Felipe1402XZA: when jack make the muscular poses with Machio i think Fullmetal alchemist when sig met Armstrong, i don't expected to appear that woman with fetich of muscular men and Jack get a fu**ing Melk Knife! who i still think is one of the best craft i know, is really scary is he make weapons and of the Lamp is of the magic type?
Re: That was the intent, yes~ Akemi's reaction was too-good to pass up on as well~
Melk is one of my favorite characters in Toriko due to his nature as a craftsman; something that as of late has become its own power system in the Isekai sub-genre. In fact, Melk the First's final blade, "Ichiryu's Knife", was so over-powered it could cut through the dense air surrounding Acacia's Salad: AIR. Considering how many atmospheres that has to represent, well…
As for the lamp…~
LoamyCoffee: OH YES! I've been hoping for Machio and the girls to show up, love how they interact! It makes me giddy.
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Re: That just seemed like the sort of club that Nora (and by extension/coercion Ren) would become a part of~ I especially had fun writing in Ruby and Hibiki becoming friends, what with their respective over-eating and the boyfriend tangent~
Ah, I was afraid no-one would catch that~ And unfortunately, one imaginary hamster was harmed in the making of the previous chapter…~
Well, you know how it goes; pearls before swine. Melk was an anime craftsman "before anime craftsmen were cool". Highlighting Melk against the World of Remnant was also fun, because only some of the populous are obsessed with the Grimm, and his knives are stupidly powerful.
Yeah, Stella Glow has certain traits that would make it mesh kind of well with RWBY; both on the Canon & Fanon sides of it. The Four Witches are the four Maidens, Ozpin is like the Witch of Time, the Mother Qualia created by crystallized negative emotion is a convincing Grimm analogue, and so-on.
Still waiting to see if someone will catch onto the final non-Archer Reference I snuck in~
Wacko12: just out of curiosity, but are you ever going to get to the canon events?
Re: Yes. Not "soon-soon", but yes, and as such, deserves a full explanation.
The second semester structure of 1-Week Classes/1-Week Free (taking place in the implied "Timeskip" between Volumes 1 & 2, a "missed opportunity" if I've ever seen one) is to balance both School and Missions; the latter doesn't happen Canonically until the Vytal Festival in Volume 2, but I like to imagine that in Remnant, the Kingdom in question hosting the VFT would give their First-Year students real-life opportunities to practice their craft for that competitive edge before students from other Kingdoms begin to arrive. Because similarly to the Chunin Exams in Naruto, or the Yuuei Sports Festival in My Hero Academia, performing well at the Vytal Festival is an opportunity to "show off" Human (and Faunus) resources, which nets small concessions to the Kingdom who act as intermediaries between Client and their Teen Mercenary taskforce.
Since I'm treating the Vytal Festival like an "Autumn Harvest Festival" thing, there's going to be 6 more weeks of alternating School and Leave, with the events of "The Stray" and "Black and White" happening toward the end of the 6th future week (from here, in-story).
And don't worry, there will be days in-universe where "nothing happens", as the bulk of the Mission-related adventures happen in the alternating weeks where students are free to pursue their Academic or Mercenary pursuits.
Like I've said before, I feel like the implied Time Skip between Volumes 1 & 2 was a missed opportunity.
Moving on: The events of Volume 2 & 3 starting with "Best Day Ever" and ending with "The End of the Beginning", will be happening in Giant Slayer: Vytal Happenings (Volume 3); unless I can come up with a better name, of course.
As for Volume Fourrrrrr…~
drhorn: So I finished Volume 1 and 2 during the last month.
1. Its crazy that you can write an "overpowered character" that doesn't feel stale or boring after so many chapters; excellent main character
2. I'm interested if Glynda/Jack will come back some time because that somehow worked quite well early on and Glynda still seems very tense
3. Vincents' story lines are still a bit bland but in later chapters he works better and better as a side character
4. Your worldbuilding is way too good. I want to dissect your brain.
5. The handling of Jaune works well, is believable and deserved, kinda unusual for RWBY but makes me happy to see
6. It's impressive that the "Jack tells X his life story and X reacts shocked" doesn't get old and when it happens im still excited every time (please do a proper explanation for Weiss)
7. Either I read too much into a throwaway line or did Raven hook up with Jack a while ago, and how will this play into a future meetup
8. I can't wait to see the conclusion of the Jacques reveal from the last Volume
Can't help but be excited for future chapters.
