"Does this mean we're getting superpowers?"

Of course that was the first thing Rex would ask. Jay wasn't all that bothered by it though, because really, this was RWBY.

"I don't know." But that didn't mean he had an answer. "I mean, we're here, aren't we?"

"Yeah... but I don't think that counts as a superpower." He scratched the back of his head, and Jay just sat there on the bed thinking about what to say.

He'd been having weird feelings every now and then, and said feelings always forewarned him of incoming danger: always letting him feel the pain of it first, as creepy as it was. Well… that's what he assumed was happening; there wasn't any concrete evidence other than that sense of harm. Sure, it alone could count as a superpower... but it wasn't exactly the type of thing you tell your worried friends about. Rex was always doing his best to look out for him, even if the guy often got carried away with other things in the moment; Jay knew for a fact it would worry his bud if he mentioned any of the weird dreams, or the other copious amounts of danger he'd faced since his sudden introduction to Remnant.

"Well..." He had to come up with something though, just to get Rex to settle down. "In the show, they always had to awaken the person's aura before a semblance could form."

"Their what, and what?"

"The superpowers of RWBY: they're called 'semblances'. Aura is like a soul shield that protects their bodies."

"Like… the shields in Halo?"

Jay withheld a chuckle; at least he got the basic idea.

"Yeah, like in Halo."

"Okay… so, semblances?" Rex seemed to stall on that. "Are they, like, bits and pieces of power? You know, with them being called 'semblances'?" He paused afterwards, backtracking on what he said. "Hold on, I think I'm getting my terms mixed up."

He wasn't, not really, but Jay decided he'd stop his friend before the man gave himself a headache.

"It's metaphorical. The people here call them semblances."

"But why?"

That was a very valid question... and one Jay couldn't exactly remember the answer to. Maybe it was spoken about in one of the developer commentaries, or even mentioned in the board games, card games, and other miscellaneous multitudes of bullshit RoosterTeeth used for worldbuilding outside of the main show. The thing was: this Remnant they were in was all too real to his experiences so far, meaning he couldn't completely rely on old trivia to understand what was going on in the world. For all Jay knew, there might not even be a Salem to worry about in this 'real' Remnant.

"Beats me." Jay shrugged, and Josh's arms dropped.

"I thought you knew everything about this place?"

"So did I, until I started considering that this might not even be an exact copy of the show."

"I don't know..." Josh raised up both his arms, stretching them wide as Jay watched on with a raised brow. "We're looking pretty cutesy. This is definitely weeb."

"Can you not say it like that?" Jay mumbled with a sigh, and Josh just tilted his head a little, lowering his arms slowly.

"Why?" He nearly smirked. "Afraid of being called a dork?"

"No." Jay flatlined a look. "But the term 'weeb' doesn't exist here, and if we start spitting out words people haven't heard of, we'll only draw attention to ourselves."

"And what's wrong with that?"

Jay went to open his mouth, but stopped. He'd considered that Salem might not be a problem, and by extent that would make Ozpin just an ordinary headmaster too. But, on the off chance that those two were up to their scheduled warfare, drawing eyes onto themselves was a one-way ticket to all kinds of trouble. If that was the case, Ozpin would at least make their deaths painless, but Salem would ensure they suffered.

Death, however, would be the more merciful outcome.

"If this place is as bad as it should be, we'll end up with all kinds of maniacs chasing after us." He raised a hand, and started counting off fingers. "Terrorists of the White Fang, psychopathic serial killers, Grimm - who are the monsters of this world - and secret societies hell bent on mass extinction." Jay cast a skeptical eye to Josh, who was slowly hissing through his clenched teeth. "Need I go on?"

"All over a single word?" Jay merely stared, and his friend relented. "Fine, you've made your point." Josh's expression flopped into one of disbelief. "Damn... We really are in a cartoon."

Yes, they quite were, and had the circumstances been a bit different - say, along the lines of how most fans would write their self-inserts into the world - then they might have been able to have a bit of fun. They never had such luck though, and as always, reality had a way of reminding them that just because they were experiencing the impossible, didn't mean it wasn't going to continue ruining everything they touched.

A couple knocks echoed at the door, followed by a voice.

"Hey boys." It was Miltia, with her strangely soothing voice. "You two mind if I drop in?" This was coupled with a few seconds of silence. "I have cookies."

"She has cookies~" The cheeky grin on Rex's face erased some of the earlier unease, filling the gap of his headspace with mild irritation. The guy was teasing him, and he made no effort to hide it.

Jay, through a mild grumble, waved for Josh to let her in. Following up with a taunting smile, Josh reached for the doorknob with a reply.

"Come on in."

