This is a little didy about Yang and Ruby, with Tai, Weiss and Blake as background.
At least another month has gone by and things have been normal. Ya, I know, normal is another word for boring. That's why were skipping that month. And yes, I am a sick person. Also I started watching some guy called Jerry Freeman on youtube it's surprising, his world building. Much more detailed then my own but I have to say, an uncomfortable amount of parallels. Simply said other then his low tech angle, I feel I'm copping him. So. To diverge into another world that I can call my own, well, I've been trying, but my mind seems to be set on this one and the events within it.
Meh
"So, you want to spend the weekend at home? On Patch?" Blake asked wondering if she got it right. It was the end of the day and the end of the week. She had questioned why Yang and Ruby were packing an overnight bag, she was told they were going to spend the weekend at home.
"aYep." Answered Yang popping the P. "Dad says our little social psycho has been making some long strides, and can even laugh a bit now, so were going to check it out. Wanta come along?"
"I don't see why, this is a massive waste of your time." Weiss interrupted looking over her shoulder from her studies, she saw the what are you talking about glances between the sisters and extrapolated with an irritated sigh. "This time of year air flight is almost nonexistent. The trip to Patch is going to take almost a day by boat, and another coming back. You will only have a few hours at best for interaction between sleep before you have to return."
"Nope." Peeped Ruby stuffing something into her overnight bag. "Isaac has an aircraft and is going to fly us to and back, only take a few hours."
"There has got to be age restrictions for operating Bullheads." Weiss countered.
"Not a bullhead." Yang shot back a little miffed. "Some kind of small personal plane, seats four. Isaac said its fast too, and will take less then two hours to get from here to home."
Weiss turned in her chair facing them all and explained what they were missing. "I realize the Grimms Bane is acquiring large bounties, but most, if not all of that will be going back into those metal machines they use, just the amount of dust to move something that heavy, on the ground?" Weiss stood and paced a bit recalling. "They now have eighty ton, umm, tanks? Panzers? They call them? Made of iron and steal with hardly any light ceramic or plastics. No aluminum nor any tungsten. They will be using truckloads of dust. It should be no surprise why they have two dust mines. Yet nothings being sold on the market."
She stopped, folding her arms across her chest. "My point is, or more to the point my question is, how did he, or more correctly, how did your father have enough money for a custom aircraft? He is no longer fostering Isaac. So on a teachers salary your father just simply can not afford purchasing an aircraft." The two sisters looked and each other and gave Weiss a shoulder shrug. Ruby with hands up offered both.
"Ask him yourself when he gets here." Yang told her. Closing her bag and looking at the time and she added. "He should be…" The door knocked. "Here." Yang finished smiling. Weiss politely huffed as she walked to and opened their dorm room door.
Sure enough Isaac was standing there. "Is Yang and Ruby here?" He asked. He was looking completely different from the boy she had seen over a half year before. That gaze that would have studied the room almost coldly was all but gone, he watched her true, but not as before, with eyes that made her uncomfortable. Weiss remembered the news impossibly claiming that his liquid semblance could move hundreds of thousands of tons and had been used to help kill that mammoth grim. Weiss hesitated uneasily eyeing the faunas before saying. "Yes."
"Little brother!" Rose petals flashed all around Weiss making her gasp. Everyone heard a thud. Fallowed by "Kyaa!" "Are ya happy to see me? Say it! Say it!" As Rubys team crowded the door they found Isaac laying under Ruby.
"Will you get off!" Isaac told her. "Not until you say it!" Ruby countered. "Say what? Givme a clue here, this is half indecent." "I will tickle you if you don't say it!" Ruby warned. Ruby not one to wait started in. Isaac looked shocked then started snorting, holding in his laughter and tried to keep Ruby's fingers off him. "This would be over quick if I wasn't restricted." He complained doubling his efforts.
The noise they were making brought Pyrrha to the door. "Brother and sister tickle fight." Yang quickly explained. All the time Ruby was telling Isaac. "Say it little brother. Say it." Pyrrha smiled covering her mouth with a hand watching them tussle. Nora poked her head out under Pyrrhas arm. Ruby managed to pin one arm to Isaacs side, keeping it there by holding it down with her leg. Isaac half defenseless erupted in laughter. "Say it." Ruby demanded.
