I Do Not Own RWBY
Aiden's Venture
Through the years I've known Drew, I've never known him to be as confident as he's been these last few weeks. When the four of us became a group in our senior year of school we all had one thing in common, we were all outcasts. And among the four of us, Drew was the most distant. Looking back on those times I now see that that's why the two of us got along so quickly. We understood each other.
"Are you just going to stay silent the whole time, or are you going to tell me why we're walking through the furthest part of Vale today?"
Julie, or should I say Iris, on the other hand I've never really gotten along with ever since we were kids. We both grew up in the same neighborhood. I don't know why, but after a certain point in time she became a part of my life.
"Like I said when we left. While we still have time here in Vale I wanted to take a closer look at the little details. You didn't have to come along."
"First off, yes I did. Who knows what kind of trouble you would get yourself into without me around. And secondly, why are you still going on about the tiny details? Do you think this world is a simulation or something?"
"I haven't ruled it out yet. There is also the possibility that I'm in a coma from the car wreck and all of this is just a dream my brain is fabricating to keep me asleep. Or we could all be trapped in a WandaVision sort of mind prison."
"What? Now you're just making up situations to make yourself look smarter. I mean, there's no way I'm dreaming all of this. Right?"
"Like I said, I haven't ruled it out yet." I stated as we kept walking.
"By the way, where are we going? You haven't told me yet." She asked.
Sighing heavily I replied, "I have a plan. Well, more like there's something I wanted to test."
"And that is?"
"I am not thinking about going anywhere. Instead I am simply choosing which direction to go at random. Then depending on the outcome, I can then possibly rule out certain theories."
At that she stopped dead in her tracks. "Wait! You mean you have no idea where we're going? What the hell is the point?"
"The point is that if this was a certain form of a simulation, then it wouldn't be able to provide resources to a random area in the city. It takes too much data in order to create an entire population of individual people with their own traits and quirks."
"You mean personalities."
"Yea, sure."
And with that, she slowly followed behind me as we walked the roads. Whenever I felt like it was needed I turned to the right or the left. Sometimes we walked down alleys, and sometimes we walked through small markets. Each time we turned I made sure to make it as random as possible. Then, roughly two hours later I felt like it had been long enough and stopped.
"Now what are you doing." Iris asked after almost bumping into me from behind.
"This should be about right." I replied as I sat down on a bench in front of a small tavern.
"About right for what?"
"To start watching." I answered. At that she just gave up. Shaking her head she walked into the tavern. Probably getting a drink. Hopefully now she'll be out of my hair for a few minutes.
As I sat there on that bench I took in the full view. The area that we stopped in was right at the edge of Vale. A small open square with an old fountain at the center of it. Surrounding the square were a few random shops, and looming above the square was the wall. I could barely see the base of it through the rows of houses. It looked to be a few blocks away from here.
As I looked out at the square I watched as the people milled about. I squinted at every detail. The families walking to their homes, the lonely denizens running errands, a mother buying bread at the bakery with her baby, a few drunkards singing shanties by the fountain, an old beggar hunched over their earnings for the day, and some students on their way home from their local school.
I was busy taking it all in when I felt ice cold on the right side of my face. Recoiling a see it's just Iris with an ice cold can of soda from the bar.
"I know you're not a drinker so I got you this." She said still holding out the can for me.
Leering at her I took it, tapped the top of the can, and slowly opened it. Ever since the one time a while back I don't trust her not to shake it beforehand.
"Thanks." I uttered.
"No sweat." She says softly. Leaning back she opens her can of cold beer and starts to down it.
We sat there for a while. Me watching the citizens of Vale, and Iris asking me about my theories and the details of them. It went on like this until the sun was starting to set. The faint glow of dusk now just barely reaching over the wall above us. Knowing the last transport back to Beacon would leave in a little bit, I got up and prepared to head back.
"So, that's it? Did you find anything out that might help us get out of here?" Iris asks, now standing up to walk back with me.
