Felipe1402XZA: well, i expected a type of genie but not expected shantae
Re: What can I say? I love her vibe. Half-Genie Hero was lots of fun to boot.
superpierce: good chapter definitely wasn't expecting a genie.
Re: And why not? I basically beat everyone over the head with it when Vincent grabbed it from the Loot Pile, and RWBY Canon has four Genies already; albeit, a little "over-specialized".
LoamyCoffee: Hmm, an interesting choice for vol 3 of Giant-Slayer. Feels nice~
I kept going back n' forth on whether or not Shantae or another Genie would come out when I saw the lamp last time.
Nice reference to the Lantern/emotion spectrum. Glad to see her with her Final Master~ Very exciting~
Good fluff~
A convenient group to blame!
Re: It was too good to pass up.
As for the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum, why wouldn't a world like RWBY equate certain emotions with color?
The group to blame, specifically.
TM11: Not sure if including a Genie is a good move. If Vincent doesn't use the other two wishes by the time he learns of Salem, everyone will be expecting him to just wish her immortality away.
Btw, have you watched RWBY Ice Queendom? If so, will you include the new Grimm? Like, I so want to see Jack get possessed and have RWBY jump into his dream world. I would love to see how the girls would react to it and what Jack's nightmare would look like. Negative Jack would be pretty OP I'm sure.
Re: To be fair, one of Shantae's Wishes probably couldn't un-do the [Immortality] (in terms of Power Hierarchy), because Salem's [Immortality] power came from two Full Gods (trying to one-up one another), and even one Full Genie would be far-below the purview of a God.
Shenron from Dragonball and Porunga from Dragonball Z themselves had very declarative Limits on what they could and (more importantly) could not do; for example, they couldn't kill Frieza or the Saiyans because their "Power Levels" were greater than Shenron's & Porunga's; the Wish Orbs deal in Magic, not Ki, which has very clear differences btw. And in terms of Magic in general, "Rules" transform into "Power"; for example, a Seal on the Demon King needing "7 Keys" to break is more powerful than a Seal with "No Keys". Shantae's rules aren't just personal preference, they're a trade-off for more "concentrated" power in certain areas; like in Hunter x Hunter, self-imposed [Vows] or [Limitations] are similarly trade-offs for greater power.
As for RWBY: Ice Queendom, yes I have; got some huuuuuge Persona 5 vibes off of that, btw~
I don't have plans for Jack to become infected with a Nightmare in the Original Timeline, but I could make a "Giant-Slayer: What If…?" for a divergent timeline off-shot. I do plan for someone to get infected, of course.
On another note, by the rules of this Remnant, Jack might not even be vulnerable to infiltration by a Nightmare. In Canon, by my interpretation of how they operate, they choose Hosts by people whose Trauma has left "gaps in the armor", or whose hearts are "vulnerable" to negativity. In the Giant-Slayer Fanon, Jack has either been possessed by a Nightmare before and thusly encountered Shion prior (thus possessing the same "immunity" Jaune had from the RWBY: Ice Queendom Canon), or his heart, being "fortified" by the Green Light of Will, was not vulnerable to a Nightmare infecting it in the first place. Likewise, Weiss' worst aspects from the Canon are rapidly being "dissipated" in the Fanon by Jack and those around her, so it's possible the Grimm will lose its "fertile soil" and die off. If it "abandoned ship" in the middle of the night, Grimm's propensity to "evaporate" upon death wouldn't even leave any evidence.
Of course then I'd also have to write Jaune being possessed, though him confronting his own "issues" and strengthening himself, would also make it hard to remain Canonical consistency with how a Nightmare operates…
Point is, neither Weiss nor Jaune will be possessed by a Nightmare.
Ah, but don't worry. I'm sure soon, if-not-already, that there are/will be scads of RWBY Fanfic about different people playing Host to a Nightmare and their friends having to go on a Persona 5-style "Heist Movie" adventure~
*NEW WORLD*
RWBBY and JNPR's break having come to an end, it was time to resume classes, which of course meant… Dr. Stein…! So suffice it to say, neither Ruby nor Jaune were all too eager to wander out of eyeshot of their friends.
Of course, given all the freshman teams were terrified of the mad scientist with the bolt through his brain, no-one was truly exempted from the feeling of unease as they fueled up for the resumation of classes.
