"If you pet a dog and he don't walk off. God, I love that." -Theo Von
Attempting to ghost the cigarette in my hand was a complete and utter failure.
Over the past two weeks, we've gotten into a scheduled rhythm of waking up early, fixing this place up, and fishing. Having finished renovating what was left of one of the mansions we decided to take, we now have an official clan house.
We haven't decided on a clan name yet. I'm still looking through one of my Native American language books I brought on the camping trip, but I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.
Anyway, with the plan of trying to scrap our oldest member of the group's truck for extra parts in hopes to zombify a Remnant car ultimately becoming a grand success, I also thought it would be a good idea to read up on the books of the village about the world of Remnant. With us becoming the aliens of this world, I saw it as a new goal to 'blend in.' While I was being tempted by some sort of imaginary demon to have our group wreak havoc around the world, maybe becoming some sort of ragtag infamous group of bandits and robbers, I immediately scrapped the idea, not even bothering to suggest it during our latest group meeting. For now.
I still wasn't sure what our plan was for the future; but it probably is going to have to involve fucking with the timeline and messing up the majority of canon. Or do the old wait and see approach. But who has time for that?
John, Will, Grayson, and Mike went fishing toward the nearby fisherman's wharf that faces east, taking their fishing rods and shifting mechanisms with them. As they left, I stayed behind to cook, smoking a dart while I did so. It was unclear whether or not I accidentally dropped a portion of the ash into the pot of medicated butter and noodles.
Dropping the small pot of buttered noodles into a thick, dark blue plastic bowl with a wet 'plop,' I then sat down to gobble them up, bobbing my right leg up and down all the while.
For me, not much is known about the current events of Remnant. Being off the grid for the entirety of our time on this planet, I had no way of accessing a steady income of information regarding news. Hell, for all I know, Beacon could have fallen ages ago. I wouldn't know.
Which brings me to my next plan: finishing a Gravity Falls-inspired journal for this new world. With the others doing the hard work, I am doing the strategic planning of the group. I know, doesn't make much sense when you see the size difference between us, but I'm better suited to be the "big brain" of our forced operation with my foreknowledge of Remnant.
Who said watching anime never had its perks? Fuck you, Dad!
Thinking back on the details of the characters from RWBY, I can't help but feel we may be in over our heads. I mean, saving the world? That's way too arrogant for a group of idiots who just graduated high school. Hell, just a couple of weeks ago we were all preoccupied trying to figure out what to do with ourselves, what colleges to apply for; now we're planning on stopping an immortal big-boobed witch hellbent on committing extinction on the entire human race? Ha! Fat chance that is.
Standing abruptly, I felt lightheaded from rising too quickly from the makeshift chair. My balance was slightly off; I had to lean on my sword to stay upright. Once I regained my composure, I made my way through the house I'd been occupying for the past four days and went into the bathroom to take a shit.
During our stay in this little town, I happened to discover the plumbing still worked.
Not having to go digging into whatever sewer system this village had was a boon in my mind.
Glancing to the left, I saw I had run out of toilet paper.
"Fuck." I mumble a curse, looking around the room for an alternative to wiping my bum.
A malnourished, golden-brown Carolina dog with one working right eye came sniffing its way into the bathroom doorway.
'I've got an idea...' I smile slightly, the doggo probably scared of what's about to happen.
...
I decided against using the dog as bootleg toilet paper; instead, albeit begrudgingly, I tried to use one of the extra towels to wipe.
It didn't do much of anything, other than smearing it all over my ass cheeks.
I then decided to throw away the towel without trying to clean the stains.
I then went outside and sat by the fire while the dog followed me the entire time.
Taking a closer look at the dog, I realized he was actually a puppy and no more than two years old.
"You must've been lonely for quite some time, huh?" I rhetorically ask, not expecting an answer.
"Bark!"
Gazing at the pup that had only one good eye, I hold out my hand full raw fish without the bones. He smacks his chops with his slobber-filled tongue, before cautiously walking up to me, licking my hand full of the mush of meat, and tail wagging as he looks at me expecting more.
I'm sorry dude, I don't have anything else on me right now.
"Let's give you some Aura, shall we?" I say, gently patting him on the head while simultaneously using a technique known to Remnant's natives, a weird magical girl chant not being used.
The color of his Aura was a shade of orange I couldn't quite place.