At least Miltia didn't look too upset, despite their day being essentially ruined earlier. In her hand was what seemed to be a bag of miniature cookie bites, made brazenly apparent by the picture displayed prominently across its surface. Her smile picked up a bit, and reaching into the opened pouch, she tossed some of the little sugar bites in the air towards Rex, who stumbled for a second, but ultimately caught all three.

"Your friend is quite the gentleman." Sitting at his side, Jay felt a strange tingle shred up his spine as she leaned in a little, enough to make him back away a tad. Her chuckle, being as playful as it always is, coated her words with a sublime comfort: one both relaxing, and terrifying. "And here I thought you were all alone."

"So did I." He knew Rex was watching, but this was as close to a thanks as he was able to muster at the moment. "But he always finds a way to watch my back."

"No problem buddy." It almost sounded sentimental... had Rex not already stuffed the rewarded snacks into his face. At the very least, he refrained from spitting anything out, speaking through a single corner of his mouth while the rest chewed away. He had no qualms with looking stupid; heck, he'd always just been about the goofiness of life and the good times.

Miltia then laid a hand on Jay's leg, drawing his eyes to her, and Josh took that as his que to leave.

"Hey." While he turned away, he knew both sets of eyes were on him. "I'm heading out into the club: gonna see what they've got going on." Raising a hand, he made a ringing motion in the shape of a phone. "Call me if you need me."

Making sure to shut the door behind him, he started off.

He wasn't exactly all that subtle with most things, he knew this himself, but there were times where it was so blatantly obvious even he couldn't ignore it. Did he expect his buddy to go through anything 'intense' being alone in the room with the crimson firecracker? No, but she obviously felt 'something' towards Jay. Even if Josh himself couldn't tell what it was, he still knew it was best to leave the pair alone, if only to make it easier for both of them to deal with whatever needed to be spoken.

At least the club was cool, and seeing such a classic looking disco thing going on made Josh a little excited to try out a few moves of his own. However, despite that seeming like a fun idea, what was even cooler was the icy gal sitting all alone at the counter of the bar.

Jay, at the very least, had informed him of the basic gist of their situation. Remnant, RWBY, Junior and the twins: he'd been given a basic introduction of the story they now found themselves within. Being inside a fantasy world always sounded cool, and he'd be lying if he said it didn't get him a little bit giddy, but with what he'd seen earlier, he reeled that excitement in.

He hadn't told his buddy what he saw, and how could he? How do you tell your best friend not only had you seen them die, but you'd also seemingly jumped through time to save them?

Now, though, was not the time to sit on said issues. No, instead he was seeing a lonely young woman who could probably do with some company. Jay had managed to make a friend in little miss red, and so it felt only right to try his luck cozying up with the angel of the pair; not that he minded Jay drawing the eyes of the demon, because really, she was the softest demon he'd seen in a while.

Plus, he really needed to chill after earlier.

"How's it hanging?" He took a space casually by her side on the stool to the left, causing the babe to curl her brow. Tossing on his coolest grin, he tried his luck. "Not trying to interrupt or anything, but from what I heard you and your sister were looking after my bro: thanks for that by the way."

"Miltia did all that." The spicy woman rolled her eyes, seemingly uncaring for his attempt at small talk. "I just followed along."

"Still though, that counts for something."

"No it doesn't."

Okay... so she's not that easy to get. Not exactly what he was expecting, but in all honesty, she didn't exactly seem like the type of woman who enjoyed being approached so directly, and thus he switched up his tactics.

"Okay... disregarding this mess of an approach; how are you tonight?"

Yes, Josh was switching up his tactics, but that didn't exactly mean it was for the better. Melanie, of course, called him out on this immediately.

"Really?" Her chin fell onto her open palm as she leaned on her elbow and twisted her head towards him. "That's the best you can come up with?" Josh went to open his mouth, only for the clearly much rougher woman to just keep on swinging. "I don't even know who you are, and you're already shooting your shot."

"Name's Josh: Josh Kenny, but my friends just call me Rex." This, expectedly, drew a more perplexed look from her.

"How do you get Rex from Josh?"

Or better yet, what the dust kind of name is Josh Kenny anyway?

For some reason, this idiot wasn't getting the memo that she wanted nothing to do with him, but his hard-headed brick of a brain didn't appear all that insightful when it came to reading the room anyways, so it was partially her fault by enabling him via responses; she was better off just up and leaving.

"You don't."

That did nothing to answer her question.

"I had a pet puppy named Rex though, so I told my buddies to call me that."

But that did. It was a nonsensical answer, sure, but at least it was an answer; shockingly these things were hard to come by recently.