Arriving in Dr. Stein's room before the bell, Teams RWBBY, JNPR, CRDL, DIRT, and those taking remedial courses found Dr. Stein waiting for them behind his desk, still sitting backwards in his chair, a small bin with the word IN on the right side of his desk.
"Welcome back to Plasmology 101. I trust your week of open study was… fruitful~" he said slowly ratchetting his head-bolt; probably to quite intentionally fuck with them if the smirk on his face meant anything. "Assuming you actually managed to complete your final assignment from last week, please put them in the bin on my desk. Once your work is completed, we'll begin the day's lecture."
Some had done their homework at the very start of their break so the rest of it would be free, some had waited until the last moment and scrambled like mad in a coffee-fueled frenzy, and some achieved a balance between the two extremes. With sheafs of paperwork of varying aesthetic organization and thickness forming a stack on Dr. Stein's desk, once the last of the papers were in place, the nutty scientist got up and started drawing graphics on the board.
"Today, we'll be talking about Soul Wavelengths," the man explained as he drew two stick figures on the board, and to the side of each, a pair of radically-differing wavelengths. "As you might already be aware, acoustic waves are a type of energy propagation through a medium by means of adiabatic loading and unloading," he said drawing a waveform with jagged corners next to the first stick figures with red chalk, while next to the second, a waveform in blue with long swooping curves. "Aura, as I have already demonstrated, has similar properties when directly applied to both attack and defense."
More than a few of the Hunter Course students had flashbacks to how Stein had wholly nullified several attacks from the heavy-hitters of the first year.
"This phenomena is called by many names. Some call it 'Biorhythm', some call it 'Synergy', and more-ostentatious researchers call this phenomena 'Unison Raid', while those prone to fits of more romanticized prose call it 'Fusion Magic'," he went on to say. "However, in order for this to be accomplished, two or more persons need to change the 'Volume' and 'Pitch' of their Soul Wavelengths before 'meeting in the middle'," he said grabbing a purple stick of chalk and drawing a swooping wavelength with lots of smaller curves off to the side of the first two. "Because people literally run on different wavelengths from one another, this can prove quite difficult to achieve even in controlled laboratory settings, because while Aura can be measured in terms of Quantity, its exacting qualities in terms of 'Amplitude' and 'Frequency' cannot be reliably examined between individual cases. A machine calibrated to measure one person's Soul Wavelength with any measure of accuracy, might be completely off-base for someone as close to them as an identical twin, let alone a complete stranger," he said, proceeding to draw different kinds of waves in red and blue chalk, all of them radically different from one another. "When it comes to using this ability practically, unless you have a finely-tuned 'Sixth Sense' to guide yourself and your partner, you might as well be trying to hammer nails with a friend in the dark while also blindfolded."
Dr. Stein pausing to let them digest that metaphor for a moment, drew a few titters from the crowd.
"From a technical standpoint, Soul Resonance can be akinned to a 'Positive Feedback Loop', wherein, the effects of a small disturbance are exacerbated over time. A more mundane way of explaining this is the relationship between an electric guitar and an amp; while the sound from an electric guitar by itself is rather faint, it gains a tremendous amount of power when hooked up to an amplifier. Similar to Meisters and their Weapon partners, Huntsmen are also capable of passing Soul Wavelengths between one another for an explosive surge in power. However, due to the hyper-competitive and sometimes caustic nature of professional rivalries, Soul Resonance is a resource that is often seldom used in your line of work."
"Sounds like a Super Move from a video game," Ruby whispered toward Weiss.
"Another form of Soul Resonance is known as a 'Bond'. Though it's easier to resonate with family members or other close relatives, as a result of this, the resultant power of Soul Resonance in a case between siblings is significantly lesser," he said drawing two pairs of stick figures; one pair both in red chalk, another with one in red and one in blue, all four with the number 4 in their heads.
For the pair of red stick figures, after drawing a plus sign between them, he put an equals sign followed by an 8. Putting a multiplicationsymbol between the red and blue stick figures, the number following the equals sign was 16, emphasizing the point that Soul Resonance between "strangers" would always be more-powerful than that done between direct siblings. "Greater than the sum of their parts." -, if one would.
