Your scroll in hand, you keep on sending texts to Ruby, asking her if she just so happens to have time to come to Vale to do some shopping with everyone tomorrow, figuring you really should keep on working on that whole situation and you need a break from the constant world-ending scenarios and terrorist attacks on your pool.
You haven't even gotten to try it out yet, not to mention modified it to be even better! Which, is something you'll have to look into later on, once your aura is completely recovered and you can get creative about your semblance.
For now, though, you have to send a last text confirming the time tomorrow as you come up to Weiss' room on the mansion's third floor, the young heiress obviously distressed as she holds up the portrait you drew of her.
"Hey Weiss, how're you doing?" You ask, already getting an idea of what this will be about. Good thing Sarah called you, really.
"Oh, hello, Gabriel. I'm doing fine."
"Bullshit," you immediately say, Weiss' surprised face almost making you chuckle a bit. "I can see something is wrong from over here. Would you mind me coming in?"
At her mute nod, you intrude on her personal room, taking a seat on her bed next to where she's sitting. "So, on the one hand, I don't want to make you uncomfortable. But on the other hand, I feel like I should probably address this, like ripping off a bandaid. Weiss, please tell me what's wrong."
Her eyes pretty big, Weiss looks at you, as though incapable of understanding what is going on.
Instead of closing herself off, continuing to pretend she's totally alright, Weiss starts tearing up, her eyes growing moist as she looks away. So far so good. "I am just... thinking, is all."
"Thinking about what?" You inquire, leaning back a little and not looking directly at her, your eyes moving to parallel her own, the two of you sitting next to each other as you are.
"About... I'm a Schnee, and I put everyone at risk with my presence here," it finally breaks out of the short girl, her hands clenched into little balls. "If I wasn't here, the White Fang wouldn't have attacked. I don't want to leave, but... I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to just come live here. All I am doing is putting you, Sarah, Okita and Nora in danger, and for what? Because I'm just a desperate little girl clinging to the first semblance of closeness that doesn't run the moment she sees it?"
Weiss is full-on crying now, having an easier time letting it out as you aren't looking at her directly.
"No." The word, spoken with utter conviction and surety, seems to startle Weiss, throwing her out of the self-destructive downward spiral she has likely been in ever since she found out who just attempted to murder your pool. "I decided to keep you, and nobody gets to say anything against that, not even yourself."
Before she can react, you turn to hug her, Weiss' lithe body almost too small to be properly held in your arms. When she tries to say something, you, of course, shut her up with a kiss, having waited for her to do just that, and as her eyes go from wide and shocked at what is happening to closed as she accepts it, you shift your weight a little, one hand gently stroking her head and through her luxurious white hair.
When you're sure she's calmed down, you let up, Weiss' lips following your own for a moment, her hesitance at stopping the kiss obvious. "It's not your fault, Weiss," you declare, absolving her of all responsibility and meaning it so clearly and thoroughly it'd take a deaf person not to hear it, "you, yourself, had nothing to do with what they did. That's all on the people that chose to be so incredibly petty at someone that couldn't have done anything wrong."
Holding Weiss just like that for a little longer, you just slowly breathe, letting her know you are there as she cuddles into your grasp. Before long, though (or rather, too soon, you like cuddling), she stirs, teary eyes smiling up at you.
"I know what you are doing, you know?" She asks, the obvious manipulation obvious to anyone that knows to spot it.
"Good. Is it working?" You respond, smiling down at your little Weiss.
Giggling, said girl shakes her head, unable to stop herself from smiling. "You are a bad man, Gabriel. A very, very bad man."
"The very worst," you agree, cupping her chin to kiss her once again, the icy princess melting into you.
Things take their natural course from there, with you pushing an unresisting Weiss down onto the bed, your hands finding hers as you make out for a bit, the pleasant taste of fresh mint on Weiss' tongue shared with you.
When you begin taking her clothes off, peeling her jacket off her short frame and leaving it to lie under her once she pulls her arms out of it, Weiss panting into your mouth as you keep on going with the rest of her outfit, you don't stop until you literally tear her bra off her chest, looking deep into her eyes as you gently knead her exposed mounds.
Her moans certainly do sound approving, Weiss clinging to you and burying her cool face in the crook of your neck, but not doing anything to stop you from pinching her cute, bright red nipples.
Naturally, you also need to undress yourself, which is why Weiss can't stay there, your shirt giving way to your naked torso and making Weiss go from blushing cheeks to a wholly flushed face, the contours of your body obviously striking a chord with her.
"I can see why so many are smitten with you," she tries to put up the appearance of composure, but it's fairly obvious what really is going on.
"Oh, you're having an easy time sympathizing?" You tease her, her eyes widening when she sees you move backwards and down a bit, looking up at her as your face nears her breasts.
"So cute... and delicious."
And kisses her right on a nipple, taking it into your mouth and swilring your tongue around it, her hands holding onto your back hard enough to need aura to stop her from scratching it open.
As you continue to make her sing to your ministration (seriously, she has a very harmonic way of moaning aloud), you proceed to undress her further, throwing her skirt to the side and making your way down her legs, dragging her spats off her panties and teasing her shoes off her feet before removing them.
You massage her thighs as she looks at you apprehensively, only for you to employ your well-honed techniques for undressing yourself in almost any situation, kicking off your pants and making it a point that you don't really wear underwear.
Funny story, actually, you used to need to just to keep your perpetual half-boner in check, but becoming a vampire let you just remain flaccid for the first time since puberty by simply willing yourself to, which really helps.
That said, you're actually hardening for Weiss, your hands sliding across her sides before arriving at her waist, beginning to tug on her panties (featureless white silk, for the record) only for her hands to land on yours, holding them in place for the moment.
Weiss, for her part, stares disbelievingly at your currently engorging cock, hyperventilating a little. "That... That's way too big. It's never going to fit!"
"Don't worry," you reassure her, "you'd be surprised what can fit into a human body." Is this her first time seeing male genitalia? Honestly wouldn't actually surprise you.
"It's the length of my forearm and the width of my wrist!" She exclaims disbelievingly, gesturing wildly, only to be silenced with another kiss.
"There, there. By the time we're getting to it, you'll love it for being the exact size it is, trust me. I garuantee you can take it."
Swallowing heavily, Weiss hesitatingly lets go of your arms, allowing you to reveal her bare little pussy. This isn't the first time you're seeing it, but this time around you unwrapped it yourself, not to mention the wholly different context here, so you take a moment to just admire it before diving in, giving her lower lips a long lick that has her throw her head back in an equally long moan, culminating with a flick of your tongue against her clitoris.
Weiss immediately comes, her voice keeping a constant pitch that actually sounds quite nice as her fluids seep onto your tongue, now already buried in her snatch as it divides her labia, prolonguing her peak as you slowly tongue-fuck her in preparation for what is to come.
By the time the fingers tangled in your hair let up, Weiss slowly coming down, your lips are soaked just as well as the bedsheets under them, the short girl breathing heavily as she tries her best to pretend she isn't blushing all the way to her ears. "Please..." she whines, trying to pull you up by her shoulders, "just, do it alreadyyy... I am not sure... how longer I can take iiit..."
Aww, so cute!
Repositioning yourself, you soon loom over Weiss, almost burying her with the relative bulk of your body. One of your hands darts towards one of hers, entwining your fingers in each other as you move to let your head slide across her entrance, a shudder going through the pale girl under yourself.
"Are you ready? There's no going back once I do this," you warn, only for Weiss to nearly heabutt you as she gives you a glare.
"I haven't come this far to qu-iiiiit!" Pushing inside her, her body stretching around your girth as Weiss clings to you, her every thought consumed by the manhood currently spearing into her.
Her mouth wide open as she pants aloud, the hands on your upper arms slide around a bit as you take her virginity, your white-haired lover hardly even noticing it as she takes everything you have to dish out.
"So... fuuull!" Weiss groans out, clamping down around you as she comes just from being penetrated, her internal muscles massaging your length something fierce.
"Someone likes what I'm doing," you tease as you flick her nose, holding hands again shortly thereafter. Weiss is just being far too cute, really. Not as cute as Sarah, of course, but still very very cute.
"Not my fault this is... this gooood..." Weiss pouts while labouring under her sensations, her legs now slung around your waist and dragging you closer.
It isn't long until you reach a wall, Weiss' womb signaling you you've hit the dead end, your adorable little heiress twitching under you as she securely holds onto your hand.
"Fuuuck meee..."
Finally she's being honest. Slowly and thoroughly, you pump yourself into Weiss, never speeding up too far, only steadily increasing your pace as you fuck orgasm after orgasm into her, Weiss turning into putty under you as you continue to trail kisses up and down her neck and cheeks, enjoying the feel of her tight pussy and taut, muscled legs as they press against you, muttering sweet nothings and compliments at her.
Eventually, you judge Weiss to have come often enough for you to follow suit, your thrusts actually at an acceptable speed, and so you bury yourself up to Weiss' limit and hug her to yourself. "I'm coming, Weiss, and you're going to take it all."
