Ruby kicked the spotless white wall in front of her as hard as she could. It remained completely unfazed, while a brief wave of painful impact hit her foot, and she was forced to take a step backwards.
"Ugh!" she grunted, "It's like this wall is made out of pure, solid nothingness!" She angrily kicked it again and fell backwards roughly onto her bottom, sighing with exasperation.
"It wouldn't surprise me if it was," Yang commented, watching her sister from the couch a few feet back, "Seeing as literally every world we know exists is infected with whatever they're calling this new virus thing."
"COVID 19," Blake answered from her isolated corner.
"Yeah," Yang said, glancing at her, "That."
"But what does that have to do with inescapable white walls of nothing?" Ruby asked, standing back up and touching the wall with her hand. Yang shrugged.
"Well, you know how the other worlds we've heard about technically don't exist to us?" she began, scooting herself around so that she was sitting backwards on the couch with her arms on the couch's head, "It's the same for them as us, and since the other world is our 'superior', they've locked us up in this place."
"A white dimension of nothingness," Ruby muttered, "What do you mean, superior?"
"Their world created our world," Blake replied, looking up from her book, "And thus, our world is under there's. They can control some of the happenings here, making them as if our own choices, and it's like nothing has changed for us."
"So we're like their own puppets?!" Ruby gasped, turning around to look at her.
"In a way," said Blake, "But we won't notice at all. We can only assume that since we're all here, and not in any particular event other than being quarantined from this multi-universal virus, that our actions are completely independent."
"Still makes no sense, but okay," Ruby mumbled, walking over the the couch and jumping over it, seating herself down with a soft thud. The cushions bounced and Yang spun back around to face her sister once more.
"Which means that we can spend all the time we want together!" Yang said brightly, "And with literally everyone else from Remnant!"
Ruby looked around at the space surrounding them. It was a large living room with four couches in a row, positioned into some kind of c-shape, with a glowing fireplace in front of it. The floor was carpeted in tan carpet, with a small grape juice stain that had came from Nora's cup that she had spilled about half an hour earlier.
The living room went into another one with only one couch, which was very long and had six seats on it, and had a few tables lined up agains its wall. From that living room area, behind it and in line with the first, was a very large kitchen, like the ones featured on cooking shows.
Then there was a big grand stairway in between the first two living rooms, which lead up to four different intersecting hallways, lined with room after room of unusual size and much furniture.
Many more rooms and living spaces were there, so many that will not describe to save you, the reader's, poor mind from boredom and word-sickness, but it was overall like a huge mansion with more average items and furniture, housing hundreds upon hundreds of named RWBY characters. This was the Quarantine Quarters.
Everyone had been going about their daily lives, team RWBY and ORNJ preparing to be surprised at Salem's massive army that was approaching and encroaching Atlas, Cinder and Neo happily running off with the Relic, and Winter struggling to stay conscious, when a loud voice that had sounded much like Jaune's could be heard from every place in Remnant.
It had announced that he was from the superior world, and would be sending every named person from there to the Quarantine Quarters, a place that he informed had been newly created and was going to keep them safe from a virus that was infecting every world in existence.
He also mentioned that every NON-NAMED person had gotten the virus, and wasn't allowed to enter the Quarantine Quarters, so that they wouldn't spread this virus, also known as COVID 19. How awful it had been, and suddenly everyone was teleported into this new mansion-like place with a few rules to follow, as well as some rules that are automatically applied.
You may not fight or battle one another outside of the arena; everyone here is immortal during this quarantine; pain and injuries can still be sustained, but will completely deteriorate and mend after 15 seconds of the absence of disturbance.
The abode requires maintenance, as any other common physical place, and will not clean itself.
All and any food or recourses are infinite and decent in quality; allergies still apply.
Any people who violate the first rule will be sent out of quarantine and forced to depart back into the virus-infected Remnant, or face variant, UNPLEASANT consequences.
The duration of this quarantine is unknown; all residents will be teleported back to their original placements at the conclusion of this pandemic.