"Of course, Soul Resonance isn't purely for combat. Individuals in a state of resonance are able to commune with each other's souls in a manner almost like telepathy, or 'quantum entanglement' if you prefer science fiction to fantasy. The most-common example of this is the alleged 'Twin Telepathy' shared by identical siblings, who are more-capable of communing with one another non-verbally due to the lifelong proximity they shared from as far back as the womb. If you ever felt like you could communicate with a sibling or a best friend without using words, you might have been using the barest level of Soul Resonance."
This of course invited speculation from those in attendance, trying to recall such incidents if they didn't immediately remember.
"Professor, what did you mean by 'Meisters and their Weapon partners'?" Weiss inquired with a raised hand.
"It's fitting that you of all people should askthat," Stein hummed, adjusting his head-screw. "While the Schnee Family's [Glyph] is the most-well-known of 'Hereditary Semblance', they are hardly the only example of such in the world. The Shimada Clan in Mistral for example, possess the hereditary predisposition to manifest their Semblance through attack augmentations with extremely overt draconic overtones, sometimes called the [Dragon Strike] by those that like to get straight to the point," he said making a more-detailed sketch of a figure with a bow, their arrow surrounded by coiling dragons as it flew through the air.
Off to the side, Ren bristled ever-so-minutely, a tell that only Jack and Blake were able to notice thanks to their "superhuman" senses.
"While a Meister's specialization in using Soul Resonance is something that can be learned through intense training, there exist certain bloodlines which manifest near-identical abilities of Humans and Faunus to take on the form of traditional weapons; though recent 'mutations' have manifested more… unconventional transformations into things like guillotines or chainsaws."
At this, most-everyone in class turned their eyes toward Jack, imagining him transforming into a green chainsaw with angry red eyes, hopping around and starring in his own snuff film.
"These variant Hereditary Semblance, known as [Demon Weapon], existed as far back as eight centuries ago, and were created by fusing the souls of those with incredibly-potent Transformation-type Semblances, from those known as 'Witches', into new host bodies, or even just weapons. Whether such allegedly-inhumane experiments were factual, or just metaphor, the fact remains that this Hereditary Semblance, shared by countless bloodlines with no common ancestry, is in-fact transmissible through bloodline. Like traits in genetics, however, the Hereditary Semblance [Demon Weapon] has been recorded as skipping one or more generations, to the point where a family might be unaware of the 'Weapon Gene' coursing through their veins if enough time has passed. Of course, since Hereditary Semblance in general don't leave tangible genetic markers perceptible to modern science, there are always those that argue against the genetic component."
"That… sounds… awesooooome…~" Nora awed with twinkles in her eyes.
"Of course, modern day Meisters and Weapons tend to be rather insular, so the chances of you meeting any Meister/Weapon pairs is quite low," Stein said with a wave of his hand. "Now, if you'll open up your books to page…"
*NEW WORLD*
"Now…" Stein said after a more-dull lecture on Plasmology material from their textbooks. "I want you to pair up with and attempt to match Soul Wavelengths to a partner. I'm not expecting any sort of success this-early-on, though your grade for this and subsequent days will be based on how much effort you put in."
The nutty professor going back to turning his head-screw and muttering to himself, chattering filled the lecture hall as people began to pair up.
"Alright little sis, let's do this thing!" Yang whooped.
"Yeah! Twin telepathyyyy!" Ruby grinned slapping hands together loudly.
The two scrunching their faces up in concentration as though they hadn't had enough fiber, as they tried to "feel out for" one another like Jack attempted to explain, out of nowhere, the two siblings let out a- "Kyah!/Argh!" -as their hands were forced apart, angry arcs of red and yellow lightning skittering around their fingers.
"Yow, what the hell was that?!" Yang bit out. "Hurts like a bitch, but it didn't set off my [Dragon Fire]."
"Erm, professor… Did we maybe do something wrong?" Ruby asked warily, a little put-out that she couldn't use 'Soul Telepathy' to exchange invisible messages with her sister.
She didn't necessarily want to bring Stein into this, but between the books, Stein's lectures, and Jack setting the bar way too high when it came to things not taught by the public education system, if she wanted to make any sort of progress, she might as well grit her teeth and rip off the band-aid.
"Hmmmmmmm…" Dr. Stein hummed as he looked at Ruby, the girl shifting nervously under his bespeckled gaze.
In the mad doctor's own eye, as the rest of the world faded to black, as he peered at Ruby's Soul, he saw a thin red line spilling out of the top of it, and shooting off into the far distance. Stepping over to the window and allowing some of his focus on real-space to occur, he saw Ruby's "Red String" extending all the way into Vale proper, instead of somewhere else on Beacon grounds.
