Chapter Nine - Let's Go To Bed
January 13, 2339
Planet Remnant
Commander Sloan Decker
The Evelyn's Vain's entrance into Remnant was unsurprisingly a very well-noticed anomaly in the day-to-day life of its people. Her initial hovering altitude -which was relatively low to allow more rapid transit of the shuttle from the ship to the planet, was forced almost instantly rise into the much thinner sections of the atmosphere so that the massive assortment of air vehicles that swarmed them couldn't endanger themselves or the Evelyn's Vain - however unlikely that would be. Still, Captain Milton was not often a risktaker, and even though the majority of airships that buzzed around them had the mention of some sort of news network stenciled alongside the hull, it was not worth the risk of a VBIED loaded with explosives smashing into them, it had happened before. Even Backwater worlds such as this had a couple terrorists in them.
Sloan Decker is startled awake by the Impatient ai onboard the Evelyn's Vain around an hour after the Security Personnel returned from their information gathering planetside. According to the clock by his bedside nightstand, it was still a couple hours before his scheduled shift, and he debated simply rolling over and returning to sleep. The ai was insistent, however, that he started early today - harassing him with audible feedback from the intercom until, with a groan, he sits up.
"Okay! Im up Alexis, please stop that noise!" Alexis- the shipboard ai, had always had a little bit of personality compared to other ai models designed to serve on U.L. ships but, ever since the retrofit, had gained much more of the personality, possessing so much free will that she had started refusing specific orders until a better solution was found or like in Decker's case being able to annoy him until he did what she wanted. Decker was scared to think it, but he couldn't help but feel as though those responsible for the retrofit had unshackled her, essentially giving her free will under Stellar Industries' orders. But even a corporation as big as them would be hesitant to try and get away with breaking a law as severe as that he hoped.
The feedback stopped screeching suddenly, and the Ai's voice stated over the intercom innocently as if she hadn't been the one to cause the bothersome noise,
"Captain Milton is requesting your presence on the Bridge as soon as possible. It is regarding a new position of importance aboard the Evelyn's Vain."
"Position of new importance, can you clarify on that."
"No." Alexis states with finality, leaving him in silence.
Decker stares at the intercom with a furrowed brow; something is definitely off with the ai.
/-/
Meeting with the Captain had been a simple affair; the Captain plainly stated that he was being assigned a new position on the ship and that Crowley would temporarily take command of the ship during the night shift from now on. As it turned out, he was the only officer on board with diplomatic training from the Naval Officers School, and that left him the most qualified to handle representing the U.L. in this bizarre uncontacted colony scenario. It had happened once or twice before, so he at least had some guidelines to go off of, but he was still going to go in essentially blind into the meeting that one of the world leaders had requested of the Security personnel.
That blindness could be remedied somewhat; however, It was how he found himself in the ship's galley - the unofficial meeting room due to it not having a conference room like more significant classifications of ships would have, in front of Bishop and his 'trainee,' 'right-hand man.' He still wasn't sure what the situation with Blaisdell was; all he knew was that they were almost always doing tasks together. He didn't know them at all, really; the Security team was largely independent assets for the most part and were really only there to protect the Corporation's property and the crew itself if it came to it. The separation stopped conflicts of interest as well, he supposed. Both of them were rapidly chewing on an energy bar while Sloan - feeling daring, had grabbed some of the shipboard coffee, still a little worried it would be like the poison dispensed from the old shipboard coffee maker.
He brings the mug to his lip and takes a hesitant sip, 'Surprisingly, not bad.' He thinks before taking a larger gulp, eager for the caffeine to flood his system. The mug is set down a moment later with a pleasant sigh, and he begins his round of questions with the two unfamiliar Security Personnel.
"So from what I received from the Captain, you two met with a-' he stops to take a look at the notes he scribbled down from the brief meeting, "Headmaster Ozpin, of some sort of College. Why him and not someone in a higher power, like the Mayor of the City or something?"
Bishop nods his head, finishing the last piece of his energy bar before talking, "Yeah. Headmaster of Beacon Academy specifically, its apparently pretty important, still not entirely sure why, we didnt talk for very long. In fact, we spent most of the day trying to get through all of the press blocking our path from the shuttle. Guess were celebrities or something."
