A/N (10/28/2021): Fixed where he says "I need Aura", but he actually means offensive Aura.
A/N: Oh man… the chapter just keeps DIVIDING! I promise that part 4 is the end of this chapter.
Beta: Path of a Writer
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
The strange humanoid Grimm dissipated around her spear. She was bent over it, resting her entire weight onto the weapon, heavily panting. One arm was at her side, clutching one of many deep gashes that was carved into her.
She glanced at the old man's body, as if a second glance would perhaps change what she had seen. The gaping chest wound and eyes staring blankly at the sky remained.
"Aaaa… Argh!" Unable to keep herself up any longer, she collapsed. Her mortal wounds seeped blood like a river, pooling on the forest floor. Strength left her and she laid on the ground, cheek in the dirt, helpless.
If she cared at all, it would have shocked her that someone so powerful was defeated so fast. He had power over the elements, the ability to create force fields, and even fly. But all it took to kill him was a single strike in the right place, just like any other human. It would have humbled her, reminding her of humanity's place in the cosmos.
And, if she even devoted a single moment to think about it, she would have questioned this new type of Grimm. These, who could somehow bypass his so-called magic wards and stealthily move without being detected in a world where there was no need for Grimm to hide. Assassins… for someone special.
She didn't think of any of this.
As she lay there bleeding out, her life draining from her agonisingly slowly, she felt cold… and relaxed. Her mind lay empty, waiting for an inevitable ending that she had longed for so long.
Thump!
The ground shook and a humongous creature landed beside her. It shadowed her, blocking the bare amount of moonlight that there still was.
For some reason, it lowered its head, as if inspecting her at a closer distance. As the bone-armored head came into view, she instantly recognized that it was a Manticore variant. An Alpha Manticore? Was there such a thing?
At this range, she could see even the details in its blood red eyes. She could smell its putrid breath, reminding her of rotting corpses. But she was not afraid. The edges of her mouth curled upwards and she welcomed it.
It roared at her.
A scream, a shout, like the sound of a thousand lions, shattered her ear drums as the expelled air forced her into a tumble, jostling her wounds. Loud enough to be heard for miles and miles.
When she came to a stop, she found herself on her back. She blearily watched the Grimm approach her again from the edge of her vision. It raised one of its clawed paws.
And then stopped.
To her mild confusion, it seemed to smell the air. Slowly, turning its head following some scent, it faced somewhere to her left. She followed its gaze and recognized the path that she had come from.
The Grimm took one more look at her. Then, with a great flap of its wide wings, it took off in that direction.
For a moment, she didn't even process it.
Then it hit her.
Her eyes widened.
"...No!"
/-/
Jaune put down his razor beside a second one. The warm water of the shower poured over his perfectly ok body, with just a little bit of muscle definition, but also some fat, and just enough skinniness to be still called a noodle.
I need to learn how to use Aura offensively.
He grimaced.
We can't rely on the teachers to intervene. We need Ruby and Weiss to pull off their combo, but in order to do that, we need to keep the Grimm at bay. His impromptu teammates were succeeding at that, but only barely. They just needed one more person to contribute, a little more firepower.
If only I could use Aura right.
Turning off the water and toweling down, he stepped out and dried his hair.
Ruby said I need passion. He thought, before frowning. But why does the player need that? Shouldn't it be enough for the character to be driven? I suppose this game tries to build a stronger link between the PC and the player, but isn't this completely asshole design? ...Oh, right, it was meant to be asshole design.
He sighed, and opened the door.
Only to be face to face with the God of Light.
He shrieked.
The god rolled his eyes, dressed in what looked like a waiter's uniform. "You have nothing I haven't seen before, mortal."
"W-What, still - Why are you here?! Get out!" He hid behind the bathroom door, as if that would stop a god's all-seeing sight.
It kind of reminded him of his mom, actually. Just barging in without even saying anything, and even that reason was familiar!
"Technically, you could say I'm everyone's mother." The god pointed out.
"Stay out of my head!"
"One, I only read surface thoughts and thoughts that are directed at me. The rest of your head is not that interesting. Two, is that the way to speak to a god, mortal?!" He boomed the last part.
