So we're done with the FGO summer event (tfw no Summer Ushi T_T), so here, have this chapter. It's the start of Arc 2! Time for new ongoing subplots, more characters popping in and out, more friendship fluff! Oh boy there's gonna be a lot of friendship fluff!
Incidentally, it doesn't matter much but the Cardin & Neo story I published recently is canon within this universe I'm setting up (which is meant to be canon-compliant, but y'know how Chibi is…)
Timeline wise: I placed the dance on a Friday, and the Breach occurs over the course of the weekend. Our intrepid heroes have, as of this chapter, only had the Monday off…
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Volume 2.25 (Tuesday): id love to wrap my hands around the protagonist's katana!
Welcome to Ladybug!
Milk Chocolate Stan: BLAKE
Milk Chocolate Stan: BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE
Dark Chocolate Stan: what
Milk Chocolate Stan: where is everybody?
Milk Chocolate Stan: i came back to the dorms and everyone's gone!
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: sry was busy
Dark Chocolate Stan: im w pyr n jaune in the library
Dark Chocolate Stan: we're writing sth
Dark Chocolate Stan: no clue where the others are
Milk Chocolate Stan: huh, ok.
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: are you sure you're not avoiding the room because you're afraid zwei is there
Dark Chocolate Stan: ok first of all
Dark Chocolate Stan: you really need to put your dog on a leash
Dark Chocolate Stan: second, i know yang took zwei with her.
Dark Chocolate Stan: for the record, we're really busy atm and im not using our deadlines as an excuse to avoid zwei. Im trying to make a point of not running away from my problems.
Dark Chocolate Stan: for once, anyway
Milk Chocolate Stan: wait, so where's yang? and weiss, for that matter?
Dark Chocolate Stan: yang mentioned sth abt hanging out w ren and nora but i didn't catch the deets. im assuming weiss is with her because wherever the dog goes, she goes.
Milk Chocolate Stan: oh… okay…
Milk Chocolate Stan: so uh, i don't have anything else I need to do today, so…
Milk Chocolate Stan: can i join you guys?
-0-
Ruby's scroll buzzed with a new notification.
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Welcome to Milk and Cereal!
Brings the Cereal: NO
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Welcome to Ladybug!
Dark Chocolate Stan: sry i brought it up w pyr n jaune
Dark Chocolate Stan: they both refused
Dark Chocolate Stan: sorry we're kinda on a deadline here, and pyr's getting really stressed
Dark Chocolate Stan: we really underestimated the work we needed to put in for this
Milk Chocolate Stan: is that why you had to recruit Jaune?
Dark Chocolate Stan: …yeah.
Dark Chocolate Stan: real sorry abt that ruby. ill make it up to you later.
Milk Chocolate Stan: naaah its ok! it's not your fault blake!
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As she settled onto her bed, having just returned from a lengthy maintenance session with Crescent Rose, Ruby began to meditate about how, in retrospect, the events of the past month or so were Blake's fault.
Not that she was casting aspersions on Blake's character or anything, but all the trouble they had gone through in the first part of the semester was directly or indirectly tied to Blake. It was a strange realization to make – Blake had actually calmed down a lot ever since the incident at the docks, and Ruby felt that Blake was slowly opening up to her team (she didn't miss the fact that Yang and Blake spent even more time together now than ever before, even going out to Vale with Pyrrha and Jaune the weekend after exams) and was generally less closed-off and secretive. Blake had also maintained regular contact with everyone during the break via their various group chats, even when Ruby and Yang had left for Patch, leaving behind Weiss and Blake to spend time with the entirety of Team JNPR, who for one reason or another had opted to stay behind in Beacon. The point was, Blake was being sociable, a far cry from when the semester had started! She wasn't even picking fights with Weiss anymore!
(Ruby didn't know, obviously, but the chat between Weiss and Blake vacillated constantly from being named 'Monochrome' to 'Checkmate' and was less a chat between friends and more a structured platform for formal debate-style exchanges. Weiss was currently in the lead, points-wise, and Blake was in the process of arguing the biases of the judge panel of Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha, but no such luck on that front yet.)
But something happened on that last day of the break (Jaune and Pyrrha were unusually cagey on the subject matter, only mentioning that it was a private thing and Blake should be the one to talk about it) when they accidentally caused one of the largest battle disasters in Beacon history, a fight that historians would record as the Fifth Great Beacon Cafeteria War, colloquially known as the Food Fight. While sources dispute who actually won the war, thanks to the rules of engagement being unclear, it was universally agreed upon that the war was triggered after an ill-timed pie throw was made by a combatant whose name would be left unmentioned (coughNoracough) for the sake of maintaining the peace. (The rest, unfortunately, was a story for another time.)
Yang was the first to notice the signs, of course: Blake had once more retreated into her moody, reclusive self, sketching someone in the margins of her notebook and listing observations that were clearly not classroom notes, if only because Ruby was aware that Blake barely took notes in class in the first place and spent most of her classes chatting with Pyrrha about whatever secret hobby they carried out in their spare time. Yang probably would have gotten Blake to talk if not for someone's act of aggression, but at least they were able to pry the source of Blake's anxieties later that evening. That was the start of it all.
Ruby honestly couldn't believe it when she sat down and recalled the wild events of the past month, from their investigation into the White Fang that culminated in a fight against a prototype Atlesian Paladin model, an infiltration attempt at the Beacon's Cross Continental Transmit System Tower by a mysterious lady whose strange, stilted jumps across the rooftop hid a dangerous fighting style, an attempted breach of Vale's defenses by the White Fang and Grimm, and most insidiously of all, a dust-damned school dance. She had to wear lady stilts! Lady stilts!
But in all seriousness, Ruby had to accept that all of this only happened because of Blake. She couldn't hold it against her, considering that she had a point: they couldn't just wait around and let the enemy come to them. If they hadn't sought out the initiative to investigate Mountain Glenn on their own, who knows how the Breach would have played out? But that ill-fated mission, while nominally a success, had left the team deeply uneasy about too many things: Weiss was taking her loss to the White Fang Lieutenant hard, as was Yang with the, as she put it, "tiny-ass ice cream shorty" that defeated her, but Ruby felt that Yang's mind was on different things. And the Breach was prevented, but as Ozpin and the media coverage of the event were all too eager to point out, the defense of Vale was sloppy. It couldn't be helped that most of the Beacon students had flown off for their missions already, and the local defense offered by the city had always paled in comparison to the strength of Hunters, but the Breach had only intensified the Atlesian patrols that were now roaming the streets of Vale in the name of security. Even Ruby wasn't that ignorant of international politics, even if Weiss had to explain the finer implications of Atlas moving its army into Vale.