And now every living named person with any identity in the Fandom was in this mansion like place, and were to stay there until otherwise informed. The event had begun about an hour ago, most of the confusion taking nearly 45 minutes to subside and situate.
Blake had found a library with every book in Remnant in it, and had happily taken a stack of books with her to her confined corner in the currently mentioned living room. Yang had decided to chill on the couch and relax, watching her younger sister make sense of their surroundings. Weiss was still exploring the seemingly endless rooms of this place.
Nora had gorged herself on the various foods and beverages in the massive kitchen, spilling dark purple grape juice on the carpet and leaving a stain in her excitement, and Ren had cooked himself a nice bowl of warm rice, retiring to one of the many rooms for a long wanted nap.
Jaune and Oscar left for the basement theatre, to check it out and browse its many movies. All in all, everyone was mostly exploring and checking out the limitations and of their temporary new "home", as well as trying to find their relatives and family members. It was a bit of an insane mess, but things were shaping out.
"Did you hear about the massive arena in the basement!" Nora squealed, rushing into the living room and skidding to a halt, "It looks almost exactly like Amity! Can you believe it?!"
Every raised their heads to look at her.
"It does?" Ruby asked, leaning her head on her knee, which she had bent up, "How could something that huge possibly fit inside a single basement? Didn't Jaune just text us earlier and say that there's a theatre down there, too?"
"Yeah there is," Nora panted eagerly, "It's pretty big, but I'm not kidding! That arena looks just like Amity Arena, just a little smaller."
"How much smaller?" Yang asked, leaning her head on the back of the couch.
"Eh, maybe like, a sixth of its size?" Nora estimated, scratching her head, "It looks like it could prolly fit just about everyone here, so maybe like, a few hundred people?"
"Woah," Ruby said, her eyes widening, "I've gotta see that."
"I could wait," Yang said, shrugging and putting her hands behind her back, "Since we're probably gonna be here for a really long time, I kinda have all day. I haven't relaxed like this since that house in Mistral, and even there, there was a little stress."
"Suit yourself," Nora shrugged, turning to Blake and Ruby, "Are you guys coming or what?"
"I'm coming!" Ruby said excitedly, hopping off the couch and landing on her feet, "Is anyone else?"
Blake shook her head, her eyes fixed on the book in her hands. It had to be at least five inches thick, with small fine print. She turned the page, blinking, and cleared her throat.
"I'll pass," she said calmly, "It takes a long time to finish long books, and for the record, there are a lot of long, good books in that library. Time is limited, so I am going to try to finish as many as I can managed before we have to leave."
"Lame," Yang teased, putting her arm over her eyes and reclining her seat. She leaned much far backwards and settled down. Ruby and Nora exchanged glances before running eagerly off to see this phenomenon, Nora practically dragging her friend with her.
Meanwhile, Weiss finished testing out the main elevator, which went up to six floors and three different basements. In the half hour she had been exploring, she had thoroughly checked through the entire sixth floor, tested the elevator's navigation and speed, and then its cleanliness.
"It's fairly large," she murmured to herself as she examined it's size again, "Could probably fit at least twenty people inside. At least people won't have to worry about being stuck in an elevator with fifty sweaty, disgusting people stuffed inside."
She stepped out of it and entered the fifth floor, with looked much smaller than the sixth floor had. It was a narrow hallway that lead down for a very long time, ending with what she could barely see was a small wall mirror. Every wall was pure white, nearly glowing, and no lights were needed to illuminate anything.
"I do hope it won't be this luminous at night," she mused, "Or will there ever be night? Yes, there are beds in the rooms, so surely there will be a time for sleeping...but how will we know when it's night if there are no windows?"
She shook her head and continued walking. Sure, there were clocks here and there in the entire place, but what if amidst the activities, boredom, and napping, people forgot weather it was am or pm? She sighed and went on.
Every room in this hallway was another bedroom, some larger than others, and some smaller, with an individual bathroom in each. She did find two different multi-stall bathrooms on this floor, however, with very large size.