"I'm going to name you..." I start to drawl, the dog angling its head sideways as I do so.
"...Jimmy?"
I don't know why, but it felt as if he was looking at me with disappointment and betrayal.
Half-remembering a name derived from the Irish, I gave him a suggestion.
"Okay, not Jimmy, how about... Kahel?" "Bark!"
"I'm gonna take that as a yes." "Bark!"
"Sounds like a lovely name!" Mike excitedly yelled from behind me, scaring the absolute shit out of me by how close he got the drop on me without sensing his Aura.
"Jesus Christ!" I jumped to my feet, flicking the switch on my sword to turn it into its spear form, aiming it at his chest, and then yelled in bewilderment.
"How the fuck did you do that?!"
He was still wearing his red-and-black flannel shirt, signature blue trucker hat, a pair of hiking boots, and white socks.
He took off the tool belt for once, it was probably making it so he can't move as well.
"Relax, man, there's no need to get your panties in a bunch. It's just my Semblance." He responded nonchalantly, gently guiding the tip of the spear away from himself to his left as he talked.
"'Just my Semblance', he says." I say, quoting his exact words, before continuing with a question of my own. "How?"
"How, what?"
"How did you find out your semblance was stealth?"
"I dunno." This motherfu-
"We're back." John says in monotone, now just a few steps behind Mike, taking a hit from his cannabis pen and blowing the smoke in Gray's face.
John was now sporting no shirt, proudly displaying his hairy chest. Glancing at his shoulder revealed someone had played ticktacktoe with him by scratching his skin, red marks indicating someone as X lost to O.
"Ah! You fucking bitch!" Gray exclaimed, waving his right arm in front of his face.
Grayson was wearing a light-blue t-shirt, over-the-knee dark green shorts with yellow lining, and was currently barefoot.
"So, how'd the fishing trip go?" I asked curiously, fiddling with my silver cross and trying to distract myself from Mike's antics, slightly smiling at the actions of our friend the Drama Queen.
"We ended up catching some Bass and Bluefish." John answers, sitting beside me on my left while he holds his hands to the fire, having put the pen back in one of his pockets.
"Nice... Who's cooking dinner tonight?" I absentmindedly asked, exaggeratedly glancing back and forth between the, now named Kahel, insinuating he needed food soon.
Gray raised his left hand, before fishing his pink and green coloured vape from his front left pant pocket and took a blinker, inhaling the smoke and unexpectedly coughed.
Glancing at Will, I saw he was the one carrying all the fish, having skewered the total of eight fish onto a fairly thick, sharpened, and curved stick.
He says in his reserved tone, "I'll be right back," plops the fish kebab into Gray's arms, and possibly goes back to his house to change his fishy-smelling clothes.
"Which reminds me," I begin, internally laughing at how the others might take this, "We're gonna have to do a wash of our clothes at some point. Who wants to do the first shift?"
"Not it."
"Fuck you."
"Go kill yourself; I'll do it myself."
Chuckling a little bit, I then move onto the subject of our newest addition, Kahel.
"I'd like you guys to meet Kahel. A Carolina Dog with Aura."
"Huh? Dogs can use Aura? You didn't put that in the journal?" John gives me a side-eyed glance, his tone accusatory.
"I forgor." I reply with a meme.
"What does Kahel mean?" Will whispers as he makes his way over to me, sitting in between Mike and Gray on the carved log. He's now wearing a plain grey t-shirt, purple and orange shorts, some sort of dark blue slip-on shoes, and a black gaiter around his neck.
"Uh. I... forgor?"
"Not gonna work this time, bucko," John quipped, smirking.
Taking a moment to try and recall the meaning behind the name, I gave him a halfhearted answer.
"I think it means something like 'one who fights well in battle'," I say, messing with the hem of my dark green Carhartt t-shirt.
"That's not the actual meaning." John deadpans.
"Well, no, but it's the best translation you're gonna get off the top of my head." I answer him, scratching my curly and black chin beard as I talk.
Absentmindedly, I petted the dog that had since fallen asleep at my feet during our conversation. Having accidentally startled the dog, I was about to attempt to calm him down when he eventually remembered my presence, returning to just lying there, taking my gentle pats like the good boy he is.