The events of the Breach had affected their sister team too, if indirectly: Jaune had, reluctantly, hinted that he felt bad for cancelling their own mission, one that Ren was looking forward to doing, to support Team RWBY's fight with the invading Grimm. It was lucky, in fact, that JNPR wasn't punished for essentially commandeering a bullhead and rush to Vale, explicitly against the orders of the school, and Jaune had sworn up and down that he would do it all over again to help their team, but Ruby didn't miss the awkward glances Jaune sent towards Ren, still feeling guilt for cancelling their own mission, nor did she not notice Pyrrha's averting her gaze when Ruby looked her way. Pyrrha wanted to say something, Ruby could tell, and it was not something positive. Nora, bless her, took everything in stride.
So fine: things were a bit strained with RWBY and JNPR. Compounding things, Ozpin had given them the week off to recover from the Breach, and with most of the students still out shadowing veteran hunters, classes for the most part were cancelled, except for a few miscellaneous classes like Combat class (which Ruby suspected was more because Glynda couldn't fathom the idea of not teaching classes and overburdening herself with her academic and administrative load. Sometimes, Ruby suspected, Glynda was addicted to carrying the entire professorial staff on her back.) Granted, a week-long break sounded great, but they were also strongly encouraged to avoid heading to Vale for… reasons that were honestly not worth going into now. Their Monday, as a result, was truly horrendous: nobody felt the need to leave their beds, ruminating on the fallout of the Breach and their various interpersonal troubles. Ren and Jaune had to force Team RWBY to eat lunch, and it took the combined might of Nora and Pyrrha to pry open RWBY's dorm room and force the inhabitants to leave their cave and be exposed to the sun. Lunch that day was horrendous: Jaune could not utter a word, looking sheepishly at the sullen figure of Weiss, who was glaring a hole into her lunch, ruminating about her loss. Yang was very much the same, staring into the distance, outside the cafeteria, seemingly searching for anything, like a crow or a raven, flying around. Pyrrha and Blake, normally sat on opposite sides of the table having a secret conversation, were now awkwardly avoiding each other's gazes – Pyrrha would try to start a conversation, but stop herself, and Blake buried herself into her books, even if she she read at such a glacial pace that at one point Ruby was confident Blake hadn't flipped her page in almost five minutes.
The end result: Ruby feared everyone would start suffering from cabin fever at the end of the week.
And all this because Blake wanted to investigate the White Fang!
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Welcome to Ladybug!
Milk Chocolate Stan: so um
Milk Chocolate Stan: blake?
Dark Chocolate Stan: yes, ruby
Milk Chocolate Stan: i have a real big favor i have to ask
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: no ruby i am not lending you any of my uh
Dark Chocolate Stan: special books
Dark Chocolate Stan: yang's already on my case for the last time you got one of my books
Milk Chocolate Stan: what, no! that's not what I wanted to ask!
Milk Chocolate Stan: not right now anyway
Milk Chocolate Stan: :wink: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
Dark Chocolate Stan: ruby, please stop highlighting all the "good parts"
Dark Chocolate Stan: im not exactly a fan of highlighter fluid on my books
Dark Chocolate Stan: i also don't need your notes on all the weapon details and combat in my books
Milk Chocolate Stan: but the detail on that katana was so good
Milk Chocolate Stan: i cant not comment on the description of the curvature and the tsuba! Its just so vivid!
Milk Chocolate Stan: id love to wrap my hands around the protagonist's katana!
Dark Chocolate Stan: brothers yang is gonna kill me
Milk Chocolate Stan: ?
Dark Chocolate Stan: never mind
Dark Chocolate Stan: what do you need ruby
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: your bffs with pyrrha right?
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: i wouldn't go that far…
Milk Chocolate Stan: whats with the hesitation?
Dark Chocolate Stan: i asked pyr
Dark Chocolate Stan: "pyr, are we best friends?"
Dark Chocolate Stan: pyr and jaune started laughing. they're still laughing.
Blake uploaded a photo!
Dark Chocolate Stan: oh yeah, jaune says he'll meet you later. we just need him for some last-minute edits
Milk Chocolate Stan: oh no that's fine! take all the time you need!
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: look i just wanted to ask
Dark Chocolate Stan: shoot
Milk Chocolate Stan: is uh
Milk Chocolate Stan: is pyrrha mad at me?
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Taking a shower helped clear her thoughts, if only a little, and forced Ruby to look back on the events of the past month with a startling clarity her past self lacked. Ruby could admit to herself that she wasn't exactly the best at social interaction, and she continually rued this fact as Glynda would often warn all of them that, as leaders, it was necessary for them to learn interpersonal skills like negotiation and conflict management. But Ruby wasn't blind – she could tell that Pyrrha, ever since the events of the Breach, had been unusually pensive, moreso than she had been the past month ever since team RWBY went on their White Fang investigation.
At first, Ruby felt that she and the red-haired goddess of victory got along well, and not just because Ruby's best friend was Pyrrha's partner: hell, there were no hard feelings when Ruby rammed that metal tray in Pyrrha's face during the Food Fight, right? But there were signs early on in the semester (most of which flew over Ruby's head, of course, until hindsight caught up with her), like when JNPR found out about the fight with the Atlesian Paladin and Pyrrha had a look of horror on her face as she realized that team RWBY went up against a state-of-the-art Atlesian mech designed to take out multiple Grimm and Human opponents. Ruby also didn't miss the way Pyrrha seemed to nod along when Jaune jokingly made the aside about how they didn't feel the need to tell team JNPR about their White Fang scouting mission but allowed the two transfer students from Haven tag along. Besides, she wasn't blind to how Pyrrha told her, just today and in no uncertain terms, that she didn't want to see her today! Over in chat, even!
(In Ruby's defense, Sun and Neptune had essentially forced themselves onto the mission! She only wanted to scout for information! It wasn't like they expected to get into a fight with a giant mech, even if it was a ridiculously cool fight!)
