"Text" : Speech, everyone can hear
"Text" : Thoughts
["Text"
"Text"] : Memory
Text : sound of the action or the movement itself
'Text' : Exclusive for some people, like another person speaking inside their head.
"Text" : Emphasized words
Suggest build ideas for Ruby to use in Remnant, and for a short period of time, in the Lands Between as well!
05:00, Patch; House of Xiao-long: Ruby POV
"Ruby, cmon! Calm down!" Dad, laughing, said as he tried to calm his daughter down. "I can't unlock your aura if you keep moving around!"
"Going~to~get~my~aura~unlocked!" Ruby sang as she was forced to sit down. "I wonder if my aura will be bigger than Yang… or maybe even uncle Qrow!"
"In your dreams pipsqueak." Uncle Qrow responded sarcastically before being elbowed in the stomach by Tai. "Ok, ok, maybe your aura will be bigger than Yangs."
"Well if it's bigger or smaller I'll still be happy for you sis." Yang encouraged Ruby before she stuck her tongue out at Uncle Qrow. "Now c'mon dad! Stop wasting time and just unlock her aura already!"
"Alright alright." He responded, smiling as he placed his hand on Ruby's. "You ready?"
"Mhm!" Ruby answered, gleefully. "I'm super duper ready!"
"Alright then, now first things first, relax and calm down." Dad told Ruby, who in return shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. "Now close your eyes, cause I'm going to recite the chant to unlock your aura."
Ruby did as she was told, closing her eyes as she waited in anticipation, doing her best to stay still and not move. With another deep breath, she heard her father start her chant to unlock her aura. As a soft hymn played around, she felt the world around her fade as she was placed in the darkness with no light to be seen.
"Find the light that once shone in the eyes of your brethren."
Once those words were spoken, she could sense and feel tiny dots all around her, floating closer and closer to her. Then once she felt it, she saw it, petals of light coming closer to her, giving her encouragement and faith to keep moving ahead. Those same petals covered her body, encasing it with light and illuminating the dark world.
"Let it guide you. Let the rays of grace guide you through your burdens."
The petals converged, forming a path in front of her. Each step she took, she felt lighter, she felt at peace, she felt… in the moment, and as she took another step she saw a ray of light poke through the black sky and brightend the petal filled road. With a smile on her face she ran, with no intention of stopping.
"Seek that you are fit, fit to face the challenges presented and allow you to go beyond thy grace."
Then the path stopped, right in front of a gigantic bright lit tree. But, instead of stopping there, something told her to go beyond it, telling her to climb higher than the tree, and so she did. When she had climbed the tree, she looked beneath it, amazed by the distance she had covered, and yet, it didn't feel as if it had taken that long, it felt just like her climb had just started.
With nothing left to do she sat atop the tree, staring at the now brightly lit sky with rays of sunlight beaming down. But that same light that illuminated the sky faded, returning into darkness once more. But, this time instead of just darkness, there were lights, or rather stars. The stars covered the sky, feeling as if they were so close… and so far at the same time.
"So that in end, thus kindly we may scatter."
She saw someone in front of her, looking towards the ground as if almost lifeless, their face cracked and hollow, she couldn't come any closer as suddenly the light encompassed her once more, removing her from the scene and forcing her to awake. With no other option, she opened her eyes to the world.
"You okay Ruby?" Yang asked, concern plastered all over her face as she placed a hand on Ruby. "You look like you saw a ghost."
Ruby felt a thin warm blanket surrounding her, and when she looked towards her arms, she found a glowing red outline stretching out her body and clothes. Then she looked towards her sister, then towards her uncle, then finally towards her dad. She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, her family members waiting to see her reaction, and just like a loose cannon, she exploded.
"I HAVE AURA!" She shouted as she leapt out the chair and started running around the table. "I-HAVE-AURA!"
"LETS GO!" Yang joined in as she started racing her sister within the house.
"And we're back." Uncle Qrow retorted as his scroll rang, his expression changing from a smile into a frown. "I'm gonna take this and you two, don't destroy the house."
"NO PROMISES!" The two sisters shouted as Ruby accidentally tripped and fell face first onto the ground… Everyone around her froze, waiting for her response to the fall. But, Ruby just nonchalantly stood up, dusted her clothes and continued her run, Yang following suit soon after.
"Glad that it worked." Dad said, sitting down on one of the chairs. "That used to be your mom's chant to unlock other peoples auras, so… I didn't know if it would work if I used it."
"Wait, that was mom's chant?!" Ruby said as she jumped into one of the chairs and sat in it. "I didn't know mom had a chant."
"Well… I wouldn't really call it a chant, some of the other chants for other people were more… personalized, think of it like they're giving another person their feelings, like anger, sadness, that kind of stuff." Tai explained as he looked at Ruby. "But your mothers felt more… mythical, like she was passing down a tale to another person… so I didn't know if it would work for you if I did it, it being yours mothers and all."
"But it did, right?" Yang interjected, patting her dad's back at the same time.
"Yeah I guess it did." Dad said, a smile on his face before his expression changed. "Now what do you want? You only do that if you want something, so what is it?"
"How dare you? Can't I just encourage my dad just because I want to?" Yang answered back before Tai raised his eyebrow. "Okay okay, I am gonna ask for something, but I'll only say it if you promise not to decline it…"
"Depends, what do you want?" Dad asked, a smile on his face. "You're auras alre-."
"I have an idea!" Ruby shouted as she jumped out of her chair with a smile on her face. The moment she saw her family members' faces was when she decided to sit back down. "Ehm, so dad… can me and Yang… spar?"