"It... It's a bad day, you-"
You silence Weiss with a kiss, slamming yourself home one last time as you pump your spunk into Weiss deepest parts, triggering one last peak for her, too.
Resting like that for a moment, you just nuzzle Weiss for a bit as she recovers from the exertions so far. "That, that was..."
"Was?" You ask, bemusedly. "We've barely even started."
Weiss eyes are big as she looks at you, realizing you're still hard inside her. "Oh..."
"There's a reason I have several lovers in addition to any women I seduce, sweetie. Or would you prefer Weissie?"
Chuckling at the face she's making, you return to moving, Weiss swallowing heavily. "How... how many times does it usually t-take to..."
"More than you'll last, but don't worry... I don't mind." Giving her a kiss on the forehead, you smile at her. "Belated welcome to the family, Weiss. You'll never be alone again... none of us are going to let you go, promise."
And if Weiss literally faints in the sheets an hour or two later, well, that's nothing new to you, is it?
Though Adam's raw screaming and ranting inside your soul are amusing all the way through when you care enough to pay attention.
Blake was nervous as she walked Vale's streets, having to consciously keep herself from adjusting her bow every time someone looked at her. She didn't want to have to pretend to be a human, much preferring to simply be herself, but she'd faced enough discrimination- from pointed looks and fingers to worse- to know better.
She didn't like it, but she could live with hiding her ears.
Anyways, here she was, in the middle of Vale. She'd picked up the books she'd hidden away back in the camp without issues and was renting a cheap room in a no-name inn with the lien she'd saved up in preparation for attending Beacon and becoming a huntress.
The thought was still strange to her; Blake had been a member of the White Fang for so long she couldn't imagine herself doing anything else, but... well, it wasn't what she wanted to do anymore. What she wanted to be anymore.
Blake still couldn't understand how Adam could be so... callous. Treating someone with such disdain he would gladly kill them just because they were human was... no better than what they were fighting against.
But getting him to see reason hadn't worked out, and she couldn't exactly defeat him by herself, not to mention Adam was just a symptom of a much greater rot in the White Fang. So Blake left. Just picked up her possessions and moved on.
She wasn't proud of it, but Blake was the kind of person that would just run away from issues she couldn't solve. A coward. But at least she was trying to make up for it in her own way. Becoming a huntress, protecting the people from the Grimm... It was hard to fuck that one up, too, unless it turned out she would be expected to kill innocents in that line of work at some point down the line, too.
She didn't expect to, but the last organization she'd joined with the express purpose of bettering the world had turned out like it had, after all.
Still, time to do her best to put all of that behind herself. She didn't feel good about hiding as a criminal in plain sight, but she needed a way to avoid Adam's notice, and pretending to be a human student in Beacon was about as far away from scrutiny as she could get.
... Blake suppressed the ear twitch she knew was incoming. It was, admittedly, taking a bit to get used to this, but the bow was still her best bet.
Settling into a cafe seat in a place she knew from prior experience served some good, homemade tea, Blake tried her best to relax. All she needed to do was keep her head down and avoid any notice she could until Beacon's initiation date was close enough for the students to be hosted by the academy.
Waiting for the waitress to come around, Blake pulled a book out of the backpack she'd leaned against her leg, opening it at her bookmark and slowly reading along. She really did enjoy these little-
"Have you heard? They finally gave the White Fang a dose of their own medicine!"
Annoyed, Blake pretended to be reading while she listened in on the conversation going on two tables over.
"It's even in the papers," the other middle-aged woman said, calling up the requisite site on her scroll. "'White Fang ringleader Adam Taurus dead after altercation during home invasion- Heroic artist defends Schnee princess'."
"They really do come up with the worst headlines these days," the first woman snorted. "Last I heard, the Schnee weren't royalty, not that it really matters nowadays."
Well. So that was a thing now. Realizing the waitress was coming in, Blake resolved herself to find out more about whatever happened to Adam. He couldn't really be dead, could he? He'd always been far too strong to be defeated by anyone.
So she'd either need to keep hiding if he was only rumored to be dead, or keep on hiding even harder in the eventuality whoever killed him was even stronger and came looking for her, just in case.
So much for her afternoon tea break.
Carefully laying Weiss down under the bedsheets you just brought a replacement for, you have to repress a chuckle when her sleeping form still clings to you, the girl refusing to let go of you when you try to put her to bed.
She even gives off a few cute snoring sounds as you gently pry her aura-inforced arms off of yourself.
Still, much as you'd like to stay and cuddle for a bit longer, you kind of have stuff to do. Such as playing around with your semblance and using slime maids to clean up your mansion as best they can.
You spend a lot of time trying to squeeze the most use you can out of your aura, having read somewhere on the CCTS (or Cross Continental Transmission System, as you now know the holonet's proper name to be) that most huntsmen train how to get the most of the aura they have rather than expanding their pool.
Apparently, just getting more aura is comparably harder than figuring out tricks to use it better? Or you think so, anyways. Aura being such a deeply personal and varied thing, it does make sense everyone would experience it differently.
Either way, you keep on creating several slime maids, tasking them (or her, as they apparently share the same intellect and personality with the one version of her you see in your soul palace when you concentrate), continually trying to use less aura to achieve the same result. That said, though you can keep yourself occupied while waiting for your aura to recover, mainly by testing that the maids can, indeed, take your dick just fine, you eventually decide to branch out a little in terms of handy semblance creations.
You have this whole big new mansion, after all, and in a few hours it may even be widely ash-free. So while you're at it, you may as well look into upgrading the facilities, right?
Right. Hence your newest type of minion, spawning another mental counterpart inside your inner world, designed to look like a short humanoid with lots of fluffy hair and garbed in what amounts to pieces of leather, obviously sewed together by hand and wielding a hammer obviously oversized for her size, with a little teddy bear holding onto it where the haft sticks out of the head opposite the grip, a big red 'X' decorating said hammerhead's size.
You shall call her Hammerhead, too, simply because of the powers you added and what you're planning to use her for.
"'Sup, boss, need anything done?" Hammerhead asks, her height barely reaching your waist as she waves her hammer around.
"You could say that," you drawl. "I'm thinking about things this mansion here lacks. How about you start with figuring out how you could throw a poolside bar together up on the roof, and maybe a forge of some kind for later?"
"Gotcha, gotcha, Ah'll take a look. Y'may wannae look into how forgin' is usually done in this 'ere dimension, too, though, jus' ta have an idea."
"Eh, good point. Just so we have what people usually have around here. Anything else?" You ask, already figuring you'll have to look into freeing up a few minutes here and there.
"Dun' think Ah didn'ae figure why ye really gave me these quick hands an' a face in dicksucking height," Hammerhead teases. "Wannae try 'em out?"
Suffice to say, you don't get to leave for a while yet, even as you continue gathering aura to create more handy (and handsy) minions with.
The rest of your night is spent first practicing with your aura, the necessity of getting a grasp on this new power so prevalent in this dimension obvious to you.
As you work on it, you find that you may have a talent for expressing your soul as a physical force; at the very least, Adam keeps on screaming 'bullshit' as you keep him on watching and telling you what to do.
That said, though you'd like to just stay inside all night and watch out for any further issues (the maids are still busy with the ash, but at least they can actually be thorough about removing the stuff, oozing into any nooks and crannies it could've gotten into and absorbing it along with any other dirt they can find), you actually have something to take care of before you move on to painting and sculpting and the like, actually looking forwards to relaxing with your hobby later.
That is, you have that blood-producing undead in that warehouse in the poorer parts of town. Now, while you could just leave it where it is for the moment, perhaps dismantling it, storing it inside your shadow storage and bringing it to your basement in a few trips would be worthwhile, just to ensure nobody that shouldn't find it does, and that your yuckblood isn't a giant pain to source, what with requiring you to trek through half of Vale if you want to stock up on the vile stuff.
Sure, you're the type to shadowstep into the kitchen because you don't feel like walking through the door, but that doesn't have anything to do with this.
Well, here you are, a very decent amount of biomass ferried all over Vale right into your basement.
Forming said biomass back into the form of the undead you've been using it as so far is as simple as a few chants of "Change and twist, morph and mutate!" However, instead of keeping it on producing blood, you call over Nolac for a bit, the deranged soul having been busy torturously disabling all the faunus you took alive all night, subsequently using their help to switch it from producing blood to producing ADAM.
All you'll need to do later is throwing the stuff through a manufactory and produce the Bloody Doll tonics for your current blood sources. In the meantime, off you go to do some art!
The pieces you end up working on mostly depict scenes and moments of the fight of yourself and Okita against the White Fang, with a certain amount of artistic freedom applied as to how exactly you show the happenings of earlier.
That is to say, you did not instantly capture the majority of the nearly thirty terrorists, no, there was an army of the White Fang besieging your mansion earlier today, as you paint out; with bullheads and the exact guns you actually remember them carrying, clothed in their varied uniforms and coming in all shapes and sizes, hundreds of them are storming the grounds, right at the viewer of the picture.