"Tell me, Ms. Rose. Have you recently become 'bonded' to anyone?" he asked flat-out, her classmates blushing bright red at the implication, while Ruby took a few seconds to cross the finish line.
"W-Wh-Wha-Wha-WHAAAA…!?" the scythe-happy girl cried, face flushed bright red.
"Not purely in the physical sense of course. This 'rebound' between yourself and Yang could simply be the result of a strong spiritual bonding with another person, which is interfering in trying to achieve Soul Resonance," he went on to explain as though he didn't hear his own innuendo.
"Oh, erm… Well…~" Ruby blushed as she tapped her index fingers together, cheeks flushing at a more-manageable level. "I uh… Maybe my boyfriend and I becoming 'Soulmates' is more… literal than I thought…?"
Those girls from the other courses but still studying Plasmology squealing in delight much to Ruby's embarrassment, Stein tapped his chin thoughtfully before he started scribbling on the board.
"Well, it is possible that being 'Soulmates' is the case for the previous rebound… Of course, delving into the realm of philosophy and abstract notwithstanding, it's possible that your bond with…?"
"Um… Arthur."
"Right, him," Stein said as he drew a trio of Souls on the board, marked by an R, Y, and A respectively. "It's possible that your bond with Arthur has widened the 'channels' between your Souls, allowing for greater ease of achieving Resonance, while at the same time dampening your ability to do so with other people," he said as he drew a thick double-ended arrow with a check mark between the R and the A, while the double-ended arrow connecting the Y to the R and the A above it was thinner and had an X-mark going through it. "Of course, I don't have enough data on this particular scenario in Plasmology to determine whether or not this shortcoming would be permanent, so it could go one of two ways. Either you and Arthur performing [Soul Resonance] first would solidify the completion of a more-permanent channel between your Souls, or 'Hearts' if you're so-inclined, and you two would later be able to temporarily achieve Soul Resonance with other people."
"Or…?" Yang inquired.
"Or hers and Arthur's Souls remain permanently synchronized to one another through this 'Soul Bond'," he said making air quotes, "in exchange for a far-more phenomenal upsurge in power accompanied by a greater ease of attaining Soul Resonance to begin with. Skin-to-skin contact isn't always needed to perform [Soul Resonance], only proximity, usually in the visual range like one's 'personal bubble', but in Ruby's case…" he said eyeing the 'Red String of Fate' connecting Ruby to her boyfriend. "It's equally possible that if their 'Hearts' possess a truly strong bond with one another, that they might be able to achieve Soul Resonance regardless of distance, since 'bonds' aren't interrupted by conventional space-time, or even lifetimes… But of course, that's more philosophy than hard Plasmology or Cognitive Psience…" he mused thoughtfully.
"See, I knew you two were meant to be together~" Yang cooed throwing her arm around Ruby's neck and coddling her, happy that the 'rebound' wasn't something on her part.
"Yaaaang…! You're embarrassing meeee…!" the red-head squealed as the girls from other courses giggled and tittered in the background.
"Ms. Rose," Dr. Stein said suddenly, a bucket of water over the half-sisters' moment. "If you would be so kind as to call this Arthur over at your sum earliest convenience, I'd be quite interested in seeing how Soul Resonance amplified by a 'Soul Bond' would work. Until now, all I've ever had to go on is theoretics, instead of tangible, personally-collected evidence…"
"Um… I don't knowwww…" she said nervously, imagining Stein shackling them both to laboratory slabs and duct-taping their hands together before grabbing jumper cables and a car battery.
That or shackling them to the same laboratory slab in a more… compromising position~
'Oh my god, dad was right!' Ruby cried cupping her cheeks. 'Puberty is like suddenly looking at boys as if they were made of bacon, like you've never eaten it in your life, and all you want to eat is bacon!'
"I will of course provide Extra Credit for this aid to my research-"
"SHE ACCEPTS!" Weiss suddenly shouted.
"WEISS!" Ruby cried out.
*NEW WORLD*
"Am I doing it right?"
"No, Nora."
"Am I doing it right, now?"
"No."
"How about now?"
"No."
"How about now?"
"No."
"How about now?"
"Yes."
"LIAR!"