Decker looks at Bishop, "You kind of technically are; you made the papers with what you did on Epsilon afterall." This causes Blaisdell to give Bishop a strange confused look; it seems she wasn't familiar with the failed pirate attack. Bishop doesn't answer the Commander and stares through him, thinking back on what happened before seemingly snapping back to reality. Decker continues the line of questions.
"Back onto the main subject; im kind of jumping around my notes here, but I saw a mention of some sort of a-grav device used by one of the Teachers at the school.
Blaisdell answers this question, tired eyes glowing with a sudden brightness, "The whip! I've never seen anything like it; we couldn't even get through the main gate with all the news reporters and cameramen, so - thats the teacher's name," She adds, "Pulled this whip out-snapped it and this crazy ass glow came over a bunch of the reporters and just 'floated' them out of the way. If i didnt know any better id say it looked like magic from some sort of fantasy book my Grandmother would read to me before bed."
Decker frowns at that; anti-gravity devices were typically pretty large and used almost only for specific hazardous assignments where no gravity was necessary; to get one that would fit in a whip, of all things, was a technological marvel- and on a teacher's budget too. He charted it in his notebook as one of the growing list of things to ask about when he went on the planet. He flips back to the original notes and asks another question.
"So Faunus are people with animal traits? This wasn't just the guy pulling your strings, and you actually saw this, right?"
Bishop goes to answer, but Blaisdell beats him to it, provoking a slightly annoyed eye-roll from the man. "I saw a cute girl with rabbit ears; they didn't look fake, but they could have been really good cybernetics for all I know, and to add onto it, its apparently only one animal feature like rabbit ears but no tail and vice versa."
"Like a snake tongue but no scales?"
"To my understanding yes."
Decker takes another drink at this point, trying to find a way to put his following thoughts into words. "And apparently theres some... racial tensions regarding the Faunus and rest of the humans."
Bishop beats Blaisdell to the punch this time, "They had some sort of Revolution, won the war, but still somehow lost territorial gains and didn't gain equal rights. Pardon my colorful language Commander, but it's a fucked up situation down there. They threw them on some shithole island covered in their insane shadow monster wildlife and named it Menagerie, rightfully threw a fit about it, and somehow ended up in the same place after it. I don't know who im more pissed about, the Faunus for being idiots or the people for being idiots." Bishop laughs at the bizarreness of the situation.
Decker quirks an eyebrow at a specific part of Bishop's quick ramble, "Shadow Monsters?"
Blaisdell responds, the two of them falling into a turn-by-turn pattern naturally, "The Grimm, sir. We haven't confirmed it, but supposedly they turn into mist when they die, which is apparently the reason why they haven't expanded in Centuries."
"Did you say Centuries, Blaisdell?"
"Uh, yes, sir, supposedly, they have been on this planet for thousands of years."
Decker shakes his head in disbelief, "But, that's just not possible, the only way they could have arrived on planet is from the 'Remnant of Asgard'."
Bishop adds as soon as Decker finishes, "Hell that's why I thought they named their planet Remnant but when I asked they just looked at me like I was an idiot."
The interview went on for a very long time, clear into Decker's actual shift start and then some. Every time he thought he had heard enough about the planet Bishop or Blaisdell would throw in another curveball, prompting him to go back and ask ten more questions. Still, when Blaisdell began to fall asleep during a particularly long exchange between Bishop and himself on what exactly dust was, he decided to call it a night. It seemed as though Blaisdell's excitement at the world could only take her so far; she had already looked pretty tired - the dark circles hanging under her eyes like large shadows.
"I shouldnt keep you guys any longer, besides i've already filled out most of this notebook." In truth, he only had about half of it full of notes, but he was eager to go over them. He adds as they begin to pull out their chairs to go to their bunks, "Oh, Bishop can I talk to you for a moment longer actually. Blaisdell your good to go still."
Bishop responds, "Yeah sure thing Commander." He turns to Blaisdell, who is yawning, "Hey Blaisdell," he's about to irk her again but notices how exhausted she is and bites bite the remark instead, saying, "Get some sleep, okay?" Blaisdell just waves a hand as she walks off, still yawning.