Of all your depictions of the attackers, you would say this one came out the best.
Okita, of course, cannot be forgotten, either, several pieces showing her valiantly, downright heroically, fighting off the numerically superior White Fang, the sword you first met her with clutched tight in her hands. Especially in this little statuette you're carving with your bare claws, the easily handled wood giving way quickly under your dextrous hands.
Hey, she fought two of them at once, that's close enough for your purposes.
Last but not least, there is, of course, Adam. Foolish, cowardly Adam, who is using his subordinates as bait, taking cover before Okita's wrath behind them and even attacking them from behind in efforts to reach Okita without risking himself.
He complains, of course, shouting inside our soul, only to be shut down decisively when you ask him why he sent his men ahead of himself then. The Schnee thing seemed such a personal thing for him and all.
Anyways, looking around the wide room you've taken over as your studio, you have to say, you got a lot of artsing done, after all.
Hopefully you'll find enough rich racist human (instead of white) pricks that'll fall over themselves to buy this stuff. And then you'll probably have to do a bunch of work on human/faunus harmony or whatever people call it to make it clear just how little of a fuck you give about the whole race thing.
Seriously, you don't even want to bother with it.
Arranging for a 'small', 'private' art auction with certain contacts of yours isn't hard, once you're through the mutual brownnosing and stupid questions about whether you really fought off hundreds of White Fang swarming all over your mansion- it seems the rumour mill is actually working to your advantage here.
Still, that all done, you proceed to telepathically talk to Sarah for a bit, trying to see if you can source some animal leftovers on the down low, but- no dice,due to the way Vale does things.
Simply put, while there are farms and outlying villages all around Vale, meat processing is mostly handled locally, just throwing a few corns of ice dust into the transport to keep everything cool.
That means that there aren't really any slaughterhouses within the city itself, so you can't just bribe someone to divert a few trash deliveries and get it over with.
Annoying, but you'll just have to let it go for now. Though you do have a few ideas for how to get around that.
Still, for the time being, you take one of the Hammerheads along with Sarah and Nora, knowing Okita is perfectly happy to be left alone with and read on her scroll and Weiss is still asleep after yesterday, to look around the mansion, discussing any improvements you could be making around the admittedly large place, only occasionally prowled by the slime maids always on the lookout for dirt and dust to 'eat'.
Honestly, what you settle on prioritizing for the moment in terms of renovations of your brand new mansion is the most obvious and utility-oriented choice.
That of a massive pool upgrade in the form of a jacuzzi, some lighting installed inside the pool and a retractable glass dome that's only see-through one way- not that you'll necessarily tell people about that. Not that anyone disagrees- Sarah is all up for the idea immediately, and Nora agrees without much thinking. Before long, you will not just have a sleek, black bar adorning the side of the whole installation, but your very own rooftop paradise!
But for time, all you can do in this direction is ordering in the necessary materials to make all of that happen through the Hammerheads while you go off and see about getting a closer bead on local culture by going shopping.
A few million lien should be enough for anything you could want, right?
Yang held in a sigh, refusing to openly show what she was thinking at the moment. It was hard, though, a real monumental effort.
"Why are we returning to Vale again, Rubes?" She still asked, whispering the question. They had some space to themselves inside the bullhead, but she still didn't exactly want any of the passengers to listen in.
"Because Gabriel invited us to go shopping and we had a free day, Yang," her lovable (but so, so very dumb right now) sister said. "You keep telling me to go find some more friends, so I'm doing just that, and you need to come along so I'm not going in alone."
"Pretty sure you're mistaking something there," Yang breathed out, unsure what to retort about that first. "Okay, but if he gets grabbriel I'm pulling you out, sis, and I don't care what you think about that."
"Grabriel? Really?" Rubes asked, shaking her head. "Anyways, don't worry. It'll be alright, yeah?"
"I told you he was dangerous, and what I think about the idea of you coming back to meet him," Yang hissed, unable to understand why her sister just didn't get it.
"But Yang, what did he really do? Aside from knocking you out and carrying you off, which I realize is sounding bad, but aside from that what-"
"I get it, Rubes," Yang sighed, keeping her from babbling heedlessly of what she was saying. She'd wondered where that side of her adorkable sister had gone, but it seemed it had just been in hiding for a while. "Look, I saw him talk to Junior before the thing happened, and if you hadn't been there, things would've been bad for me. Can we just leave it at that?"
It galled Yang to admit it, but against that black-haired girl, she'd been... powerless. Just taken out before she'd had a chance to ramp up and lay on the hurt.
"That thing being the time you grabriel'd the guy?" Rubes asked, making Yang wince. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, okay? "But really, it was all fine in the end, right?"
Rubes' hand met her own, and Yang almost couldn't bear it. "It wasn't alright, okay?" She stated more than asked. "You had to... to do that to keep me out of trouble. More trouble."
The shame about Rubes having to... to strip like that, because of her sister, because of Yang, still had her want to hide herself away in a hole and never come out.
"That wasn't alright. This isn't alright. I'm only coming along because I don't want you to go to Vale on your own." And meet that collection of smiles made of either smug or made of knives by herself, Yang mentally added.
"No, really, sis, it's alright," the end of her said. Seriously, Rubes, why- "You know why I want to become a huntress, right?"
"I'm sure you must have told me a pundred times by now," Yang agreed, confused about the subject change but still grinning weakly at her sister.
"Yeah, well, it has something to do with this," Rubes said, rolling her eyes. Score! "So I always wanted to be like those huntresses in the fairy tales and the picture books, right? Like... like mom was. But think about it, if I'm the legendary huntress, then who is Gabriel?"
"I dunno, the villain of the story?" Yang hazarded a guess.
"No, no, think in metaphors, Yang!" Little Ruby complained. "If I'm the huntress out to save the people, Gabriel is the princess inside the tower, kept prisoner by his circumstances!"
A cold feeling crept up Yang's stomach. "Uh, Rubes? Do you mean you... Are you trying to say you're going to 'save' Gabriel?"
"Duh! And in the end, we're going to marry and have a dozen kids together. But seriously," Yang's sister smiled, "I'm sure I can figure out what bad he's really done beyond talking to someone and help him through it."
Oh no. Oh nonononono. Yang could smell the bullshit a mile against the wind. Her sister wasn't really trying to be the heroine here.
Rubes... had a crush, or something. And it just had to be that guy.
"Besides, you still have to make up for what you did. I won't just let you forget that."
"Rubes," Yang whispered furiously, "I said it once, I'll say it again. I won't strip for him, and that's final."
"Hey Ruby, hey Yang," you greet the pair of sisters, having come to meet them near the bullhead landing docks. "How are you two doing today?"
"Very good, thank you, Gabriel," Ruby beams up at you while Yang just glowers in your direction. Not that you expected much else from her, honestly.
"That's nice to hear," you smile with your best 'gentlegabe' smile, taking a look around afterwards. The only one you brought with you was Sarah, Okita having decided to stay home and wait until she can either fight or make out with you, while Nora jokingly quoted the need to stay away from young people's gatherings like this, preferring to stay and stock the kitchens instead, wanting to watch out for Weiss whenever she wakes up.
Good thing, too; your white-haired lover obviously needs that kinda thing.
Anyways, here you are. Time to get going.
"Sooo, where are we going? You just said you wanted to go shopping, but that's everything we know!" Ruby exclaims.
Smiling back at the short girl, you reach out to pat her head, much to Yang's obvious indignation, which only serves to make you smile more. "Well, as it happens, Okita is in need of a proper weapon one of these days, so I was thinking we could go around a few shops, see what's available... unless you'd rather do something else?"
The vibrations you can feel under your hand are getting worrying, but Yang just seems completely exasperated... as does Sarah, really. "Really? Really really? Oh, I know where we have to go, there's a big store on Main Street, it's called Scything Heads. They have everything there, from complete weapons off the shelves to all the parts and mods and they even do custom orders and-"
"Alright, alright," you chuckle, "let's go there, then. You can tell me all about what to get on the way."
Ruby doesn't look like she'll stop vibrating anytime soon, her big happy smile rather telling about what she thinks about this, though Yang is still looking rather sour. "What is it, Yang, also want a few headpats? No need to be shy, I don't mind."
"You wish!" She spits out, the golden-haired sister only realizing how she sounds after she already said it. "I mean, in Yang dreams."
"Puns, lovely," Sarah sighs from the side, where she's folding up a magazine she's been reading. "Come on, let's get a move on."
"Want any cookies, Ruby?" You ask as you do as sarah says, pulling a box of the things out of the little satchel you've taken to carry so you can pretend to pull things out of it instead of your shadow.
"Yaaay!"
"So you know a thing or two about weapons?" You hazard a guess based on her reaction earlier.
