The Layman not only created this alternate Ruby, but he also wrote this specific chapter. As I mentioned previously, this one contains minor spoilers for the ending of Distorted Mirror Images, as the events herein are taking place after that story.
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"…it's cold."
"I-I know."
"Like…I think my snot is starting to freeze."
"I kn-know…"
"…just saying, we could have waited until after the blizzard stopped before we robbed this place so that we don't look like Faunusicles by the time we get to the damn warehouse-"
"I know!" Rosey issed, trying to keep her voice down despite her rapidly fraying temper. She'd never really been quick to anger, even when that rich, human version of herself constantly put her down back in that other world, but for some reason this guy was able to get under her skin in a way no one else had before. For one brief moment her signature stutter vanished, albeit only for that brief moment. "We c-can't wait for the s-snow to stop, then the humans will b-be b-b-back and we'd g-get caught easier…"
"Didn't think of that, did you, Shay?" Uncle Qrow suddenly stepped forward and smacked Shay upside his head, causing the canine Faunus man to whimper a bit. He then turned to Rosey. "It's a good call, kiddo; we've all been through worse than a few shivers, this is nothing for us!"
That did actually make the young dog Faunus feel a little bit better. She smiled and motioned for the small group to continue moving forward, all tugging their makeshift cloaks tighter around their bodies as they pushed further into the Human city, closer to their destination: a seemingly unimportant warehouse tucked off to the side of a seemingly random lot.
A Faunus's lot in life wasn't an easy one to say the least: day to day living was sometimes a struggle, and the threat of persecution by the human population of Remnant was simply an accepted fact. You were lucky if a human felt like tossing you an extra scrap of food on the side of the road, and earning any kind of consistent wage was a luxury. More often than not, some Faunus would end up needing to sell their bodies to make ends meet. If you were clever and observant you could maybe pick up a marketable skill, but without a formal education there was little hope of anything more.
That was the first thing Rosey aimed to change upon returning to her home world: educating her people. When she'd been in that other Remnant she'd been taught to read for the first time in her life, finally realizing just what she needed to do when she eventually found herself standing in the middle of a familiar shantytown with people staring at her. It hadn't been easy, but as time went on with other Faunus who indulged her (the number slowly grew as more results were seen), she was sure that this was the right thing to do.
Eventually word came through the grapevine that there was a relatively unguarded place where they could get a bunch of books to read and learn from, an opportunity they couldn't afford to pass up, and Qrow had immediately put together a group of them to go take as many books as they could carry back with them.
Fortunately for them the snow, while heavy, wasn't accompanied by strong winds, so the half dozen of them were able to move unseen through the blizzard with ease, slipping past the occasional human who was more concerned with staying warm than keeping an eye out for trespassers. After all, who in their right minds would be out in heavy weather like this?
Once they made it to the far end of the compound, Qrow and the others made short work of the service door with Qrow's rusty sword (the door handle was equally rusty) and hurried inside, shoving the nearest crate in front of the now ruined door to prevent any stray gusts of wind from blowing it open.
"The c-coast is c-c-clear!" Rosey announced, having already climbed atop the nearest stack to survey the vast room they were now in.
"Awesome!" Qrow reached over and rubbed the back of Rosey's head once she hopped back down. "Anyway, you're still the only one here who can read good, so let us know which crates to look in, alright?"
Rosey nodded and proceeded to go from crate to crate, checking each label before moving to the next one in search of their prize. Before ten minutes had passed she found the object of their desire: a crate of children's books. "Over h-here!"
It wasn't going to be the most comprehensive reading material, or even the most entertaining, but it was as good a first step as any if things were ever going to change.
"Good job, kiddo." Qrow pat her shoulder before addressing the group as a whole. "Alright everyone, grab what you can carry for one trip; we don't wanna stick around any longer than we have to."
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Despite plenty of Faunus eager to share in the fruits of her labors, the easy part had apparently been actually getting her hands on the books themselves; teaching her fellows how to read was proving to be more of a challenge than she'd anticipated.
"N-n-no, i-it's 'shape'," Rosey gently corrected a young Faunus woman with short antlers, "the E is s-s-s-suppose to b-be silent…"
"But then why is it there in the first place?" she asked.
Sadly, Rosey didn't have an answer. "…I d-don't know."
"Hey, kid!" another Faunus called, this one a man with a thick, cat like tail, "What does this word mean?"
Rosey scurried over the man to see which word he was having trouble on. "Wh-which one?"
