Yo I just can't stop making all of these things help.
Ruby Gets Inspired!
or, Diplomatic Immunity 17.6.5
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy Dormitories, Remnant
'You know, I think I've discovered something about myself today,' You think to yourself as you stand off to the side, staring into space as your Master and the equally white-haired Schnee heiress commiserate on the state of the Dust mine under the Bay.
Well, you say commiserate, but it's really just Weiss talking at Taylor while she tries to look attentive and act like she's interested in learning the finer details of Dust mining and the proper handling procedures. To be fair though, it's honestly fairly vital for ensuring the safety of any future employees, and if you consider the information you've managed to glean from the conversation it's objectively a veritable goldmine.
But after this lecture continues for nearly 5 minutes, you think that you're fairly confident when you say this:
'This is boring as hell.'
Not to say that it isn't unnecessary or any of the sort; you've just realized that, barring a few of your past emulations, you've never been the type to just sit and patiently wait. And while you're more than fine with allowing others to converse with each other while you stand in the background – a bit of a habit that your current emulation somewhat exacerbated, really. Despite his boisterous demeanor, Dante was a pretty reclusive guy when off the clock, who knew – you can't really say that you're all that interested in the contents of the conversation.
So it may have been somewhat inevitable when your eyes drifted over to the most interesting spectacle in the room.
"—how much fighting training do you get to do normally? Oh, do you get to design your equipment yourselves too? Do you wanna get a head-start on making guns and stuff because IcanshowyouhowImademybabyCrescentRose—" Ruby continues to rattle off in the general direction of a flustered-looking Mun. You glance over to Mem, watching as she slips away from the attentions of the silver-eyed girl in favor of claiming a spot on the bed next to Blake.
The Faunus girl paused in her reading, peering over her book with an inquisitive stare at your more taciturn sibling. After a few moments (and realizing that Mem seemed content to watch Mun get overwhelmed by the power of excited motormouth) she returned to her book with a shrug, though you caught her glancing at Mem every so often.
"You know, you should probably help her." you hear Yang say at your side. "I love Rubes to death, but God knows she can talk someone to death once she gets excited. Poor girl seems like she's reaching her limit."
You scratch at your jaw. "Yeeeeah, I should prolly help her out, shouldn't I? Would be a dick move if an older brother didn't come to the rescue, I guess. And I got something I wanna ask Ruby anyway, so two birds, one stone and all that." You shrug, pushing yourself from the wall – and conveniently ignoring Yang's muttered response of "Brother?" in the process. That whole thing is just a hassle to try and explain all at once – and striding over to the two girls as an excited Ruby seems to loom over Munin, Crescent Rose in hand.
You have to hold back a snort of amusement when you see Mun's eyes flicker over to you, all but pleading with her gaze as she struggles to respond to the verbal assault coming from the older redhead.
"U-uh—" Mun begins, but you smoothly interject as you place a hand on top of her head.
"Easy there, kid. You'll talk the brat's ear off at this rate," you say, mussing Mun's hair in a soothing gesture. That seems to knock Ruby out of her excitement for the moment, thankfully. Though as she stares up at you with a sheepish look on her face, you're once again aware of how much you absolutely tower over the hooded girl.
It makes the memories of Oscar when interacting with Ruby so much odder in hindsight, really.
"Ah—oh, I'm sorry about that, heh," Ruby says with a nervous chuckle. "It's just that it's kind of exciting you know? All of this just kind of happened all of a sudden, and I'm still getting used to having a new sister and the concept of an entirely different reality and, well, it's just all so new and cool and I finally have people younger than me around—"
"Oh yeah, speaking of that, I got a bit of a favor to ask if you don't mind," You say, interrupting the rambling girl with a smile. You pat Mun on the head gently, much to her consternation (though you'd probably say she'd rather go through this over the grilling she went through for the past few minutes) as you glance over to Mem. "See, the girls wanted to take some time to explore the school while we're here; maybe get a nice tour out of it while Taylor's busy. I was wondering if you'd help me chaperone since you seem pretty interested in getting to know them. You don't mind that, right Yang?" You glance over to the blonde who meets your gaze with a raised eyebrow.