"I do! I made Crescent Rose all by myself, too!" Pulling the stick-like mechanism you'd noticed earlier out of where it's been stuck to her back until now, Ruby begins to fiddle with it. "She's a highly customizable sniper rifle scythe hybrid," and as she speaks, she cycles through several forms, from a simple rifle-like stick she carries from above, the muzzle obvious enough, to a big fuckoff scythe with the rifling placed near the head, the machinery letting it seamlessly shift around. "She's strong enough to cut through Grimm like butter and the recoil lets me move around easily, and I have dust ammunition to let it-"
Well, looks like it'll take you a bit until you can ask about recommendations for your own personal forge.
"... and the angle of the blade is really important because depending on how it's set, you can use it to hook around things or swing around them, but not both!"
"Wouldn't that problem be solved by just using aura to blunt the blade temporarily before releasing the fulcrum of your movement?"
"It might, but that would take a lot of practice, you know!"
"In that case, how about blunting one part of the blade that isn't well-suited to cutting through things in the heat of battle? Would still need practice to use it correctly, but it's purely a matter of technique."
"Exactly! It's also what I went with for Crescent Rose," Ruby replies, gesturing with her currently folded-up weapon.
Honestly, talking shop with Ruby is pretty nice, all in all. Turns out weapon smithing in Remnant is actually commonly a mix of engineering, gunsmithing and metallurgy, relying on some rather interesting ways to use dust to achieve results that would be impossible for conventional engineering, simply due to wear and tear as well as the rigors of combat completely wrecking untreated steel.
"Actually, Ruby," you ask, acting as though you haven't been waiting all this walk to ask the question, even though you kept itching for a little time to compare the information you have in the library thanks to Yoshi with what Ruby keps telling you, "if someone wanted to, say, put together their own workshop at home, and had no real limitations on money, what should they get?"
"Is that a hypothetical question?" She asks as you open the door into the store. "Because it's okay if it's a hypothetical question, but if it isn't-"
You just chuckle as you pat Ruby's head again, taking a look inside the Scything Heads. The store's layout is kept in mostly black, with display cases showing off different pieces, holographic displays near each of them letting the interested buyer browse details and demonstration videos on all of them.
"Oh, there's different things on each floor," Ruby explains as your gaze moves through the area. "There's shiny weapons to-go on the ground floor, but if you're really interested, there's weapon parts for people that are interested, you can get complete mods to plug into parts of your personal weapon and you can get single pieces you want to incorporate into your personal weapons, special orders are really expensive but if you don't mind the price, you can get some really impressive stuff custom-made, but what was that about a personal workshop?"
You just smile and keep ruffling Ruby's hair.
The end result of you putting together several bits and pieces on the second and third floor, using the store's systems to basically construct a virtual concept before paying up and having the employees actually construct the end product out of the pre-fabricated parts they have stocked, all the while you patiently listen to Ruby prattle on about either the parts you're browsing or what a proper weapons workshop all needs.
Luckily enough multitasking isn't hard for you as long as you concentrate, and so you keep the conversation going just fine. You don't actually name the completed product anything when Ruby asks what it should be called, as that's apparently something normal in this dimension, declaring you're leaving that to the eventual owner of this greatsword.
That transforms into a big gun, a cannon, really, and one that you are totally planning to replace with what amounts to a big old ion beam cannon instead, just to let Okita blast through anything she can't reach. And by 'blast', what you mean is 'disintegrate with great prejudice'.
And while you're at it you, of course, invest just under a million lien into various bits and pieces, interesting weapon parts you have delivered to the mansion as they are. Just to have them on hand and study them later, this whole mechashift business something to take a closer look at at some point.
Though the way Ruby gapes at you over just how much cash you're throwing around is also very cute, you will admit. Pushing her mouth close has her snort in confusion for a moment and if you were still human, you'd have broken out in laughter then and there.
Yang just seems to get broodier and angrier in the background, too, which does help. Sarah gave up trying to distract her midway through, instead browsing herself.
"Say, Ruby, you mentioned they have a bunch of add-ons for complete weapons, right?" You ask, firing a smirk at Yang before Ruby looks at you.
"Yes, they have things like lens attachments and different firing mechanisms you could add to guns and stuff like that, plus a service to make several kinds of dustforged replacements of weapon parts! Most huntsmen already have their own weapon, but there's a lot of money in upgrading them, so there's lots of shops that offer-"
"So if I were to have a million lien or two with no idea what to do with them, and, say, an adorable sniperscythe that could always use a few upgrades, this place would be the right address?"
Ruby blinks, having no idea how to react to the implied offer. When you give her a smile and just wave for the rest of the building, she lets off a squeal of joy and throws her arms around you. "EEEEEEEEEEEE! This is the best day ever! The only better day was when Crescent Rose was born!"
With that, Ruby is off, darting away in a burst of speed you hadn't taken to be possible and leaving rose petals of some sort, of all things... only to circle back around in short order.
"But what about your own weapon? I would feel so bad if it didn't get any love, too!"
"Oh, I don't actually have a weapon," you smile down at Ruby, her horrified gasp nearly bringing you to laughter again. "I'm not much of a huntsman, never went to any of the academies or anything, so I don't really need a weapon, you see? I mostly use my aura for my semblance."
"Actually finding your semblance is supposed to take a lot of training, you know? And what is your semblance, if you don't mind me asking?" Ruby asks, looking as innocent as can be.
"Pyun! Who wants some sweets, hm?"
Ruby's eyes resemble saucers from how wide they are growing.
"I can 'draw' any kind of creature I can imagine into reality with enough aura. They even have special abilities so long as I can envision them. Just goes to show I'm an artist to the core, huh?"
The sweets fairy floats forwards off your palm, coming to sniff Ruby's face. "Smells like... strawberries. Who wants strawberry cookies? Or cookies with strawberry jam? Maybe a slice of strawberry cake?"
Two simultaneous calls ring out. Ruby, stretching out both hands to hold first your fairy and then also a small pile of cookies, possibly with her favorite taste, makes a sound. "HUEEEEE?!"
Yang, on the other hand, having watched what was going on, stomps her foot. "BULLSHIIIT!"
The shop attendant gives your group a look, but you look back at him, communicating that you just spent a million lien and are planning to spend more. He doesn't say anything.
When you (eventually) leave the Scything Heads with a lot of lien left behind (digitally, not like you were carrying the millions of lien you just spent), Ruby is still heads over heels over Crescent Rose and the upgrades she is going to add into her, personally making sure the packages that will be sent to the location you have listed as your place of residence.
They don't deliver all the way to Patch, unfortunately, so you'll have to bring the girls to your mansion. Ruby could have the shop apply the stuff, of course, but she staunchly refuses to let anyone but herself lay hands onto her baby, so she'll have to do it over there. You don't actually tell them you live in a mansion now, of course.
That said, before you can get far, Yang brushes up against you, using the opportunity that Ruby being distracted presents. "Don't think I don't know what you're doing," she grumbles, making sure to keep it quiet.
"Oh?" You return, using your silkiest voice. "What am I doing, then?"
"You're obviously using blood money and becoming her sugar daddy with those coo... kies... Forget I said that," Yang says, shaking her head. "Look, doesn't matter. Just know that insane bodyguard or not, I will kill you if you do anything to hurt Ruby."
"Blood money," you shake your head with a smile, "really? Please, I just sold overpriced art to Vale's elite. Hell, I have an actual auction lined up in a few days, you can attend if you don't want to believe me."
When Yang is too perplexed to speak for a moment, you capitalize on it, putting on a gentle smile and minimally repressing the smugness omnipresent in yourself. "Good one on the sugar daddy, though. But for real, I'm glad Ruby has such a dependable big sister watching out for her. Takes a load off my mind, so make sure to keep protecting her."
"I don't need you to tell me that, you prick," Yang hisses, crossing her arms despite the confusion she is visibly going through right now.
"Yaaang, are you being mean to Gabriel?" Comes out of the store, Ruby obviously having finished geeking out for the moment.
Coming out to join you, Sarah walking after her (your sister having made sure to keep a eye on her), Ruby runs up to you, vigilantly looking up at her sister.
"No, no, Ruby, we were just talking," Yang lies badly, waving her hands before her face and throwing you a look.
"That's right, sweetie-" "Urk!" "-we were just talking about how Yang can take care of you. And about art, of course," you say, winking at both of them in sequence and making Ruby blush. "In fact, you're both invited to my next auction, it'll happen in a few days. I'll make sure to send you the details later."
"That sounds great!" Ruby exclaims before looking down. "I've been thinking about something, though... You said you aren't a huntsman, right? Even though your semblance would make you really really strong? Why is that?"
Aww, she's making sure not to sound accusing while sounding you out. How cute.
Gently cupping her cheek, you make Ruby look up at your face, an equally gentle smile still on your face. "To put it simply? I wanted to be both a huntsman and an artist, but I only really had the time for one of those careers. Both would take a lot of effort, and time, and determination to let me succeed, and I never really had the opportunity to attend a combat school to prepare, so I just... did what seemed like the obvious thing."
Ruby doesn't answer, her silver eyes looking deeply into your own, so you just shrug, slightly self-depreciatively. "Does that make sense?"
"... It does. Still sucks, though." Ruby doesn't sound all that sad, more... wistful. "If you were a huntsmanning artist, we could go out and kill Grimm together."