"Haha-Ruby, stop! I don, y-don't know." He managed to catch a finger on each of Rubys hands and held on. While he tried to buck Ruby off him. "Say it." Ruby said hanging on slipping a finger out of his grasp.
"This is looking like an unsavory floor show." Weiss whispered pulling back into there room. Isaac stopped struggling finely getting it. "hHi, sis." He half laughed.
Ruby squealed in delight, leaned forward and kissed Isaac on the forehead then stood up. Seeing Yang had her suitcase in hand she went for hers. "Just a sec to get my bag." She told Isaac walking into the room. Isaac elbowed himself up huffing a bit with a red face getting ready to stand.
Yang took a step forward. "My turn." Her smile was mischievous as she bent. Isaac was shaking his head warding her off with one hand an almost panicked look on his face. "Relax." She told him taking his hand, bracing a foot on his then pulled him up.
"Thank what ever makers smile on this world." Isaac gushed. Fully on his feet. "I could have been smothered." Yangs surprised face twisted first into shock then a lopsided grin came on as she gave him a light cuff on the back of the head. "Hay!" Isaac turned to face Yang.
"HI! I'm Nora." Isaac shocked by the sudden face yelling next to his ear spun about and bounced a step back into Yang. Who pushed him back at Nora. "Your that one in the news, right?" She asked.
Rubbing the back of his neck trying to recapture his pride with an ear spastically twitching he half heartedly answered her. "Ya, that's me. Turing the world on its head."
"Ready to go!" Interrupted Ruby. Grabbing the situation Isaac said quickly. "Sorry, got to go, nice meeting you Nora, and?"
"Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos."
Isaac waved as they went down the hall. "Please don't say you saw me, the news hates me." Ruby was almost bouncing around Isaac singing. "I got a baby brother."
"Oh. Come on Sis!" Isaac said growing frustrated. "This is short buss stuff." Weiss, shaking her head came back to the threshold and closed the door. "Glad that shows over." She huffed.
"Wasn't that bad, I've seen worse with siblings." Blake told her settling down to read.
"Young ones I can see, but Ruby is far to old to be straddling a child." Weiss retorted. "It's just bad manners."
"Embarrassing to watch?" Blake asked. Slightly smiling as Weiss huffed again, her cheeks flushing to her ears. "Also you didn't ask him how he could afford a personal aircraft." Blake reminded her smiling slightly more as Weiss put a hand to her forehead. "I am, not, chasing him down." She vowed.
"What puzzles me." Blake asked. "Is Yang and Rubys change towards him. I wonder what happened to get them excepting the, as Yang kept calling him, little psycho?" Weiss shaking her head made clear by body language she didn't want to think about it. Shrugging Blake went back to reading.
The aircraft the sisters found was comfortable but not all that roomy, a seat to each side of the craft with a narrow path up the middle, but it did have a good sized cargo compartment. They soon lifted and after a bit Isaac turned on some background music as they chatted and flew the one hundred minute flight to Patch. Coming to a landing at a recently made concrete pad a few hundred feet from there home.
"Got to say. This is a lot better then a boat." Yang Said pleased as she grabbed her bag. "How'd ya get a hold of this?"
"One of the Buzz gave it to me." He answered distracted by locking the steering mechanism down with an iron bar. Then he closed and locked the door stuffing his flight book into a hip case before turning. Yang was watching him with a "Well" plastered on her face. "Oh? ya, the Buzz? There a bunch of busy bodies, self proclaimed watchers of Grimms Bane and they get into everything. They knew I was down on funds and hooked me up, so I could save some of my lien coming and going to Mavideniz."
"Guess Weiss was right." Ruby said. Isaac frowned before asking. "What's that snowflake saying?"
"Don't have to sound so angry, Weiss is nice once you know her, and she's my partner." Isaac sighed seeing it upset Ruby so he tried switching gears. "Ok, ok. Sorry, so, what is Weiss saying?"
"That is costs a lot to run those tanks." Ruby answered quietly. Isaac nodded still not smiling. "I can see the misunderstanding. She thinks I use dust to run that equipment, right?"
Yang was quick on the uptake. "You use another power source? What kind?" Isaac made a shush motion for quiet half smiling. "It's a secret, also the stuff dissolves grim."