Re: Always happy to hear someone has read my story in-full.
(1. Well, I try to frame Jack as being a character with "flaws", having him acknowledge in the declarative sense that there are people stronger than him, and also having all of his "strength" be the result of many years of hard work, and a great deal of suffering, instead of a "cheat ability"; he's essentiall the "Rock Lee" to Pyrrha Nikos' "Neji Hyuuga"; hard work against prodigal talent. Main OCs that are "too perfect" aren't fun to write for or even read, at least not for me, so I tried to have someone dynamic; especially since in Brother's Grimm fairy tales, there is some daaaaark shit in there~
(2. Jack was acting pretty casual about it because he's more sexually-experienced than his peers. He wouldn't treat it as a "loss" if she isn't interested in a casual relationship with him, but I imagine with all the shit she has to deal with at Beacon, cleaning up after literally all the messes, that a woman in her position might be tempted; something I got to poke fun at in "Worth a Shot", since there's no way Glynda wouldn't have "admirers" among the student body~
(3. Well, Jack has been "here" since the beginning, while Vincent has only been a larger part of the story since the end of Volume 1 leading into Volume 2. Having him and Arthur as additional male leads outside of Ren, Jaune, and even Cardin at some points, is so I have more wiggle-room to have the world not revolve around whatever Jack happens to be doing at any given time.
(4. Mind you, I wrote (and planned) this waaay before the "World of Remnant" shorts that laid it out for us like a Lecture, so a great deal of the Worldbuilding for "Remnant-356" was Headcanon, and I stuck to it even after the Canon expanded. Worldbuilding has always been my favorite part of writing FanFiction, and in particular, the Circle of Man is my favorite part of what I added to the Fanon with Spaceman because, let's be real here, if there's an Anti-Human organization in the White Fang, why did no-one ever bring up a more-blatant Anti-Faunus faction...~?
As for the brain thing, someone else already has "dibs". And I'm being completely literal here.
(5. I just never liked the way Jaune got to get into Beacon CONSEQUENCE-FREE! And I still blame him for Pyrrha's death in the Canon because he refused to do the one thing Ozpin ever directly asked of him (watching the damn elevator)! Me having Jaune get exposed, and having to work to repair his reputation and "earn" his place at Beacon (an induction that utterly reeks of cronyism) by changing himself instead of expecting everyone else to cover up his weaknesses, was the only way I could ever tolerate him in this story. If I didn't beef his character up, it'd be non-stop Jaune-bashing.
As for why my treatment of him his "unusual for RWBY", I feel like writers treat him as the "Isekai Protagonist" they can vicariously live their power fantasies through. That, or the whole "Joan of Arc" connection makes it seem "blasphemous" to shine any sort of spotlight on his glaring character flaws. Because Pyrrha literally took Jaune's "secret" to her grave.
Hell, I'm sure in a dark fanfic out there, Jaune lets Cardin, his team, and Pyrrha die so no-one knows his secret...
(6. Different people were bound to have different reactions to Jack's "Origin". Blake for obvious reasons has the frame of mind to have already predicted some of what Jack went through, and has a broader perspective of the world around her. For Yang, what happened to him was a "wakeup call" that not-only told her what Jack had gone through, but what Ruby will someday have to confront as a Huntress. Weiss being a bookish nerd at heart saw enough history books to infer what Jack had endured based on the scarring across his back alone, they just haven't had the right "alone time" for him to tell her everything, but she at-the-least knows that Yang knows "something" she doesn't.
(7. Hmmmmmmmm~~~~~~
(8. Oh trust me, I have something huge planned for that... And it will be glorious...~
WOW that was a fun one to reply to~
superpierce: figured Machio would eventually show up in one of your stories. Though I'm curious how the younger cast of Dumbbell is at beacon considering their not huntresses? Does beacon have a General ED course for regular people like in UA in MHA?