Tai looked at Ruby then at Yang, who shrugged at the moment Tai looked at her. He raised an eyebrow before looking back at Ruby, his face distraught as he took a moment's pause. As her dad was about to say something, Ruby leaned her chair forward, clasped her hands together and pouted. A technique that she learned how to use to make her dad buy her things, and now was being used to persuade her dad.
"W-well, I-I guess I can allow it." He answered to which Ruby shouted in happiness. "But no dust and NO SEMBLANCES!"
Her sister groaned as she turned away from her dad before turning to Ruby, grabbing her hand, and running to the door. Finally after two years of no sparring with Yang she was finally going to be allowed!
4 Hours Later
She couldn't fall asleep, each time she closed her eyes she was back at that scene atop the tree. She saw that person with a hollow and cracked face looking towards the ground, their hands bound towards the sky with a ray of light keeping it in place. Something pierced their stomach and half their body was disintegrating, fading into nothing.
The vision was always the same, Ruby couldn't do anything and was forced only to look at that person as they stayed bound. She wanted to help that person, she wanted to set them free from this prison she was kept in… but no matter how many times she saw it, no matter how much will she forced in her thoughts, no matter how she thought to change the image, it stayed the same, almost as if it was a vision, almost as if it was… a g-.
* Knock Knock *
The sudden sound caused her to spring up from her bed and to look at the door. Trying to regain her senses, Ruby scrubbed her eyes and stretched her arms to the sky. With a deep breath she got off her bed and walked towards the door, opening it. Yang stood in front of her with a box in her hands.
"Yang?" Ruby asked as she scratched her eyes again. "Whatsyu doing here?"
"Well… I just wanted to see how you're doing for your first day… and." She shifted her body to present the gift to Ruby. "To give you a gift."
"Ooooh a gift?" Ruby squealed as she took the gift, giving her sister a warm smile as she did. "Can I open it now?"
"Of course! That's what presents are for right?" Yang replied, entering the room to watch Ruby's reaction.
Ruby opened the box faster than a bullet firing from a gun… well maybe not as fast but still pretty fast. Inside the box was a metal plate with a rose pattern on it, not just any rose pattern, her mom's rose pattern. The center of the rose was normal, but the outer edges of it were patterned in a way that it seemed like the symbol was on fire.
"W-wow! T-thank you Yang!" Ruby shouted in glee as she tackled her sister into a hug. "This i-is amazing!"
"You're welcome, Rubes." Yang responded as she accepted the tackle/hug. "That thing blasted a hole through my wallet so you better wear that on your huntress outfit."
"Mhm!" Ruby answered with enthusiasm as she held the metal rose to the sky. "It's going to look sooo cool!"
"Well it better." She retorted before taking a deep breath and patting Ruby's head. "Well I better get going, you need your sleep and all that stuff."
As quickly as she became happy, she was sent back to reality and once again reminded of her previous failures to fall asleep. She really didn't want Yang to go but… "She probably needs her sleep too."
"Oh… uh… sure." Ruby said, disappointed but trying her best not to show it. "G-goodnight Yang."
"Goodnight to you too Ruby." Yang told Ruby as she headed to her room, the sound of footsteps receding as it got quieter and quieter.
With a sigh, Ruby clutched her new clothing accessory, tightening her grip around it before slowly closing the door. As the door was about to close she heard footsteps coming closer to her room, heavy ones. When she opened it, she was greeted with a familiar sight, Yang with a pair of pillows, a blanket and a big smile on her face.
"Wanna have a sleepover?" Yang asked enthusiastically.
And to which Ruby responded by grabbing her sister's hand and dragging her into the room.
~ Smaller line break ~
Placed within Yang's embrace her eyes closed, letting everything around her fade and herself to fall asleep. She was once again in the darkness, floating within it, adrift in the black sea. Again bright petals converged to form a path for her, again she followed it, again she climbed the tree, and again she saw the person bound. But… this time, she persisted, she was still there.
Without any hesitation, she came closer, albeit a bit slower than usual as caution filled her brain. Nothing appeared after each step she took, and after a bit of time, she reached the person. Their grayish skin fading away, and their long blonde hair falling down the ground, and once Ruby came close enough to them, the head raised and looked towards her, saying one single word.
"Help"
"It must be done to reach the path beyond and that is the path I wish to travel."
Posts at least once per month... at the very least it should.
Major spoiling alert: Ending will be Age Stars.
Authors note: Unused Bc it would refer to the Dark Souls Trilogy and not towards Elden Ring.
"Inheriteth the Fire of our world. So that thou shall endeth this eternal twilight, and avert further sacrifices."
But as she saw the dark, she also saw a light, burning brightly, illuminating the darkness and covering the land with light, giving it life. That very same light was a fire, and as she heard the soft hymn continue, she also saw that flame come closer and closer to her. The courage, bounty, and wishes upon that flaming cinder wrapped around her, encouraging her.
"Though as
the First Flame quickly fades, and darkness shortly, will settle."But, that very same flame faded around her, flickering into nothingness and leaving her to the darkness once more. With that she was alone, alone in a black sea with nothingness and nothing around her… yet, even with nothing around her, she felt another flame burning, one that came from within her heart.
"One day, tiny flames will dance across the darkness. Like embers, linked by lords past."
That flame blazed from within her heart, filling her with unbound courage and renewed vigor. She felt the flames before her, encouraging her, and as it did, she felt that very same flame cover her in a blinding white light. Then, she opened her eyes to the world once more.
