The blonde man grinned at what he saw. His friends, his family, extended as it was, were all working together, packing up and getting ready to leave their impromptu campground. Two of his seven daughters, who were, interestingly enough, all blondes except for his redheaded Vera, were helping to organize the chaos of the caravan leaving behind their trash in organized piles as they prepared to move on with their lives. Once again, he was saddened by the lack of presence of his son, Jaune, but he could only assume that the young blonde was doing something important to him. Sadly enough, it reminded him of his own spirit journey, many years ago, and that other time that he ran away from home to pursue a dream that his wife had complained about a few times before he pursued it. Nowadays, nobody really questioned it, but a few had noticed it, after his return.
But as he watched his caravan reassemble themselves into a force of nature before the final order to move out, he couldn't help but smile in pride, watching as his family - genetic or not - working with all the others under his charge, all worked together to make sure the journey and the preparations to leave went as smoothly as possible. He took a moment to watch those busy little bees, working together smoothly as clockwork and making him proud as he focused on a few specific spots that especially caught his eye.
Daina was bent over one of the trucks, trying to service the engine again; they'd have to stop by a town soon and buy parts and scrap. Karina was helping pull a few palleted crates over to a diesel Mack truck which had long since lost its hood. Or "bonnet", as the Brits would say.
Well, as William tended to say, way back when. He had a good British accent, so that counted for something, right?
Over to his right, a spritely and energetic muscular man with dark hair happily pulled along his girlfriend, well, wife in all but deed really, who happened to be an interesting demure woman with a Taser, of all things, constantly on her person. Darcy was always an interesting character, often to be found tinkering with her latest and (at each turn) greatest version of a Taser yet. That, and her subdued personality and actions were always odd when compared to her daughter's. Bruce was almost her exact polar opposite, highly active, trying to encourage everyone with his boundless energy, sometimes breaking out into silly speeches just for the hilarity factor (or so he thought) and was a martial artist master who had an affection for the simplistic classics. Which was why his son being such an odd sloth was always weird to this particular blonde.
All around them, the people were helping each other in various ways, and the slackers and those less capable at handling the heavy stuff were watching the perimeter for raiders, bandits, and Grimm. Like a well-made clock.
Then a redhead in a strangely steampunk-ian facsimile of Grecian armor pulled up next to him, as prepared to fight off and kill any Grimm that stood in their way as he was, and they gave each other a discreet hug. This was no time to be caught making out with his wife. They cared, yes, but they were packing up to leave! He didn't want to be a hypocrite by rushing everyone else to be ready, then make them wait for him while he and his wife tried to suck each others' faces off with nothing but mouths and tongues.
Once somebody sounded the "All clear", signalling everyone was ready, he gave a gentlemanly wave to his wife, and a quiet "Shall we?" With a sultry smile at her (which she returned) as they went over to their car, an ages-old gasoline-driven vehicle that they knew was a silver 2002 Subaru Forester.
They entered the old car that had been refurbished and rebuilt from dust and less to shine once more, and chose a song to sing, just as they always did when leaving a campsite behind. This one fit them leaving rather well.
As the first strains of an accordion (of all things. Not that he was complaining) began to play out over the radios, they began to sing along to the song, one made by The Kongos, called Come With Me Now.
The lyrics came and went from his head as the ever-green deciduous trees of this particular strange forest passed by and he noticed how pretty they were, even as he smashed through some of them with the reinforced body of the vehicle, but the words went something like this.
Come with me now
Come with me now
War, go with me now
I'm gonna take you down
War, go with me now
I'm gonna show you how
War, go with me now
I'm gonna take you down
War, go with me now
I'm gonna show you how
You know, that actually reminded him of teaching the project leaders how to fight. How to throw a punch, how to block and dodge. How to shoot.
Afraid to lose control
And caught up in this world
I've wasted time, I've wasted breath
I think I've thought myself to death
And wasn't that the truth? Sometimes, they were so scared to do much, but his convoy always seemed to pull through in the end. He was always overanalyzing things and that had been one of the biggest things that had kept him from noticing his crush until she decided to grab him to suck face right when he least expected it.
Full armor, eating noodles whilst in the middle of a bunch of recently slaughtered Grimm.
And she stole all his noodles right from his mouth!
I was born without this fear
Now only this seems clear
I need to move, I need to fight
I need to lose myself tonight
Of course kissing her was always the most clear thing that ever happened.
Until one of his kids interrupts. Man, the number of times his son had bumbled in during a tender moment really made him think his son had inherited his social blindness in frackin' spades!
War, go with me now
I'm gonna take you down
War, go with me now
I'm gonna show you how
I think with my heart and I move with my head
I open my mouth and it's something I've read
I stood at this door before, I'm told
But a part of me knows that I'm growing too old
Yeah, that was a thing for the entirety of the Arc family, or he hadn't renamed himself John-Luke Pikerd!
Every person in his family, both before the cataclysm and after, "adopted" or not, acted on their emotions first and foremost, and sought to protect others once aware, and loved doing it.
Doesn't mean they were idiots, as they were pretty skilled and often thought strategically when fighting. Or that they weren't without their faults, like when Sarah and Cassie both fell for Maxine and Carter at the same time! And wasn't that a laugh! he thought with a grin.
Or that they weren't aware of the fact that they could die. That was something that had long been there, and almost every one of them had made peace with that, outside of their youngest, like his son.
Confused what I thought for something I felt
Confuse what I feel with something that's real
I tried to sell my soul last night
Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite
That was something that happened, back in the Horsemen Bar. He'd actually tried to sell out, confused as he was, but the first friend he'd made, who seemed both the most innocent and most deviously evil of them all, kept him on the straight and narrow, even slapping some sense into him when he got into drugs, partly by just locking him in her room and forcing him to eat Chicken Flavor Ramen noodles (which give him a huge headache). That got him to straighten out pretty quickly.
Far away
I heard him say (come with me now)
Don't delay
I heard him say (come with me now)
Even now, sometimes it was like he could hear her, calling out to him. Telling him it would be alright. Telling him what to do. Whether it was defusing the bomb left in the barracks (and that reminded him of that one song from the Spirit Engine 2 Soundtrack) or talking him through killing off a Beowolf pack.
Far away
I heard him say (come with me now)
Don't delay
I heard him say (come with me now)
War, go with me now
I'm gonna take you down
War, go with me now
I'm gonna show you how
{And, as always, he and his beautiful wife rocked out to the guitar solo. And things were good.}
Afraid to lose control
And caught up in this world
I've wasted time, I've wasted breath
I think I've thought myself to death
I was born without this fear
Now only this seems clear
I need to move, I need to fight
I need to lose myself tonight
War, go with me now
How he'd felt when he saw his wife.
How he'd felt when he looked over at her, and decided FUKKIT, KISS! (and he did so right then while driving)
War, go with me now
I'm gonna take you down
War, go with me now
Yeah, so this last part is brought to you by ElementalDAR (after his/her stuff was seen by me and my brain, anyway). Go watch their Come With Me Now RWBY AMV. GO!
Also, apparently, the official lyrics don't actually have the "War/Walk" before come/go (or the "go") with me now, so I just used what I heard.