Although not much of a dog person, I did have one before he eventually passed away due to old age. To be honest, my favorite animals are cats. Why? Because they're chill as hell and just do whatever they want, whenever they want.
They are my spirit animal.
Plus, I used to give my cat some weed every now and then. Probably why she was so fat before I had to leave to go on the trip with the boys and eventually... here.
'Fuck, now I'm sad again.'
Sensing my hurt feelings, Kahel sat up then proceeded to rest his head on my lap, his eyebrows going up and down to show his concern and attentiveness.
"I'm good." I mumbled, internally shedding a few tears and still going down the rabbit hole of reminiscing old times.
...
The next day, I woke up bright and early, having fed the dog some kibble I had found late last night in search of an alternative to feeding him for the long term.
After he ate that shit like it was a bag of Doritos while I was in the bathroom, we both went outside to start working on the fence/wall surrounding the town. It needed minimal maintenance, just some wood to cover up some holes, and then, after that, it was back to our book reading.
I say our and we, but what I really mean is I do all the work while Kahel follows me around.
Earlier, Will and Grayson had gone fishing, hoping to catch some extra meat for the day. Where did they end up storing the fish they caught this morning? In the bathtub. And trust me, it scared the living shit out of me when I pulled open the shower curtain and what I got was instead a slap in the face by some fish's tail.
John and Mikey are studying, being the smarter of the two in terms of academic achievement. They were recently trying to understand hard-light and electric dust and different kinds of aura usage, while also trying to recreate some gunpowder to reload their Earth-made ammunition.
Did you know gunpowder is made out of 75% potassium nitrate, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur? Cause I didn't.
Apparently, Mikey used to help his grandfather reload certain ammo types under the guise that it would be for when he eventually joined the army. He never did, thankfully, but it was a real possibility that he would as soon as he graduated high school. It got to a point where every day he would study tactics, how-tos, and generally just prepare for the inevitable enlistment process once he finished school.
I thinks that's kinda why he's so trigger happy and eccentric when dealing with situations that involve killing or destroying something.
Anywho, back to what I was doing; Dust and the four Kingdoms.
Dust, being the fossil fuels of this world. I.E. corpses of other beings. Dust is known as a natural propellant and one of the most volatile objects in this world to both human and faunus kind. The book that I'm reading, while small for its size, has some basic information regarding dust and its uses. Not really a book about the entire history, philosophy, or other kinds of rare dust species, but enough to get the basics down.
Red is fire, dark blue is water, light blue is ice, black or purple is gravity, cyan is hard-light, green is plant-based, dark orange is earth/rocks, yellow is electricity, and pale green or white is wind.
I'm not going to go into the specifics, but what you need to know is that: a) we have a shitload of hard-light, fire, and electric dust; b) we have a shitload of future tinkering to do; and c) having Remnant technology scattered throughout the village was a boon in and of itself. If we hadn't had anything to go off of, we wouldn't even begin to understand the technology.
John, bless his soul, is going to become our bootleg engineer. Electronics in general are going to be his forte. Now, instead of just fishing every day, he has to cram a lot of information into his head while we're getting into fighting shape. He sure has a lot of work ahead of him.
As I am monologuing about this, you may be wondering, "Well Gabe, what are you going to be doing for the next few weeks while the others do more important things?"
Fuck all. No, I'm just playing. But seriously though, I'm not going to be doing very much. I know four things in this world: plumbing, medicine, facts about the human body, and how to have a good time in a bad situation. Obviously, I know more than that, but those are the most important ones in my book.
I pop a cap off a lukewarm beer bottle, taking a sip, then sit on the front porch of the mansion we settled in, reading the rest of the small book about Dust with Kahel sitting besides me waiting patiently all the while.
Now, onto kingdoms from one of the maps we found. There are officially four different kingdoms across three continents in the world of Remnant: Vale, Mistral, Vacuo, and Atlas. There are two others that can be considered kingdoms, but one is run by the secret Queen of Grimm, and the other is a isolated country filled with Faunus, the name being Kuo Kuana. The three continents I talked about? There's actually five in total, one of them being unnamed. Sanus has Vale and Vacuo, Anima has Mistral, Solitas has Atlas, and Menagerie has Kuo Kuana.
While not an official name, the dragon-looking continent on the north-west of the map was known, at some point of time, as the Land of Darkness, home to the creatures of Grimm.