"Oh, perfect!" she exclaimed as she opened one of the last doors in the hallway. It was a spa room, even better than the one she had at the Schnee Manor. It was, of course, much larger, and was obviously meant for far more than one person, but it contained a sauna, steam room, hot tub, soaking area, makeup, and various makeover instruments.
She knew where she'd be tonight.
Meanwhile again, Oscar and Jaune looked over the theatre, one of them looking at movies and such while the other examined the technology that ran the huge screen in front of them.
"Check this out!" Jaune called from the far end of the theatre, where the tech booth was set up. His voice echoed down to where Oscar was, looking at the thousands of different movies that were neatly categorized on shelves on either sides of the screen. Oscar looked up from the pile he was going through.
Jaune pressed one of the many, many rows of labeled buttons, and the massive black screen lit up. On it was what appeared to be live surveillance of the arena, which was on the second floor of the basement. Ruby, Nora, and a few other people could be seen running around in it and experimenting.
"Is that...Amity Arena?" Oscar asked, confused.
"What?" Jaune yelled back, "It's really hard to hear you from here!"
"I said," Oscar shouted back, "Is that Amity Arena?"
"No," Jaune called back, "I think it's just an arena meant to somewhat replicate it. It does look a crazy amount like it, though. They really got it down to the sharpest of detail!"
Oscar nodded and continued on with the stack of movies. Some of them, he had heard of before, since they were widely sold in Mistral. Each shelf had a small stairs to access the higher parts, and were categorized first, by kingdoms, then alphabetized, and then rated. Currently, he was in the Mistral section, browsing in the As.
"I think this is one of the only rooms with lighting," Jaune called as he fiddled with a few more settings, "The walls aren't that weird white glowy stuff...it's actually reasonably dim in here." He found a slider of some sorts, labeled "lights", and found that each one controlled the clarity of the various lights installed around the room.
He made some more dim than others, and then wondered what would happen if he put one of them on full power. Sliding one of them up to the top, the light right above Oscar become suddenly incredibly bright, blinding the poor boy.
"Hey!" Oscar cried, quickly rubbing his dilated, aching eyes, "W-what was that?"
"Oh!" Jaune exclaimed as soon as he noticed what he had done, "Sorry, Oscar." He lowered the amount of light being produced to nearly nothing, leaving poor Oscar in near darkness.
"You've got to be kidding me..," Oscar sighed as he looked back up towards Jaune with pleading eyes. After almost a minute, Jaune looked back over at Oscar and saw his second mistake.
"Sorry again!" Jaune yelled, wincing. He raised the slider to make Oscar's light a good, balanced amount, and then sighed with relief as nothing else bad happened. He found more settings, and after a few moments, made another fun discovery.
"Look, there's different camera angles we can switch to!" he remarked, switching to a more side view on the screen, "We could totally stream some kind of tournament sometime and make a big event out of it!"
"Cool," Oscar answered with a smile, "I think everyone would like that. Keep their minds off of any extreme boredom or something."
"Aw yeah," Jaune said, getting excited, "This is so awesome. We're doing it. We're having a tournament with any of the huntsmen and huntresses here, or just anyone who can fight. This is gonna be sweet."
Meanwhile again once more, Ruby and Nora leaped around the colosseum, in awe at how closely replicated the place was to the actually Amity Coliseum. It was almost exactly the same, just with less space, which still made it huge. The fighting platform was about the same size, it was just more the audience.
"We should have a tournament!" Nora said eagerly, "With all the same people! Penny could even do it with us!"
"Yeah," Ruby agreed, looking down at the little places where the different modes would appear, "Only this time, the entire school wouldn't explode and fill up with Grimm, and we could actually finish it and have a single winner."
"I like that idea," a woman with short, gray hair muttered next to her, "I never even got to see the outcome of that, only heard of it from vague sources."
Ruby turned around to face her and raised a brow. The woman looked like she was only a few years older than her, and she had silver-blue hair and odd looking, deep purple vein-like things going up her arms. They were visible going up her chest as well, as she could see them from her low-zipped outfit.
It was a very simple, black body-suit-type outfit with short sleeves and shorts, a few pockets, and a zipper going down the front, all metal being gold. Her eyes were a marbly dim blue, and portrayed nothing much but dullness.
