Chapter 13: Framing The Story
Welcome, readers, to The Draigg's Story Corner! Now, today, I've got a special treat for you. Before we check in with the Puppet Kingdom, we're going to read this chapter first! Now, before we open up this story, I should have you thank Mr. Monty Oum for making and owning RWBY. Okay, everyone! Sit on your squares, and be ready to be launched into the world of imagination!
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After about an hour of thorough scrubbing and bathing until their hides were a shade of pink, Team RWBY reconvened back in the living room. They were ready to start writing a script… if they had any clue on how to start. The only leads they had right now were the police uniforms that Blake had. So, they decided to make something around that.
"What can we do with cop costumes?" Ruby asked the room, her attention more focused on the television in front of her, instead of her teammates. She was watching one of her favorite shows when she was growing up, Mr. Pepper's Playhouse. Sure, she was a teenager now, and most certainly not the target of the show's demographic, but she still liked the show none the less. Who didn't like friendly puppets?
"Ruby, do you think you could pay attention?" scolded Weiss. But, she was also watching the show a little as well. For some reason, that puppy puppet was just too cute for her to ignore. "Awww, I wanna hug it!" Weiss thought. "No, no Weiss. Stay focused. You can look at cute pictures of dogs later,"" her rational side chided.
"Sure, sure," Ruby replied, still looking at the television. It was sing-a-long time right now, she couldn't just ignore it! She began to hum along with the cheery song coming through the speakers.
Yang, smiling with that increasingly common grin of hers, took photos of Ruby lying in front of the T.V., her elbows propped on a pillow and her legs kicking in the air. It was so adorable seeing her sister like that, Yang might develop diabetes. She softly chucked at the sight.
"Can we just get to work?" Blake asked of everyone. They only had a day free of their guardians, so they couldn't afford to waste this opportunity to make something without outside input.
"In a minute, the song is almost over," Ruby said over her shoulder in a sing-song tone. Blake decided it wasn't worth arguing further with someone on a nostalgia trip, so she bit her tongue.
When the song about holding hands with friends finished, Ruby flipped onto her back and looked at the rest of her team on the couch. "So, any ideas on what to write about?" she asked.
"We could probably have the cops be the framing device," Blake suggested. Ruby nodded at that idea.
"Yeah, we can have, like the cops talk about all the different cases of dust misuse," Yang suggested.
"I like it!" Ruby said, "You two can be the cops!". It made sense for them to be in those roles, since the uniforms were probably fitted to their sizes. Ruby tried hard not to think about the implications of that thought.
Blake and Yang shared a quick look, and then both looked at Ruby. "Uhh, sure," Blake said.
"I'm in for it," Yang added with Blake's reply.
"And me and Weiss'll be the people in those examples!" Ruby declared as she completed her plan out loud. "Right, Weiss?" she then asked to the platinum haired girl.
"Sure, we can do it," Weiss agreed. It amazed her a little how quickly this PSA idea was coming together. Well, Ruby was good at thinking on her feet, so it made sense. She was chosen as team leader for a reason, after all.
"Great!" Ruby said, before flipping back over to watch the T.V. some more. Weiss was bewildered by her girlfriend's behavior.
"Hey! We've got work to do! Don't just go back to—Awwww! Look how fluffy he is!" Weiss said before being distracted by the puppy puppet on screen. It was just too adorable! Weiss, wanting to get a closer look, took a pillow from the couch and plopped it next to Ruby. Then, she laid beside her to watch the show.
Yang and Blake took this opportunity to gather adorable pictures and blackmail, respectively. How couldn't they? It would be like passing up the opportunity to work on this PSA without anybody—hey! Blake dragged her mind back to the reality at hand.
"We can't keep on getting side-lined here, you guys," she said as she put her scroll full of incriminating pictures away. Then, she lowered Yang's scroll, which was still taking photos. The blonde bruiser shot her an annoyed look, but relented. The cat-girl did have a point.
Sighing, Yang said, "Come on, let's just get our work done,". But, that didn't get a response from either girl watching the television. So, Yang grabbed the remote and pressed the power button.
Team White Rose let out an annoyed moan as the sound cut out from the show. The Puppet King was about to knight Wuffles the Dog! Now what? They couldn't see how that concluded at all!
"Put the show back on!" demanded Weiss.
"Yeah, turn it on!" Ruby cried to back up Weiss.
"You two can watch it when you're done with the script," replied Yang in a firm, parental tone.
"Awwww…" Weiss and Ruby moaned at the same time. Then, they reluctantly stood up and walked over to the couch where Yang and Blake sat.
"Do we have to right now?" pleaded Ruby.
"Yes, Ruby, you do. Now, I want you to go into the kitchen and think about what you want in the PSA," Yang commanded. With a tiny huff, Ruby stormed off to the kitchen. Weiss followed behind her, but not before sticking out her tongue at Yang and Blake.
"How mature," Blake muttered under her breath.
Yang turned to Blake and said, "Get your laptop out of the room. We can work on the script on there,". Blake gave a small nod before walking off to get her computer. Her word processor was already open on there, since she was working on another fan fiction the other night. She had a habit of not closing the window until she was done writing. That had led to some… incidents in the past. But, it was nothing to worry about right now. Blake would use her writing powers for good, not perversion.
That, and she was the most qualified person to actually write something decent. There was no way in hell they would let Ms. Han write any other script for them.