"Right..." She could have chosen to make her exit then, but there was still something bothering her about the guy. "Okay, but what about your name?"

"What about it?" His face showed something akin to innocent wonder, which for a man as tall and broad as him kind of made him come off as a big fluffy dog; thinking about that now made it easier to relate him to the supposed puppy he cared for, and subsequently named himself after like a buffoon.

"I don't see how it relates to color, in any way at all." She was being blatant this time, not wanting any misunderstandings whatsoever. Jay already had a weird name, and so too did this guy, which had her wondering just why they were in Vale.

"It doesn't..." His head twisted as he leaned. "Should it?"

Yes.

That at least confirmed his potential nationality; Vacuo... or maybe the upper echelons of Atlas, but more likely Vacuo seeing as he didn't look or act like an uppity bootlicker. With the color rule being more a thing of honors amongst the kingdoms, it allowed for some falsehood of choice when naming your kids. The idea of individuality tossed so haphazardly into a tradition so backwardly strict, while stupid, was ultimately a good tell of who was who. Vacuo had next to nobody following the rule, whereas Atlas had 'select' members of certain ignoble families who actively refused the tradition altogether out of spiteful resentment relating to the past - the losers always tried to find a way to snap back.

"No." But she wasn't about to tell him that; if he didn't know of the rule itself, it narrowed him down as being from not only Vacuo, but from one of the solitary settlements stretched out across the sands: ignorant of the world and its active changes over the years. "It's just that most people around here, namely huntsmen and huntresses, like to ensure their names and families represent colors of a sort."

"Why?"

"Makes it easy to tell who's from who's family." She tossed on what she hoped was a 'shove off' sort of smile. "It's usually a 'born into' profession most of the time."

"Huh... I didn't know that."

Of course he didn't, he'd probably been home-schooled: especially with how he seemed to wear that idiotic looking grin. To be fair though, her words were a partial lie. Yes, most huntsmen and huntresses inherited that particular choice of career from family members they usually looked up to, but the naming convention was just made up on the spot to test how ignorant he was, and he proved 100% Vacuan - probably one of the poor ones too. And then he winked, ticking off a special part of her brain with the urge to slap him so hard across the face she could pretty much already hear the potential resounding echo.

And then he opened his mouth again.

"Cool."

She almost wanted to drop her head in the hopes a quick bonk on the bar would dumb her down enough to swallow the stupidity she always somehow attracted. However, Josh wasn't quite done.

"Sounds kind of neat now that I think about it, and it would explain why everyone dresses funny."

At least they could somewhat agree on something... dust, that sounded desperate coming from her.

"I suppose that's the most merciful way I've seen it put." She scoffed a little. "But it keeps people happy. If everyone was as miserable as they should be, we'd be drowning in Grimm."

"Tough day?" He offered a half-smile, and while she wanted to kick his ass, at least it wasn't pathetic looking. Brothers, at the very least he wasn't as sorry as his friend, so he already had a leg up over that worthless bastard. Miltia could rebound in an attempt to forget the past, but Melanie wasn't one to bitch out like that: their mother would pay, and when she did, they could put that particular memory behind them.

And on that day she would allow one solitary moment of weakness to show: acceptance of a promise kept.

"I wonder what gave it away?" Flat-facing again, she still didn't see any hints of unease across his mug. "Let's see: was it the recent attack at the mall my sister was spending the day at; the fact she brings home not only the usual loser, but another one at that; or, maybe, it's the fact I have to sit here now babysitting the second one while he tries hitting on me?"

"Oh well." He was waving her off now, great... Watching him shrug still annoyed her, but at least he seemed to finally catch the hint she'd been jamming down his throat. "Can't win 'em all; still, it never hurts to try." He slipped on a more relaxed face. "So... wanna just be regular pals instead?"

"Wha-?" Did he, or did he not just show he had brain cells?

Eyeing him up again, she wasn't able to see anything more beyond his outward appearance; either he was hiding his true intentions away, or he really was this blunt with what he wanted. In the end she huffed, rolling her eyes and signaling Junior from his place down the bar to send her another drink. It was too fucking early for this, but if it would get 'Rex' to shove off, then what harm was there in having what amounted to an oversized potato believing itself important to you?

"If it'll help you piss off faster, then sure; knock yourself out."

"Come on, don't be like that." Seeing her catch the drink as it shot across the bar was cool, he had to admit, but she didn't look to be fully onboard with his little proposal. "I'm not that insufferable."

"I don't know…" She took a little sip, not letting even a trace of the clear liquor wash past the corner of her lip. Setting the emptied glass down, she shot him a vicious glare "You're pretty unbearable right now."