Still, the incident with the Paladin reminded Ruby, once again, that somehow, everything was Blake's fault, because as "punishment" (honestly, the fact that they got away pretty much scot-free after the mess the fight with the Paladin left on the highways of Vale stumped Ruby to no end, considering she was previously arrested for fighting off a robbery on a Dust shop) team RWBY "volunteered" to take over CFVY's duties of organizing the school dance Beacon hosted to welcome to the transfer students coming on for the Vytal Festival.
That school dance certainly made things even more awkward for RWBY and JNPR: Blake, to Ruby's dismay, was not satisfied in their role taking down the giant mech the White Fang and Roman Torchwick somehow acquired, and had begun spending more sleepless nights poring over documents at the library, desperately trying to figure out what plan the groups had for Vale. It had gotten to the point that Pyrrha had to approach Ruby and Yang, telling the story of a visit to a bookstore with Blake that turned tragic when they discovered that the owner was murdered (the fact that Blake and the owner, Tukson, had some connection was left unspoken and Pyrrha, as ever, refused to divulge Blake's secrets, only choosing to tell the sisters that Blake desperately needed her friends to support her), and while Yang did her best to reach out to Blake and had managed to get her to calm down enough to go to the dance, it had left Pyrrha more isolated than ever. The way Ruby saw it, Pyrrha's best friend was busy chasing leads about the White Fang to pay attention to her while Pyrrha's partner was busy looking elsewhere instead of what was in front of him.
Ruby frowned at that, even if she wasn't sure what exactly she was annoyed about. Contrary to Weiss' assertions, Ruby believed that Jaune was genuine in his attempts to woo the heiress, even if he went about it as awkwardly as Ruby did talking to strangers without invoking her love for weapons. (It didn't help that Yang was, well, "subtly"encouraging Jaune every step of the way, acting like she was a life coach of some kind.) Ruby even found it endearing, watching Jaune try to serenade Weiss, but she didn't like how Pyrrha looked… crushed as she watched her partner get rejected, or how rejecting Jaune constantly brought out Weiss' harsher side, the part of her she tried desperately to curb, or how Jaune tried so hard to be cool and suave and be everything he simply wasn't just to try and appease Weiss, and as a result came across as pushy. Honestly, if he acted less cool, Ruby would appreciate it, and she wanted to believe Weiss would, too!
But Ruby didn't like all that nonsense because it made interactions between the sister teams awkward. It was an incredibly toxic mess of teenage hormones, the kind of thing that her dad constantly warned about, and Ruby hated that, as an outsider to the whole drama, she felt that nobody truly was in the wrong, and as a result, she could not intervene before the mess of emotions got out of hand.
The events of the Breach, Ruby felt, were the last straw: morale was at an all-time low for the two teams, and when they met up for their customary lunch meeting yesterday, nobody had the energy to muster up any form of conversation. Everyone was busy nursing injuries – nothing major, nothing that demanded immediate medical concerns, only small wounds, cuts, bruises. But sometimes the most insidious wounds were the smallest.
Ruby hated it.
Ruby hated how the bonds that they had carefully built up over the course of a semester seemingly disintegrated in the course of a month, not through some big, earth-shattering cataclysm, but through a series of small and innocuous mistakes. Sure, Ruby could have reached out to Jaune's team for help during the White Fang investigation, and maybe they could have avoided bringing the fight against the Paladin onto the highways of Vale (imagine Pyrrha with her semblance, Nora with her hammer, Ren with his ability to calm down civilians, and Jaune... well, Jaune was there), and maybe she could have intervened before the drama with Weiss and Jaune and Pyrrha and Blake and Yang could have escalated, and maybe she could have handled the Mountain Glenn incident better if she hadn't fallen into a hole and accidentally stumbled into the White Fang plot completely unprepared before they got Grimm into the city and JNPR had to cancel their own mission to bail RWBY out of the mess they got themselves into.
Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Oh no, Ruby realized, I'm starting to sound like Blake.
She needed to distract herself from this sobering thought. Luckily, she had the delivery package she had picked up today…
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Welcome to Ladybug!
Dark Chocolate Stan: …what makes you think that?
Milk Chocolate Stan: i mean
Milk Chocolate Stan: never mind
Milk Chocolate Stan: im just being paranoid haha
Dark Chocolate Stan: …right
Milk Chocolate Stan: anw i finally got the chocolates yesterday
Dark Chocolate Stan: really?
Milk Chocolate Stan: yeah turns out that the delays meant they werent affected much by the breach
Dark Chocolate Stan: yaaaay
Dark Chocolate Stan: SDC shipping incompetence means we get our chocolates earlier than expected
Dark Chocolate Stan: :toot: :celebrate: :flag_wave:
Milk Chocolate Stan: stop being a grimm magnet and just appreciate the fact that we get our chocolate early blake!
Milk Chocolate Stan uploaded a photo!
Milk Chocolate Stan: i got your Argus brand "winedark sea" chocolate
Dark Chocolate Stan: what about the chocolate that weiss promoted
Dark Chocolate Stan: ahem, "allegedly"
Milk Chocolate Stan: yessir i got me my weiss schnee endorsed snow-white chocolate
Dark Chocolate Stan: you know weiss is gonna be soooo pissed when she finds out you ordered stuff in her name right :smirk_cat:
Milk Chocolate Stan: it's a risk im willing to take blake
Milk Chocolate Stan: i cant not have a bite of my bff's chocolate
Milk Chocolate Stan: anw ill leave your chocolate on your desk. dont let yang eat it!
Dark Chocolate Stan: don't try and steal a few bites this time, those are very expensive
Dark Chocolate Stan: im just glad i can afford em now. beacon stipends are nice.
Milk Chocolate Stan: aww i apologized already for the last time
Milk Chocolate Stan: besides you liked my chocolates last time i could tell cuz your ears were twitching
Dark Chocolate Stan: they do that on their own! they don't mean anything and you're a racist if you assume otherwise :pouting_cat:
Dark Chocolate Stan: look, just stick to your chocolate for now. you're too young for the dark stuff
Milk Chocolate Stan: yang keeps saying the same thing!
Milk Chocolate Stan: first of all im already an adult! i grew up already bc i eat milk chocolate!
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Ruby wasn't exactly sure when she began picking up Blake's habits and mannerisms, or even when she started understanding Blake's mindset a little better, but she suspected that it was the culmination of many little accumulated interactions, not through some earth-shattering moment of realization.