Bishop's attention returns to the Commander, "I want to make a run down to the planet to see if I can talk to this Ozpin person and get some more answers. Are you and Blaisdell willing to provide security for me when I do so? I don't know if exposing the rest of the security team to 'Remnant' is the greatest idea yet, especially with some of the more alarming things you've mentioned tonight."
Bishop chuckles, finding the question funny for some reason, "I wasn't aware we had a choice. Of course we'll drop in with you, im fairly certain your under contract as a corporate asset anyways."
Decker responds, "Well, I have to admit thats a relief; I dont like how vulturelike the press seem to be down there, it'll be nice having some muscle between me and the cameras."
With the words being exchanged, they both headed off, Bishop to sleep and Decker to the C.M.O.'s Office; if he was going down planetside, he wanted to bring the young girl along; she had a knack for spotting out-of-the-ordinary things he had quickly realized on the ship, and despite only holding a doctorate for medical practice, she had many skills outside of the skill. Even if bringing her along ended up being a waste of time, she would at least get a new experience, and that was good enough for him.
His footfalls echoed off the metal floor plates in the empty hallways as he casually strolled toward the office. The ship, even with her newly expanded crew, still had a degree of loneliness, and the hallways were often empty due to the fact that there wasn't much reason to leave your station after getting there. Still, he passed by one or two personnel as he made his way through - busying themselves with a maintenance panel on the walls.
He simply walked through the large Medical room's metal shutters, and found the young woman with her head in one of the many assortments of medical cabinets mumbling something under her breath; it was a bizarre sight akin to that of a dog stuck with its head in a trashcan only added by the sudden jump and thunk of her head to the ceiling of the cabinet when Decker coughed to get her attention.
She pulls her head out of the cabinet with a small yelp of pain, and with an oddly colored metallic hand rubbing her temple, she says to Decker,
"Oh, Commander, sorry I didn't see you there."
Decker is staring at the hand; the last time he saw her, she had a different colored pair of cybernetic hands- blue if he remembered correctly. "Those new hands?" he asks, pointing at them. Belmonte looks at her hands with a clear, questioning look.
"No, I don't think so?" She phrases the last part as a question as if she's unsure herself as she flips her hand over and examines it.
Decker didn't question her on it; he was well aware of Belmonte's strange spending habits and quirks. Instead, he asks her,
"It's not important; I only came here to ask if you would be willing to assist me during our next journey planetside - the guidelines for a First Contact procedure recommend a Medical professional such as yourself coming down with us and making sure we're not infecting them with any crazy spaceborne illnesses or vice versa."
Belmonte shoots a happy grin and, with a bounce, takes a few steps towards Decker in excitement, "Oh I would love to, do you think they would be opposed to me taking blood samples."
Decker reflexively steps back in instinct to the sudden approach but continues unbothered by the woman, "That would be up to them, I have no idea. Why would you need a blood sample anyways?"
She clicks her prosthetic hand together with a dull clank with every finger, "Well other than my curiosity, blood holds a lot of valuable information, D.N.A., I could see their white blood cell count, diseases, really all sorts of things."
Decker nods to her, "Well i wouldnt be oppossed to you asking but, wait until after the meeting, I dont want you damaging relationships by accidentally asking something offensive to them."
Belmonte pouts at him, slightly offended but not seriously so, and haughtily answers him, "Of course, I wouldn't ask during the meeting; Diplomacy is a delicate balance that I wouldn't dare disturb."
January 14, 2339
Planet Remnant
Fos Bishop Anders
Bishop had to resist stabbing the barrel of his rifle into the gut of the News reporter's greasy cameraman, who was bringing the camera far too close to his face for comfort. If he wasn't so concerned about their delicate diplomatic situation, he would have done so already and then whipped the stock across his face to break the man's nose for good measure.
The news reporter Lisa Lavender was hastily touching up her makeup in preparation for a post-meeting interview with Commander Decker just slightly off camera; the Commander had agreed to it at the recommendation of Ozpin, saying that "It would abate the more fearful thoughts of the countries people." Bishop took that to mean he worried the hillbillies would freak out, thinking they weren't human.