In a way he felt a little bad for her; she was clearly having a shit day, that much was obvious, but it didn't look like she was handling it very well. He wanted to help, he really did... but there was only so far you could go before making things worse. And so, he took his loss in stride.

"Meh, you just caught me at a bad time."

"You came up to me."

"I caught you at a bad time then."

"So you're pushing the blame on me now?"

"No, that came out wrong. I caught you at my bad time."

Well wishing: sure. Quick witted: debatable.

.

.

"It was a shit-show, Oz."

"I can see that."

Really, he hadn't expected the White Fang to launch an assault so suddenly, and in the open too. It was suspicious to say the least, but something about it just felt wrong. His eyes left the report playing out across the holographic display atop his desk, and instead flew back to Qrow.

"How much dust was lifted?"

"Nothing." And so the list of curiosities just continued to grow, with Qrow himself most displeased of all. "It's the first attack they've done in months that hasn't resulted in sweeping off the shelves."

"That is… concerning." Crossing his fingers, he was about to dwell on the potential reasons for such a change. That was, until Qrow decided to throw yet another strange coincidence into the limelight.

"Oz, run back the feed." Qrow wore a hard look, and once Ozpin rewound the news footage the pair were once again watching the censored record of events from nearby security cameras, which were taken both into custody after the attack and edited for broadcast. Qrow reached up and singled out a point in the clump of people panicked across the screen. "Guess who's here?"

Interesting…

"He's made his appearance again, this time within the eye of the storm." Ozpin narrowed his focus from the potential reasons of the attack, and instead set it on the man bearing such a similar appearance to the silver-eyed prodigy of Beacon's newest first-years.

Just what was the young man doing in the mall? Surely there were a list of logical reasons to make his presence there both innocent and ordinary, and yet, he'd shown up just in the right time and place to meet with an attack so out of character for the recent actions of the terrorist core plaguing their city. Combine that with his knowledge of dangerous information, and all of a sudden 'innocence' is the last thing to come to mind.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Qrow was quick on the draw, and honestly, so was he.

"As damning as this is, we cannot jump to conclusions just yet." But still, he had to bring about a sense of reasoning to the whole scenario. Yes, the signs pointed towards him holding a connection towards the group, but they had no clue as to whether it was a positive one or a negative one.

For all they knew, the White Fang may have been targeting him.

"What are we going to do? We can't just let him run around all willy-nilly." However, Qrow also had a point, and he wasn't about to ignore it; especially with what came next. "Ruby was there." His voice strained. "You saw her zipping around in the feed."

"They're calling her actions heroic." Ozpin noted immediately how the media attempted to frame the girl's fight in a better light, as it was the first thing that drew his attention when the attack was reported. But despite her good intentions, it was still a reckless decision, and both Qrow and him knew there would be discourse online.

"I know. Her attempt at stopping them has lightened the current load of negativity somewhat, but come on: that's two for two. He was there for the attack, and so was my niece." Qrow bit back a growl. "Do you think she's met him yet?"

"At this point we have to assume the answer is yes." Action was the only course available to them, this Ozpin knew. Preferably sooner, rather than later. If Salem had one of her pawns out to snatch away the girl, then he'd need to dispose of them: be it through violence or persuasion. "Keep an eye on Miss Rose on her off time, but during classes I want you to find out everything you can about this 'impersonator' of hers. If he is a threat… you know what to do"

"I got it." Qrow eased up.

"Thank you. Oh, and Qrow..."

"Yeah?"

"Let's use our words first." Ozpin leaned back. "If we're lucky, we may be able to convince him of the threat Salem poses to everyone: himself included. I would rather have more allies in our hands, as opposed to buried in graves."

"Right."

And with that, Qrow took off, all the while Ozpin contemplated just why the boy took such 'inspiration' from Ruby's appearance, as well as what Salem might have told him to earn his loyalty. Just how fragile was said loyalty, and what use was the boy to her.

Author's note

...

So this is a few days late. Shocking, I'm sure, but recently I've been feeling a bit tired, and seeing as both this and L&K aren't my main thing, I'm more inclined to delay them if needed.

No, my fatigue doesn't mean I'm giving up on these, it just means they'll take a little longer to come out. I've not had the motivation to do any writing period for quite a bit now, but here we are anyway - it's late, but at least it's here.

Updates might pick up in frequency if I get in a better mood at some point, but for now you'll have to settle for late uploads; unless it's Beyond Destiny, who'll instead suffer from shorter chapters - that monstrosity has been going for two years and more by this point; if I don't keep at it, even a little, it'll never get done. Fair warning for this chapter specifically: there are parts I don't exactly like - mainly Qrow and Ozpin's portrayal; I feel I can do much better - so I might change it up later on.

Until next time.