He pointed to the spot on the page he was stuck. "This one."
"Oh, th-th-that's an easy one! It m-means-"
"This is stupid!"
Rosey winced at the sudden outburst from her most reluctant pupil, a snake Faunus named Cinder. A woman who also happened to be fairly important.
"J-just a sec!" she told the first man, cautiously heading over to the current leader of the White Fang. "…d-d-do you h-help, M-m-ma'am?"
"How is this supposed to help us fight back against the humans?" the woman asked. "You don't need to know how to read to hold a weapon; we should be be arming ourselves and taking the fight to those damn Huntsmen. I'd love to see the faces of those humans when we defeat their champions in the very streets they protect~!"
Rosey couldn't help but gulp. She'd only met Cinder a few times before now, and even she could tell that the woman didn't value patience so much as strength of arms. In fact, the only reason she was here at all was because Qrow had somehow convinced her that this would help make her a better leader.
Probably when they were making love or something like that…
"U-um…y-you know…," she stuttered, "…you know h-how there's s-s-sometime words on T-TV's? W-wouldn't it be great t-to know what they w-w-were saying?"
"Then I could just use me ears to listen to what they're saying," Cinder smoothly pointed out. "Face it, girl," she said, "this weird obsession you developed is nothing but a flight of fancy that's going to do more harm than-"
WHACK
She was interrupted when the knob of a walking cane bonked her on the head, it's wielder having hobbled up behind her during the spiel.
"OW, you crazy old bat!" she berated the elderly woman, who merely smiled, somehow managing to seem radiant and youthful despite her geriatric appearance and blindfold. In step behind her were two women – a pale haired Faunus with darkly feathered wings on her back and one with a coffee complexion and small bull horns on her head – who each carried a spear on their backs and a pistol on their hips.
The old Faunus woman cackled, "Guilty as charged!~ Go easy on the poor girl, Cindy, she's been through just as much as any of us, and if she wants to do something to help her fellow Faunus then who are you to say she's wasting her time; it's better than sitting around and doing nothing, right?"
Cinder looked like she wanted to refute the elderly bat Faunus's words, but held her tongue. Old Maria was quite possibly the oldest living Faunus on the whole world (though Rosey hadn't traveled around the whole world to confirm this), and merely achieving that feat earned her an incredible amount of respect, not to mention a permanent, unofficial honor guard.
"Why don't you go find that dusty old crow you like to hang around so much? I need to speak with Miss Rose for a bit, anyway."
Cinder nodded and rose to her feet. "…I think I just will." She then left without another word.
Rosey could only stare in awe at the old woman crouching before her.
"…unless you're part frog, I'd suggest you close your mouth if you don't want to catch any flies."
"Y-yes, Ma'am!" she yipped, snapping her mouth shut. "U-um…am I i-i-in trouble?"
"Not at all, Sweetie." The old woman then began tapping her cane on the floor, headed towards a worn looking but still intact chair in the corner of the room, sitting down once she reached it. "Come sit with an old bitch for a while."
Rosey sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the chair.
"So…I hear you went on quite a fantastic journey a while ago, Hmm?"
She gave a small nod. "N-no one believes me…"
"Feh!" Maria scoffed, "What do they know? They're probably so busy worrying about food or heat or keeping out of sight that they forget how to have a little imagination." She gestured to the Faunus still trying to sound out the words in their books, "This seems like a good start in that regard."
"O-ok…"
"Why don't you indulge me and tell me what happened? I may be blind, but my imagination is still as sharp as ever."
"…j-j-just promise you w-won't laugh, ok?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die. Now get on with it; entertain me!~"
Rosey did just that, going through what had happened that fateful night when she was surreptitiously whisked away to a bizarro world that was, for all intents and purposes, the exact opposite of the one she'd grown up in. She told Maria about the other versions of herself (sadly, none of them were Faunus like her), of the marvelous city she'd been allowed to travel in, and the people who first found her upon waking up. She also told her about that world's version of Belladonna (this one was a Faunus) and how she'd basically become the girl's surrogate mother throughout the adventure. Rosey didn't bother hiding how much she missed her.
"…she s-s-said I sh-should try to use what I l-learned to help everyone h-here," she concluded, "and I-I r-really want to…b-b-but…"
Bop
A light bonk from Maria's cane prevented the rest of the thought from being voiced. How was she so accurate with that thing when she was blind, anyway?
