There it is. Ugh, there was an entire section of the chapter that after re-reading, I decided I didn't like. So I rewrote it and it pretty much took me a good 4 or 5 hours today, but I managed to do it in time to get the chapter out. Insert tired 'yayyy' here.
Comment's answer:
CinderBestGirl: ''Is he gonna go to Beacon?''
Depends on what you means by 'going to Beacon'. Physically stepped on the building's territory? Sure. Be a student? He was born too early for that. He also doesn't have much of an interest in being a huntsman.
''Also, it's 3rd, not 3th''
Duly noted, thanks. English isn't my first language and I still have trouble when it come to writing the date since I don't do it often. Also, given the pseudonym you gave, I think you'll love what I'll do with Cinder.
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth, not me. Sad, I know, very sad.
Also, info dump warning. The chapter was a bit too short and the pacing going a bit too fast toward the end so there's a somewhat lengthy explanation of Remnant's culture by Gemini. I had lots of fun writing it, but sorry if that's not your cup of tea. It was also the part I rewrited today.
I was running.
That was something I'd been doing often since coming to Patch. It was usually to escape from a pack of Beowolves, but not this time.
This time, it was because it was raining.
So I ran, drenched and cursing the weather forecast.
"A clear sky all night long" they said. My butt. This was the heaviest rain I had ever seen.
So heavy that it covered the sound of my steps as I ran, allowing me to move as fast as I wanted without the Grimm noticing me. They often didn't even notice me unless I was right in their face either, but I could see their eyes glowing in the distance.
Free to run at my leisure, I thought that I could just go back home as fast as I could. But because I had to avoid Beowolves packs before it was raining, I wasn't moving in a straight line and now, with the ruined visibility, I ended up lost.
I shivered. The cold was starting to get to me, and my clothes were getting heavier. I had to kept running, not so much to find my way back since the chances of that weren't good, but because moving was my best source of heat right now and with any luck, I might find a shelter of some sort.
After running for a bit, I came across a small Nevermore chick. I stopped running and looked at the tiny avian Grimm on the ground. I watched it as it flapped its wings in an attempt to attack my face. It failed miserably, the rain stopping it from flying, and only managed to flap in place.
"So Nevermores aren't waterproof, that's pretty weird considering birds are." I thought, before letting out a small laugh.
It seemed to take offense to that, or maybe it was just angry I wasn't dead yet, and abandoned the idea of flying to peck at my shoes instead. Being only the size of a normal crow, and with my aura covering my shoes, its attack was next to useless.
"I give you a B for the effort." I told the little birdie, before stepping on it.
It evaporated without a trace, as Grimm did. Silly Grimm.
I resumed my run, sometimes turning away from the odd pack of Beowolves, sometimes stepping on another tinymore.
I didn't know exactly how much time I ran, but I eventually saw a light piercing through the rain. It was small, which meant a single habitation in the wild rather than the city. Still, I'll take it.
I approached the house, it was bigger than the one uncle Perry and I lived in. Getting closer to it allowed me to see that it was made of logs. It looked like a very nice house.
I walked to the front door, hoping whoever lives here will be kind enough to help me. I raised my fist to knock on the door, but just as I was about to, I stopped.
"If I do knock on that door, I'd be bothering people at an hour where they'd be about to go to sleep. Just imagining myself asking for their help makes my stomach churns. ""I'm sorry sir, I need to dry myself, can I use your bathroom?" What kind of person would disturb a stranger in their home- I can't run to strangers just because I need help- Whoever live here would probably just slam the door in my face anyway- Or worse, accept to help me out of the goodness of their heart and I'd have bothered a good person who deserved to be left in peace- Or even worse than that, they'd slam the door in my face and I'd have bothered someone who didn't want to be disturbed for nothing- Akfbeyueicnbescvejvjhvbrelv eahcjvwlbcwqc..." My thought devolved into an incomprehensible mess and, frustrated by them, I leant forward and hit the door with my forehead.
Then I froze, realizing what I'd just done.
I heard step coming from inside, approaching the door.
For God's sake. I was supposed to have a higher IQ than in my past life, why was I still so stupid?
128 my butt.
A blond man opened the door, tall and muscular. I suddenly felt very small, fully aware of how miserable I must have looked.
He looked at me with an horrified look on his face.
Maybe I still had time to-
"Gods. Kid, you're drenched! You need to come inside, quick." The man said in a hurry, half panicking as he dragged me inside.
-run away?
The man, which I could now distinguish in better detail, seemed strangely familiar. But I couldn't tell why, it might just be a trick from my brain.
After he brought me inside, something seemed to catch his attention as he raised an eyebrow and looked around us, but he ignored it after a mere instant in favor of dragging me through his house.
He worked fast, and it took only a handful of seconds before he left me in his bathroom with a towel in my hand.
"Take your time with a warm shower and dry yourself. I'll go take an old pyjama of mine to lend you. Just don't forget to lock the door." He told me.
I tried to protest, but I ended up muttering so low that he didn't hear me. What I slurred barely sounded like speech anyway.