While Ruby wouldn't call herself and Blake the best of friends, she liked to think that she got along with the resident Faunus of the team, even before the incident at the docks and the subsequent events that followed. It had started the first night, of course, when Ruby and Yang tried to strike up a conversation with the mysterious girl in the alluring sleepwear (it was the first time Ruby had heard of the word yukata before, and Yang only knew of it secondhand) who was reading the hardbound book with the dust jacket that was obviously a cover for whatever she was actually reading. Ruby didn't judge – she had secretly borrowed a lot of similar books from her Uncle Qrow's secret stash, the ones he pretended not to read in the guest room (reserved for him, of course) during the rare occasions that he stayed over between top-secret missions.
(Much, much later, when she broached the subject with her uncle and he sheepishly revealed from whom he got his… specialized literature from, Ruby simultaneously blushed to the high heavens and felt a single tear run down her cheek, her eyes flickering silver, or so her Uncle Qrow pointed out.)
Ruby often wondered what Blake's childhood was like. (She did that a lot, imagining what her friends' childhoods were like.) She knew that the Faunus had been a member of the White Fang from a young age, and had been forced to grow up faster than most, but Ruby was confident that underneath the hardened exterior was a friendly and approachable girl. Ruby knew this because, despite being off in her own little corner to read her books, Ruby never felt that Blake was actively shutting them out of her life, just… keeping her distance. But occasionally she would notice Blake silently listening to their conversations at lunch, and she wouldn't miss how Blake would linger on a particular page for a minute too long while Yang or Nora were regaling the table with some extravagant story, or roll her eyes at Jaune being, well, Jaune, or giggle at Weiss and Ren discuss something brought up in class when she thought nobody was looking. Every now and then the two of them would lock eyes and Blake would give her a wry, knowing smile, as if admitting that she was caught trying to steal from a cookie jar, and it was in those moments that Ruby felt that she and Blake were more alike that she initially thought possible.
Soon she was borrowing books from Blake's personal collection, first without Blake's permission (it wasn't her fault Blake carelessly left around her limited-edition copy of Ninjas of Love just lying around!) but she eventually obtained Blake's permission, and things spiraled from there. Ruby much preferred reading fairy tales and stories of heroes, but she wasn't that picky, and while Blake was initially hesitant, she began lending her preferred novels to Ruby. Ruby, being Ruby, gravitated towards novels with fantastic fight scenes and exotic weapons, but at least it was a start! And Blake was all too willing to put up with Ruby focusing on the length of a katana over the two protagonists and their developing relationship. Still, Ruby was miffed that Blake seemed to try and prevent her from getting the truly adult stuff. She was fifteen! Surely she could handle it!
(A notion that would be disproven, repeatedly, anytime it had to be pointed out to Ruby that she just uttered something utterly scandalous without knowing it.)
Ruby had even silently rejoiced when she learned that Blake and Pyrrha were getting along well, and had formed a little fan club of sorts, bonding over their shared love of… specialized literature and Mistralian cartoons (although she never understood the duo's obsession with the latter – she preferred Valean superhero fiction instead, a sentiment shared by her sister, Jaune, and Ren). Even Jaune was somehow recruited into their little reading club! Ruby was glad, because Blake finding friends with common interests did wonders for her, and what used to be rare glimpses of a smile on someone who was otherwise somber and reserved became increasingly frequent. Ruby even noticed the cat Faunus revealing a, well, cattier side, what with the subtle teasing Blake would sometimes pull on Jaune or Pyrrha in their group chats, and while she winced at how Blake seemed to mercilessly tease Jaune on occasion, she was sure that Blake never really meant any of it.
And then the owner of Tukson's Book Trade was murdered, and, well…
Perhaps that was why Ruby was so insistent that Blake attend the dance in the first place: she had wanted, desperately, to help Blake recapture some of that joy and childlike wonder that she sometimes spied in Blake's eyes during the first semester. Ruby didn't like to assume things of her friends, but a part of her wondered just how much of a childhood Blake even got to experience, growing up in the Fang. She knew that she would never fully understand Blake's life, not having grown up with much in the way of prejudice and discrimination the way the Faunus did, but perhaps as team leader she could help now.
Which was why when Ruby discovered that Blake had not had much of an opportunity to eat good chocolate lately, Ruby jumped on the chance to rectify that. She told herself and Blake that it was a reward, that they needed to unwind after the grueling exams they barely survived, but if Ruby was being particularly honest with herself, she really just wanted to see the look in Blake's face when she got to experience chocolate for (Ruby believed) the first time in a long, long time.
Perhaps that was why, despite everything, even if a lot of what had been happening lately between RWBY and JNPR were technically Blake's fault, Ruby could not bring herself to blame Blake. Ruby and Blake certainly weren't the best of friends, but Ruby liked to think that she understood Blake's mindset a little better, and that she could see where Blake was coming from – she wouldn't have been willing to help Blake out through all the mess with the White Fang otherwise. Getting to know Blake and spending time with her let see things through Blake's eyes.
So sure, maybe getting into Blake's mindset meant she was becoming a little paranoid. She had seen the worst of Blake, after all, the Blake who hissed at every little shadow and overworked herself to uncover a White Fang plot. That was fine. That was part of being an adult, wasn't it? That was why she ate all that milk chocolate!
Ruby shook her head to end her endless train of thoughts. She couldn't afford to lie around in bed all day.
Instead, Ruby got up and headed towards Blake's desk. Surveying the landscape in front of her, Ruby couldn't help but envy the organization and minimalism of Blake's desk – her notebooks and study materials were bundled neatly, stacked in a clean-looking pile at the far end of her desk. There was a small nightlamp in the corner, the dust mostly left unused, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why Blake didn't need it. The entirety of the desk was bereft of dusk, or cookie bits, or leftover chocolate wrappers, or whatever snacks Ruby ate on her desk. There were also no stacks of papers, all adorned with doodles of weapon upgrades Ruby imagined for her team and their sister team's, nor were there any unfinished homework, scattered despite an attempt to organize by order of deadline.
Opening the drawer, Ruby admired even the organization of Blake's pens, papers, and other miscellaneous supplies, and just how much empty space was in her drawers. (It was a sharp contrast to Blake's bookshelf, which had books of many shapes and sizes squeezed carefully, extracting as much out of her little shelves.) Looking at all the empty space, Ruby chose to put Blake's dark chocolates on the corner of the Faunus' drawer. Blake certainly knew how to organize, Ruby mused, and if anything, Blake knew how to compartmentalize her things, hoping to occupy as little space as possible. What was her life before Beacon like to be like this?