Bishop shakes his head at the thought of what had transpired at the meeting; it lasted hours and was mainly just Commander Decker greeting the various leaders who, in such a short time, couldn't travel to Beacon and instead met him through a tv screen. Decker assured them he would meet them all personally and hoped for mutual prosperity if given the opportunity. The meeting was mostly a way to show that they weren't all that different from them and were, most importantly, human until proven otherwise; they would have approached the situation differently if they had been genuine aliens. Really it was one of those situations where the information was a lot bigger for one party than the other; it was just another Monday for Evelyn's Vain crew to Remnant. It was massive.
Bishop had overheard during the meeting that Commander Decker would be meeting the former dignitaries a lot sooner than initially thought; they had apparently unceremoniously dropped in on their version of the Olympics, the Vytal Festival in which a large group of teenagers would fight each other until their 'auras' were red. Decker had asked for clarification on what aura was. That was when the meeting got interesting for Bishop, if only just briefly.
The people of Remnant froze upon realizing that we didn't have this aura thing, and Ozpin promptly showed what it could do by trying to stab himself with a pen, only for it to flair up in a bizarre shining light and stop it from digging into his flesh. It looked a lot like the personal energy shielding equipment that security would wear, but the aura seemed at least a little bit better especially given that they could turn it on and project it, so to speak, at will. It wouldn't stop a bullet from flying into the back of their head if caught off-guard like P.E.S. (Personal Energy Shielding) would, but the advantages outweighed the disadvantages given what they knew.
After that brief excitement, however, it tapered itself back down to more boring talk about their people's cultures; at one point, Ozpin mentioned Beacon's purpose is to train children to fight the Grimm, which shocked Decker and Blaisdell - Bishop didn't really get why, pirates used kids all the time why would the random backwater colony not do it to ensure their survival, and the people of Remnant had been shocked to hear in return that they didn't have Grimm in space. Gradually they all started running out of steam and decided to end the meeting that had long gone over schedule but had at least established their presence on the planet as actually being real and not a threat.
By the time Bishop stopped playing the events in his head, the interview was about to begin. Decker leaned over to him, "Hey you can head out for the interview, I dont think anythings going to happen and I dont think a big scowling man with a gun is the best image to be putting on the big screen for a simple interview like this."
Bishop scoffed, "Dont have to tell me twice, I'll go see what the good Doctor and Blaisdell are doing, hit the panic button if something happens. Have fun repeating everything you said in the meeting for a second time."
Decker gave a fake smile, "Yeah, it'll be...fun."
Bishop stepped out as soon as the cameras started rolling again, briefly hearing the start of the interview, "This is Lisa Lavender with the Vales News Network, and I have a treat for you viewers; Commander Sloan Decker of the United League has agreed to do an interview with us. Those of you that have been watching the whole time have no doubt seen the hotline we've provided to ask questions for our man from space, so lets get on with it."
January 14, 2339
Planet Remnant
Foa Isabella Blaisdell
Blaisdell suppressed a yawn as she followed Belmonte around; she was chittering with another girl who Blaisdell assumed was close to her age - a curly blonde woman by the name of Yang. She was one of the four girls Ozpin had offered to the Doctor for a quick blood draw, something Belmonte only seemed to get more excited about as she drew closer to the school's Infirmary.
"You don't have to worry about me, but my sister might be a little afraid of needles. I can hold her down if you need."
Belmonte gives a short laugh and waves her free hand across her face animatedly; her other hand is holding her medical tools. "No, no im sure it will be fine, the syringe gun's needle isnt even visible until its been used."
Blaisdell tunes out the conversation closing her eyes for a moment as a wave of exhaustion hits her, lagging behind she doesn't notice when the two girls make a turn and continues down the hall; by the time her eyes open again, she realizes she's lost and spins around a few times looking for a set of curly blonde hair or the distinctive shine of Belmonte's Cybernetics. Seeing nothing, she curses herself for nearly falling asleep and retraces her steps only to run directly into the last person she feels like dealing with - Bishop.
He blinks at her before his eyes narrow on her piercing her own with a confrontative gaze. "Zips," He begins, "Having a leisurely stroll amongst the stars?"