Re: Beacon always seemed waaaay too fucking "big" to be a school for just Huntsmen, so I've gone out of my way to frame it as a school of "higher learning" for many vocations; not just for fighting monsters. I mean, if you take into account the dining hall alone, there should've been way more people around with gun-swords and sword-guns around to mow down the Grimm during the Battle of Beacon. That there weren't, is further evidence of my headcanon that Beacon is basically a University/small college town, with Hunters being in the "minority" but possessant of a sort of "celebrity status".
Vale for example has the "Wall Patrol/Police", and they need considerably less training than Huntsmen because they aren't navigating a harsh wilderness, they're basically a cheaper alternative to auto-turrets with easy access to fresh supplies and a defensible position.
Especially since Ozpin's little initiation that-year, at-most (and in the best-case scenario), only 12new Teams could be admitted into the course representing each pair of Black or Gold chess pieces with only one pair of Pawns in each color. And discounting the fact that there are sure to be "washouts" each year, there were bound to be years where differing types of "relics" allowed for fewer than 12 Teams annually. At best-case, maybe 48 Teams are in "Circulation" in Beacon at any given time, but such an idea is nauseatingly optimistic.
But now I'm rambling...
*NEW WORLD*
*GAAAAASP!*
Shooting up in his bed, Vincent pat himself down before realizing-
"Holy crap…! My hangover's gone!"
Blair wanted to say more, but thought better of it.
"I mean, the blackout's a little disconcerting, but… I seem to have made it home okay," the RA continued as he looked himself over. His attention turned toward the window, night had fallen, the moon up in the sky. "Oh hey there, you~" he grinned as he plucked the handsome lamp he'd gotten earlier from its place on his nightstand. "I knew I'd found a diamond in the rough."
Placing it back on his nightstand, the white-haired teen snapped his fingers after he realized-
"Need to get some fixin's, or this'll be just a fixture…"
*Ten Minutes Later Later…*
"Alright!" Vincent grinned as he rubbed his hands together. "I've got my cloth strips, my lamp oil, and some matches," he tacked off as he sat with his lamp in front of them, provisions off to the side. "Now…" he said rolling the cloth into a wick, about to insert it into the spout before spotting something. "Huh, looks like there's something written here, but… it's sorta hard to make out…"
Rubbing at the side of the lamp with a hum, tongue poking out the corner of his mouth, all of a sudden, a vivid purple aura shone around the brass-colored vessel, the thing writing like it were something alive before it leapt out of his hand and shot a starburst of fireworks across the room. Vincent struggling to hold onto it as it fired off a second volley into the air, smoke, fireworks, and more smoke began to spill out of it until a glimmering purple tower of the stuff towered above him, Blair yowling before throwing herself through a window in fright.
The glimmering purple smoke slowly coalescing into a humanoid form, what came to tower over him was a larger-than life figure, relatively modest in the bust but with wide hips. Their skin a lovely olive/tan and equally-lovely blue eyes the color of the sky, long flowing purple hair tied up in a ponytail stem stalk that extended past her waist. Her attire was of the Bedlah variety, consisting of a red strapless bra-like top, sheer harem pants with black tights, gold half-rings at the waist of aforementioned, gold manacles on her wrists, a matching choker, circlet, and ponytail stem stalk with gold hoop earrings hanging from the lobes of pointed knife-like ears.
From the knees-down her body was made of smoke, the plume trailing into the bronze lamp in his hands like an umbilical cord.
"Oh great one who summons me.
Terrible one who commands me.
I stand by my oath, loyalty to wishes three," the mythic figure above him bellowed, manacled arms crossed in front of her chest.
Vincent, for his part, blinked large eyes up at her.
The stunned silence extending, the looming figure snorted, though she tried to suppress it. After several seconds more, she let out a sputtering giggle that was like music.
"Hah~ Sorry about that~ I just had to do the bit again. You have… no idea how long I've been in that thing," she said pointing a finger at the bronze lamp.
"Um… Hello there… smoking… giant lady?"
"No~" the djinn-like figure giggled, swirling about him before she shrunk down to eye level. "I'm not a Giant, I am a Genie *cough* Half-Genie *cough*, there is a difference. Giants, are not real," she said waggling a finger before retracting- "Well, technically they are real… but they don't live around here any-more."