The sudden sound made Jaune flinch backwards and he almost slipped on the wet bathroom floor. After catching himself, he noticed his towel, and hurriedly wrapped it around his lower section.
"Especially since I bring gifts."
Jaune looked at the plastic Ceilinmart bag in Light's hands.
"What's that?"
"Vegetables from my garden."
"You have a garden?"
"Just a small section on the roof, with the permission of the landlord. You want it on your counter?"
"Yes please."
Jaune saw the god leave his field of vision and heard the sound of a bunch of goods being deposited onto wood.
"Now, I would love to entertain you, but I need to be off to my next appointment. I wish you luck in figuring your Aura out. I left a hint in the bag, too."
"Thanks…" Jaune called, then realized something. "Now get out! This - This is trespassing, you know?! Where's your 'honor' when you are clearly breaking the law right now?"
"Believe it or not, I think I'm covered underneath the Good Samaritan Laws today."
"Ah?"
"I knocked on the door, before I smelled something burning. I glanced through the walls and it turns out… somebody was toasting bread on the stove!" The god looked absolutely outraged.
For good reason.
"Ah!" Jaune remembered. Only now did he realize that it did smell like something was burnt.
"Without a pan!"
"Ah?!"
"And clearly, you forgot about it!" The god stepped back into view. "You could have set off the fire alarm and everyone in the apartment building would have been bothered by your stupidity!"
Why did I - Right! My toaster's broken and I can't afford a new one, even if my paycheck is coming soon since I need that to cover my share of the rent. So, then I remembered that one time that Nora suggested to…
Jaune's knees met the hard tiles of his bathroom. "Why did I listen to Nora?!"
"Don't blame it on someone else, you stupid mortal!"
"B-But she - "
The god face palmed. "You were still the one who decided to try it!"
Jaune held his head in his hands. Why did I end up trying such a thing? Ah, right, I was tired after all that idiocy in my dreams. Instead of resting, he had to deal with whimsical gods, existential questions about game characters, and poorly designed UI. Give him a break! Due to that, this morning, he had woken up dead tired, went back to sleep several times, and slapped snooze on his alarm at least four times. He felt bad for his New Year's resolution of waking up before eight, but this wasn't his fault this time.
"If I wasn't tired out from your game, I wouldn't have made this half-asleep mistake." Jaune replied. His tone of voice showed his exasperation at what was clearly the god's fault, tinged with a sliver of agitation.
The god raised an eyebrow dangerously. "The game doesn't affect your sleep quality."
"It clearly does!"
He crossed his arms skeptically. "And you are certain you haven't done anything else that would make you tired?"
"Of course not!" What had he done this week? He'd worked basically every day, handed the 'anything-goes' assignment, met this ridiculous god, marathoned Ev**gelion in a single sitting on Saturday till 4 AM, meal prepped for the week, fought monsters filled with darkness, yeah! There was nothing there that could have rendered him tired today.
He paused.
...That was Saturday. Today was Wednesday, so he should have already recovered. Close one. I was almost wrong!
The god flicked him in the forehead.
"Hey!"
His eyes flashed gold, then became unfocused as the god seemed to concentrate on something else. "I see. This is actually the result of accumulated sleep deprivation."
"I…" Jaune sighed irritatedly. "Just, leave please?"
"Have a good day."
Jaune finally shut his bathroom door.
Meeting Light has never stopped being annoying. This experience made him wish he could put his back against his door and slide down tiredly like in the movies and shows, but the potential splinters on his butt stopped him. He took another few moments to curse the god out, before continuing on with his morning routine.
Finally getting out of the bathroom, he headed for the kitchen. The bag of goods, surprisingly full, was on the countertop, beside where the pile of dirty dishes should have been. Had he washed them and then forgot? Lastly, he noticed the nice, flat, cremated toast on the stove.
A little curious, he opened up the plastic bag and looked inside.
Onions and cucumbers.
He let go of the plastic with a blank expression on his face, turned around, and headed for anywhere but here. He threw his arms up in the air.