She starts to make a comment about how they're not even outside before biting it back; she's just too tired to start an argument today. "No, I just missed a turn. What are you doing away from the Commander?"
Bishop shrugs, "He's in an interview and sent me away; something about a big burly handsome guy like me would be sending the wrong signal to the people of Remnant."
Blaisdell deadpans at him with her tired eyes, "Ha, ha." She fake laughs, "You're a real charmer for a slug."
Bishop starts walking again, motioning for her to follow, which she does. "She go down this way?" He throws a finger out down a hall, and she nods before he continues. "That one didn't have a lot of venom in it, Blaisdell; you're losing your Bitch edge."
"Im just tired. Didn't get much sleep again." she yawns again, trailing behind him.
"I thought Belmonte was going to fix that?"
"We got jumped by those pirates before we could finish. And I never got around to coming back. I think she forgot about it anyways."
Bishop glances back at her for a moment, " I don't think that little super genius is the type to forget anything, Blais. Talk to her again tomorrow." He orders her at the end.
She wants to argue with him but couldn't; she, unfortunately, understood where his worry was coming from, both from him plainly telling her a few days ago and from understanding the worry of being responsible for the lives of others. Besides, she's starting to think the sleeping pills might not be too bad, given how little sleep she's been getting recently. She staunches another yawn and begins to fall behind again as she closes her eyes again for a moment. She only notices she's about to fall asleep when she runs into Bishop's chest, who has stopped and chosen to stare at the woman. Eyeing a bench in between classroom doors, he grabs onto her shoulders and pushes her into one of the benches forcing her to sit down. She moves to stand up again, annoyed slightly at Bishop, forcing her to stop.
Bishop sternly orders her, "Sit the fuck down and take a rest, Blaisdell, don't give me any lip."
She doesn't have enough energy to fight and simply slumps, pouting slightly and in stubbornness, responds, "Im fine, I've gone longer without sleep before." She lets Bishop sit beside her as he mutters a deadpanned, "Uhuh im sure."
She goes to make a remark but only manages a yawn. Maybe he was right; a little break couldn't hurt; her eyes grew heavy, the exhaustion of the day pulling taut on her body, sinking her deeper into the bench. "Don't let me sleep for too long; we've got," she yawns in between words, then repeats herself, "we've got work to do still." Her head slumps back soon after as she falls into a deep sleep.
Bishop leans back into the benches, slightly annoyed at having to babysit one of his security personnel. He pulls out a phone from his pocket, idly swiping through apps to pass the time while he waits for the Commander to contact him again after his interview. He wonders if Belmonte would need them but stops soon after that, realizing that there's practically zero chance she'll need the help that the two of them were trained to provide. He's interrupted suddenly, nearly dropping the phone in surprise as Blaisdell's head falls onto his shoulder with a light snore; jostled by the sudden movement, a stray strand of her hair tickles at his nose; he blows it away, only for it to return and just sighs in defeat returning to his phone. "Fuck me."
January 14, 2339
Planet Remnant
Belmonte
Veronica hadn't noticed that Blaisdell wasn't following her and Yang until she was already in the Infirmary; she shrugged. It wasn't that big of a deal; she didn't think she would need security anyways. The Infirmary was a simple affair, with multiple beds for treating injuries. There were numerous devices next to the heart monitors she didn't recognize, however, and she felt a professional curiosity take over as she mosied over to analyze them. She didn't touch them, afraid of accidentally manipulating the no doubt sensitive piece of medical equipment, so she just looked at it, eyebrow-raising in curiosity at the name - 'Aura Monitoring Device.' She claps a fist into her open hand and says aloud, "Of course, they would have something like this." Excited by the foreign medical technology, she moves around the Infirmary to see if there are any new things she might have missed.
Meanwhile, she completely ignores her original goal, having been distracted as the four girls that Ozpin had offered her sit in the room in an awkward silence as they watch the Doctor, who looks to be the same age as them, wander around. Yang gets nudged by her sister Ruby to do something about it. Yang simply stares back at her sister, who waves her hands, speaking a thousand words in the silence; Yang understands what she means surprisingly, "Your the one who's talked to her already, do something."