"Well… That's certainly unseemly," Weiss hummed as she turned her attention back to Jack and Blake. Their right hands were clasped together, while stuck to their foreheads were baby pictures courtesy of their shared "uncle". Her "Sixth Sense" wasn't strong to definitively tell her whether any tangible progress was being made, or if the diabetes-inducing photos of them were even helping, but another less-serious part of herself wondered-
Why were they carrying their own baby pictures to class…?
"That was a good effort, Blake, but unless you can quit hiding from yourself, I think this is as-far as you'll be able to deviate from your 'Core Wavelength'," Jack said pulling away a few minutes later.
"Well, not everyone can close their eyes and look at people's souls like Soul Power."
"Soul Power~ Soul Power~"
"Nora, how long have you been sitting on that?" Ren asked as Nora's Scroll played the sound byte.
"Long-enough~" the red-head grinned.
"So, Weiss. Think you'll do any better?" Jack asked extending his hand, palm upturned.
"Hm. I may~" Weiss smiled, daintily laying her hand atop his own, her heart skipping a beat as he enveloped her delicate hand in his calloused own.
"So… Do you feel anything yet?" Jack asked after a few moments.
"Yes. Yes, I think I feel something… warm," she said scooting closer to him.
"Yes, that's me passing my Soul Wavelengths over to you. Can you return them on your own, or do you want me to walk you through it?"
"I think I can manage on my own," Weiss nodded, beckoning him to come closer, which he did.
"Yang, what are you doing?" Blake asked as the blond held her index and middle fingers up to her temple.
"Trying to open my 'Third Eye'," she said scrunching up her face in concentration.
"Looks like you're stuck on the can."
"Nora…"
"Awwwn…" Jaune groaned off to the side, Pyrrha sighing dejectedly as she held his hand.
*NEW WORLD*
"Well… That was a thing…" Blake hummed as they all made their way to Lilith's class, emails to their Scrolls redirecting them to one of the Training Grounds outside of Beacon's walls.
"He didn't have to wring that out of me in front of God and everyone…!" Ruby moaned, pulling her hood over her face as the rumor mill spun.
"Well, think of it this way," Yang hummed. "If you and Arthur's 'Super Move' blows out all the windows or something you might become Beacon's new Power Couple. Eh~? Eh~?"
"Laaaaame!" Nora heckled.
"Oh what would you know? You can't even get a date!" the blond snapped back.
*GAAAASP!* "You take that back!"
"So Weiss, you and Jack make any… progress~?" Blake asked waggling a brow.
"P-Purely in the academic sense…!" the heiress stuttered, though she couldn't help but dart her eyes to Jack's breast pocket. The corner of her embroidered handkerchief poking out into the open, a fresh thrill went through her at the thought of how damning it would be if anyone found out; especially her father. "It of course helps that Jack and I have excellent Auric Control, with him being able to more-clearly see our Auras and how they interact with one another."
"Oh, is that what the kids are calling it these days~?" Yang grinned with a brow-waggle.
"Denial is more than just a river in… Where is The Nile again…?" Nora blinked.
*NEW WORLD*
"Vincent? What're you doing here?" Blake asked as she met a familiar head of silver-colored hair.
"Oh, Ms. Varod needed an extra set of hands for today's lesson," he said pointing over his shoulder at Lilith, who at the moment was assessing some human-shaped target dummies. "You know how it goes; many hands make light work."
"And uh… What's that on your shoulder?" she asked staring at the rather large bird perched on his mantle. It looked like a cockatoo, but its feathers were predominantly a bright red, with a single bit of head plumage resembling a stem-stalk ponytail colored an extremely vivid purple, its eyes a lovely sky blue.
"Oh, this is… 'Tae. I'm taking care of her," he replied. "Say 'hello', 'Tae~"
"Hello~" the cockatoo replied with incredible syntax.
"So cuuute~" Nora cooed going in for a chin-scratch. "Who's a good birdie? You are~ Yes you OW SHE BIT ME!"
"She doesn't like cuddling with strangers," Vincent replied as he cradled the odd-colored cockatoo like an infant, the vividly-colored bird rubbing her head under his chin with a pleased coo.
"Well… At least this one doesn't talk-talk…" Pyrrha muttered with a shudder, Jaune giving the red-head a confused look before Lilith waved everyone over.