Due to Jaune's actions, the pile of fruits and vegetables in the bag was disturbed. Hearing something fall down, he quickly spun around to see the pile starting to tip. Quickly, he rushed back, but was too late as a number of onions and cucumbers spilled out onto the countertop.
"Aw, man."
Suddenly, one of the onions caught his eye, because it wasn't an onion. It was an apple. He picked it up. On closer inspection, it looked like someone had cut deep gashes into the fruit, spelling out the number '21'. It didn't make an ounce of sense.
"Why would you even do this?" He questioned. "What a waste of a perfectly good apple."
/-/
"Hello, Jaune."
"Goooood morning Jaune!"
Jaune arrived barely on time to his lecture. While most of his professors didn't care, this one did and took attendance, for some crazy reason.
He greeted Ren and Nora, who also had this class with him, and sat down at a seat beside them.
"Why do you have that?" Asked Nora, tilting her head.
Munch. Munch. "This?" Jaune gestured at the full length cucumber he was eating. "A very distant acquaintance gave me it after I ruined my breakfast."
"Is this the same very distant acquaintance as last time?" Ren inquired.
Jaune nodded.
"You are getting a lot of strange gifts."
Munch. Munch. He flatly stared at his friend. Gifts? Interesting way to put 'rightful compensation' for getting screwed around by the gods'.
The professor at the front of the class started talking at his usual mile per second rate, which signaled the start of the lesson. Jaune took out his notebook and utensils.
He zoned out a few minutes later as the lecturer was side tracked by a student's question and suddenly started talking about his neighbor's dog.
If Jaune narrowed his eyes, he could imagine that the professor's speech was kind of like a hummingbird's buzzing, or maybe the steady hum of an industrial machine, or actually now that he thought about it, a little like Ruby's excited chattering in terms of the speed and rhythm. A stream of words that he knew, but placed into unknown contexts. He supposed that as he played the gods' game more, he would get used to what she had said and what she meant.
His finger tapped on his desk.
Ruby…
There was something there that bugged him.
"Hey Ren." He whispered.
"Hm?"
"You remember Ruby?"
Ren took a moment to copy down something the professor said. "Yeah, your neighbor back in elementary. I remember her. You three would drag me into crazy hijinks every day." He sighed. "It was tiring."
"Come on, it was at least a little bit fun!"
"I believe we have different recollections of the same event."
"Did I hear Ruby?!"
Oh, no, Nora heard us. Not that we were trying hard to be quiet.
Nora slammed her hands onto her desk excitedly at the very edge of their row. "We've had an absolute blast! Remember when she secretly brought rolls of pop gun caps and we hit them with a hammer? I think I still have permanent hearing loss from that!"
"...I don't remember that."
"Neither do I."
"...Oh, right, Ruby said to keep it a secret. Shhhh, forget all that." She waved her arms as if casting a magic spell.
Ren narrowed his eyes. "Didn't I tell her that you were banned from pop gun caps?"
"Yes, you did, Ren." Jaune confirmed.
"Oh, was that why we did it in secret? The more you know…"
"Is there a reason why you brought her up, Jaune?" Ren turned to him with unusually rapt eyes. "Did you end up meeting her again after she moved away? I believe I have a few choice words to speak with her."
"Bah! You can't stop the heroine from accomplishing her queen's orders!"
Jaune chuckled. "Mistakes from when we were kids aside, no. I just suddenly thought of her. I wonder where she is now in life." He focused his eyes back onto the prof. His mind, on the other hand, was a mile away.
Light seemed to be cutting corners at NPC creation by lifting people he knew. When he had first met Ruby, he had barely recognized her as his old neighbor from many, many years ago. Weiss was also clearly a carbon copy of the real life Weiss, with… perhaps not the exact same mannerisms, but a similarly uptight. Same thing with Ren and Nora, and even his family in those short in game texts. Clearly, this was all just an interesting detail on how the god was slacking off on game development.
And there was nothing more to it.
His pencil tapped against his desk.
Right?
"Ren?" He whispered again.
"Yes?"
"You know what, sorry, I can ask after class."
"Actually, I've already reviewed this material. Ask away, Jaune, if you don't want to listen to the lecture."