"I have to say, I'm a little jealous," Maria admitted, "I've been around for as long as anyone can remember, back when the ol' peepers still worked properly-" She tapped her blindfold. "-and I've never seen anything like this before. Almost makes me wish I could join in with you youngsters."
Rosey's floppy dog ears drooped. "I'm s-s-sorry-" Bonk! "-Ow!"
"Kid, if I can somehow wake up tomorrow, I'll be lucky. No," she shook her head, "I've had a full life already, there's not much good being able to read will do me at this point in life. But don't let that stop you and yours from learning how. If you want to end up changing the world like your friend suggested, just know it won't happen unless you keep at it. You promise me you won't give up?"
"A-alright…I will."
"Good. Or else I'll come back from the grave and haunt you!"
"Eep!"
"I'm just kidding!" Maria cackled. "Nobody needs me hanging around bugging them from the afterlife."
Rosey chuckled along with the bat Faunus, albeit a little uneasy; it was hard to tell when Maria was joking or not.
"Now go and show those fuddy-duddies how it's done! If you'll excuse me…" She got up again, shaking a bit. The bird Faunus woman rushed over to help her up while the other kept her silent vigil. "I have things to do. Good luck with your reading lessons."
"Mhmm. Th-thank you!" Rosey said, watching the old woman hobble away with her bodyguards. Cinder's words had left her a little discouraged about the whole endeavor, but talking to Maria managed to lift her spirits again. She glanced back to the other Faunus in the "class", looking over everyone as they tried to sound out words in the books they had. It filled her with determination to continue on with her plan, and for a moment the bleakness of her situation as a Faunus faded away.
She's make Mom proud…!
It took a familiar voice clearing their throat from behind to snap her from her reverie.
"C-c-c-cinder!"
"Oh, hush, child!" Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her expression like steel. "I've thought about this, and I've come to the conclusion that we could…potentially…intercept the enemy's plans, and being able to actually read them would be advantageous if that were to ever happen…" Her face looked flushed, undercutting the severity of her expression.
A glance behind her revealed Qrow at the end of the hall, who caught her eye and gave her a thumbs-up before leaving. It was all Rosey could do to keep the goofy grin on her face from jumping off.
She handed Cinder back the book she'd been reading before walking away. "No t-time like the p-present.~"
The snake Faunus grunted as she sat back down with the rest of her peers, resting the open book on her lap.
Rosey was confident that things were finally going to turn out alright.
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2 months later…
Belladonna seethed with rage.
It was the Faunus. It was always the damn Faunus! To think that they'd gotten so bold lately…what the hell had gotten into those animals' heads that was making them act like this?
She'd mull over that in a little bit, after she finished her call with Headmaster Khan. The communication room of the CCT tower was no place for philosophical debates with oneself.
[From what we could determine, a bunch of younger Faunus suddenly up and attacked Mr. Wukong when he was questioning an older Faunus about something,] the Atlesean General informed her. [Sadly, we won't know the finer details until he regains consciousness.]
"I see…" When she'd gotten word that her boyfriend had been beaten half to death by a pack of those filthy animals, she'd very nearly torn the book in half that she'd been reading; one all about training your pet. (Dammit, Snowball, why couldn't you just be a good kitty and do what you're told?) "How soon do you think it'll be before he recovers?"
[Hard to say, but rest assured he's getting the best care possible.]
"Thank you, General. Will I see you at the peace summit come Autumn?"
[Most likely; Professors Albain and Headmistress Scarlatina should be in attendance as well, from what I've heard. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to return to my duties. Good day, Blake.] And with that, the connection was severed.
The dark haired heiress leaned back in her chair, letting out a heavy sigh – screaming out in public like she wanted to do would only cause a scene, and she was raised better than that. Instead she sat there trying to figure out what to do next. She wanted to lash out, to make the stinking Faunus pay for daring to lay a hand on her boyfriend, much less beat him up. (Only she was allowed to do that, thank you very much!) A thousand ideas raced through her head at once, none of them staying long enough to find purchase.
She was about to get up and leave when the line suddenly rang on her end, startling her; her Scroll number wasn't publicly listed, and the only people who had it were her parents, her boyfriend, and the Headmaster of Beacon Academy.
It didn't fill her with confidence to see the Caller ID appear as unlisted.