As they walked back to the house. Ruby chatted telling Isaac what had been going on and Yang questioning Isaac more about what he had been doing.
As they came close Tai opened the door and Ruby shot straight into him. "Hi Dad!. Miss me?" After the spinning hug and setting her down Tai rubbed the top of her head. "Sure did Pumpkin." Then he turned to Yang getting another energetic hug. "This is nice. You two can spend the weekends here any time you want now." He ushered them into the house letting them know diner was almost ready. So they unpacked before the evening meal.
Some more stuff for world building and getting a feel for what kind of tone I want. Someone asked for a Salem view on Grimms Bane concerning the White Fang event. So here is some thoughts on Salem. Thanks 2Rule179 your suggestion fried my brain, I could not stop writing until this was done. (I will find you. Maybe not in this life, but the next.)
As always please post your thoughts, concerns, ideas, grammar burns ect. It helps, a lot.
Keep Your Friends Close
How to describe the life of an immortal. For that is what the gods of destruction and creation made of her. To have days uncountable in the past with no future end in sight, the worst thing about it all Salem found, was boredom. As the centuries pass and grew into millennium's. Boredom, it is the worst thing imaginable. One could grow used to it, take a place and live in a echo like state, knowing that hunger, thirst, even being devoured by some beast would not end you.
Salem found living in a mansion or a hovel adequate for her needs. At first she had known loneliness, then despair, and finely a haltered of the gods. In time that turned into apathy.
Man returned and Salem found their struggles fighting the grim amusing. As they grew and survived, she found herself pleased watching them. Then they found dust within the earth. Fascinating to her Salem gathered and experimented with these crystals. With time and magic she found shaping the flesh of others using these crystals captivating.
Salem captured humans and animals, using her refined magic's with this dust melded the two, it took some time and there were many failures along the way, but in the end she saw her experiments through. The Faunas were born.
There was plenty of room on Remnant, so they had time to grow before found. Humanity quickly made slaves or hunted them. What humanity did to faunas was entertaining to the immortal, faunas looked so much like the gods and their conflict helped pass the time.
When her creations fought back the humans would gather, driven to defeat them to the point were the grim were almost ignored. When Salem saw that she wondered and soon learned how to whisper to the grim, guiding their paths. It was simple control at first. Forcing her will on them, but as time passed her influence become more refined. She started modifying them to suite her needs. Then unleashed them on humanity and the Faunas alike. The wave attacks she periodically used took over the uncountable years, millions of lives.
Salem found she grew bored with it all rather quickly. The humans were so week and the faunas could run fast, cornering them kept her amused, but that to grew wearisome. Finely she left them all alone, even the grim, finding solace in the wood, hearing the song of the changing seasons. Interruptions by unwelcome visitors were dealt with, sometime in an entertaining way.
Humans and her creations learned to leave her alone and time drifted like a slow river, until he came. At first she intended to skin the intruder and let him return alive to the village that had grown close to her, but one look and she knew. She said his name and he hers. One touch and she had no doubt, her husband, after so long a time had returned. Salem did not know why, or care, he would she learned reincarnate into another as the body he held grew old. She found it delightful. Time passed for her in a most pleasant way.
Until. The betrayal. She felt unloved, cast aside when her love confessed the mission he was sent to complete by the gods. She could see no reason to even want them to return. They were pitiless and uncaring, she remembered them wiping out the world and calmly calling mankind an experiment. They like a spoiled child had ended all of humanity for what one group had done.
They could replace them, their children held the gift of magic, something the gods fractured from humanity. Where there had been an abundance of spells one could use, now they called it semblance, and each had only one. The gods were too cruel to want to return. Salem repeatedly voiced her views, but her husband grew distant, a part of her knew what he would do, she had seen this before in others, and prepared for it.
In the end the home they had built and the life they created was no more, her children were dead, he had used them. Like shields, until she had enough suffering his attacks and ended them with him. She remembered the story he gave her, he would be back and she would be there. Waiting with just retribution as her weapon.
The years passed beyond thousands. Humanity rose and fell at her command. Salem found advancements were a problem, technology could in time replace spells, becoming as potent as any magic.