Jaune dismissed the problem with a dramatic wave of his hand. "It's ok, he sucks at teaching anyways. I'll have to learn everything myself. I was just going to ask, what do you think it means to do something with a passion?"
"What brought this up?"
"Mandatory self-reflection."
Ren gave him a look, but answered anyway. "Isn't that just you really wanting to accomplish something?"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. What about what it really means to put your heart into something?"
"...Try really hard?" Nora helpfully suggested.
Yeah right. "Eh, thanks anyways guys. Very deep answers."
Ren could only shrug. "I know the definition and how people are affected by their psychology. If you want philosophy, Kant or Bacon would be the sort of people to ask."
"As if I'd ever want to read again those paragraphs of obtuse language and dozens upon dozens of fabricated words that each philosopher tries to coin."
The conversation died there and they spent the rest of the lecture focused on, well, the actual lecture itself. When it was finished, Jaune was again in a hurry to leave.
"So, Jaune, how're the studies going for - "
"Sorry, Ren, Nora, talk to you later!"
Jaune rushed towards the restaurant he and Weiss had visited the other day. His next lecture was far from the place, so if he wanted to pay his tab, eat lunch, and still make it, he'd have to run. He weaved between the people who were also changing classrooms, this building being never that full during the day.
And then he was stopped by a red light at a crosswalk.
Sighing, he tapped his foot impatiently. Turns out, he didn't have to push himself, since luck hated him anyway. His gaze randomly scoured the block, skimming over old advertisements plastered onto the buildings of a worn downtown street. His peripheral vision caught a different spot of crimson. Almost like a bull, his head snapped to face the offending color, yet it was already gone.
"What am I doing?" He muttered to himself. "It's just someone's shirt or hat, or another traffic light down the street." He faced back the way he was going.
A woman with familiar white hair stood in front of him, attempting to make herself as invisible as possible by hiding in the crowd.
"Weiss?" He asked before he could stop himself.
The woman froze. Then, she slowly turned to him, almost mechanically so, a stiff expression on her face that weirdly turned into relief. Another second, and that expression was replaced with annoyance. "So it's just you. Good morning."
"Good mornin'." He replied back casually. "How's your day?"
"Worse now that you are here."
"Ouch."
She glanced at the pedestrian's light. It was still red. "That was a joke." She replied.
Jaune was not at all convinced. "...Did you just change tune because you realized you'd be stuck with me for a bit longer?"
"My, my, why would you think that?" She drawled.
He looked at her. Was it possible that she had the answers that he seeked? She seemed like someone with their life together. Perhaps she had some cheats to figure out the source of one's passions. At least, she must understand how to put her heart into what she does, right? Jaune wasn't really picky, he'd take anything in order to make his Aura work. Not like he had a choice, if he wanted to keep his wallet safe.
"I kind of feel like I should start charging."
Jaune broke from his thoughts, realizing he was staring at her and apologized. "Sorry, there's just something I would like to ask."
Hearing that, Weiss visibly tensed.
"It's nothing much. I just want your opinion on something I've been struggling with."
She relaxed a bit at that. "Ah, is it econ?"
"Econ?" Jaune blinked.
"Yes, econ, because of tomorrow?"
Jaune wasn't sure what she was talking about. "No, it has to do with the soul."
"The soul." She repeated incredulously.
"Yeah… like…" He tried to figure out how to explain it. "I want to know if there was an easy way to feel more passionate... " He couldn't talk about Aura. "...more passionate about life." He cringed.
She stared at him. "...Find something you like? I don't know, I'm not one of those nonsensical inspirational speakers, Jaune, why would I know about that?"
"Then what do you do?" He winced at his phrasing, but carried on. "What keeps you going everyday?"
She looked down at herself and tightened her fists. "I don't know. Maybe I'm just so busy I can't take a moment to waste my time with meaningless questions like that." She snapped. The words were harsh, but she also sounded rather exhausted. "You've missed a light, Jaune."
"Ah!" The batch of people around them had changed entirely. Glancing at the traffic light, he realized he only had seconds to cross. "Sorry for keeping you and thanks for your answers, Weiss! Bye!" He sprinted off.