Ruby shook her head again. Great, now I'm overanalyzing everything like Blake again…
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Welcome to Ladybug!
Milk Chocolate Stan: placed the chocolates on your desk blake!
Dark Chocolate Stan: mhm
Dark Chocolate Stan: you didn't steal any right
Milk Chocolate Stan: no! and you're one to talk, considering last time!
Dark Chocolate Stan: i said i was sorry! i just wanted to try them!
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: gotta say tho, your desk is really neat and clean
Milk Chocolate Stan: man, i wish I could be as organized as you
Dark Chocolate Stan: trust me, i always wasn't the neat freak you're painting me as
Milk Chocolate Stan: whaaaat no way
Dark Chocolate Stan: yeah
Dark Chocolate Stan: it's a long story
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: so um
Milk Chocolate Stan: is it ok if you tell me abt it
Dark Chocolate Stan: its, uh, a story from my past
Dark Chocolate Stan: ive kind of told yang and weiss about it, and i think i should tell pyr too
Dark Chocolate Stan: i don't mind telling you, but its kind of… heavy. you prolly don't wanna hear it
Milk Chocolate Stan: i do!
Milk Chocolate Stan: i mean
Milk Chocolate Stan: um…
Milk Chocolate Stan: yeah… yeah, sure, go ahead, Blake.
Dark Chocolate Stan: …fine. give me a minute. im almost done w this part, and then ill take a break
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: back when i joined the Fang, i had a… mentor? friend?
Dark Chocolate Stan: i honestly don't know how to describe our relationship at the moment
Dark Chocolate Stan: but I trusted him with my life.
Milk Chocolate Stan: trusted?
Dark Chocolate Stan: …he changed.
Dark Chocolate Stan: you see, back in the old days, back with… my old group, we couldn't really afford a lot of luxuries
Dark Chocolate Stan: one time, I got myself a can of nice Atlesian tuna as a birthday gift
Dark Chocolate Stan: it was probably the best-tasting tuna of my life
Dark Chocolate Stan: when my partner saw me eating it, he got mad. said it was something our oppressors made, and that we shouldn't be contributing to Atlesian companies before tossing away the stuff. happy birthday to me, am i right?
Dark Chocolate Stan: but that was my partner. he was the one who made me learn how to be organized when I was… when I was with the Fang.
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: my parents, they…
Dark Chocolate Stan: they used to get mad at me for leaving my books all over the place. but i was young and stupid, right? so i never listened.
Dark Chocolate Stan: when i ran away, all i had were my books and a few daily necessities. our living space was very limited out in the field, so i had to make do w so little
Dark Chocolate Stan: my partner, he's bigger than most people his age. he took to sharing living quarters especially hard bc my stuff was always messy and his body wasn't suited for cramped spaces
Dark Chocolate Stan: it got to the point that he screamed at me once for leaving my books laying around in camp, because he almost tripped over them after we returned from a particularly dangerous mission.
Milk Chocolate Stan: but… it's not your fault. and even if you left your books around, he still shouldn't scream at you
Dark Chocolate Stan: I know that now, but we had just watched our comrades get gunned down.
Dark Chocolate Stan: he took a hit for me. he looked me in the eye and i knew what was on his mind.
Dark Chocolate Stan: "you owe me your life."
Dark Chocolate Stan: that was when i learned how to be organized.
Dark Chocolate Stan: living in the Fang, you learn quickly that space is a premium. Not much different from living in Menagerie, where we had limited living space since most of the island was desert.
Milk Chocolate Stan: Menagerie?
Dark Chocolate Stan: that's where I lived.
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: sorry for dropping all that on you
Dark Chocolate Stan: ive been thinking a lot abt stuff people have said to me recently
Dark Chocolate Stan: I went too far, you know? i let myself drown in paranoia
Dark Chocolate Stan: it took you guys slapping some sense into me to remind me of that
Milk Chocolate Stan: but blake, we're your friends.
Dark Chocolate Stan: yeah, but…
Dark Chocolate Stan: actually, me and pyr had a lil spat about this. maybe ill tell you about it some other time. kinda funny story
Dark Chocolate Stan: helped clear my head too, along w yang. they got me to go to the dance, did you know that?
Milk Chocolate Stan: oh yeah!
Milk Chocolate Stan: you n yang were so cute at the dance!
Milk Chocolate Stan: speaking of the dance, sun's been complaining to me and jaune that you've been ignoring his invites to hang out after the dance
Dark Chocolate Stan: ?
Dark Chocolate Stan: i didn't really spend that much time w him anyway before all this, and one dance won't change that
Milk Chocolate Stan: you seemed like you were having fun w him and Neptune, at least
Dark Chocolate Stan: they're ok friends. but just that. friends. i'm not exactly looking to expand my social circle.
Dark Chocolate Stan: also, not a fan of neptune ditching weiss for most of the dance. did they break up already?
Milk Chocolate Stan: last i asked, weiss was adamant that they weren't, um
Dark Chocolate Stan: together-together?
Milk Chocolate Stan: together-together.
Dark Chocolate Stan: in any case, why are you and jaune talking to sun?
Milk Chocolate Stan: what, we can't be friends with your friends now? :smirk_cat:
Milk Chocolate Stan: but seriously, we're classmates in leadership class. coco just loves dumping on him, so jaune felt bad and reached out to him. they're pretty good friends!
Dark Chocolate Stan: why am i not surprised?
Milk Chocolate Stan: so yeah sun says you've been avoiding him lately
Dark Chocolate Stan: i told him not to read anything into it when I accepted his invitation
Dark Chocolate Stan: besides, even if I say no to his invites, he'll just drop by unannounced and barge in like he always does, no matter what i say
Dark Chocolate Stan: what is it with blondes and how… dense they can be!
Milk Chocolate Stan: aw blake, im sure sun just means well
Dark Chocolate Stan: im sure he does! im just not comfortable with how pushy he is!
Milk Chocolate Stan: oh jeez blake, maybe you could have told jaune the same thing
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: …yeah, funny story about that. remind me to tell you about it some other time. its linked to the pyr story
Dark Chocolate Stan: look, my break's almost over, and pyr's giving me that scary look of hers
Dark Chocolate Stan: she only brings that out when she's really hyperfocusing on something, and this volume's way behind schedule already. you don't wanna mess with pyrrha when she's behind deadlines.