It appears Weiss and Blake are thinking the same thing as both stare at her with arched brows waiting for her to do something. Yang politely coughs into her hand to get the Doctor's attention. Then coughs again even louder since Belmonte didn't notice the first time.
She jumps up in shock for a second before remembering her original goal; she laughs in embarrassment, a light dusting of red on her cheeks as she opens her mouth to apologize,
"Oh sorry guys, I kinda get distracted around new tech."
Yang laughs politely and responds with a wave of a hand, "It's okay, your no worse than my little sister with weapons. The little weapons nerd freaks out around them." She goes to ruffle her sister's hair, who deftly dodges it and responds with, "I do not."
"You do, though," Yang responds, finally catching her sister and ruffling her hair. Prompting Ruby to squirm around in her seat, hitting Weiss in the face with a stray hand.
"Yang, stop that your acting uncouth," Weiss orders. Yang and Ruby both in annoyance.
"Alright, alright simmer down Ice Queen, we dont want you to melt." Yang's utterance prompts Blake to chuckle slightly, only to stop when a frustrated gaze centers on her face from Weiss.
Letting go off, Ruby Yang quietly returns to her original posture on the seat but not before Ruby blows a quick raspberry at her. This makes Yang move to tease her again before a loud mechanical whirring stops them; all four pairs of eyes turn to the source of the sound. The Doctor is pulling a device out of her back, a strange-looking device in her hands making a noise.
Belmonte notices their gaze, "Sorry the syringe gun's an older model, they work just as good but its kind of loud."
Blake utters quietly, "Thats a syringe gun?"
"It looks like a stapler." Ruby responds.
In return, Weiss responds to both of them, "Of course its going to look different from what we're familiar with their from space."
Belmonte chuckles to herself, enjoying the idea of them being so shocked at the relatively normal concept of living in space. They were a completely different culture from what she knew, so many little quirks with the people of Remnant. She had sat in on the meeting, of course, out of camera view but still within earshot to hear everything, and the whole concept of aura had her fascinated; she wanted to know what made it tick, could she give other people aura, could she have aura herself - she had no idea and that fresh concept made her incredibly happy.
The syringe gun stops whirring as the disposable syringes are all loaded. Finally, a dull beep is heard, letting Belmonte know the gun is ready. She reaches into her bag again and grabs a prep pad before turning to the four girls,
"Alright, who wants to go first?"
Weiss stands up, gulping at the strange device in the Doctor's hand, suddenly concerned; nevertheless, she puts on a brave face and says, " I suppose I will be the first, there is a midterm to be had and I would rather not fall behind on studying for it."
Belmonte motions for the Schnee heiress to take a seat on the bed which she does so, prompting the Doctor to ask, "Okay before I draw any blood, is there anything of note I should know that would possibly result in a difference in data between you and the others. If it's private information, you may write it down." Weiss looked at the woman; it was a bizarre difference in personality; given what she knew of the girl, it was like what she acted like when she talked to her father or shareholders - forced professionalism to the voice.
Weiss asks, "Would where I come from be considered something of note?" reminded of Atlas at the thought of her father.
Belmonte blinks briefly before nodding, "Yes, I believe it might, on top of any genetic malformations, for example, your white hair if it's natural and not dyed. Also, I need your name."
Weiss responds quickly, "The hair color is natural. It runs in the family, and my name is Weiss Schnee."
Belmonte clicks her tongue in response and utters an "Interesting." and pulls out a tablet-like device from the bag and, with a rapidness not unlike Ruby's, moves her Metal fingers across the screen and fills out the information.
"That's Schnee, as in the German word for snow, correct? Do you have European ancestors?"
Weiss lets out an uncharacteristic noise, "Uhmmmm, I am not sure, , im unfamiliar with German and European as terms. My last name is spelled S-C-H-N-E-E."
Belmonte stops typing momentarily, then continues with a curious humming noise. "Okay I can take your blood now."