*NEW WORLD*
"I trust you all have dedicated some of your free time toward today's assignment, so let's get right to it," she said gesturing to a table stocked with vials of low- to mid-quality Dust, snacks, and beverages. "Any volunteers?"
Like at any school, even HITs feared going first only to get shown-up by one person after them at best, or shown-up by literally everyone else after them at absolute fucking worst.
Lilith of course, recognized this recalcitrant attitude from her own school days, fond memories of days free of responsibility coming back to her before she schooled herself.
"Jack Braxton. As a Silver-Ranked mercenary, you have the most officially-recognized experience of your peers. Would you mind demonstrating, assuming you're already versed in Dust Manipulation presently?"
"Sure, why not…" Jack sighed as he walked up to the table.
The Faunus humming some unknown tune to himself as he singled out a vial of Fire Dust, with the other hand he sliced the lid off a miniature water bottle and drained its contents onto the ground before re-filling it with the contents of his hip flask. Pouring the Dust into what looked like whiskey and swirling it around, the amber-colored spirits turned a slightly darker shade, the Dust suspended in the alcohol glittered in the afternoon light before, to everyone's shock, he drank it!
"GASP!"
"DOUBLE GASP!"
"TERTIARY GASP!"
Jack's abdomen glowing red like firelight through his uniform, jets of steam hissing through grit teeth, as the Faunus stepped up to the firing line, he raised his shotgun/axe above his head like a flag. Flame-colored Aura visibly coiling up his body and manifesting Nature's Wrath in the form of a brilliant ball of fire like a miniature star, with a proclamation of- "Cruel Sun." -, the Faunus swung his weapon forward like a starter's flag, the fiery orb sailing downrange and striking the targets with a loud *THOOOM!*, the acrid smell of burning rubber causing everyone to recoil as one of the target dummies was reduced to slag.
A brilliant ball of fire like a miniature star manifesting above the raised weapon, flame-colored Aura visibly
"Whoa…!" Nora gawped. "Hey Ren, did you see-"
"Oh I think we all saw…" Ren hummed as Jack walked back to the group, stopping mid-stride and spitting a tongue of flame from his lips before rejoining them.
"Ah, so you know how to metabolize Dust instead of just taking it in externally through your own Aura…" Lilith hummed thoughtfully. "I hope this isn't a sign you're an alcoholic."
"I'm a social drinker who isn't always social. Does that soothe your delicate sensibilities?"
"Well… At least he isn't a social drinker who's always social…" Weiss hummed while shooting Ruby a look, the little red-head whistling not-so-inconspicuously off to the side.
"Still, why alcohol? Seemed like a waste of perfectly good water…" Jaune mused.
"In my experience, any sort of alcohol is better for metabolizing Dust internally because it suspends the Dust in a non-reactive fluid. That and it also hides the chalky taste you get when mixing Dust with anything else," Jack answered as he exhaled a smaller tongue of flame until all he got left was smoke, and then ordinary air. "40 to 50 percent alcohol by volume is my preferred for ingesting Dust, though you can use fish oil if you want to store suspended dust solutions for longer periods. Of course, you can't let that swill sit in your stomach overnight or, believe you and me, heh heh heh hehhhh… You don't want to find out," he whispered ominously.
"Ah, that's an… interesting party trick…" Pyrrha hummed warily.
"Hey, better than jabbing shards into your body. You either have to have an incredibly high pain tolerance, or just be a massive masochist to have that as your go-to style."
"Also fair," the red-head conceded.
"There actually was a man I knew who did just that, but his Semblance, [Numbing Agent], allowed him to push the practice to its absolute highest limit," Lilith hummed. "Highest I ever saw was four kinds of Dust simultaneously. He was practically a demi-god on the battlefield."
"What happened to him?" Ruby asked, always eager to hear stories of legendary or even near-legendary Huntsmen.
" . . . He isn't around anymore."
"Oh…"
"But… what about his [Numbing Agent]…?" Jaune asked, since the name itself made the Semblance sound pretty OP.
"[Numbing Agent] isn't the same as a Semblance like… 'Damage Nullification'. Hazel couldn't feel the pain that came with Dust Fusion, but his body always paid the price for it; and the bill always comes due," she said ominously. "That's why you need to always, always, weigh out the risks and rewards for using something so costly," she said turning her attention to the rest of the class. "Dust Fusion offers tremendous power, often moreso than what most Semblances provide… but Human bodies at even the best of times are still fickle, fragile tools, and can utterly fail you if even the slightest lapse in focus were to occur. Can anyone tell me any 'horror stories' to help drive the point home?" she inquired, her eyes turning to Jack before he scoffed-
"Hey, I already pulled a 'Sun God' for this class. Someone else can step forward for storytime two-point-oh."