"Possibly. There's still one thing I'd like to test, but I guess I'll have to save that for another day." I answered.
As we began to walk down an alleyway Iris got up beside me. "Hey, so there was something I actually wanted to ask you today. I know you're really focused on helping Drew and all, but the big dance is coming up and well…"
All of a sudden a deep voice crept out from the alley. "The two of you seem a little lost huh. Out and about on date are we?" A giant figure walked out from the shadows, and behind him two other thugs walked out from behind a few crates and boxes. I looked behind us quickly and saw that two others had blocked the entrance to the alley.
"Well? You two seem to be a lot more posh than the regulars around here. You stepped into the wrong backalley my friends. Now, how about you two hand over any valuables and Lien you've got, and then we can start to talk about your futures." The big guy said as he started to creep towards us. Iris looked over to me as if to ask how I wanted to handle this. She hadn't brought her weapon with her, so our options were a bit limited.
"What's your favorite bar in Vale?" I asked staring down the bloke in front of me.
"The fuck did you just say?" He said as he took a step towards us. In a flash I pulled out Precision from its holster on my back, converted it into its shotgun form and shot him in his face. His frail aura shattered as he fell backwards onto the cobblestone.
Looking around at the other thugs with Precision in hand I repeated myself. "What is your favorite bar in Vale?"
"Vertigo!"
"Junior's!"
"The Good Old Companions!"
"The Red Wyvern! But the Crow Bar's also up there!"
They yelled as they each ran in a separate direction. Seeing that there would be no more trouble, I holstered Precision and stepped over the unconscious body.
"And?! What was that?" Iris yelled.
Turning back I answered. "That helped disprove a theory. Now I can say that we are certainly in the predicament that Death has laid out for us."
"And what makes you think that now all of a sudden?" She asks as she steps over the body to join me.
"Those people each had a personal preference when it comes to where they wanted to drink at. Some of them I've heard of since they were in the show, but the others were genuine. They must exist somewhere. A computer wouldn't be able to do this."
"What if it was a really powerful computer."
I look over to her and see that she still had some doubts.
"Okay, we'll do it this way. You think of a random number. When I say go, say it out loud. Go."
"42!"
"8"
"What does that prove?"
"Everything. In the end computers are just fancy calculators using arithmetic logic units built into their CPU to perform logic comparisons and basic arithmetic to alter electrical signals."
"And in Layman's terms?" She asks with a sigh.
"Basically it's impossible for a computer to truly generate random numbers. For a computer, everything starts with a chosen number. So this essentially rules out a computer generated simulation."
"Okay, but what about this all being a dream?"
"Oh, that was just a joke."
At that she actually started to laugh a little. I was surprised. I thought she was just going to hit me or something.
"I really do hate you sometimes." She says.
"Only sometimes?" I asked. I could see her smirk out of the corner of my eye.
We continued to walk until we made it to the airship that would take us back up to Beacon. We were just sitting down in our seats when I remembered something.
"Wait, before we were cornered in the alley, were you going to ask me something?"
As the words left my mouth I saw her cringe, and maybe even blush slightly.
"Oh, yea. Um. I was wondering if you would care to go with me to the dance?"
I thought about it for a second before answering. "Yea, sure."
Hearing my answer, she perked up a bit. "You will?"
"Of course. We'll both be going anyways to go along with Drew's plan. Might as well blend in as a couple right?"
For some reason she seemed to be shocked at my response. "Oh. Yea, sure. To blend in. Right."
The rest of the return trip was rather quiet after that. As we walked back to our dorm room I began to think to myself. We are just friends after all, so of course she just wants to blend in better. Right?
Sorry about the day late upload. I was out of the house all day yesterday.
Anyways, this is the first chapter to solely focus on one of the other main characters. Aiden/Shaun is one of the more difficult characters to write for. He's very similar to Drew in a lot of aspects, so I try to differentiate between them as much as possible so they seem more like their own character.
Enough said. Thank you all for continuing to read, and I will be on time next week with the next chapter.
Hopefully...