I'm happy! I already have a favorite and a follower! Hope I don't disappoint you! :)
Also, sorry about taking so long (as in, more than a week). I got distracted from typing this up by The Parallel. It's a pair of extremely well-done stories based on what might happen if a certain Spartan-AI combo were reborn years before they ever were in cannon, in the Origin, and decided to interfere and help out. Just trust me, it's absolutely awesome! It's also here on fanfiction . net. Just search for The Parallel: Two Corpses and you'll find it.
"Oh, darn you!" Rose lashed out at the latest source of irritation to try and stop the mocking voice, though she stayed careful of her strength as she glared and slammed it.
"Game Over." The Light Gun Rail Shooter that had eaten all the rest of her spare coins before she could beat it announced to the world, oblivious of the death glares the machine was garnering in the process. "Try Again?"
"No." Rose spat out childishly. "Shut up." Then she rather maturely walked away without kicking it.
After a moment, she sped back to the arcade machine to put in her initials for the high score leaderboard. No one would be stealing her high score. Not until she could beat it, at least. Probably in the process of beating the game completely.
Eh, she'll probably do it tomorrow unless something comes up.
After a minute of directionless wandering, she decided to sit on that park bench she'd noticed earlier; the one by the tree in the middle of the mall's quadrangle of green grass with a clear view on all sides. It was a nice place to sit unbothered by the people around her as they moved around in their lives, seemingly unaware of the danger they lived under.
Perhaps they actually were.
Still, it was a nice, unclouded day as the sun set, painting the sky with beautiful purples and oranges with red slowly creeping in, and the feeling of the grass under her feet once again was absolutely glorious!
Now, this was not to actually say that she had blown off Snow's command to buy shoes for herself. Any chance to spend their rather tightly-controlled money gifted in an act of love was a truly wonderful thing, even if it was for buying shoes, the useless things. In fact, first thing she did when she got to the marketplace was to find and buy a pair of beautiful black combat shoes with solid silver buckles over the laces with red highlights in the laces and on the sides, which, now that she thought about it, actually reminded her of Penny's shoes. They were both high quality, the solidity, grip, and patterns of the soles were similar, and they were both incredibly durable, as well as having steel in various parts of the actual boot, such as a cup in the toe for additional protection and as a helper to kicks, plates in the sole for additional support/comfort and additional protection from underneath, and similar though smaller plates in the sides for even more protection.
Since just buying those boots didn't even take up half of what Snow had given her for them, she did a little wandering, looking for things that either struck her sense of fancy or really called out to her. Not much actually did, and they didn't really need anything at the moment, so she ended up just wandering for the most part.
That's not to say she didn't buy a few trinkets, including a few things that weren't all that important or amazing, but they were a start. Or something. In fact, she got incredibly lucky with one of the trinkets she bought, as it was something Dragon had lost a long time ago, and it was the last one in stock of a highly popular item, so she snatched it up as fast as possible. Even found something for Blake too! True, they each cost a very pretty penny individually, but they were close enough, which makes it more than worth it.
As for the time spent in the arcade, well, that was accounted for too. Snow's experience with shoe shopping said that it takes at least an hour if there are no distractions at all, and she knew that Rose liked to walk, rather than trusting most vehicles to get her where she goes, which took another hour to walk from the store to the market, and an hour to get back after doing the actual shopping itself.
It wasn't a trust thing, because she did actually trust them, mostly. She just simply preferred her own feet is all.
All together, that meant that Snow believed that it would take her a total of 3 hours if she walked like a normal person (which, she wasn't, what with her super-speed that she still needs a little practice with), which gave her a full 2 and a half hours to screw around after she found the shoes and then found a pair that actually fit, and that was without counting the extra time unsupervised she could squeeze out of the trip when you add in the extra half hour to hour and five minutes Snow would put in as needed when you take into account just how easily distracted the four of them were.
Rose smiled as she watched the sky. Today was a good day, and when she wasn't killing something or teaching or working at their General Store, she liked to just watch the sky. It was always interesting to see how it changed in a city. The few times she'd actually paid attention to the sky as a, well, child wouldn't be the right word, but before she met Snow- no, before she met Blake is a better- more accurate spot. Before meeting Blake, the few times she did pay attention it wasn't anything special. It was light or it was dark, and that was it. Afterwards, she found the stars fascinating. Pretty too.