Milk Chocolate Stan: ok! i'll leave you to it
Someone is typing…
Dark Chocolate Stan: oh, and ruby?
Milk Chocolate Stan: yeah?
Dark Chocolate Stan: um
Dark Chocolate Stan: you should ask pyrrha yourself, not me
Milk Chocolate Stan: um
Milk Chocolate Stan: ok?
Dark Chocolate Stan: im not gonna say stop being paranoid bc that's massively hypocritical of me but uh
Dark Chocolate Stan: don't be like me, and don't let things fester.
Dark Chocolate Stan: whatever guilt you're feeling towards pyrrha, its better to just get it out in the open
Dark Chocolate Stan: you guys taught me that. reminded me that. unfortunately, i don't think I can be that kind of person anymore
Dark Chocolate Stan: it's too late for me now. I used to like fairy tales too, you know?
Dark Chocolate Stan: but i grew up, and what I learned is that i tend to disappoint people and run away. my life's the farthest thing from a fairy tale.
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: well… that's why you're here, right? In Beacon?
Milk Chocolate Stan: to make it better
Milk Chocolate Stan: and if you can't believe in yourself, if you can't trust yourself not to run away, then trust me instead. believe in the me who believes in you.
Dark Chocolate Stan: wait, did you just-
Milk Chocolate Stan: yeah, I finally got around to watching it. you were right, the show was so cool
Dark Chocolate Stan: …that was more of a pyr pick, not me. still, im glad you liked it.
Dark Chocolate Stan: ill admit, it's a pretty childish show, but a part of me still likes it
Milk Chocolate Stan: yeah, well, that's why you and yang are so similar
Dark Chocolate Stan: huh? what do you mean?
Milk Chocolate Stan: …you both like to pretend you're more adult and grown up than you really are
Dark Chocolate Stan: what
Milk Chocolate Stan: besides, you keep saying only adults like dark chocolate, but i know you're gonna try and steal some of my "kiddie" chocolates later. so don't give me that "im all grown up" nonsense missy.
Milk Chocolate Stan: the ears don't lie, blake
Dark Chocolate Stan: i wont steal your chocolate! And stop saying that! that's very discriminatory! :pouting_cat:
-0-
Talking with Blake, surprisingly, had put Ruby in a better mood, and it felt like the heavy feeling of dread that had begun pooling in the pit of her stomach lessened somewhat. Ruby wasn't going to claim that her talks with Blake had made Blake recover from the dark pit that she found herself in for the entirety of the previous month, but Ruby liked to think that she helped give Blake the push she needed to drag herself out of it. The issues of the awkwardness between the two teams remained, sure, but they didn't seem as serious now. Ruby still had the nagging paranoia at the back of her head, but when Blake had described it as guilt, something clicked in Ruby's head.
Instead of relying on glances and looks, why couldn't Ruby just ask Pyrrha?
It had seemed so obvious in hindsight that Ruby wanted to chide her past self for being so dust-damned anxious about it, but having put herself in Blake's shoes for a bit, having dealt with a little of the anxiety and fear that Blake definitely lived with every day of her life, Ruby could say that she understood how hard it was to even consider making that first step. Ruby grappled with similar fears often. Sure, she wasn't the type of person who let the intrusive thoughts get to her, but sometimes, late at night, they would creep up on her unawares, her throat tightening for a split-second as she choked on the fears, the questions, the doubt, the mistakes she had made in the past. Was she doing a good enough job? Could she have done better? Was she worth the trust her teammates and friends were placing on her?
They were fleeting thoughts, most of the time, momentary night terrors that would fade by morning. But the events of the past month had intensified the feelings, and Ruby found herself venturing to some dark places, even during the daylight. And that was just her own, personal feelings! She couldn't imagine how it must be for Blake, who dealt with much more guilt and anguish in her life.
Not for the last time that day, Ruby felt in awe of Blake's strength. Or was it stubbornness? Either way, the load she carried must have been immense, and yet here she was. And if Blake could be that strong, then surely Ruby could be, too.
Now, how should Ruby address the issues at hand…
-0-
Welcome to Team RRAYNNBW!
Queen of the Castle: GUYS
Queen of the Castle: BIG NEWS
Queen of the Castle everyone you all need to see this!
Queen of the Castle shared a streaming video!
Queen of the Castle played a video over the chat!
RedLikeStrawberries: nora? where are you guys?
Ren-sensei: We took Zwei out on a walk. As it turns out, Beacon is very conducive for dog walking when most of the student population isn't around, apparently.
Ren-sensei uploaded a photo!
RedLikeStrawberries: aww, yang and weiss look so cute with zwei!
Someone is typing…
RedLikeStrawberries: wait, isn't this your dance?
Queen of the Castle: Yep!
Queen of the Castle: we're going viral!
RedLikeStrawberries: do we know who leaked the video? i thought professor ozpin and the atlas military had a blackout on media from the dance bc they didnt want to leak info abt an intruder breaking in
Ren-sensei: We're not sure. the uploader's account was just made today. we're not even sure how they managed to go viral so quickly, considering they didn't have any social media presence
Queen of the Castle: Yeah, and the big influencers are only promoting it now!
RedLikeStrawberries: how'd you find out about this?
Ren-sensei: We were accosted by a team who just returned from their mission today. Apparently, the video is blowing up all over the CCT network and DusTube, and the village they visited was busy gushing over "Pyrrha Nikos and her teammates' dance video."
Ren-sensei: I suspect that similar situations are occurring all the Kingdom.
SunnyLittleDragon: rubes me n weiss r takin zwei back to the dorms now
RedLikeStrawberries: ok!
Vomit Boy: aw man, pyr's scroll is blowing up right now
Vomit Boy: we prolly wont make it back in time for dinner
Big Kitty Goth GF: and we were on such a roll with the chapter outlines too
Queen of the Castle: Oh no! Is it her stuffy manager again?
Vomit Boy: i think so
Queen of the Castle: She's been nagging Pyrrha for weeks! You know what we should do?
Snow Angel: No, Nora, we cannot break her manager's scroll.
Snow Angel: In the first place, I doubt Professor Ozpin will let us travel all the way to Mistral just to break someone's scroll.
Snow Angel: No matter how irritating managers can be.
Ren-sensei: Well said. Nevertheless, this is a very interesting situation we're in.