The CCT had the most advanced privacy measures and spam filtering in the world, so there was little if any chance that the system had been hacked. Figuring the best way to get to the bottom of this was to ask the person on the other end directly, she hit the Answer button. "I don't know how you managed to accomplish contacting me here of all places, but if you don't want the full force of Atlas's military on your ass you'll tell me how you did it."
[You're certainly to the point, aren't you? Not even a 'hello,' just right into things. I like that. Though I'll admit you're a bit too adorable to pull off threats like that one.]
The voice on the other end was clearly more amused than intimidated, like Belladonna had been hoping. There was also no video feed; if her caller had a camera on their end, it wasn't turned on, which frustrated her even more.
"Who are you?" Blake demanded.
[My name isn't important right now; it's highly unlikely we'll interact again after this anyway, but I suppose you could say that I'm an… enabler of change and progress. The reason I contacted you specifically is because we appear to share a common frustration. A… non-human one.]
This got Belladonna's attention. While common folk who shared any great sympathy for the Faunus were few and far between, also rare was conversation about the Faunus blight plaguing the world; that was usually reserved for the politicians and those who have too much to drink. It was somewhat refreshing to hear another person all but openly state a truth like that.
"I'm listening…"
[I figured you might. I'll keep it simple – I have something here that could drastically work to solve your Faunus Problem permanently, with the fringe benefit of dealing with your other dissenters as well. Would you be willing to sponsor its development and implementation?]
"That depends. What do I get out of this arrangement?"
[Apart from a way to nullify the Faunus threat? Well, among other things, you'd get to take full credit for this technology and fully control where and how it's used, and I'm sure history would recognize you as a true innovator. Plus…] The voice paused for a moment. […This would help you control your little 'pet'. I've already taken the liberty of sending someone to sedate her for you.]
"…!"If she weren't so elated at the prospect of such a wonderful future, Belladonna would've questioned how the voice knew about that. Instead she let it slide.
"You're being incredibly generous with me, whoever you are. What do you get out of all this?"
[Satisfaction, mostly. Suffice it to say the simple knowledge of bringing true order to your situation is its own reward for me. As I said, I'm an enabler of change.] Blake's Scroll beeped a moment later. [I've sent over some reading material for you to peruse at your leisure. When you return to your dorm you'll find your 'pet' resting comfortably, and two samples of my solution to your problem; feel free to test them out.]
The connection was suddenly severed. Belladonna still had no clue who that voice was or why they had given her what they had, but that was quickly becoming an irrelevent question.
All it took was a brief glance at the document she'd been sent, and it was already blowing Blake's mind: a device that could make even the most willful person susceptible to any command they were given?
It was so evil, so immoral…
So perfect~!
She quickly made her way out of the CCT tower and back to Beacon Academy, eager to try out this Forced Emotion Suppression Apparatus "Pacifier" thingy (and maybe workshop the name a bit, it sounded too much like something for babies). It was a wonderful gift, and one she had every intention of using to its fullest extent. She would have gone to the Headmaster first, but there was testing to be done before everything else.
Besides, she wanted to see Snowball; she just knew the white-haired cat Faunus would look absolutely darling with a shiny new collar…~
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Designation: Remnant-9412 (Faunus World #3)
Type 1 Common World
Class 5 Population – 30/70 HF (Human/Faunus) Ratio
Grimm Threat DETECTED
Environment: GREEN
Integrity: GREEN
Culture: RED
Dust/Aura: GREEN
Deviation from Standard: 33.32%
Special Note: Finding a world where the human and Faunus populations have somehow swapped places can be a tricky thing, but we found this one early. Initial scans indicated a very wide division between social classes, and that doesn't seem to be changing the further along the timeline I look. If nothing changes soon, I might have to break my rules and interfere; social injustice is not uncommon in many worlds, but here it's going a bit too far.
Special Note 2: I noticed a bunch of high-level energy signatures from several different Remnants all centered in one small area of the timeline. I need to pay special attention to this; it may hold the key to finally getting through that damn interference field of Remnant-1261-6. Although it also might upset the overall stability of this world, which is also important.
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Author's Note: Rosey the Faunus Ruby was designed with tragedy in mind; in her world, Faunus are treated like actual shit, and she dealt with a lot of hardships because of that. This made her quite meek, seemingly smaller than the other Rubys she deals with simply by her stature, even though she's roughly the same age as them. She has a lot of personal and character growth ahead of her, and it pretty much starts right here.
Next chapter: We get our first look at a completely new world, along with a brand new Ruby… but one who's almost at the end of her journey by the time we get there.
=^..^=