She would find him on occasion and make him suffer, but more and more she found he seemed not to be interfering with her affairs. Or she had broke his spirit at some time. Salem started letting him be, more then once her followers reported him as poor or hopelessly drunk. So she tended to other matters.
More then once she slapped humanity down when advancements in technology became troublesome, she made sure all records and text, all knowledge was destroyed, and obliterated as much as possible. Finding some amusement killing just the smart ones, the ones who could make a difference, the heroes and the giving ones willing to sacrifice themselves. This sowed the seeds of secrecy, mistrust and apprehension of participation to intervene in an injustice. Watching as the remaining masses crowded in dread into narrow mountain passes or made their homes on cliff walls, and defensive land mark's.
Then her old love returned while Salem was distracted. Engaged in an intense global war, he took her by complete surprise. His was a king and used three of the relics to decimate the warring army's. Salem wanted them all struggling in one spot, an exciting winner take all. Intending fully to let the winners be for a time, as a reward should they defeat her military.
Salem lost many followers that day. There devotion to her, trying to carry out her orders made them all but fodder. After. He organized the surviving kingdoms and they started talking, sharing ideas. In time they founded a school to fight grim and were successful in driving the grim back. Salem pulled back, something she had never done. Clumped her grim into pockets, a mass to large to attack, then sent portions of them out to test the defenses of the city's and towns. More often then not a single powerfully made grim would suffice.
He suppressed religion. Some of the new leaders went to the extreme and tried to destroy emotion itself, by banning all it's expressions, thinking, she only guessed that the grim would leave them alone, if they felt, nothing? Sometimes humans made her laugh so.
By this time Salem did not think of herself as human, but as a goddess. Ruling over the land held by man and grim. Her the final decree if they lived or died. Time passed, and the king who had brought so much change died from age.
Salem found him, again.
Ozpin. That name, so close to his original, it brought back unwanted memories. He had maneuvered his way into the bureaucracy. The efforts of her minions to stop his claim to power were found and neutralized. She was fighting laws and ideology's. It was fascinating how intricate this was, and in it's own way, delicate. He placed himself in Vale, Beacon Academy as their headmaster. Salem had to give him a head node, he had done well, outmaneuvering her, placing his own followers in controlling positions. Changing the way Remnant thought as a whole.
Salem slowly began knocking the pegs holding him up, not moving fast, wondering how long it would be before he realized that all that infrastructure he created and his hope for the world was no more. Then she learned his secret.
"So, this is his end game?" She spoke aloud when she learned of Ozpins intent. He was setting up to summon the gods, all he needed were the keys, the maidens whose existence was the life force he had given them. They welded magic, enough to make a difference, she had started hunting them as soon as it was made known how they came to be, as she had done with the silver eyes. Even now he was gathering the keys. To bring all the relics together and summon the gods, who would then judge and damn all of Remnant, wiping out humanity, again. This time she knew eternally.
She understood all to well that he needed to be stopped, and soon. The alliances he had made struck deep into her armies, scattering some, and technology had grown swiftly, too swiftly. Salem understood she couldn't push, or use relentless never ending attacks, she would have to amass and crush them, completely. Perhaps she mused she could try, a different approach, something subtle, yet deadly.
Then she found a suitable candidate. A power hungry woman whom normally she would have nothing to do with, but this selfish woman fit into her ploy and could get what she wanted done. This woman of self interest had agreed to her modifications. Cinder would intercept the first key, take from that maiden all of her ability's.
In the end Cinder had been partly successful, as Salem's faithful gathered at appointed positions to make perpetrations for Ozpins downfall something new came into the mix. A boy. Her computers when she had him investigated showed no history, it was as if this almost infant had come into existence from nothing.
A child, one of her long ago creations. At first she didn't believe, the news was simply amazing, how could a youngster do so much? It seemed impossible, so she sent her observes to watch, there didn't seem anything different, just he was rather tall for his age, yet he did things that surprised her. Gathering live grim to practice on. She had leaned back and smiled at the unique thinking, so simple yet to date no one had done so. Head strong with knowledge, enough to disagree with the professors. Then his semblance came out, and with a large group of adolescents he started making big dents in her forces on Patch. So, somewhat annoyed, she tried to kill him.