Yang seems to be suffering from a stroke in the background.
"Don't worry, Ruby," you tell her, making sure to convey how genuine you are about this, "I can still come out and fight the Grimm with you, I never said I couldn't fight, after all!"
Smiling at her look, you give her a kiss on the forehead. "Just because I can't be a huntsman doesn't mean I can't fight, after all."
Yang seems to be choking in the background, or at least making funny sounds. That said, Ruby, at least, seems to be cheering up, so you'll take it as a win.
Yay for cute Roobles, you suppose.
As they all filed into the ice cream shop after their short visit to Hook 'n Sharp to get a few accessories to work with- hunter uniforms were notoriously complicated, but hey, Yang wasn't going to complain about the absolute right to express herself.
She was going to complain about this situation, though.
"So I'm guessing you want strawberry, Ruby? I quite like the flavour, too, but since we're all getting something... guess I'll be going for raspberry this time, then," the smarmy bastard said.
"Why's it matter everyone takes a different flavor, pretty boy?" Yang asked, still not happy about having to go on what amounted to a group date, but determined to protect her sister anyways.
From him! Protect her from him!
"So we can sample from each other's sundaes, of course," he said as if it was obvious. "You taking vanilla as usual, Sarah?"
The weird blonde chick shrugged. "Someone here has to."
"Vanilla for me too, then." Yang would normally try a different flavor every time, but like hell was she going to take part in this disgusting scheme.
"Suit yourself," he shrugged.
They were all pretty quiet for a moment, giving Yang time to think as they browsed the digital menus, everyone picking out their orders.
So, Yang didn't like this. She didn't like being defeated, she didn't like the look in the man's eyes as he did something to her to put her together afterwards, and she especially did not like the way Ruby looked at him as they waited for their ice cream to arrive.
Seriously, Ruby. Yang was happy she was coming out of her shell a little, but did she have to do it by developing a crush on what Yang was increasingly sure was some kind of former mob boss?
Oh, sure, there was little sob story about never getting to be in combat school, which, sure, not everyone could afford the tuition. But the academies didn't only take people that attended them, and Yang was sure there was more to that story than he was telling.
Nobody that didn't fight or expect to fight got that strong. Strong enough to get their semblance on any level, not to mention do something like create what looked like it could do something like that fairy thingy, with its own mind and opinions.
Noticing her scroll vibrating, Yang covertly looked down as she pulled it out. Nobody was saying anything, so it should be fine to-
The message was from Rubes. 'ohgod i rambled.'
Of course she would start to worry about that at this point. 'U aways rmble'
'not in frnt of him!' Ah, yes, because puberty just had to start for her the moment he became a thing.
'He dnt seem t 2 mnd'
'd you think i came on too strng?'
Oh, this was going to be a looong wait... And Yang was totally going to reassure Rubes, wasn't she? Of course she was, anything else would be shitty.
Still didn't mean she approved.
Your little group date has to be cut somewhat short, unfortunately, as it seems Ruby and Yang only have so much time before they have to return to Patch, so you hurry things along and lead them to your mansion after you're done with your delicious cold treats.
Sure, you could have just made another sweets fairy to get more ice cream, but it's not like they can make really big things like the huge sundaes you ate.
The two sisters are, of course, appropriately awed at the size of your domicile, even if you may or may not have needled Yang with the fact that yes, you're totally and legitimately rich enough to afford a place like this.
Still, Ruby got her 'luggage', the various parts and extensions for her beloved weapon all coming with her to Patch, and the four of you make your way towards the bullhead docks. On the way, you actually strike up a topic you've been just a tad bit curious for a bit.
"So, you both know my semblance, but if it wouldn't be too much to ask, what might yours be?" You ask.
"Oh! I've got superspeed. I can go super fast and scatter rose petals everywhere and my record is 28 shots with Crescent Rose before a beowulf realized it was dead!" Ruby babbles, causing you to smile and pat her head (again).
"That's very nice, Ruby," and you actually mean it, proper superspeed is pretty amazing in a fight. "What about you, Yang?"
"... I beome stronger and faster the more I'm hit," the blonde says, pulling Ruby away from you. "Only reason I went down last time was because my aura broke in one hit."
"Oh, oh, how about you, Sarah?" Ruby asks, having struck up what you'll go ahead and call a cautiously friendly acquaintanceship with your sister by now.
"Oh, I'm psychic," Sarah says as she gives them a shit-eating grin. "So I know everyone's dirty little secreeets~"
Ruby blushes, Yang scowls, all is good with the world. Although...
"Say, Ruby, I've had lots of fun today, but I'd hate to just let you return home empty-handed after all of this," you say, Yang almost immediately starting to choke again. "So how about this?"
Concentrating a little, you feel out the possibilities of your semblance. On the one hand, you don't think you can just have others 'refill' the minions you create, but on the other hand... This whole 'aura' business is literally you flexing your soul on reality, right? You don't see why you can't just decide that that should be possible.
So you do, and when you create another sweets fairy and hand her to Ruby, you give her a smile. "Just make sure to feed her lots of aura, and she can give you as many cookies as you want."
Ruby gasps, her eyes going wide. "Really?" Holding onto the little fairy with both hands, she brings her to her face, scrunching up her face in concentration.
"That tickles, pyun! You have to be gentler," your minion tells her, Ruby obviously immediately trying to push her aura into her.
"Come on sis, don't get distracted by your toy-boy, we don't wanna miss the bullhead," Yang insists, pulling Ruby along and causing your fairy to fly to sit on the redhead's head.
"Yaaang!"
You doubt you'll ever get tired of this.
"Hey, Weiss, how are you doing?" By the time you have returned to the mansion and verified that you can have the mind of the sweets fairy inside your inner world (who is going around handing out sweets to the other guardians and souls she likes) relay information from the body you gave Ruby to keep, the white-haired heiress has already awoken and is currently pacing around inside her room.
"Gabriel! I am... doing well." Weiss, you notice, is dressed in a white dress with a flared-out skirt portion, her hands half-covered in the also flaring sleeves. "I have just... been thinking."
Whelp, you know what to do about that. "Worrying, it looks like to me. Would you mind if I gave you a hug?"
Weiss looks indecisive for a moment before giving you a nod, her expression guilty. "Yes, please."
Huffing a little, you embrace the short girl with both hands in short order, nuzzling the top of her head a little before kissing it. "Whatever you were thinking about, I promise it won't be a problem, okay?"
Weiss just breathes into your lower chest. "I'll be going to Beacon in a little under two weeks."
"I'll look into visiting you regularly, and you can always come here when you have a day off," you promise.
"People may gossip about our relationship," she asks more than states, having you pat her back.
"Let them gossip all they want. If it bothers you, I can always start walking around Vale entirely naked for a day or two, really give them something to talk about," you say, meaning every word.
"My father may try to seperate us when he finds out, or disown me or-" Weiss sobs out, torn between nervous hyperventilating and chuckling.
"Then we'll just have to go to Atlas and kick him until he sees sense." And you would, too. Not like you haven't considered just removing him as a consideration entirely so far.
Now huffing herself, Weiss looks up at you with big, pouty eyes. "You're impossible, you know that?"
"I do," you agree. "Now how about we go train with aura together? The more you can get done before entering Beacon, the better, after all." That and distracting her with something she may consider important may just turn out to be a viable strategy for you going forwards.
Weiss, as it turns out, while great with her frankly unfairly powerful semblance (not that you're one to talk, really) and, according to herself, 'adequate' with dustcasting, the art of using the magical metamaterial common in this dimension in combination with one's aura or even semblance, her close-up fighting is...
Honestly, she kinda sucks. To the point you have to question her education in terms of combat.
She's very barely able to differentiate between the end of her rapier-esque weapon she is supposed to hold and the one that's supposed to go into enemies.
"Okay, first off," you begin, moving behind your scarred lover, "you will want to correct your grip a bit." You may not be an expert in terms of sword usage, much less a specialist in terms of rapiers, but you do know the very basics, at least.
With your hands on hers and physically adjusting her fingers to keep a better hold, you start moving her arms, Weiss' blush is cute, but secondary to the importance of your mission. "The one thing a rapier as a weapon is good for is thrusting. Not slashing, not blocking or parrying, the ultimate point of a weapon like this is to put the pointy part as deep into whatever you're trying to kill as possible. To that end, put as much force as you can into each thrust without losing control of yourself. Can you do that for me?"
Weiss attempts to do as you say, but even with aura, her footing's all wrong and her aim unfocused.
"Not bad, but not good yet, either. The force has to come from your legs over just your arms. If it helps, imagine you are thrusting through an imaginary target... or better yet, here." Concentrating, you imagine the perfect training partner, a person that has copies of all your relevant skills. With a few embellishments on the topic of attire, of course- have to have style for things like this. A big, flowing cloak, some bright bits and pieces, golden chains around the waist while you're at it...
"At your command, Master," the undead woman says, giving you a slight bow.
"You can train with Camilla here while I practice with my semblance, okay?"