"Goodbye."
/-/
Later, he arrived at his sister's workplace. The takeout section was just as busy as the tables, making yesterday's meal a bit of a miracle. He lined up.
Ren and Weiss' responses were both non-answers. Both of them seemed to not care about this problem, just like him. He supposed that this question of passion was not relevant in current society, or at least, wasn't relevant for people who only had the 9-5 grind to care about. This made his quest to find passion even more useless and irrelevant, making him wish to curse out the 'RWBY:Online' game even more.
Jaune sighed and took out his phone to scroll through social media.
A short wait later, he was back at the counter, armed with newly learned useless facts like how throwing people out of a window was called 'defenestration'.
"Oh! Welcome."
"You're manning the counter today?" Jaune recognized the hostess from yesterday. He shot her a grin playfully. "No wonder it's so crowded. Here's payment for yesterday."
The woman raised an eyebrow. "I see. Someone shot you down hard?"
"How did you - No."
"Now, now, Jaune, no need to overcompensate."
"I wasn't even interested in her!" He facepalmed. "I mean - I - it was complicated!" Looking for a topic change, he gestured at the line behind him. "What's this about, anyways?"
The black haired woman sighed. "It's a new deal that's going on. 50% off a few pastas because of some obscure holiday. Yes, we usually don't do that, but we recently had a new hire that has been causing a bit of trouble. That was why it was so empty when you came in yesterday."
"Ouch. What'd he do?"
"Let's just say she did a bit of collateral damage."
Jaune winced. "I assume she's fired?"
"That's the kicker." She bent forward to whisper to him. "The others say she's the daughter of some big shot. We can't."
Jaune double winced.
"Yes, you can imagine how stressed everyone is. We've assigned her to a number of different tasks, but she's not especially good at any of them. It's making me even more overworked than usual. I really wish I didn't have to deal with this, but sometimes, we're just stuck where we are in life." She sighed again. "Anyways, enough gossip. There's a lot of people behind you. Are you buying lunch?"
"Can't say no to 50% off." Jaune picked one of the discounted pastas.
After getting his takeout, he was about to head towards his next class when he spotted Dark waiting by a lamppost, dressed in his usual striped retiree outfit. What a coincidence! He thought. Maybe Dark can help me with my Aura! He headed for the god.
"Dark!"
"Hi - " The god coughed, rubbing his throat. "Hello Jaune." His first greeting was more high pitched, oddly.
Is that a cold? Can gods get sick? "How was your day?"
"Absolutely terrible." Dark growled. "Did you know that some people barf into glasses, and just keep them there at the table, and - nevermind. So, what brings you here so often?"
Have I ever met him here? Jaune shrugged. Maybe he had and just forgot. "Well, my sister works at that place. Best to get the most out of the employee discount."
"Ah, smart."
There was a moment when both of them were silent.
"So - "
"Have - "
Jaune stopped himself, but so did Dark. A second moment of silence stretched between them.
"I - "
"No - "
They paused again.
Jaune rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "It's okay, you can go."
"No, no, it's fine, I'm sure you have something important to ask with how you ended the game last night."
"Right… You saw that?"
"Yes. I also saw you plant yourself into the ground like a tree."
"Eh…"
Dark patted him on the back. "Good job, have you ever thought of taking a job as professional decoration?"
"I don't think I'm handsome enough to be a model."
"It's okay, they need to hire someone more average looking in order for the audience to focus on the next set of fashionable raw meat." The god laughed. "I don't think you came here for dumb jokes, mortal. You wanted some advice on a shortcut to being able to use offensive Aura? Well here's my two cents. Don't even try."
Jaune blinked in surprise. If there was an answer that he thought he'd hear, it was for certain not this.
The god leaned back onto the lamppost, letting his head rest against the metal. "Jaune, if there's something I've learned in my… decently long life, I'd say that some people are just meant to do certain things. No one's born equal, the god who helped make the world can attest to that. The same god is also telling you that Tweeter is a cesspool and stay away from it or you'll get brain AIDS."
"Brain aids?" Jaune repeated with much confusion.