Any normal, sensible person would've filed that information away as mind-blowing due to the implications of such, not to mention the source thereof.
Vincent, was not such a person.
" . . . What's your name?"
"Shantae, Half-Genie extraordinaire~!" she greeted with a bow. "At your service~"
" . . . My service?"
"Yup!"
"I thought the whole 'loyalty to wishes three' thing was just a bit…"
"It is. But like I said, it gets really boring in there."
"How… How long have you been trapped in here?" he asked holding up the lamp.
"In the long-term? Longer than you can imagine. Since my last Master, still a pretty long time," the now-named Shantae shrugged.
"Sooooo… wish fulfillment?"
"Three to be exact~ And ix-nay on the wishing for more wishes. That's it. Uno, dos, tres. No substitutions, exchanges or refunds~"
"Huh…" Vincent hummed, crossing his arms as he stared at Shantae, then to the lamp, before looking back up at Shantae. "Sooo… any three wishes?"
At that particular inquiry, Shantae let out an internal sigh as she turned the full of her attention onto her latest "Master", wondering what depravities they would expect of her.
To her surprise however, there was no lust in those heterochromatic orbs as he looked upon her, nor was there any outright avarice. In fact, there was barely any of the Orange Light within him at all, which was a first for anyone who had rubbed her lamp. Had her previous Master been unable to make his third wish, or the lamp been stolen and changed hands manually, since then...?
"Ah, almost," Shantae answered as she took a seat next to him. "There's a few provisos, a couple quid pro quos. Rule number one: I can't kill anybody, so don't ask," she said dragging her thumb across her neck.
"Aauuugh!" Vincent squealed as the half-genie's head came off.
"Rule number two! I can't make anybody fall in love with anybody else~" she said batting her eyelashes at him after putting her head back on. "Rule number three! I can't bring people back from the dead," she said as her skin started to turn a sickly green and her hair mangy. "It's not a pretty picture. I don't like doing it!" she cried shaking him by the shoulders before saying- "Other than that, whatever you want."
"Hmmmmmm…" Vincent hummed, crossing his arms and rolling his head from side to side. "What would you wish for?"
"Me?" Shantae blinked. "Oh, well, don't get asked that a lot…" she said running her hands down her ponytail. "Well, in my case… Ah, forget it."
"What?"
"No, I can't. I…"
"Please…?" Vincent asked, his tone causing the half-genie's heart to skip a beat as he looked at her imploringly.
" . . . Freedom. If I could have any wish, what I'd wish for… is freedom…" Shantae said floating over to the window.
"You're a prisoner?" Vincent blinked as Shantae pressed her hand to the glass, staring up at the moon.
"It's all part and parcel of the whole genie gig; even for half-genies like me. Near-phenomenal cosmic powers… itty bitty living space," she said picking up her lamp and looking into the spout.
"That's… That's horrible…!"
"Ah, but to be free! Not having to go, 'Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need? Poof! What do you need?'" she pantomimed. "To be my own master… Such a thing would be greater than all the magic and all the treasures in the world; even if it cost me most of my power, I'd still wish for it!" she proclaimed before going somber. "Oh, but who am I kidding? Let's get real here, it's never going to happen. Wake up and smell the cappuccino," she hummed to herself self-deprecatingly.
"So you mean… No-one's ever wished for your freedom?" Vincent asked, the color draining from his face. "Not ever?"
"Never ever," she sighed with a shake of her head. "The only way I get to ditch the old ball and chain is if my Master wishes me out," she said waggling the trail of smoke connecting her legs to her lamp with one hand, the other going to the choker on her neck.
"Well… I'll do it, then! I'll set you free!" the RA said getting to his feet.
"Uh-huh, yeah, right," Shantae hummed with a roll of her eyes.
And yet, despite all the previous Masters whom had told her the same thing, only to renege on said promise after getting a taste of two consequence-free wishes, that earnest look in his mis-matched eyes made her feel something she'd long forgotten centuries ago.
A renewed hope. A hope that this time, things could be different.
That they would be different.
"Shantae, I promise, after I make my first two wishes, I'll use my third wish to set you free," he promised.