Weiss, having adamantly remained quiet while you were manhandling her from behind, nods, the blush still writ large across her face. "I will do so, Gabriel. And, please... just tell me what I need to correct the next time."
"Oh, we both know you like it, sweetie."
With Weiss exhausted, but hopefully capable of properly defending herself to at least some extent, you pay a quick visit to your little dungeon basement, though it's really more of a basement than anything still.
Passing by the prisoners you kept from the White Fang, you realize you never actually bothered recalling Nolac, the deranged soul still busy at work torturing your bloodbags, though it seems more like they have been deliberately mutilated so as to become closer to actual works of living art, their bodies connected to each other by intertwined spines and fused skulls.
(Anonymous Patron uses a token to add a power update to Nolac!)
"Oh, hey boss," a currently female Nolac says when they realize you're passing by. "Think I figured out how to work on minds directly as well as bodies. Neat, huh?"
"... Sure, that sounds handy. How's it work, exactly?"
"Well, I do the same thing as usual, do the whole mutilation dance an' all, but as I do, I can influence their heads' insides, but not like, brain-wise. Pure power bullshit. Can't control 'em like I would with physical stuff, but I don' really need ta, y'know?"
"That sounds extremely handy, actually. For now you're going back in the box, though." Breathing Nolac back in, you turn towards what you were actually planning to do here, ignoring the implications of this new ability (Or perhaps discovery of an already existing one?) for now.
Taking a few bits and pieces from your already existing, ADAM-producing undead, you set to work creating something that should allow you to create more blood and flesh out of nothing.
Really, you already did this whole song and dance with the yuckblood fountains, this one is just more animated blood with chunks of flesh swimming inside than anything else, spitting out additional biomass regularly.
This can only turn out well.
Taiyang Xiao Long frowned, tapping his foot as he sat in the kitchen.
Honestly, he was neither blind nor deaf, and had been a teenager himself once upon a time for good measure. So when his daughters went to visit Vale two times in quick succession, he knew something had to be up.
Normally he would trust them to have things well in hand, Yang being a dependable older sister despite her... occasional... brashness, and Ruby a capable fighter despite her issues with people, but this time around things were a little... different.
For one, Yang hadn't been her usual upbeat self when they'd left the house, something he naturally took notice of. But hey, it could have simply been she was having a bad day and Ruby took her out to the big city to cheer her up a bit- indeed, a reasonable chain of events if he ever saw one. But when they'd returned a few hours later, Yang had looked sour more than anything else, all the while Ruby kept up her usual demeanour well enough.
They'd also returned with enough packages to need a cart to bring them all home, with Ruby immediately disappearing into the family workshop immediately while Yang stomped up into her room. A quick, stealthy look also confirmed that Ruby was working on Crescent Rose, all the while talking to herself happily and eating cookies out of a small package.
Taiyang didn't like the picture that was drawing itself. He didn't like it at all. Though he wanted to trust his kids, he sure wasn't going to ask them outright about what was going on- neither of them would give him a straight answer, he already knew.
Ruby... had found a boy. Yang strenuously objected and insisted to come along as a chaperone, but didn't want to sour her sister's relationships, knowing how hard it was for her to connect to anyone, so she just followed along to keep an eye on whatever guy Ruby was fancying.
Oh gods, what if it was an older man. This was exactly why Taiyang didn't want them out in Vale so often.
Right, he obviously needed more information. Snapping up his scroll, he checked through his contact list. "Hello, Qrow. Are you busy right now? Nothing immediate, but I may need a bit of help, too busy with teaching at Signal, you know how it is. It's about Ruby."
The cost of most construction materials- simple iron and steel, most rare metals to be found, even wood and concrete, for that matter- is actually fairly low in Remnant, most likely a byproduct of its dust-centric technology base; to put it simply, most shit that isn't dust is just not seen as anywhere as significant, mined more as an afterthought in pre-existing dust mines.
Why, the Schnee Dust Company doesn't even bother mining anything but dust, simply selling the rights to any mines that don't have a dust supply to be grabbed.
Anyways, mining industry standards aside, what this means for you is that despite how you've been spending money like water so far, your reserves are more than enough to get everything you want, from industrial amounts of various metals for construction to a bullhead to most common types of civilian-grade dust and even a full workshop setup, though the last one is notably more expensive due to the dust-treated materials used in the construction of most tools anyone can take seriously in the context of huntsman weapons.
While you were doing that, you also texted Glynda, inviting her to join you in enjoying your pool in three days from now, along with having summoned Adam so Sarah can properly interrogate him for any information you just wouldn't think to ask about. Your orders should arrive over the next day or two, beginning with the smaller ones. Logistics, if nothing else, really are reasonably well-developed in Vale.
While you were at it, of course, you also summoned Yoshi as well as created several Hammerheads, giving them orders as to what to do with the various materials that will be incoming over the next few hours, from constructing a manufactory and fusion reactor in the basement to installing the workshop equipment and even adding a landing pad somewhere so you can actually park your bullhead once it comes in.
By the end of that little shopping spree, of course, you only have half a million lien left, but that should suffice for living expenses for the next few days, at the very least. Worst come to worst, you can just steal all the dust in Vale and sell it on the black market for even more inflated prices or something.
For now, though, you're busy looking up areas nearby with lots of Grimm to hunt down- Vale is always looking for volunteers ready and willing to thin out the Grimm in its surroundings, after all.
Weiss, despite the late hour and fairly sudden arrangements, seems both rather alert motivated at the prospect of randomly going out to hunt down Grimm nearby Vale, transportation being handled by the authorities easily enough.
In her own words, fighting Grimm is what being a huntress is supposed to be all about, and as such an activity she has a vested interest in. It's pretty clear, of course, that she really decided to become a huntress-in-training in Beacon because it let her get away from Atlas, but nobody comments on it.
So, here you all are, making your way through a rather expansive area around a large farming community half an hour's flight away from Vale. You didn't really stay to talk to the locals, though you note the outlying settlements seem significantly more rustic and 'traditional' than the hypermodern urban landscape of Vale as a big city.
Still, a low wall or not Grimm remain a constant problem for places like this, which is why you're here. Vale's authorities don't really pay much of anything, though they reimburse huntsmen and huntresses for ammunition and maintenance costs incurred while doing this kind of thing, so long as they're kept reasonable.
"Alright, here's the plan, everyone," you announce to Weiss, Nora and Okita, Sarah having declined the offer to come along and coincidentally leaving you with four people in total, which you just so happen to know to be the size of the teams the big academies divide their students into. "We're here to get in some regular practice killing Grimm, as well as getting Weiss used to this kind of combat. As such, I feel we should clarify what everyone's role is going to be."
Pointing at everyone in turn, you go through what you mean. "Okita is our main attacker, especially for heavy targets. She's got a new weapon to play with, but as a rule of thumb, she gets in close and kills things. Nora is our mid-ranger, she's got that gun," you mention, gesturing towards the laser rifle you gave her for this, "and will work to make sure we aren't surrounded. I, myself, mostly fight by using my semblance, so expect me to keep out of trouble and throw minions at any Grimm we encounter. Weiss, how would you like to fight for this?"
A determined expression on her face, Weiss stands at attention. "I will be joining Nora and practice using my semblance to create barriers and support everyone else," she says, the unsaid 'sir' tempting you to come over and pat her head rather than go around and do what you came for.
Unfortunately, growling and snarling from the nearby treeline snaps you out of your deliberation on the matter, Vale's plains and woodlands giving Grimm plenty of places to move around unseen. A pack of beowolves, as you have read on the CCTS' networks about, are approaching already.
"Well then, let's get right to work. This is realistically going to be a milk run, but keep your guards up anyways."
"Mhm."
"Of course, Gabriel."
"Yes!"
The Grimm, it has to be said, are pretty much completely powerless against your group.
To start with, you have an Okita, and with how generously you use her to build up her 'heroic' power that lets her deal more damage to a given target the more of its kind she has killed before (making her extremely good for things like the Grimm), hardly any of the relatively weak creatures you encounter really have a chance to survive longer than a moment as soon as they come close enough for her to joyfully swing her giant sword around.
Her smile is invisible, but it's there. It's all a matter of practice in reading her.
Many of the Grimm, especially the weaker ones, don't even make it that far, however, Nora almost casually shooting them down whenever they show their black and white forms, accurate laser shots almost homing in on them with how quickly and precisely she shoots.
Weiss is doing well enough, too, regularly utilizing her semblance where it makes sense and quickly learning to avoid boosting Okita's attacks, the sudden glyphs appearing in the air producing sonic booms and just distracting everyone. In general, she is just taking a bit to getting used to fighting in groups, learning to figure out when to step in to support and when to leave her teammates to taking care of things by themselves.
Cooperation is really just a matter of practice, far as you're concerned.
So yeah, your white-haired lover is also getting some 'hands-on' practice with various Grimm while you're at it, struggling a little against the occasional boarbatusk or ursa, the boar- and bearlike Grimm presenting an actual challange to her before she gets the timing for moving herself with her semblance down, the ability to simply conjure platform in any position she needs them and even support her jumps and dashes immensely useful for someone that constantly needs to position herself properly for maximum effect.