The sky continued to darken from it's blazing ending as she thought about the time. If she still had another half hour or so before she really needed to get going to the store again. Well, maybe. Something like that. She smiled. Ooh, what to do, what to do
...
'Oooh!' She thought as her eyes widened and her smile turned to a grin when a small speck of white appeared. 'First star tonight! Good omen.' Well, the First star of the Night appearing didn't really solve her current problem, but it was a nice distraction for a bit.
"Weiss! Wait up!" A young voice shouted.
Rose looked away from the second star that appeared, close on the heels of the first, to find out who had shouted and-
The brunette blinked. Wait. What? She blinked again. Nope, still there. Freaky.
There was a red-frosted brunette that looked almost exactly like a younger version of her own self, in a combat skirt and corset combo (nice combat boots though. Wouldn't have gone for the laces or stockings, but it works), chasing after a clearly steaming snow angel, who looked like a younger version of Snow, complete with Prim and Proper Poise and Posture and an icy wall around her emotions to keep others out and never be hurt.
And the precisely pony-tailed ivory girl probably didn't realize that she'd most likely long-since allowed her walls to be broken down enough to let in the other girl, and make her precious, make her hers.
Rose still remembered when she first realized that she'd done that with Snow, and remembered even better and more fondly when Snow realized she'd done it too. Ah, good times. Almost as good as the feasts they'd had after.
She stood up with a happy sigh. Well, at least she has something to do. Better than pattering around in the store, waiting for someone to come in and spend money.
Using her 'Super-Speed', she blurred over to put a hand on the young brunette's shoulder. When she turned to look at the person keeping her back, Rose shook her head. "Don't. She's obviously very angry, and it's probably best to leave her alone, allow her to calm down and cool off before trying to fix whatever it is needs fixing, okay?"
The girl was extraordinarily hesitant to go along with it, so Rose added in "Don't worry about her. From the way she walks with that sword on her hip, she's obviously got combat experience and at least some skill with that sword. That means that she can keep herself safe. She'll be just fine." After another moment, the girl nodded, agreeing to let the other girl go. Rose nodded, acknowledging the girl's acquiescence. 'I should keep her distracted. She's obviously worried, but she just needs to wait for the other girl to come back.' "So, what's your name?" She started simply.
"Um, it's Ruby." She said a little distractedly. "Ruby Rose."
Rose smiled. "That's a nice name." She commented. "Well Ruby Rose, my name, or what I go by anyway, is Rose. Rose Rubellite of the Red Riding Hood." She offered a hand for shaking. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." Ruby said as she stared off in the direction the girl had walked off in, thus missing the offered hand. Rose wasn't offended. She knew exactly how the girl felt.
She let her hand drop and her eyebrows to raise as she saw the rather large gun strapped into a specialized holster over the girl's hip. "You're in a combat school?" Ruby nodded, still focused on where the other girl, Weiss, Rose thought, was going. "Lemme guess: Signal Academy?"
She shook her head. "Beacon, actually."
Rose's eyebrows rose as she smiled in surprise. "Beacon? I've heard good things about the place. Is it anything like the rumors?" She asked as she put a hand on Ruby's back, gently guiding her away.
"Actually," Ruby paused, still worried by her friend, until she took a breath and allowed the woman to distract her with a small smile. "It's even better."
Rose smiled. She'd be okay. "Well, why don't you tell me about it."
And so she did. It was rather amazing, like a fun sort of college, but with monster killing as well as studying others' mistakes and victories. The students tended to get up to wild shenanigans, especially wild given how psychopathic the general Hunter population has to be to willingly hunt down and kill Grimm, and that was something she could truly appreciate, like the way that the coursework was set up.
It almost sounded like a happier version of the Vermilion Hunters, Rose thought wistfully to herself.
She decided to confirm a few things she'd learned over the years, correct them if they were wrong. "You know," She brought up, interrupting the girl's story about one particularly memorable class that didn't go well. For attention spans anyway. Comedy on the other hand, was rife. "I never actually got a clear picture of this. What exactly is Aura?"
Ruby blinked. Then got a confused look on her face. "How can you not know what Aura is?"
Rose shrugged. "I know about it, a little, but like I said, I never really got a good idea exactly what it is. So, can you explain it to me?"
"Well, Aura is basically like an almost physical projection of our souls, which can then be manipulated by conscious thought."