RedLikeStrawberries: huh? what do you mean, ren?
Ren-sensei: Think about it. The timing of the release of the video is very suspect, especially because, as you have said, Headmaster Ozpin and the Atlas military are keeping as much information about the dance secret, in fear of any hints of the CCT break-in leaking to the public.
Big Kitty Goth GF: but somehow a leaked video of a dance gets out under the media blackout? curious how the one video that got out just so happens to involve international celebrity pyrrha nikos
Big Kitty Goth GF: you might be onto something here ren
Ren-sensei: I imagine things will be rather difficult, not just for Pyrrha, but for JNPR as a whole as well. The media frenzy will be intense.
Ren-sensei: Perhaps this is why Ozpin also ordered us to take the week off?
SunnyLittleDragon: i wanna say we're overthinking it, but…
Big Kitty Goth GF: im not saying we should be paranoid abt this. maybe this is good? Now the kingdom and the surrounding villages are distracted from the breach bc of a viral video
Vomit Boy: aw man, i hope my family doesn't see this
Big Kitty Goth GF: they live out in the sticks, jaune
Vomit Boy: hey! don't call my hometown the sticks! :pouting_cat:
Big Kitty Goth GF: stop appropriating my emotes first :dog:
Vomit Boy: but yeah, pyr looks really worried rn. what do we do about this, i wonder?
-0-
What, indeed?
Ruby couldn't focus at first, as her attention was on the video. Speaking of, she wasn't sure what to make of the spectacle currently playing in their group chat, but she knew that she couldn't take her eyes off it.
Baby, it's time to make up your mind
I think that tonight is when our stars align
Ruby couldn't not watch the video of JNPR's performance during the dance. Sure, she was there, watching from afar, but whoever took the video was close to the team and managed to capture their facial expressions and body language to a tee.
In the video, Jaune was sweating profusely, no doubt nervous about performing in front such a huge crowd, especially with such an energetic dance number. His body and his facial expressions, however, betrayed none of this, as he displayed that goofy yet confident grin he wore when something went his way for once while his body swayed and sashayed with a practiced ease that he displayed none of in combat. Ruby observed the ease and grace in which Jaune moved his body, even with the dress he had somehow acquired, and felt jealous that Jaune seemed more comfortable in said dress than she did with her own. Still, he was cheating with those sneakers! Try lady stilts next time!
(Much, much later, after much prodding, Ruby finally managed to get Jaune to wear those damnable lady stilts, but that was a story for another time.)
Honey, it's time we leave the doubt behind
Take my hand 'cause you and I are gonna shine
Ren was the face of professionalism: each move of his was calculated, with little to no energy wasted as he transitioned from kick step to kick step to bodyroll. If you were being critical of his movements, they were perhaps slightly too mechanical, like Ren had spent hours (three hours per week, Ruby clarified in her head) refining his movement, but it was only visible to the people who knew Ren enough to know how graceful his usual movement was.
When I needed a hero, you knew it
And you were there
And I'm scared, but I'll open my heart up
I'm ready to dare
Nora was pure energy and passion, which translated to the way she moved on the dance floor. Nora's face lit up in rapture, soaking in the applause, the gaze, and the laughter of the crowd all the same, relishing the moment the laughter turned into awe, and despite her small stature, Ruby swore that she was the largest person in the room. Each swing of her arms, each step Nora too, was infused by her passion, even when she wasn't completely in tune with the music, and they held an ineffable power behind each stroke, each body roll.
I know I've never felt like this before
I never really knew what love was for
I dreamed
But never did believe
To the untrained eye, Pyrrha's moves were flawless – like the commenters to the viral video would say, the Invincible Girl does it again! Each step, each transition flowed with the rhythm of the song, her face giving off her practiced smile conveying confidence and strength. It was so, so easy to think that Pyrrha had spontaneously learned how to dance that day and picked it up as easily as she did combat, or her schoolwork, or whatever else people saw her pick up.
But Ruby knew better, as she had watched Team JNPR practice endlessly during the weekends, watched Pyrrha struggle to perform the simplest kick step, shuddered as Ren would grow increasingly irate at Pyrrha for messing up the simplest steps, smiled at the way Nora would whine at how often they had to repeat the same sequence until everyone got it right, rejoiced at the way Jaune would throw comforting looks and reassuring pats on Pyrrha's shoulders every time she messed it up, sigh in relief at the apologies Ren would offer for going too far to Pyrrha once everyone was finished for the day, and admired even the way that Pyrrha would stay behind after everyone had gone to the showers, asking Ruby to operate the music for her as she tried the routine over and over and over and over again until she got it right. Because that was who the Invincible Girl was, and she was not about to let her team down.
As the video winded down, Ruby looked back to the past few days, and how stressful everything had been. On the other hand, watching team JNPR dance their heart out in front of an audience reminded Ruby of a simpler time. Sure, there was a lot of emotional drama before the dance, and afterwards the Breach brought an incredible amount of stress to all of them, but in that moment, when JNPR managed to get everyone to forget that the next day they were back to work, to forget all their angst and teenage hormones and just start dancing, things were right in the world. But now, with their video going viral and the promise of the logistical headaches that it would bring to their sister team, it felt as if the next week would not be much fun for them…
Ruby's mind came to a quick stop, the gears turning in her head.
This is what's been missing.
The sheer joy that JNPR exhibited dancing, the exhilaration of doing something not because it was their duty, or because they had to protect the city, or because of some misguided attempt to change the world. Just friends, goofing off, doing something they practiced for fun, something they did because they wanted to improve themselves and support each other. They didn't get to have that much fun lately. When was the last time their group did anything remotely resembling the word fun, when they weren't worried about whatever it was the White Fang was up to? The Food Fight? Well, isn't that depressing.
Well, Torchwick was imprisoned, and they foiled the White Fang's plot! Surely that meant a celebration was in order! And perhaps they could take advantage of that celebration to plan out what to do about this viral video! Maybe they could take advantage of it somehow, help in calming down the populace of Vale? When was the last time the two teams had a sleepover, anyway?
(Much later, when they decided on a plan to piggyback off the popularity of the video to start their own DusTube accounts, or in Jaune's case, get a boost for his ASMR channel, Ruby began to wonder if their secret leaker also had this in mind.)