As for yourself, well... your aura reserves are quite sufficient to create several minions meant for battle, really.
"I killed another one, daddy," the raspy voice of one of your newest creations announces, its owner happily bouncing in place before returning to a combat stance.
Turning her arms into sharp bone lances with a quick twist, she lunges for the bushes, skewering the beowolf you hadn't seen yet from front to back in a single blow as her visible muscles flex and twist.
It really is annoying the Grimm don't actually have blood; then again, most aren't really stealthy enough to actually surprise you if you pay attention to your surroundings to start with.
A spear of bone flashes by, claiming yet another Grimm nearby. Your other 'daughter' made during this little trip does seem rather pleased with herself before lashing out with her elongated tail, cutting into a boarbatusk under where she is currently flying in the air.
"Big sister is having fun," Carnage, as you are calling her, 'smiles'. "I'm also having fun guarding daddy."
Honestly, if her voice didn't sound like snapping tendons and breaking bones, it'd be conventionally cute, you imagine.Not that it stops you from patting the boneplate protecting her skull.
As amusing as it is to just stand there and throw out additional bodies for your two new minions, your group does eventually run out of Grimm to murder horribly, a fact you notice based on how none of the things keep on coming at you in a murderous rage.
So you just finish up the last of your circuit and return to be transported back to Vale, Weiss actually starting to flag a little. Which, to be fair, makes sense- though she slept in after yesterday, it's still past midnight, her frail human body requiring immense amounts of sleep every day just to keep operational.
Poor thing, really.
That said, she doesn't actually fall asleep, only looking a little tired, so you'll go ahead and assume aura is letting her keep awake. Because apparently it does everything else, so why not this, too?
So yes, once you get back to the mansion after your little nightly patrol, you swiftly take a little time to make sure Weiss is doing alright, helping her check over her weapon (because regular maintenance after every use is paramount to not having your equipment break down on you at the worst moment).
And as you stand there in the complete workshop slowly taking shape around you, machines and devices slowly filling up the space of the outlying room as they are being delivered to your place, Weiss can't help but ask a question she has been brooding on for a while, most likely.
"Gabriel," she begins with, gathering her thoughts, "why are you... like this?"
"Like what?" You give her back as you hug her from behind, having put down the vials with dust you were handing her one by one. "You'll have to be a little more specific."
Taking a deep breath, Weiss shakes out her hair. "Why are you being this nice to me? I'm not... People usually want something from me, and I suppose you might be, too, but they're usually after money or connections or-"
You shut her down by patting her head, pulling her weight back to lean against you.
"Why... why are you like that?"
"Mhm, I could probably give you a dozen reasons for why I'm being nice to you Weiss," you say, resting your head on hers (you have to crouch a little, but she doesn't have to know that). "But if I had to give you one? I decided I like you."
"Wha-" Weiss stutters out, her blush vaguely visible through your bloodsight as blood flowing to her cheeks.
"That's why I want you to be happy," you continue, "to see you fulfilled and any obstacles to your happiness removed. And if I get to literally fill you up on the way," you drawl as your hands start to wander, "then all the better."
Weiss squirms a bit, but doesn't try to stop you. "I understand, but why would you like me if it wasn't for any-"
"Ah, ah ah," you shush her. "If you're about to insinuate you aren't inherently worthy of affection, I'm about to have to very thoroughly convince you otherwise."
And with that, you lift her up into a princess carry, Weiss' cute squeak just spurring you on further. "Where are you taking me?" She demands to know.
"To your bed, obviously. Aura makes it entirely too easy for you to walk despite me doing my best to literally fuck that ability out of you for a day."
Her blush begins reaching legendary proportions, doing interesting things to her pale skin even as she glowers at you. "Just... dammit, if there's any damage to do, you have done it already."
You give her a quizzical look, prompting her to elaborate. "I might get pregnant, Gabriel! I took a pill when I woke up, had it delivered here and all, but it was quite a while by the time I woke up."
You just chuckle and shake your head. "Do you think this is funny?!" Weiss demands to know.
"No, no, I just think it's cute," you tell her, nuzzling her nose. "I had that taken care of ages ago- unless we do a very special thing, we won't be having any kids anytime soon. I'm shooting blanks for all intents and purposes until then."
Weiss gives you a dubious look. "Are you sure? Aura usually reverses any fertility treatments like that..."
"Trust me, okay?" You shake your head. "No kids until and unless we are ready for them. For now it's all just a lot of fun to be had without any such risks."
"... Okay." Aww, little Weiss is looking forwards to it!
Once Weiss is back asleep after another rigorous bout of lovemaking, you take a moment to think about how you could ensure Weiss will be taken care of. She isn't exactly the stereotypical rich girl, but... not exactly street smart, either.
To that end, you dream up another type of minion, though you link it to the already existing slime maids on some level as you do, letting them share a single consciousness even as their mannerisms differ.
A dull shine comes off her skin as she stands there, color scheme adjusted to adhere to Weiss' without directly copying it, white and light blue being the end result of your deliberations.
"Master," she bows at you, demonstrateively revealing the pearl you turned into the core of her ability to store and retrieve objects, "I am at your command. Am I to serve Mistress Schnee until further notice?"
"Indeed. And do make sure to keep me updated on any changes I should know about."
"Of course, Master."
Mhm. You'll consider it a good investment of attention span for now.
'Jake closed the book he was reading, a silly story about ninjas of all things getting into all kinds of strangely sexualized hijinks. Not that he was one to judge, just looking for a way to pass the time between classes.
However, before he could finish that thought, the reason for him closing it up finally finished walking up to his seat, one hand coming down on his desk. "Jake," Bella said, her weirdly intimidating eyes boring into his, "are you free after school today?"'
Honestly, you are... unsure about the start of your newest idle project, writing a form of art you haven't yet touched aside from writing blueprints and other technical things. That said, Ninjas of Love won't end as a matter of public consciousness by itself, and you are perfectly fine with investing some free time into ensuring that... that tripe stops being bought.
Weiss Schnee blinked her eyes open, a deep soreness she was quickly getting used to these days stuck in her limbs.
As the memories of the last few days manifested themselves, she needed a moment to assure herself that she was not fantasizing some weird idea of what was happening to herself with faltering breath, the unfamiliar room she woke up to serving to prove she wasn't hallucinating, at least.
Realizing she was naked (and why, for that matter), Weiss blushed as the other memories resurfaced, of Gabriel and what they'd been doing in her bed for what felt like all night, but could not have been more than a few hours before exhaustion claimed her, their sweaty, entangled bodies-
Weiss shook her head, ignoring the... fluids sticking to her body. Right, a shower and some fresh clothes sounded wonderful right then and there, not to mention her toothbrush.
Once she had a little time to get herself cleaned up and presentable, Weiss opened the door to her room, stepping outside and closing it again. Hopefully nobody would see inside until she-
"Mistress Schnee," a strangely colored person right outside the door said, nearly causing her a heart attack, "may you be heading out for breakfast?"
Long-ingrained mannerisms took over at that moment, keeping her spine as straight as her face. "Indeed."
"May I suggest you head to the kitchens, then? I have prepared a modest meal you may take at your leisure, as Mistress Nora is busy assisting Master Gabriel at this time."
"Very well," Weiss said, suppressing her confusion. It was probably just-
"In case you are wondering, Master Gabriel created me yesterday, to attend to and support you, Mistress Schnee," the semblance creation said with a bow. "If I can help you in any way before cleaning up your room, please feel free to instruct me."
"I will," Weiss said reflexively, turning towards the hallway that would lead her to the nearest kitchens. "Does it bother you you were created for this?" She wondered, unable to suppress her curiosity.
"Not at all," the blue maid(?) answered, opening the door to Weiss' messy and reeking (of sex) room. "I am merely a fraction of Master Gabriel's mind, after all. Therefore, I share his needs and desires, including your wellbeing."
Weiss fled before she could sink into the ground out of sheer embarrassment.
By the time she had made her way into the kitchen, her contours had stopped glowing red, having had the time to try to ignore part of Gabriel Livsey's truest self considered ensuring she was taken care of its highest priority. She did wonder what it had to be like, having one's semblance this... vocal about its owner's mental state.
It was surely extremely unusual, if nothing else, and perhaps hinted at an unusual person behind it. Not that Weiss wasn't aware of that, however.
Coming inside the cooking area she was taking her meals inside ever since she joined this household (and if that wasn't a novel experience for her), Weiss settled in for a quick breakfast she was not at all disappointed in (she had started looking forwards to eating with others as another novel experience), only to be surprised when the girl known as Sarah strolled inside, seeamlessly taking a seat at the simple stone table she was sitting at.
"Hey, Weiss. Want to talk?"
Weiss gulped, and it wasn't (just) her swallowing the perfectly grilled cheese sandwich that had been waiting for her on a warming pad.