"That really doesn't make sense to me. Could you explain that a little better?"
Ruby hummed in confusion, trying to condense and comprehensibly explain something that everybody knew and needed no real explanation. "Well, when I think of my Aura, when it's actively being used, it kinda feels like the winds brushing through my hair. When Yang's Aura is active like that, it feels a little like being next to an oven."
That's when it clicked for Rose. "OH! It's like the heat that comes off of a fire, except that it's Aura coming off of our souls!"
"Exactly!" Ruby exclaimed with a slightly smug smile on her face, an obvious feeling of pride written in her features, like a teacher being proud of a particularly fast student. She knew that feeling rather well. She remembered that especially well with Kor and Johnny-Boy. "Except that it doesn't just radiate the 'heat' of a soul's fire, it also makes us stronger. Faster. More durable. Able to fight for longer and recover and heal faster. And there are other, more physical things Aura can do, such as walking on walls, allowing a person to change direction in mid-air, and it can even be used a little like a force field, though all those uses of Aura are a lot more difficult and exhausting." Ruby lectured like an expert, making Rose smile even more at the girl.
They were now in the food court of the mall. She scanned the signs, looking for good food to share that would be good for giving a (non-free) doggy bag lunch. Then, once she knew what shop to choose, she distracted Ruby further with a question. "So, now that we've established what Aura is, what's a Semblance?"
Ruby took a moment to consider this subject as well before she began. "A Semblance is basically a more potent distillation of a person's Aura, and it's pretty much unique to each person."
"And what does that mean to me or the average joe without proper knowledge of what Aura is?" Rose asked, curiosity in her voice rather than an arch tone one might expect from her words.
"In other words, it's a bit like a personal weapon that only you can use. You always have it because it's a part of you, though you can't always use it because of exhaustion or other reasons." Rose picked out what they would be eating from the menu as Ruby continued. "Like me. I have an enormous amount of speed. Nobody else can ever keep up with me when I really really try."
That reminded Rose of her own 'super-speed' actually.
"Then there's Yang. She's my sister, she's going to Beacon Academy too. Anyway, she tends to let out flames when she's angry and when she's hurt, she actually gets stronger and more difficult to destroy."
Hunh, that reminded her a whole lot of Dragon, as well as their indestructibility and the little flames they can use.
And, it's kinda odd how the line in front of them for the food suddenly seems a whole lot longer.
"Then there's Blake, she's a part of my team, and she's really awesome! She's like a ninja, and her Semblance allows her to create little images of herself. They don't last long, but they're good distractions and she uses them a lot and really well."
Rose stopped Ruby's gushing with a quick question. "So, it's true that Beacon students are put into teams almost immediately."
Ruby nodded. "I'm the team leader, though Weiss thought she should be for awhile." She said, her melancholy quickly returning.
"I take it that Weiss is the person in white who was angry earlier." Rose stated simply.
Ruby nodded, sighing as her mind returned to whatever problem was going on between the two of them.
"What's got her so angry?"
"I just... I don't know." Ruby admitted downcast. "I mean, this morning we were fine. Things were fine. Then around lunchtime she just clammed up, giving all of us the cold shoulder and refusing to talk except when it had to do with our studies. And a few minutes ago, I mentioned something and she just turned around and left me behind. I was trying to find out what went wrong when you suggested I let her go. I feel really bad. I'm such a bad leader."
Rose put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Hey." She said softly. "There are far worse leaders than you, and you did everything right as you knew of it." She thought back to what she remembered of the other girl's appearance, and realized something. "Would I be right in assuming that Weiss is Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?"
Ruby nodded, and Rose nodded in return as the facts fell into place. The SDC was a very powerful company, perhaps capable of practically controlling the entire Kingdom of Vale just through legal means and the influence the Dust it sells seems to carry with the rest of the world.
Weiss would be Kalt Schnee's daughter; born rich with money and influence - partly from the influence of the company she'd inherit one day - but she wouldn't have had a happy childhood. From what she'd heard of Kalt's younger days, he was a manipulative, control-freak bastard with a cruel streak as big as her own, and his wife, Lutaris, had died soon after giving birth to her twins, Weiss and Winter. That was all a matter of public record, other than the rumors from Kalt's childhood, but it was needed information for how she would deal with this. It also told her what Weiss's abilities were centered around and what sort of person the girl was to have survived such a situation.