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In regards to Ms. Han at that moment, she was still waiting in the lobby of the Schnee Dust Company's Vale branch. By now, they had been waiting there for roughly two hours. The mob of business people waiting elsewhere in the lobby had only begun to slowly thin out. They were still in for a long time to wait.
"Bored…" Ms. Han complained, rolling her head around.
"Acting like a ten year old won't help you any," dryly replied Mr. Brass, not even looking up from his magazine. It wasn't even anything interesting either, it was just the consumer brochure for Schnee Dust Company products.
"This is taking too long," Ms. Han complained more.
"Remind me, how did you get hired again?" Mr. Brass asked from his magazine.
"My degree, of course! I have one in communication!" Jade proudly declared with a sweep of her arm.
"Great. Now, do the opposite of communicating and be quiet," said Mr. Brass quickly.
Ms. Han shot him a glare, but said nothing. No, she had to remain calm. She couldn't just snap at her new friends all the time, even if it was their fault she was in here to begin with.
Mr. Brass couldn't care less about how Ms. Han felt about all this. If anything, she was getting off pretty light with just being called in for a stern talking-to. But, he couldn't help but feel that he was partially responsible for getting them here to begin with. He really should have called out Han's questionable writing to begin with. Well, hindsight was twenty-twenty, after all.
So, the business pair bided their time for a little longer, waiting for their conference call.
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Back at the condo, Team RWBY was sitting around the kitchen table, just as Yang had ordered. Blake had a new window open on her word processor, and was waiting for the others to come up with something to write about. Right now, they were having a hard time deciding where to start.
"How about we open with the cops reading over some old case files?" Blake suggested.
"Meh, too cliché," dismissed Ruby. She had watched enough moves and T.V. shows to know an overused writing tool when she saw one.
"Okay, what if they're magic cops? Like, they warp in as soon as Ruby and Weiss consider misusing dust?" Yang questioned to the rest of the team.
"Why do you keep on pushing magic?" asked a frustrated Weiss.
"Because magic is cool, DUH," responded Yang, as if she was talking to a small child. That statement was so simple and stupid that Weiss couldn't even argue with it.
An awkward pause surrounded the others as Yang's statement sunk in. "…I'm going to take your silence as a no…" Yang mumbled.
"Moving on… how about we just have the cops just introduce the skits, and just leave it at that? We don't need anything real specific here," suggested Ruby.
"I guess you have a point there," Weiss agreed. There was no real need to make this PSA complex. It was for school children, after all.
"Well, I suppose that the real story will be occurring in the skits themselves…" thought Blake. Then, she decided, "I can work with that,".
Blake's nimble fingers began to type on the laptop's keyboard. She had managed to think of a good introduction, as it was easier to begin when the mini-plots weren't directly connected.
"Huh. This brainstorming went quicker than I thought," stated Yang. Ruby and Weiss nodded in agreement.
Standing up from her chair, Ruby announced, "Now that Blake's writing up the script, I'm going back to watching Mr. Pepper's Playhouse. Weiss?". She motioned for her girlfriend to follow her. Weiss also stood up, and followed Ruby out of the kitchen.
"Wait! We're not—ah, they're gone," Yang tried to cry after them. Oh well, that was Ruby for you. If her mind was dominated by one thing only, she would try to get it done as quickly as possible. Too bad she took Weiss along with her. Yang and Blake probably could have used the heiress' input.
It was too late to get her back now. She had been enraptured by the fuzziness and wonder of those hand-puppets. Damn them for how cute they looked. For all Yang knew, it woke up some child-like excitement in her heart.
Whatever, it wasn't really her business. So, Yang settled on looking over Blake's typing instead. Someone needed to point out when it would start to get raunchy, after all. School students didn't need to hear about that one shock dust incident the duo had before. Yang had a hard time sitting after that.
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Over in the living room, Ruby and Weiss had turned the television back on and were looking to see when Mr. Pepper's Playhouse would be back on. As they sat on the couch, Weiss couldn't help but wonder one thing.
"So, what exactly is that show, anyway?" Weiss couldn't help but ask.
"Ohh, it's great! All these puppets talk to Mr. Pepper about something different every episode, and they have a story and songs and I love it!" Ruby said enthusiastically. Then, a thought hit her. "Wait, you never saw this growing up?" she asked Weiss.
Weiss' face darkened a little as she looked at her feet. "No… I wasn't allowed to watch much television when I was growing up. Pap—Father said that it wasn't a good idea to watch too much, and he wanted me to learn things instead. I only got to watch the news, and the occasional cartoon if I was good," she explained. Before she knew it, Ruby had wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"It's okay, Weiss. We've got all the time in the world to catch up on what you missed!" comforted Ruby. It was the least she could do for her girlfriend right now. But, at the same time, she felt pity for Weiss. How could anyone think that raising a child that way was a good idea?
Regardless of Weiss' upbringing, Ruby could treat her the right way now. So, she picked the first channel that cartoons on, and turned up the volume. They sat there together, watching television next to each other.
As Weiss settled in for the show, she leaned her head on Ruby's shoulder. She had gotten exactly what she wished for in this girl. Someone who accepted one's past easily and took steps to improve on it was a rare find indeed.
This was the one of the few normal things Ruby and Weiss did as a couple.
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How adorable, right? I was talking about dog puppets, not the romance. But the romantic stuff is nice also, right? So… anyway, be sure to leave me a review of what you think of the story so far in the labeled section below. Oh, and before I go, be sure to check out the stories of my friend, JimboYokimbo. He needs your energy to keep on writing! This is The Draigg, signing off for now.