"Gladly, what would you like to talk about?" Weiss was hesitant to put her breakfast down, mostly on account of delicious it was shaping up to be with a small bowl of cut fruits and some freshly pressed juice to the side, but this seemed important enough to delay her.
"It's less what I want to talk about and more about what you would like to, really," the blonde shrugged, scooping up a grape and popping it into her mouth. "Pretty sure I didn't tell you yet, but I'm pretty much psychic. My semblance does come in handy."
Weiss bit her lip, pretending she immediately understood all the implications of this statement. "I... see?"
Sarah just rolled her eyes with a smile. "Seriously, I've seen the questions burning in the back of your mind for a while now, so just spit 'em out. Or let me guess, you finally got up the nerve, but Gabe just told you something that made sense, but only to him?"
Weiss did her best to suppress her blush at the subject of conversation, of how Gabriel had just... told her he liked her. "Yes, something of the sort may have happened."
"Figures," Sarah sighed, still smiling fondly. "I don't want to brag, but I know my brother pretty well."
"Actually," Weiss said in a surprising (even to her) display of boldness, "I wanted to ask you a similar question. Why... did you just accept me so easily?"
"You mean as part of our group or as part of the family?" Sarah asked with a wink, Weiss decidedly not squawking in response. Certainly not. "Because I can tell you, I don't mind. It just may get a little heavy, if you get what I mean."
When Weiss just gave her an impatient look, Sarah just shrugged a shoulder. "You asked for it. Alright, where to start... So, our family situation used to be almost suspiciously close to your own from a certain perspective, mirroring it even."
Weiss was about to question her, confused, but Sarah just talked over her. "Our parents were pretty shit, both as parents and as people, and we used to be three siblings, two older brothers and one youngest girl, me."
Weiss wanted to object to the blanket declaration of her parents being 'shit', but... that last past tense gave her a bad feeling. "I actually used to be a lot more withdrawn when Reggie was still around, but, well... to keep it short, things happened and while Gabe was gone from home for a while, he decided to end things for himself. The hard way."
Sarah just ignored Weiss' horrified look. "More relevantly, you were in a similar position to the three of us back when our parents were in the picture when we met you, so I think Gabe and me just... adopted you, for lack of a better term. He doesn't have an easy time really empathizing with most people anymore, but you basically hit all his buttons for that. Everything else kind of snowballed from there, for both him and me."
"I do quite doubt Gabriel sees me as a sister," Weiss said, fighting back the coloring of her cheeks.
"Oh, not saying he does, though that wouldn't stop him." With a cheshire grin, Sarah watched Weiss' confusion for a moment before elaborating. "We do bang with each other, you know."
"Wha- bu- tha-"
"Oh, I know, incest is bad and all that. Then again, who cares? Not me and certainly not my stupidly hunky big brother," Sarah grinned as she poked Weiss' nose, much to her chagrin. "Though his whole thing is another story entirely."
"How so?" Weiss asked, playfully glaring back at her as she rubbed the tip of her nose. She didn't like being touched like that!
"He was pretty much raised with sex," Sarah told her, trying to appear nonchalant and failing miserably. Whatever she was talking about, it was obviously bothering her. "He didn't have a handy older brother to raise him in lieu of our shitty parents that didn't give a fuck, you see, and so when it turned out he was apparently very 'cute' as a kid, pretty much any and all positive interaction he had involved adult women that got 'curious' and found out how well endowed he was from birth. And later on other younger girls, and the neighbours, and so on and so forth."
As she finished speaking, it became increasingly apparent how the very topic soured her mood, not that Weiss could disagree on the topic. "I only really found out pretty recently myself, you see. So Gabriel just... doesn't really get that what happened to him back then isn't 'normal', and that most five-year-olds don't have sex because of more than just biological reasons. It's also why he's so open about sex and nudity as well as his tendency to be so physical with his affections. Hence him expressing he wants you to stay with him by dragging you to bed."
"... He just told me he decided he liked me," Weiss said, "and somehow, I think I prefer his explanation."
"Yeah, doesn't surprise me," Sarah smiled, "Gabe's almost painfully earnest about things like this. When he isn't busy pretending otherwise to trick people, anyways."
Weiss looked down at her breakfast, giving off a sigh. Of course she would lose her appetite, too.
"Hey, no skipping out on any meals!" Sarah chastised her. "Gotta keep healthy and all. If you won't eat this, I will!"
Poking your head into the kitchen once you ask Sarah where she is at the moment, you see your sister has been paying Weiss company as she's eating, the two of them playfully batting at each other's hands.
How cute.
"Hey Sarah, wanna go hit up Vale? I'm suddenly beset by an urgent desire for ice cream."
"Sure, Gabe, just a sec." Turning to Weiss, Sarah gives her a nod, obviously saying goodbye. "And remember, no word to anyone."
"Uhm, have fun on your date!" Weiss calls after you as Sarah joins you outside the kitchen, her hand finding yours by itself.
"Alright, let's go."
Strolling through downtown Vale, you take your time to enjoy the waffle of ice cream you got at a little stand, yourself and Sarah idly working on your scrolls as you continue working on your very own work of fiction and looking up various Grimm types and their characteristics, respectively.
Sarah seems to be actually happy about you just taking your time to do this, taking lick after lick from her own scoop of chocolate ice cream.
Say about Vale what you want, but it is a very beautiful city, with modern buildings as far as they eye can see and well-tended trees and other assorted greenery dotting the landscape. You actually visit a few stores, mostly just to browse and seethe at that one shopkeeper's mention of the continuation of Ninjas of Love coming into the bookstores soon-ish.
All that said, it is during a break you take on a park bench, holding hands with Sarah as you've both finished up your ice cream by that point, that someone approaches you.
"Uhm, excuse me, would you mind if I took a few pictures of the two of you?" A brunette honest-to-god bunny girl asks, her ears actually having blood flow through them, as you can verify.
"You just looked so cute I had to ask..." She explains.
Exchanging a quick look with Sarah, you face the bunny girl again. "We don't mind, but only if you let me draw a quick sketch of yourself in exchange."
"Uh, really? I mean, I don't mind, but..." She says, obviously insecure or something.
"Oh, definitely! In fact, wait a moment," you tell her as you draw upon your aura, creating another paint fairy standing upon your palm.
"Fairy Power: Activate!"
"Oh my gods, that's so cuuute!" The bunny girl squeals, quickly realizing what she just did.
"Sorry..."
"Don't worry about it, there's a reason I use my semblance the way I do. Now, where do I get something to draw on...?"
Luckily enough, finding a nearby store selling canvas is easy enough, Vale being full of such places, and so it does't take you long to begin doing your thing.
"I-Is this really alright?" Velvet, as you know her to be named by now, asks, holding her camera in the pose you instructed her to take.
"Don't worry, you're doing fine," you reassure her as you quickly draw out a semblance (heh) of the shy bunnygirl, actually having gone ahead and used your semblance to get a 'whiter than white' color for a simple background.
"See? You're looking very cute." Velvet, of course, hides her face behind her camera as soon as you turn your canvas around for her to see.
"U-uhm, that's very pretty. Not that I-I'm calling myself pretty or- Would you like to take that photo now?"
"Of course!" You beam at her, already taking a pose yourself before thinking. "Would you like me to take my top off, too?"
Velvet just blinks, staring blankly as she works through your words. "Wah! W-what are you saying?"
Sarah, still sitting on the bench she's been staying on all the while, just chuckles, leaning over to smack your ass. "Go get 'em, tiger."
Well, that decides it. Within moments, you have divested yourself of your top, leaving you standing in the park with your bare chest and back revealed.
Kinda freeing, actually. Been a while since all your clothes kept getting destroyed all the time.
"Well?" You ask Velvet. "Let's get to it."
Velvet swallows heavily, raising her camera towards her eyes. "Y-yes, sir!"
"L-like this! And now turn around!"
Velvet, in a display of sudden forcefulness, rose to the challenge of giving you a proper photography session, having you take poses and changing backgrounds by moving through the park. You, of course, go along with it, flexing your arms and abs, winking at Velvet's camera and making it a point to really exaggerate this whole thing.
There's actually an ice cream stand, so you go ahead and allow Velvet to take pictures of you deliciously licking along your scoop of strawberry ice cream.
It really is the most superior flavour, even if you do regularly try out others for variety.
At the end of it all, you have to call it a day mostly because Velvet's camera seems to have run out of capacity, the bunny girl explaining to you she built it herself and leaned its aesthetics towards old-timey cameras because she really liked the idea of being a photographer with one of those, even as its insides are actually completely modern.
Cute girl.
Anyways, it's really just a question of time for her to leave as you rejoin Sarah. "Hey sis, hope I didn't keep you waiting to much," you ask as you wiggle back into your shirt, having had more than enough opportunities to have any women in sight oogle you by this point.
"Nah, it was fun to watch the spectacle," your sister assures you. "'Sides, you didn't even have sex with her within ten minutes of meeting, so... progress?"
Progress indeed. Bunny girls need to be taken slowly and in exchange very, very thoroughly, after all.