "I feel so bad. This guy's last name is literally 'dick.' If he's an asshole, we can call him 'Lieutenant Dyckhead,' 'Lieutenant Harddyck,' and so on. The options are endless."
"I know," Ruby replied with giddy.
"Hey guys," Yi replied as she walked in. "I believe I found our acting paid lieutenant." She then stepped aside to let a man in his 40s walk past. On his uniform was the name tag "Lt.-Pm. J. T. Dyck." Yi mouthed quietly to Weiss, "His name is literally fucking 'dick.'"
"I know," Weiss quietly mouthed back to her. John did not notice at all. Weiss then turned to him and shook his hand. "Hello there, sir. I'm 1st Captain Weiss Schnee. I understand you're filling in for Lieutenant Young?"
"I am," he replied as he nodded.
"You know," Ross then asked him. "I've been waiting my whole life to ask this question, but are you Lieutenant Dick?" Ruby immediately began corpsing in response to the question before John shot her a glare and made her stop.
"It's actually pronounced like dike," he replied as he gave an annoyed look at Ross. "I've gotten those jokes before, okay? I've been through school and the Permanent Firemen's Academy. What is your name and rank?"
"Uhhh... Lieutenant Ross Key?"
"How would you like it if I came up with a funny name for you?" John was clearly annoyed, having heard the jokes countless times. "How about... Uhh..."
Weiss asked him, "Anything?"
"Forget it," John replied. "I gotta go report to the other paid guy anyway. Remember, it's pronounced like dike. That's D with an -Ike." He then walked out into the apparatus bay.
Penny looked over and once he was out of earshot she asked Weiss, "What was that guy's name again?"
Weiss shrugged and sighed. "As far as my book's concerned, he's Lieutenant Pussy. I'm not being sexist or anything, but that's Pu with a See." The whole room then laughed. She then turned to Ruby. "Remember when we had that professor at Beacon with a name that bad and Yang called him Professor Pussy? Well, I think that may be his brother."
"Oh yeah," Ruby replied as she remembered the memory. "That was too fucking funny."