"You mean...you heard about the Fall of Beacon before it happened?" Ruby asked, confused.
"Yes," the woman answered, "And since we're in a place that no one can die, and that we won't be leaving for who-knows-how long, I might as well lay all my cards on the table and let you know."
"Let us know what?" Nora asked, hopping into the conversation with her hands on her hips.
"That I'm part of the White Fang," the woman answered, rolling her eyes, "Don't worry, I won't try to murder you people at all, if that's what you're thinking I'll do."
"Oh..," Ruby murmured, "Well...I kinda ruined some of the Fall of Beacon...and supposedly, I helped kill Roman Torchwick...in a way...sort of?"
"How's that?" the lady asked, cocking her head to the side, slightly amused.
"Well, I guess I was occupying him and was technically the cause for him being in range of the Griffon that ate him," Ruby answered tentatively, "But...he was attacking me and ended up getting swallowed by the Griffon, which I kicked down and killed, so I guess that might count."
"That's unfortunate," the woman said, shrugging, "But that hollow-headed nitwit joker deserved it. Yeah, he was a human siding with our cause, but he really wasn't what us Faunus needed."
"You're a Faunus?" Ruby asked, looking her over, "I don't really see how you are."
"I'm a spider Faunus," the woman answered, crossing her arms, "My only visible traits are the veins on my body and the webs I can shoot. Also, no human are allowed to be members of the White Fang."
"You can shoot webs?!" Nora exploded, "That's awesome! It must be so cool to just be able to do that...do you climb walls?!"
The woman shook her head with a sigh.
"The name's Trifa," she said, holding her hand out to Ruby, "Not saying we're friends, but why not be acquaintances on a good side for the time being, since no one's all judgmental right now...at least they shouldn't be."
"Oh, I'm not really like that," Ruby said, shaking her hand, "But okay. I'm Ruby."
"Nice to meet you," she said half-heartedly, "What do you do all day? I'm not very well educated on what you humans do all the time, especially the ones that you claim to be, who supposedly don't pay much negativity to our species."
"Well," Ruby began, "I'm a huntress...fully graduated from Atlas Academy, although technically I spent most of my training in Beacon Academy, and a few years in Signal Academy, which is much less advanced. So I spend my time on saving the world...and where we last left off, from Atlas' destruction."
"Sounds fun," Trifa said, "I just work as an enforcer for the White Fang, tagging along on random jobs once and a while when ordered to. Sometimes it's on a volunteer basis, but I don't really care for leaving home base too much."
"Where's home base?" Ruby asked curiously.
"Can't and won't say," Trifa answered a bit sternly, "Just because I'm talking to you, doesn't mean I can give classified info away, make sense?"
Ruby nodded. "Yeah, sorry."
And meanwhile, once again finally, Yang left the couch she had been lounging on for the past while and entered the second living room, where many people she knew where currently residing. The television in the room was on, showing odd channels that shared news about this COVID 19.
Plopping down on the couch next to Ren, she folded her hands behind her head again and reclined her feet on the recliner, stretching.
"So what do you think about all this insanity?" Yang asked casually, glancing over at him. He continued to stare at the TV screen, but his answer was calm and free of any kind of negative emotion.
"I see it as an opportunity," he replied, "Although it is quite confusing, I know there is much to learn, and despite being trapped with our enemies in the same quarters, I think there could be a possibility of changing things before we return back to Atlas."
Yang nodded her head slowly, looking back at the TV. Maybe Ren was right. Maybe they could change things with their enemies here.
I know I have a different primary story I need to update, but since we're all being quarantined, why not share the feelings? This is gonna be super fun to write, and my other fic (A Rosegarden Seeding) just isn't really in sync right now, so yeah.
Story Advertisements: A Certain Huntsman, by cbustroyer (American OC/going into Remnant fans, read this. There's some language in it, to warn you, but it's kinda interesting)
A Silent Connection, by ArthurSG (NeoXJaune fans, read this. It's an emotional story and I recommend reading it)
Thanks for reading and tune in for more chapters!