"Well, here's hopin'," Shantae shrugged. "Let's make some magic happen! Ret-2-Go!" she cheered, whipping herself into a frenzy.
"Shantae, for my third wish, I wish you were free."
" . . . Say what now?" she blinked incredulously, trying to pick one of her knife-like ears clean as though she couldn't believe what she'd just heard.
A purple aura shining around the lamp as it floated out of the RA's hand, crimson-colored smoke poured out of the spout and whirled around Shantae's body. Wide eyes looking down at herself as her choker and manacles shimmered, to Shantae's shock, seams began to etch themselves into once-flawless cuffs, while a moment later her choker, her collar, broke at the back and fell to the ground before disappearing into sparkles. The trail of smoke binding her to her metal vessel flickering like candle smoke, the moment it went out, her red slipper-clad feet revealed themselves, legs quivering as she felt her own weight settle upon them; a sensation she'd long forgotten.
As for the metal vessel, the one she had spent so many centuries if not eons bound to… Even as it lost some of its luster, she could still feel a tremendous amount of power inside it. Just-enough left for two, near-infallible wishes.
The final 'wishes' she could, would, ever be able to grant…
"You…? What…? HUH?!" the half-genie gawped incredulously, falling onto her butt as she stared incredulously at her toes, and then back up at him.
"You never said I couldn't make my wishes out-of-order~" the RA said with a wide grin. "I assume the manacles will come off with each other wish."
*Sniff… Sniff…!*
"Ah, Shantae, are you alright! I didn't hurt you, did I?" he suddenly fretted, dropping to a knee beside her as her eyes grew wet with tears.
"You… You actually did it…!" she breathed. "You… You set me free…?" she gasped as though she couldn't believe it herself. "I'm… I'm free…" she gasped as a waterfall of tears poured down her cheeks. "I'm really…!"
"Well, I couldn't just leave you trapped in this thing, now could I?" he asked carelessly waggling her lamp about. As though wishing for her freedom, her, freedom, at the cost of a nigh-infallible wish were as easy as turning off the tap.
The next moment Shantae threw her arms around his chest, bawling her eyes out and soaking his shirt as the dam broke. The half-genie shaken with tears, all Vincent could think to do was return the gesture, one arm going around her back while the other went to the back of her head, whispering soothing words into her knife-like ears. Shantae, after crying for what felt like ages, looked up into mis-matched eyes before she leapt away and turned her back to him, her hands cupping inflamed cheeks the color of her sheer harem pants.
"Shantae, are you alright?" he asked worriedly.
"Y-Y-Y-Yeah, I'm fine…! It's just… Sure, people asked what I wanted, but in the end it was just lip-service…! But now…" she said as delicate fingers went up to her neck, the skin there a bit calloused but no longer hidden behind the gold choker. " . . . How…?"
"How did I wish you free?" he blinked. "I just… you know… did it," he shrugged.
"Hah… Hah hah ha… Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Shantae suddenly broke out laughing, falling onto her back and cradling her face as she stared up at the ceiling before excitedly kicking her feet.
"Well… I'm happy that smile of yours isn't fake anymore," Vincent sighed happily, Shantae stopping short as she realized, for the first time in an eternity, her smile was actually genuine.
"You… You could tell…?"
" . . . I'm a bit of an expert on the subject. I don't want the people around me to feel sad, so even when it hurts, when I feel scared about who I might really be… I smile for their sake because… because it's the only thing I can do to pay them back…" the RA said somberly, Shantae sitting up to see a despondent look on his face that made her heart clench.
"You… You really are different… aren't you?" the half-genie blinked, remembering the final words her mother, the full-genie, had said to her before they had parted, and her eternity of servitude began.
Words that only-now, coming back to full clarity, sounded as anything other than platitudes…
"Shantae… No-matter how tempting the Wishes Three might be, someday, somewhere, you will find a Master who will set you free.
And when that day comes… When that day comes, your greatest curse, will become your greatest blessing.
Because no matter how many decades, or centuries, or even millennia you have to wait, he or she will be waiting for you, awash from across the Sea of Time.