He survived. Even a pod of behemoths were not enough. It was suggested he be expelled from school for acting reckless. That would block him from becoming a professional hunter. Salem approved, letting her subordinates take care of the little things. He is an orphan, some kind of prisoner for experiments she learned, he when found had only a number as a name. He would have little in support, even the professor who fostered him would not be an obstacle.
That all ended in failure. Who would have considered a group of mid school students would pool the needed funds, using the laws as herself, to almost completely destroy her influence in the education system of Patch.
Then the boy shortly after vanished completely. He was not at his fostered home. She found his location in the most harshest of ways. One of the smaller colossus, who was going about its circle of destruction, usually ending with the demolition of Mavideniz, was this time intercepted and killed. She sent her spies which took some time to arrive and found the boy. Then she started loosing her lookouts. He was catching them, somehow. It was simple to order their deaths, save for one. It was in utter blackness, contained it could not move. She had seen through its eye, and nothing, just blackness. Salem marked the location for future study and perhaps extraction.
Then she started loosing pods. First the small ones, then the larger, before she realized it an area of over fifty miles around Mavideniz was quickly and completely cleared, and the other pods farther away were being systematically found and destroyed. Salem hunched over her maps reflecting. All this in less then a year. Salem nodded and smiled she had to agree the boy as the news said is gifted, but sadly he was on the wrong side. Still, Salem thought it would be a shame to loose such a faunas. She had not seen one like him in human or faunas form in thousands of years.
Until then she ordered her lackeys to, if they wanted to keep their comfortable lifestyle's impede them, change the laws concerning hunters, they were to be restrained. To find if legally the Grimms Bane could be overcome.
In the successful recruiting of the White Fang member Adam Taurus she decided to use him to perhaps recruit the boy. The man was intense in his passion enough to do what she wanted. It was a surprise when Grimms Bane turned up at the White Fang main base.
It was no secret by this time they were a mercenary bunch of hunters. Salem kept up with the news, her isolation to the world had not hindered her knowledge of it. Salem assumed Sienna Khan had contacted them. It had made Salem smile.
She had placed that massive pod of grim to keep Adam in line. Picking away at some of the White Fangs forces to emphasize her point. Adam Taurus held such foolish ideals about fighting only humans. Her underling had placed fear in his heart by destroying partly his camp, now he seemed content, with a massive influx of monies and supply's her followers provided, and most importantly a new target. Vale and the hunters academy it's self. Adam knew if successful they would be cutting off the communication lines for the region. If Atlas could be made the scapegoat, that would farther separate the nations. Adam very soon would understand the larger, unseen picture. Once his eyes were opened complete loyalty would be assured.
Salem prepared for the assault to come, gathering all her grim, watching as Grimms Bane made there own preparations. This would be wonderful. She looked forward to the boy putting up Salem hoped, a titanic fight, but in the end, complete defeat. She smiled knowing only when his forces lay shattered around him would she make an offer for him to unite with her. Her ex love kept saying integrity was the life's blood of existence. Mayhap for him. Too often she saw that falter when death was waiting to consume all that you were. The boy would convert, or die. The outcome would be as simple as that.
Then Salem lost her eyes watching the White Fang and Grimms Bane almost all at once. The surprise to her was complete. Quickly moving, and ordering her army to attack Grimms Bane. As they moved. Salem sensed her grim die. Soon she could see the battle, but only from a distance. Every time she tried to get close some gun emplacement would target her seer and destroy it. Salem was not sure how it was even seeing the seer. Any cover she used seemed useless.
Salems frustration grew until she simply had enough, the flyers were gone as well as the first pod, she knew the other two would not be enough, even now the boy was separating them. Keeping them from combining into one force. The constant pressure of being attacked from a distance was distorting them from her commands. These iron guns, she knew could not be overcome in a frontal assault. Salem stood, as the second pod was almost completely destroyed by a massive explosion, a weapon she had never seen before. She left the main room. Walking to her casting room.