" . . . A man fusing Fire Dust to himself could burn himself to charcoal," Ren answered. "Ice Dust could replace a man's blood with hoarfrost, and Lightning Dust can cause catastrophic heart failure."
"Very graphic, but very true examples," Lilith nodded somberly. "People often treat Dust like this magic 'cure-all' that could do no wrong, the 'magic bullet' that can defeat anything; and people often continue thinking that until they at the very least, witness Dust taking its due from those that misuse it. Jack's 'Dust Metabolization' might only offer a fragment of the power the Dust Fusion does… but in a 'long war' like ours, against the Grimm, victory is in survival, not dying young 'in a blaaaze of glory'," she said mockinga certain rotund musachioed professor's tone. "That is the mentality I hope to instill within all of you; that Dust isn't some magic 'thing' that can be used however we want without consequence. It deserves both respect and fear, but most-importantly, due consideration before you call upon Nature's Wrath, either through the world around you, your Semblance, or even your own bodies."
Lilith's speech, while powerful, was also extremely disheartening, and the students once-eager to play around with Dust were now having second thoughts.
"But that's why I'm here to teach you. So you don't make the mistakes of your predecessors. It's also why you're only being given such-small dosages to work with. So take heart, be brave, maybe do something a little stupid, because outside of school, the chances to gleefully experiment will be few and far in-between," she said giving her students a smile, and holding her arm out like a woman enticing children to a candy store. "Now… Who's next?"
"I am," Weiss proclaimed, the speech that Lilith gave resonating quite powerfully with the young woman.
*NEW WORLD*
At the same time atop Beacon's wall and overlooking Lilith's chosen training ground were four figures.
The one at the lead, his leg propped up on a crate of ammunition, was a lean, athletic young man with azure eyes and shoulder-length hair to match covering one eye. He was extremely handsome with a rich, cultured look about him, clad in a mixture of black, blue, and silver finery that made him look like a Prince from a fantasy world.
At the rich-looking man's back were three young women, their arms crossed behind their backs and wholly uninterested expressions on their faces.
The first was an athletic Indian-descended woman with lovely dark skin, long black hair, and studious golden-amber eyes. Clad in a blue, white-accented combat dress with long slits in the sides revealing long legs clad in black gold-accented leggings and high heels to match, over her eyes was a blue-colored visor with fin-like white armor.
The second was a tall, extremely athletic-looking woman of Amazonian proportions with prominent womanly curves amidst powerful muscles. Her eyes a deep brown, her skin sun-tanned, her hair was thick, dark-brown, and shoulder-length. Clad predominantly in darker-brown leathers with gray fur trim and lots of smaller belts like a fighting game character, the Faunus trait that stood out about here were the bear-like ears perched atop her head.
The third and final of the young man's entourage was a small, delicate-looking woman with a dancer's body, her cool eyes a vibrant green, her pale skin flawless, and her long straight hair colored the purest white and decorated with gold-accented rose-themed ornaments to match. Her attire consisted of a fine white Mistrali dress with gold and green decorations, offering an almost mystical air about her.
"Professor Varod, looking lovely as always~" the handsome man mused aloud. "Ah, and that must be the circus animal everyone's in such an uproar about," he scoffed derisively as Beacon's sole Ratel Faunus lobbed a heavy ball of flame downrange. "Of course, there are many among the newest class, that are far more pleasing to the eye~" he grinned as his eyes raked over the latest batch of Freshmen; the young women in particular. "But the greatest prize of them all…~"
Down on the training ground, Weiss with her Myrtenaster wielded Wind Dust with a graceful flourish and sent one of the dummies careening high into the air, far above the tree line, before a surge of Gravity Dust caused it to fall to Earth with meteoric force that could be felt as far as the high wall.
"I always wanted to add a Schnee to my collection~" he purred, tongue flicking across his lips.
*NEW WORLD*
P.S.
Am I the only one who got serious Persona 5 vibes from RWBY: Ice Queendom?
Tell me your answer in the Reviews, and I'll see you next time on Vigorous Vitality!