So wait for them. Wait for your Final Master. The one who will set you free. The one you'll want to spend the final grains of your hourglass with."
"Ma… Mama…" Shantae whimpered before furiously rubbing her eyes. "You were right… I stopped believing centuries ago… but you were really… really right…~"
"Hey, Shantae, can I ask you a question without it counting as a wish?"
"Of course, Master~!" Shantae beamed merrily, eyes filled with light, modest chest swelling with pride.
"What happens after those final two wishes get granted?" he asked looking at the untarnished part of the lamp. "Like… Where will you go?"
"Well… If I were a full genie, I could do whatever I wanted with my 'phenomenal cosmic power'," she said making air quotes. "Since I'm only a 'Halfa'… I'll retain the power I had originally before being bound to that lamp, but my wellspring of magical power won't really be infinite anymore. And sure, as a Halfa I'll live a lot longer than Humans… but I'll still get old and pass away someday…" she explained.
"Oh? What was your specialty before the wish-granting?" the RA asked curiously.
"Magical belly dances and Transformation magic~" she said running through a few of the steps before striking a playful pose, hip popped cutely to the side.
"Oh~" Vincent awed, hands clapping.
"As for where I'll goooooo…" she said worriedly, terror and excitement for his response swelling I her chest at equal measure. "Can I… Can I stay here…?" she asked sidling up beside him. "Here with you…?"
"Sure~ My doors are always open~" the RA beamed with a smile, the half-genie's heart fluttering, ears flitting happily before she clamped them down.
"So… What do you wanna wish for next?" she asked leaning into his shoulder.
"Am I on some sort of time crunch? Do I need to worry about someone stealing the lamp?"
"Normally that would be the case, since my loyalty lied with whatever hands were holding it… But since you put a time-delay on my freedom… you really don't," Shantae realized, the Lamp filling her mind with the necessary knowledge to answer the inquiry made of her.
Normally, this feature of her imprisonment was reserved for intuiting the actual "how" of wish-granting. A necessity for a half-genie born before the advent of modern material goods and/or concepts. Without it, half of the wishes asked of her would sound like unintelligible gibberish.
"You basically 'sequence broke' the game by making my third wish, the wish for my freedom, in-advance. If you hadn't done that, you'd have had to guard the Lamp from anyone who wanted to make their own wishes, but now… Now those final wishes have become 'user-locked' to you. Only you can rub the Lamp and summon me to your side, but now that I'm basically free… Now I can move around more or less as I wish."
"Ah, I see, I see," Vincent hummed, something in his mind telling him that near-infallible wishes could cause a lot of damage if someone unscrupulous had gotten to her Lamp. He also felt a little clever about it, playing the system like he did, but he chose not to bring it up; it'd put a damper on the euphoria she felt for being on the actual road to freedom. "So… How-long did your previous masters take to make their wishes?"
"Eh, it varied," Shantae waved off uninterestedly, already the memories of her previous 'masters' fading from memory. No loss on her part, though she supposed putting ink to pen might prove useful down the road if she wanted to become a novelist or something. "Sometimes my Lamp would fall into the hands of a master who'd already dedicated time and energy into compartmentalizing their desires, and they'd be done in a day. Others… they'd make their first two wishes and then sit on the third for years and years, leaving my Lamp to collect dust and then change hands in an estate sale; assuming they didn't make the last of the wishes in desperation somewhere."
"Oh, well, sorry to say, but, I can't really think of anything else to wish for right now."
"You… You can't?" Shantae asked blinking beautiful eyes at him.
"I mean… I already have a home, and food, and friends… There might be things I want, but not anything I really 'need' that I can't just get for myself with a little hard work," the RA answered. "If anything at all, I'd wish for my memories back, but I've already been told those are just… gone. So it isn't like I can wish for that… Can I?" he suddenly asked.
"I… I'm not sure…" Shantae hummed cupping her chin. "I can always take a look, see if it's something I can do. If I were a full-genie I could just snap my fingers and 'poof', it'd be done… But as a 'Halfa', I'm a little more limited in what I can do. Not by a lot, but the differences are still pretty clear. At least to anyone who knows what a full Genie can do."
"Oh, so… how are you going to check?" he asked, Shantae's cheeks dusting pink.