Belmonte rapidly dispenses a vial into the rear of the syringe gun and then explains to Weiss what she does as she does it, in case they have a different method of extracting blood, however unlikely. "Okay, hold out your hand palm up towards me; alright, im going to sanitize your antecubital fossa, that's the little triangle here," she gestures to the area of transition between the forearm and arm before continuing, "Alright, now ill simply put the syringe gun here and," she clicks the trigger a slight whirring noise is heard. She pulls it away, the vial in the back full of red. "And done." Belmonte finishes leaving Weiss to look at the syringe gun and then at her outreached hand.
"Wow." She utters in disbelief, "I didn't feel anything."
Belmonte releases the now-used syringe into a plastic bag and then cocks the syringe gun again. "The syringes have a light localised numbing agent on them, it only lasts as long as it's inside the vein." She pauses, "Is that not normal?"
"No it is not." Weiss answers, still not quite believing still that she had blood drawn without even feeling it.
Belmonte utters the distinctive curious hum again and then says, "Whos next."
Yang goes next and is shortly replaced with Blake, who, instead of stating any info, chooses to write it down; Belmonte understands why she's hiding her Faunus heritage and gives her the paper back after writing on it that her secrets were safe with her, prompting a relieved smile from the nervous cat faunus and then letting her rip up the paper, and then finally Ruby who still manages to approach nervously.
"It's really not going to hurt?" She hesitantly asks.
Belmonte gives her best smile, "You won't feel a thing, I promise."
Ruby doesn't look entirely convinced but still manages an "Okay." she sits on the bed and throws her hand out before continuing nervously, "My name is Ruby Rose, I was born in Patch, and I am fifteen years old."
Belmonte leans close to her ear in case it's a secret and whispers, "You related to Yang, right? Why are your last names different?"
Ruby whispers back, unsure of why the Doctor did it in the first place, "We are half-sisters, different moms." After stating it out loud realizes what the Doctor intended to do by whispering and continues, perhaps a little bit too loud, "It's not a secret or anything, though!"
Belmonte smiles again and follows the same procedure of explanation for the fourth and final time, only for no blood to be drawn; confused, Belmonte pulls the device back only to see the needle bent in half. "Huh?" she states, baffled, prompting Yang to utter a quick, "Come on, Rube's, you cant project your aura like that. It just makes it worse for you."
Ruby holds a chagrined expression and lets out a quick "Sorry, I guess im still a little nervous, I dont really like needles."
Belmonte utters quickly, "That's okay, I have plenty of needles." She tries again, then once more, and each time, the result is the needle getting bent in half instead of drawing blood. Ruby keeps looking guiltily at her, thinking she must be getting annoyed at her for doing it; however, Belmonte has a bizarre look of curiosity on her face, "This is amazing!" she utters suddenly, losing the forced professionalism in her voice, "How long can you do this for?"
Yang answers for Ruby, "She can do it all day trust me."
Belmonte turns towards the blonde, "Can you do it too?"
"We all can."
Belmonte clicks her fingers together a few times, "How exciting." She states, nearly bouncing in her seat.
She turns back to Ruby, "I tell you what , I wont keep trying to draw your blood but in turn I want you and your friends to tell me everything you know about aura and how it works."
Ruby nods, relieved, "Okay." She puts on a chipper smile and leans towards Belmonte, kicking her feet, "What do you want to know first?"
Belmonte nearly screams in excitement, her heart barely able to take it; she could analyze the blood later; after all, what could possibly be wrong with it.
Author Notes: Oke Doke managed to find some time to write again, so it looks like ya'll get another chapter at the usual time. The fanny pack worked as intended, by the way; I know how hinged-on insanity you all were waiting for more info on the Tactinny Pack; the only problem was it was hard to retain the back two pmags. All well.
But yeah hope you guys enjoyed this chapter; leave a review or follow if you want. It's kind of nice to finally be in the RWBYverse. It kind of lets me get away with not describing characters super heavy like.
By the way, if yall haven't noticed, every chapter title has been a song name mainly because I really liked how Cyberpunk 2077 did that with all of its quests; it was rad - it's mostly just what I was listening to when I wrote the chapter, but sometimes the meaning of the song correlates with the intended tone of the chapter, whether it actually works or not remains to be seen, the whole I feel things differently then anyone else type beat y'know.
Alright, until next time, fellas, peace.