"Weiss's Semblance is Glyphs, right?" Rose said to distract the girl again.
Ruby nodded, but Rose shook her head with a smile. "Actually, Glyphs are how we see the interaction between Auras and Dust. I know from experience, as all my family can use Glyphs in the exact same ways." At Ruby's confusion, she patted Ruby's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Just ask the girl later."
"Okay." Ruby nodded in assent. "So, what's your Semblance?"
"Don't have one." Rose said simply.
"Oh, so you haven't figured it out yet." Ruby said, nodding in understanding.
"Actually, I said I don't actually have one. Like, at all." Rose corrected gently. "Can't exactly have a Semblance if I don't have an Aura."
"Wait, how can you not have an Aura? Everyone has Aura, even Jaune! And that's because it comes straight from their souls."
"Well," Rose said speculatively. "I may actually have a soul, as pathetic as it would be if I do, but I don't have an Aura." She held up a hand as Ruby opened her mouth to respond. "Just trust me on this, okay?" They were almost at the cashiers now.
"Are you sure you don't have a Semblance? Maybe it's not exactly obvious, like Pyrhha's control over magnetism?"
Rose froze and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, stopping the girl mid-sentence. "Wait." She said seriously, most of the emotion drained from her voice. "From what you said, Semblances are basically secret weapons that are different from person to person. Am I right?" Nod. "Then don't just tell whoever's around another person's Semblance! I mean, yours I can forgive, because you're sharing. Yang's was a little iffy, but it was either obvious or not something I could do anything about, and she's your sister. Blake's are apparently a really big and obvious part of how she fights and I'd be able to figure them out quickly enough. But that last girl's Semblance, from what I've seen, is a very closely protected secret! Something that others could possibly use against her! Something I could use against her! Why would you even tell me?!" She exclaimed.
"Because you seemed like a nice, trust-worthy person." Ruby said flatly. Her face was a stony wall and what appeared to be anger, but not on a scale you might expect from such a kind, energetically happy young girl. This was real and proper rage. And if there was anyone who could identify rage, it was her.
Rose blinked at that, deflating a little at the praise hidden in the relatively soft rebuke. "Well, um," She sighed, letting the rest of her anger fade in favor of appreciation and allowing the girl her delusions as she paid and took their food. "Thank you, for the compliment. It's not often I'm called that." She put on a smile for the cashier as she paid for the food and took it. They walked over to a table in relative silence, the hubub of the shoppers around them keeping away the quiet, until Rose mentioned, "I wouldn't've realized that you could have that much rage in you, Ruby."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" She asked defensively with a pout, her anger very cute this time instead of menacing.
"You're too cute. Naive too." Rose said casually as she sat down. "I'd expect the powerful kind of anger you showed when you complimented me from someone like me. A real and proper monster." She said it without rancor, as if what she was saying was just another turn of phrase. Which for Rose, it was.
And more importantly it was true.
"You're not a monster." Ruby said in such a hilariously serious tone. "You're a nice person."
She tried to hold it in, she really did, but she just couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled out because of what the girl said and how she did it. When she calmed down, she apologized. "I'm sorry Ruby, it's just," She gave a last happy chuckle to get it all out of her system before finishing with a smile. "I really am a monster. But it's nice of you to say such things." She took the plate full of noodles and chicken and sauce and placed it in front of Ruby. "Eat. You're skinny." Was all she said at Ruby's confused look before digging into her own food, a pile of macaroni and cheese mixed with cheese-infused hamburger and just a tad bit of red sauce. The people over there knew her, so they knew what she liked. Ruby's food, on the other hand, was just a guess, though it seemed like she was still pretty good at guessing, judging by Ruby's happy face.
They began and finished their meal in the comfortable silence produced by Rose's command.
A/N: you know, to be honest, I was going to continue this, but as mom said, right there is a scene finisher, and while I had planned to get to the Grimm killing before the end of this chapter (like the scene break in the physical writing was), I got a little stuck with writing new stuff basically on the fly to cover a section that I left off in the writing, and this much is clear enough for now, so here it is! Hopefully, I'll have the next section done by the time we get to next Saturday (or maybe Sunday. Maybe).
So, in summary, have fun! Please comment and just LET IT RIP! and may God give you the strength to live another day happily!
See you next chapter! :)