"Tried it for a month, somehow I became the Antichrist, follower of the dark gods, and genocidal maniac of the day. The next day it was someone else. Eh, their first guess wasn't entirely wrong, but that's not the point. Jaune, you've probably talked to people who've got their lives mostly in order. Looking at them, don't they make it look natural to be driven?"
Jaune took a moment to think about it. Ren was a person who had not only his shit together, but also Nora's, since she was a bit forgettable sometimes. Weiss also seemed like she was doing well, in spite of her personality. And what was their answer to his question about passion again? Basically "just do it"?
"These guys are just made differently, Jaune. Nothing you can do. There's a kind of fire that burns within their hearts that others can never match. A strength that keeps them going no matter what happens." The god closed his eyes. "Jaune, instead of trying to complete an impossible quest, why don't you just live freely? Don't worry about the money, I can refund whatever Light steals from you even if I have to eat dirt for the next month."
"Eat dirt?!"
"It's okay, that's what it feels like to use Tweeter anyways."
"I really, really want to ask about what you've just said, but first... What's with the Tweeter hate?!"
"It's crap, Jaune, don't ever use it. I got burned and emotionally scared."
"You are totally distracting me from the topic at hand!"
"I'm the God of Darkness, chaos, tangents, and other negative concepts. It's in my name."
"You're the god of tangents now?!"
"People say math is Hell. Hell's like, my kitchen."
"I don't even know what that's referencing and I'm exasperated!"
"As am I," came a third, pompous voice.
Jaune and Dark stopped their pointless banter as Light made his way past the pedestrians on the sidewalk. He strolled towards them with all the self-importance of at least, like, three royal families, in his usual composed and uptight manner.
"Ah, brother, we were just talking about the Aura design decisions you made."
"You don't need to sugar coat it, I'm sure Jaune's just here to complain."
"Hey!"
"For good reason." Dark pointed out. "You should have kept our original design, where he could tap into the conviction of his character."
Light crossed his arms. "That would be the easy way out. To truly enjoy something, you need to earn it. My retrofit provides the mortal with a sense of pride and accomplishment. I appreciate the candid feedback, but - mortal?"
Jaune stared at Light in morbid horror.
"Jaune?"
"Save me from EA…" The traumatized mortal whimpered.
A look of puzzlement came over Light. "What's up with him?" He asked his brother.
Dark also stared at him blankly.
"What's wrong with you two? Angina?"
The two continued their shenanigans without breaking character.
"The brain is an incredibly delicate and complex device. It is easy for it to run into errors. I should probably exercise care in fixing it." He paused, before smacking them over their heads. "Better now?"
"Ow!"
"My back spikes - I mean, my hair!"
He sighed in disappointment. "Jaune, what you need is to actually think about the problem by yourself."
"I already did! I like video games, sweet things, maybe ballet. How are any of those going to help me?!" Jaune replied, holding his head.
The god hummed as he started pacing around Jaune. "Or maybe what you need is an example."
"An example?"
Light reached into his trouser pocket and took out a set of keys. He sorted through it and picked out a single keychain trinket. The item attached to the chain was round, ball shaped, and barely glowing a baby blue. Jaune couldn't tell at all what it was. A tiny vase? A flask toy?
Then, Light held the chain with his hand and let the item dangle, before swinging it side to side leisurely. White mist seeped out from the trinket, and before Jaune knew it, he was back in one of the gods' multipurpose rooms, formed out of the mist. This time, it was an empty white plane rather than strictly a room, and Dark was also not there.
"Mortal," Light said. "I suppose you haven't heard this story I'm about to tell you. It was quite widely known back in another cycle, though this version of it… Not as much." He waved his hand with exaggerated flourish. "Let me tell you the story of one of the first few creatures who've ever earned my respect."
Around Jaune, the mist congregated into shapes. Some of it changed color and form to look like rock and some formed people.
"Let me tell you about... the First Huntress."
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N: RIP. This was supposed to be the last part, but uhhhhh it turns out… no. I had to split it up into two chapters again. It's so fat… so fat.
Also, the next chapter is in two month so that I can catch up on… things.
Next chapter: October 31, 2021.