Her head now swimming with plans and codenames, Ruby began to consider the next few steps she needed to take. She definitely needed Jaune's help to plan this, so she had to talk to him later… perhaps it was also a good chance to talk to Pyrrha and hash things out?
Two birds with one stone. Sorry, birdie!
But to do that, she needed a second in command. Good thing she already had one around!
-0-
Welcome to Ladybug!
Milk Chocolate Stan: BLAKE
Milk Chocolate Stan: BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE BLAKE
Dark Chocolate Stan: what
Milk Chocolate Stan: i have a plan and i need your help
Dark Chocolate Stan: …what?
Milk Chocolate Stan: am i right in assuming that pyrrha's been crabby the past few days bc of this deadline you guys are trying to reach
Dark Chocolate Stan: …yeah?
Milk Chocolate Stan: and can you confirm that, right now, pyrrha and the rest of team JNPR need our help to deal with this whole video thing
Dark Chocolate Stan: uhhhhhhh
Dark Chocolate Stan: sure
Dark Chocolate Stan: if only because I hate seeing pyr like this
Dark Chocolate Stan: jaunes doing his best to calm her down right now and i feel like such a third wheel
Milk Chocolate Stan: cmon, you're not
Milk Chocolate Stan: i wont tell you to stop being paranoid, but at the very least, try not think about that and think about how pyrrha needs all the friends she needs rn.
Dark Chocolate Stan: …right. So what do you need?
Someone is typing…
Milk Chocolate Stan: so I was thinking, we…
-0-
Welcome to Team RRAYNBW!
RedLikeStrawberries: ok!
RedLikeStrawberries: in light of recent events, I would like to call on everyone to attend a special conference tonight. I'll set the time later, but the duration will be overnight! Bring rations and nourishment because we have a lot of agendas to cover! Dress comfortably, as we will be at this meeting all night!
Snow Angel: …Ruby, are you telling us we're having a sleepover?
RedLikeStrawberries: that maybe an informal way to put it
RedLikeStrawberries: as official second-in-command of team JNPR, the by-laws also allow me to call on you all in times of great emergency, and I'd say this is one of them! what do you say, Queen of the Castle, Ren-sensei?
Queen of the Castle: I'm in!
Ren-sensei: This is fine with me, but what about Jaune and Pyrrha?
RedLikeStrawberries: That's why my trusted second-in-command, Blake Belladonna, is handling right now!
RedLikeStrawberries: That's our plan for tonight! You may spend the rest of the day as you wish!
RedLikeStrawberries: Team Leader Ruby Rose, signing off!
-0-
The plan was simple.
Three objectives: one, get team RWBY and JNPR together, hopefully to air out whatever lingering drama the two teams had (Ruby and Blake talked about it, and Blake agreed that she needed to open up about her past to the rest of their sister team as well); and two, discuss what to do about the viral video, and if there was any ulterior motive they could discern from the act. Ruby was fairly confident that the reasoning was benign, that whoever allowed the video to upload merely wanted to galvanize the Kingdom over something as innocuous as a silly school dance video that just so happened to involve an international celebrity, but other perspectives were just as valid and needed to be heard. And third, finally: to have some dust-damned fun around here.
Ruby looked around their room, which had just undergone some hasty cleaning from the scythe-wielding huntress. Yang and Weiss, at least, agreed immediately to the impromptu sleepver plans, and judging from Blake's comments, she had successfully convinced Pyrrha to delay the release of the new volume for a bit so that the Invincible Girl could unwind, so hopefully she was in a better mood by tonight.
This is a good idea! Ruby reassured to herself because this was the perfect opportunity for a fresh, new start. Maybe Jaune could apologize to Weiss for being… Jaune for the past month! Maybe Blake could finally apologize to everyone, formally, for not being very communicative lately! Maybe she could apologize to team JNPR for not being a very good friend lately!
(Maybe she could clear away all this anxiety clogging her chest!)
Ruby looked at the box of chocolates in her hand. It took a lot of convincing from Blake to agree to this trade, and Ruby was sure that the favor she owed Blake was going to be hard to pay back, but it was worth it. Pyrrha, as it turns out, had a major sweet tooth, something Ruby got out from Blake, and the peace offering in her hand was the best way to pacify the Invincible Girl. Ruby still wasn't sure if Pyrrha was mad at her or if she was overthinking things, but nevertheless, Ruby wanted to apologize. Not just for Pyrrha's sake, but for her own. A little bit of desk organization for the heart. Ruby wasn't very good at that, but if Blake could learn how to, even in… difficult circumstances, then maybe she ought to give it a go. It was must better to lay things out in the open, after all.
Ruby heard the knock on the door, the telltale rhythm signaling that it was Pyrrha. Only someone like Pyrrha would knock with such focused regularity, each knock measured to the second. It was definitely something Pyrrha had practiced rigorously in her private time.
Now or never. Ruby took a deep breath.
She opened the door to her dorm room, putting on her brightest, most mischievous smile. It had been quite a while since she had pulled it out.
"Hey, Pyrrha!" Ruby greeted, her voice finding an energy and passion she had thought was lost to the fallout of the Breach. "Want some chocolate?"
-0-
I apologize profusely to Blacksun and Iceberg shippers. Your ships are in another castle!
I might take a few days off to work on two different oneshots (blame the RWBY Nook writing discord for putting these gremlins in my head), but I'll mention them here. They're both canon™ to this universe!
- Meet the Parents, a Cardin, Neo, and Roman story, based on the prompt of, well, meeting the parents. (That's right, I'm still on a Cardin & Neo kick. I am helplessly addicted to crack!)
- Team NWBY (Newbie), in which Ruby gets a minor injury and can't participate in missions for a week, so she nominates Nora as temporary leader of the team. Hilarity ensues! Lots of comedy, some drama about mortality, Nora being team mom!
In the meantime, the rest of this and the third arc are remarkably freeform, and besides setting up or continuing a couple of arc-long plot arcs and focusing on a specific character every day of the week, I don't really have a set schedule of who to write for next (except for Nora - Nora's always going to be a Thursday chapter) so if you have any specific combinations of characters you want to see, or a specific character you absolutely need to read me write about for the next chapter, let me know! If you really, really want to read about Blake's Harem, or the boys go shopping for feminine products, or Yang and Ren meditating while shitposting in chat, then tell me! I will do my best to integrate as many dumb headcanons and character interactions from my readers! Leave a review, shoot me a message, whatever! It's easy to find me on discord!