"…I mean, as long as Ruby's fine with it I don't really care," she says with a shrug. "It's probably better to get out of this cramped room, anyway. You fine with that, Tay?" she adds, nudging her white-haired sister in the back.
Your Master seems to start at that, blinking distractedly as she notices the rest of the room's attention on her. Even Weiss paused in her lecture for the moment, though with how her eyes narrowed, you're sure that she wasn't exactly happy about the interruption.
"Uh…sure, I guess," Taylor eventually says. "We're gonna be leaving in a little bit though, so don't go too far."
"Cool. Sounds like a done deal to me, then," you say.
"Yes, well, if we're done with the interruptions—"
"Wait, you're fine with me going with the hobo?!" Ruby shouts out, interrupting Weiss. The heiress huffed, crossing her arms in agitation.
"I mean, he's like Taylor's power, or something, so I don't see why it would be a bad thing," Yang shrugs. "And hey, this way you can show off how Huntresses work around here for them."
"I possess over a millennia's worth of knowledge on the ins and outs of Hunter soci—" Mem starts, but you swiftly interrupt her in the best way you know.
By grabbing her by the scruff of her neck and bodily picking her up. Blake starts at this, nearly jumping off her bed in surprise.
(You also noted that she was halfway to reaching for her weapon, before visibly restraining herself and smoothing out her somewhat stormy expression. A light glare was still present on her face, though.)
"Sounds great. Hey, let's go girls, we've got places to be soon," you say quickly, tucking Mem under your arm and guiding Mun out of the room with your other hand.
"Hold on, what does she mean by millennia–w-wait, you're moving too fast and your legs are longer than mine!"
"Then you better get a move on, kid! I got a top-secret project I wanna get started on, and it's something you might find interesting."
"Huh?"
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Beacon Academy Workshop, Remnant
"So, here's the deal kids." You take up the closest approximation to a lecturer's pose that you could emulate as you stood in front of the three girls.
"Right now, Taylor's focus is being occupied by little miss Ice Queen, so this is the best time to rectify a mistake that's persisted for far too long. However, we gotta get this done quick; by my count, we only have about 15 or so minutes before Weiss needs to come up for air. So, this is the only time we can get this started and maintain the secrecy of our mission. Any questions?"
"Uh, yeah," Mun says, pausing to take a bite out of the cake she got from their detour to the cafeteria. "So uh, what are we even supposed to be doing right now?" Mem nods at her side, tilting her head slightly.
"We have not yet been informed of the main objective of this secret mission, brother. Is that not an important detail that we need to assist you more effectively?"
"What she said," Ruby says through bites of her own dessert. "Heck, I still don't even know why I'm here!"
"All valid points, I must admit. But you girls are forgetting one very important detail." You pause for emphasis, watching as your enraptured audience – really just Ruby and Mem. Mun seems focused more on stuffing her face than anything – leans in anticipation. "And that, of course, is to leave your captivated audience in suspense!"
Ruby throws a cookie at you. You catch it in your mouth and continue and chew for a moment while smirking at the pouting Ruby. Heh.
"But I suppose we're safe enough here to avoid any prying eyes. Ruby, you're good with guns, right?"
Ruby blinks at your question, seemingly flustered at the sudden attention. "Well uh, I mean I wouldn't say that I'm the best but-"
"Ah ah ah. Hey now, none of that," You say, interrupting her. "Modesty is for people who aren't awesome. And I'm pretty sure someone who isn't awesome wouldn't be able to build a weapon like Crescent Rose, right?"
The redhead flushes slightly at the praise but puffs up in pride. "Yeah! My Sweetheart is amazing!"
"Exactly. I need that for this top-secret project because we have to fix the biggest mistake I've ever made in my life."
"It's kind of weird how serious he's getting about this," Mun whispers loudly to her sister. You ignore it in favor of focusing your attention on Ruby.
"Indeed, the absolute worst mistake I could've made in my existence. It shames me to admit that it took me until just a few days ago to see the error of my ways."
"I believe that that may be somewhat of an exaggeration, brother. I am sure you have made other mistakes that have been much more severe in consequence besides this," Mem chimes in 'helpfully.'
"I doubt these two are even listening to us at this point. Oh hey, you gonna finish that cake?"