In the center of her power Salem concentrated casting the spell slowly. Distance was making the task more difficult but she still awakened one of her elder grim. Grim she used only when there was a hard battle to be won. When she was wiping the slate clean as it were. All she wanted now, was revenge for the death's of her kin. If that boy was successful in clearing the grim around the White Fang it would remove a wedge from under Adam. What was worse is Grimms Banes ability to completely remove grim. This event depleted a major concentration that would take years of migration to replenish. She as Salem finished her casting saw in her minds eye the gargantuan grim stir from its long sleep and being moving. Salem mutely gave it the target's to kill before it could return to its timeless slumber.
Salem rested from the effort, then freshening up a bit. Entering her main chamber intent on watching the end of Grimms Bane. A wave of nausea washed over her. Salem felt it. Felt it die. Staggering Salem caught the table and steadied herself on stiff arms. It was like an old friend was gone, taken by another. All she had near the White Fang for almost a hundred miles, everything of reasonable strength was now gone.
Salem knew this child was more then gifted, he was dangerous, and she resolved to find out more about him. He needed to be neutralized. As she thought, it was obvious this Cain was the leader of Grimms Bane. Killing him would only turn him into a martyr. A hundred would rise and stand where he fell, she needed another way. Once the leadership was gone Grimms Bane would become just another band of mercenaries. Then she could chip them away at her pleasure. She set her faithful to the task. He is an orphan, start there she told them. Irritated by the events so far.
She saw the news, through the eyes of flying surveillance, learned how they used a newly discovered sensor, like infrared to find her grim, they called it grim sight. Grimms Bane gave the data away on how to make it. Then from their labs a wealth of information on grim was made available. The weak points, how grim spawned, how to find and neutralize the small pools.
This new knowledge took time to settle in her mind, it was as if she looked into darkness. That vast deep pond that birthed grim had dwindled slowly with time and was now just a scattering of puddles. This feeling was like an itch it had been so long, unremembered. Salem had not felt this emotion in countless millenniums, she was concerned, anxious.
Her people who influenced some of the city's were being pressured by the public to use this information on the grim. They could see an end, wanted the extinction of grim. Grimms Bane had shown them the way. Already her children were besieged it seemed around every city and town. Hunters banded into large groups and did not just kill, but slaughtered her kin. They could see her grim even when well hidden, and ended them.
Salem stood almost whispering her misjudgment. "I let them advance too long, I became to infatuated with the knowledge others brought." She stood regally, determined, and darkly declaring. "It is time to end this." A part of her wanted to find that lab Isaac had come from and punish them personally for letting someone like this loose on the world, yet with all the time and resources used she found no trace. A facility or lab, it had to be somewhere around the emerald forest where the boy was found walking on foot. Yet there was no sign of any organization. No traffic, not food, technology or equipment moved. No radio interchange, not even ground or air travel.
The boy didn't know where it was, just where a door had opened he stepped through and then it had vanished, after he started walking. It was frustrating to know someone could shadow themselves so thoroughly. She had ordered observations and study to a larger area around the forest. Speculation and conjecture showed there could be another society, a hidden one that had survived her eradication's they could be the reason for these rapid advancements. This was unfortunately all connector. So she turned to other maters.
Atlas Salem decided would be the first, there technology would be the most advanced and formidable, but like before and the time before that she would crush them. But. First. First, Ozpin must fall.
Well, one can guess what Salem is up to. Now. Like the matrix the world of Remnant, to me, has risen and fallen more times then history knows. Salem has simply been entertaining herself, keeping boredom at bay. Remember, she cares not for mortals, or for life. Save those who rightfully worship her. Her followers are ingrained in the societies as well as her spies and influencers, after all, it's more entertaining that way.
They are forbidden from recruiting, her worshipers can make suggestions or motions for enlisting, but generally keep hidden so Ozpin can not purge them as he did just a short eighty years before.
Yes, that big speech about colors and the repressing of creativity was in my mind partly his doing, to shake Salem's influence from the public he damned and caused untold harm and misery to the people in Remnants society.
A quick note: Ozpin has been broken one to many times by Salem, she never overcame the act of killing her own children, and because of that almost constant abuse Qzpin is suicidal, just to be clear. And he's a little thin skinned because of Salem's attention.
Really, when one thinks about it, is either of them all that bad? Or all that good? I blame others for this story as the noise in my head must get out.
Now maybe I can complete my grim house story.
As always, leave a comment, or e-mail let me know your thoughts good or bad.