" . . . Close your eyes?" she asked, the RA blinking before lowering his eyelids and growing still.
Cupping his cheeks and turning him to face her, with a reddening face she slowly leaned into him, heart palpitating. Her lips a hair's breadth from his own, the next moment her body dissolved into red and purple-colored smoke before snaking into one of his ears. Eyes snapping open, instead of the heterochromatic crimson and indigo, now the teen's eyes were a lovely sky blue.
"Um… Shantae? Where did you go?" the RA blinked, unaware of the change.
"I'm right here," her voice called out from inside his head, the teen blinking before going to the bathroom mirror and looking at his eyes.
"Um… Hi?"
"Hi~"
"You're… uh… inside my head?"
"Yup! Just taking a look under the hood. Boy, it's a real sock drawer up here!"
"So… you can turn into smoke?"
"Well, the Lamp just makes my original Transformation Magic stronger. Before, I could only turn into animals with real bodies. No 'elementals' or anything like that."
"Oh. I see," he hummed, largely nonplussed. "So uh… What's the damage? I'm always eager for a second, or even a third opinion."
" . . . "
The next moment a shudder went up Vincent's spine as a coil of red and purple smoke slithered out of his ear, coalescing back into half-Human form, seated on the bathroom counter.
" . . . I'm sorry, Master. There isn't anything I can do," she said despondently, this being the first time she genuinely felt bad about not being able to grant a wish for someone.
"Why…? What's wrong? Like… what's actually wrong with me…?"
"See, the thing is… Some of your memories are still there… it's just that they're 'buried' under all the 'silt' in your mind. The memories that are gone… They're gone for good. Only a full genie could get those back… or they might not, since messing with a human Soul sits in the gray area of 'can't kill someone' or 'can't bring back the dead'. And making someone fall in love with anyone else is a free will sorta thing… I'm really sorry…"
"No, no, it's fine… Honestly, that there's some of my original memories left… that's a relief. It means the memories that are still there aren't gone for good… even if it means the memories that really are gone, are gone for good…" Vincent said with a downcast expression. "Thank you, Shantae."
"For what? There wasn't anything I could do for you," she replied, ears drooping.
"Thank you for giving me some closure on all… this," he said twirling a finger at his temple. "So this… 'silt' you were talking about…"
"Oh, that'll calm down in time. Like the silt from a disturbed lakebed. All you can do… is wait it out. Wait and see what memories are there, which aren't."
"I think for a while now, that has been happening," he hummed. "Remembering people's faces but not their names. Remembering people's names but not their faces. Places, times, but with pieces missing… Maybe I can't take all of it back, but what little of my past I will remember…"
" . . . A great love is a lot like a good memory," Shantae said after a moment. "When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of reach, it can be all that you think about. And you can focus on it, and try to force it. But the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient, and hold still… Maybe. Just maybe, it'll come to you," she recited. "I'm sure you'll get your memories back someday, Master~"
" . . . Thank you, Shantae."
"You're welcome~" she beamed, happy to see him smiling again. "So… What now?"
"I mean, I was going to read by lamplight, but now… I'm kind of tired…" Vincent yawned as he put away the oil and cloth wicks. "Question."
"Yes?"
"What's it like in there? Inside your lamp I mean? Like, is it bigger on the inside?"
"I mean… It has all the necessities of a modern home I guess; bathroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, spa, master bedroom with fly-in closet, garden, palatial ballroom, breakfast nook, and a hallway full of paintings," she shrugged.
"Hm. I guess even a nice home with luxuries could be considered 'itty-bitty' when it's essentially your prison," Vincent hummed, looking around his own domicile.
"Honestly, I like your place a lot better~" Shantae hummed as she took everything in. "Not too new, not too old. The company's a little suspect, but, hey, no-where's perfect," she hummed staring at the recently-acquired appliances, which seemed to quiver under her scrutinous gaze. "Anything's a step up after being a prisoner," she said before walking up to him and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you. I'm eternally grateful."
"Well… I'm happy I could set you free," Vincent replied with a blush. "Ah, anyway, I'll see if I have some spare PJs in your size. I doubt you wanna go back into that thing now that you're free," he said before tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, can you? I'm a little worried you left something important in there."