"I have every intention of finishing the desserts on my plate. Perhaps you should have considered that you would quickly consume your own dessert and adjusted for that eventuality when you made your selection at the cafeteria."
"…All you had to do was say no, jeez."
"W-what did you do?" Ruby replies, voice dropping to a frightened whisper. You shake your head dramatically, your gaze taking on a haunted visage as you stare out into nothing.
The words taste like ash as they form in your mouth, but you feel you must say them for her to understand.
"I…I made Taylor disinterested in guns."
"…You what." Ruby asks softly, eyes slowly widening in horror.
"I made her disinterested in guns! She looks at guns like they're cute and probably brags about how she doesn't even need a gun to 'kill everything in that general direction'! She scoffs at the thought of using guns, Ruby! Scoffs!"
"N-no. No! That can't be right! No sister of mine could be neutral towards guns like tha—" She pauses abruptly, eyes widening in shock. "'Kill everything in that general direction'. Oh no." Her hands come up to her face as she gasps. "Oh no."
You can only nod your head in shame, confirming her worst fears.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ruby joins you in your shared suffering, clutching her head as she wails in despair.
"…So why did we come with them, again?"
"I believe that brother wanted us here to provide assistance in some manner. I have yet to see what that assistance could possibly be beyond psychological care, however."
Ignoring the peanut gallery, you drop to a knee as you place a hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"This is why I need your help, kid. No, Ruby. I needed someone who could truly understand. You are the only one I could trust with this task," you say, knocking the girl out of her depressive spiral as she focuses her hollowed-eyed gaze on you.
"H-huh? Me?"
"I can't ask anyone but you. I need you…" You pause again, making sure that you have her complete and total attention. "To help me design a weapon for Taylor."
"WELL, WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY SO!?" You blink as Ruby disappears in a burst of rose petals and speeds past you. Turning around, you watch the silver-eyed girl rushing around the room, gathering various materials and tools in the process. "No sister of mine is gonna live her life without understanding the wonder and mystique of high-powered weaponry!"
"Huh, that was easy." you scratch your head, chuckling softly as you watch the girl become engrossed in her work. Walking up to her, you glance over her shoulder. "I'm pretty partial to the dual gun style. Think you can fit that into the design? Double the fun and all that," you say, brandishing your two ladies - Ebony and Ivory, that is - before placing them on the workstation Ruby settled into.
"AS LONG AS I CAN COMBINE IT INTO A BIGGER GUN, I DON'T CARE!"
"Heh, nice. Gun-gun." You squint down at the initial sketches, then shake your head. "Eh, don't worry about trying to accommodate for silly things like recoil or ammo expenditure, or hell, even practicality. You make this gun as ridiculous and cool as you can imagine, kid! Taylor will be able to handle it."
"YOU MEAN I GET FREE REIGN AND NO RESTRICTIONS?! I'M GONNA MAKE THE BEST WEAPON EVER!" She pauses in her frantic scribbling, giving you a sidelong glance. "Except my baby Crescent Rose, of course. And don't even dare mention to her that I said that about another weapon." Her silver eyes narrow into thin slits. "Don't even dare."
You chuckle a bit, patting the girl on the head. "Wouldn't dream of it, Ruby. You two are a match-made in heaven, after all, and I would hate to ruin that."
She bats your arm away, pointing at you dramatically. "And don't you forget it mister…uh, hobo guy!"
"Just call me Emmy, kid."
And so it went for the next 30 minutes or so as the two of you bounce ideas off of each other while Ruby lays the foundation for the creation of the ideal weapon that your Master would love so much that she'll have no choice but to acknowledge just for how awesome it is. It's perfect! Nothing could go wrong with this plan!
"You know, I still don't know why we're here," You hear Mun say in the background.
"…Perhaps they will let me add runes to the design? I believe there are some that could improve its efficiency and eliminate the need for conventional ammunition in favor of passively converting excess mana into bullets…"
"Oh hell, not you too."
A/N: Because DanteEmmy realized that he committed a crime most foul, and the only way he can rectify it is by getting someone who's just as much of a gun nut as he is.
Also this gives Ruby a reason to make a cool gun for her sister and hang around in Earth Bet I mean what more can you want it's quality sister time in the works once they figure out how to keep the gun and its creation a secret from Taylor oh won't that be fun.