"Oh, I can go back… But I don't want to," she answered. "Anyway, I have my own jammies. Transform!"
A plume of smoke washing over her, when it cleared, Shantae's gold jewelry sans the gold manacles had vanished, and in place of her red Bedlah attire was a loose-fitting white tank top and baggy parachute pants, little pink ribbons at her shoulders and knees. With her hair down, the exotic belly dancer girl now looked absolutely innocent and adorable.
"So… How do I look?" she asked blushing cutely.
"R-Really cute…" the RA answered, face flushed pink. "U-Um… You take the bed, I'll take the-"
"Nope!" the half-genie chirped cutely. "I mean… You're… the one, my 'Final Master'. I… The last thing I want is to be alone tonight; new place… new time…"
"Oh, ah, I mean, if you're really okay with that," the RA gulped before going over to the wardrobe and fishing about. "So uh, just curious. What other costumes do you have?"
"Oh, I've got all sorts of cute outfits. 'Ninja', 'Officer Wagon', 'Beach Day', 'Snake Princess'. If you're good, I might even show you my 'Dancer' outfit~" she said with a cheeky smile. "Of course… the only one I'll let see that outfit… is you~"
"O-Oh…! I see…" he said with plaid-patterned PJs in hand. "Um… Do you mind?"
"Oh! Right! Sure!" Shantae nodded, whirling around and giving the young man some privacy.
The sound of clothing shuffling and pooling on the floor, knife-like ears quirked before Shantae discretely peeked over her shoulder. The young man's muscular body coming into view as he pulled on his pants, sky blue eyes went wide as she beheld a horrible-looking burn-like scar running from his left shoulder to right hip. Snapping her head back to the front, after cloth rustled down his torso, Shantae stepped over to the bed and took a seat, blushing cutely as she pulled back the covers.
"So um… How do you want to do this? Half-and-half?" he asked taking a seat beside her after killing the lights.
"As long as you're here, I'm good with anything~" Shantae replied as she laid her hand on his, a bashful smile gracing her features.
Vincent for his part blushed to the tips of his ears, but remembered Wok's many talks to him about giving a lovely lady whatever she asked for, while also being mindful of her boundaries. Come to think of it, his surrogate grandfather had said a great many things about girls that didn't make any sense until he started talking to Dr. Oobleck and Professor Port.
Acquiescing to the half-genie's request, Vincent crawled under the sheets and faced the wall, giving her plenty of room since she was too cute to look at head-on.
A moment later after the covers were pulled up, Shantae crawled over his body, nestling into him with her back against his chest, a contented sigh leaving her lips as she took hold of his wrist and wrapped his arms around her midriff.
"Sweet, sweet freedom…~" she sighed contentedly. "Good night, Master."
"Good night, Shantae."
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Hey, Shantae?"
"Yes, Master?" she said turning around in his arms, looking up at him with large expressive eyes.
"How come no-one raised a fuss at all the fireworks and smoke when I first rubbed your lamp?"
" . . . Huh. I'm not sure," she answered after a moment's thought, the Lamp providing no additional context.
*NEW WORLD*
Previously, with Team RWBBY…
"HEY, YOU MANIACS! KEEP THE LIVE FIRE TESTS DOWN! SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO SLEEP IN HERE!" Yang shouted out of their window and into the night.
"I can't believe they have an entire club for pyrotechnics…" Blake hummed poking her head around the frame, the lingering traces of aluminum powder and various minerals dissipating in the distance.
"Hey, it's a big industry," Weiss shrugged sleepily. "A little amateurish, but then again, I have extremely unrealistic expectations when it comes to fireworks displays."
"Jack?"
"Yes, Ruby?"
"Did it maybe sound like there were fireworks going off inside and down the hall at the same time as the ones outside?" the little red-head blinked sleepily.
"Not our problem, Ruby. Not, our, problem," Jack groaned as he rolled back over.
*NEW WORLD*
AN:
The God of Light isn't the only one with a thing for wish-granting Genies~
More on that later, in a later "World of Remnant" episode as I expand on the Canon~
See you next time on Vigorous Vitality!