He closed the door, leaving alone. I saw my reflection in the bathroom's window; my cheeks were bright red. As were my hands, I only noticed now. Along with how I kept shivering, I now saw why he wanted me to warm myself up. After so long in the cold rain, I was showing signs of hypothermia. It looked like running didn't keep me as warm as I'd hoped to.
Resigned, I locked the door, took off my clothes and went in the shower.
The water relieved me from the cold and I got out after a few minutes, as soon as I got warm enough, not wanting to take too much hot water from my host. I felt awkward enough as it was, the less I took from him, the better.
I heard voices from outside the bathroom, but I couldn't hear what they were talking about.
So my benefactor didn't live alone. I suppose it made sense, if he lived in the forest, then he was pretty much guaranted to be a huntsman and a huntsman with a home probably had a family since they tended to goes around freely otherwise.
It sounded like he has a daughter. Or two, if the second feminine voice I hear wasn't the mother.
I froze. My brain, not slowed by the hypothermia anymore, finally started to connect the dots. A huntsman, blond, and muscular. A house made of wood in the forest of Patch. Daughter, possibly plural.
...No.
I didn't just get into Ruby's house without even realising it. I couldn't possibly be that dumb, could I?
I took the towel Taiyang(?) gave me, dried myself as fast as I could and wrapped it around my waist before walking out of the bathroom.
The man who took me inside was waiting for me and greeted me with a smile.
"You're done already? That was quick. Here." He said, handing me a boy's pyjama. "You shouldn't stay dressed like that, not when there are ladies around." He looked at his left, where two girls' heads were poking from around the corner. One blonde and the other with red-tipped black hair.
Definitely Taiyang Xiao-long, Yang Xiao-Long and Ruby Rose, in the flesh.
And me? I was wearing a towel and nothing else, what a wonderful first impression...
"Y-yeah, I'll do just that... Thanks!" I said, before all but running back inside the bathroom with Mr Xiao-Long's old pyjama in hand.
This time, it wasn't because of the cold that the face the mirror reflected was red.
I put on the lent pyjama, which consisted of a white coton shirt and brown shorts. These were olds and had a few holes and tears which had been stitched up, with differently coloured threads. It was also a little too big.
Still, beggars couldn't be choosers. And it was as a beggar that I had come here.
At least it had pockets so I could keep my scroll with me. Wich made me think, I still hade my scroll inside my wet pants.
I retrieved it, but unfortunately, it was covered in water. It should be fine if I waited for it to dry before using it, but it might break if I didn't.
So I couldn't open it to retrieve my things.
Oh well, I turned toward the bathroom's mirror and waited for my semblance to manifest.
You killed two Ursas. 14 exp.
You killed a Boarbatusk. 9 exp.
You killed 4 Nevermore Chicks. 4 xp.
So the tinymores (I was totally keeping that name) were worth 1 exp each. That was the least amount of exp I'd ever seen and it was still somehow more than I expected. Anyway, it wasn't why I activated my semblance.
I passed my hand through the mirror and retrieved one of the transparent crystals. Inside was a suitcase containing most of my Lien. I also had a box full of books and various papers in another crystal.
What was the point of a one item per crystal limit if it could be circumvanted by simply putting several things in a bag or a box? It wasn't even a 'physical' limitation since it could be ignored by a technicality.
Not that I was complaining, my semblance was the safest place to keep capital that I could want.
"Mmh, 3 000 Lien should do it." I thought, as I took a plastic card from the bag and stored it back into the crystal. One Lien was equal to the smallest amount of american money, the cent. In other words, 3 000 Lien was equal to 30 USD.
I walked out of the bathroom to find Mr Xiao-Long trying to send his curious daughters to bed.
"Meh, is it really a problem? Even if we go to sleep late, it's the weekend. We don't even have school tomorrow." Yang nonchalantly said.
Was it? I really should start paying attention to the date. I lost track of what day we were all the time.
Also, no. Bad Yang. Just because you didn't have school the next day didn't mean you should upset your sleep schedule. Getting it back on track will suck. Not that I had any room to talk, since without my semblance I used to go to bed way too late myself.
"You said that the last time, young lady. Need I remind you that you ended up three hours late for class?" Mr Xiao-Long said, unwittingly echoing my own thoughts.
Ruby stood at Yang's side, balancing herself on her feets and seemingly content to let the other two argue.
She was still not not going to bed like her father told her to, though.
I knocked lightly on the door's frame. In an instant, three pairs of eyes looked at me and I regretted making my presence know. I should have just sneaked out of the house... Wait no, I'd be stealing his old pyjamas if I had done that.
"Ah... Uh, sorry. Is this... I mean, should I introduce myself now?" I said.
Mr Xiao-Long smiled at me, like an adult reassuring a child. Which I guessed was the case.
"I'm Taiyang Xiao-Long, but you can just call me Tai. It's a pleasure, and you are?" He said, extending his hand in greetings.
I shook it, and attempted to introduce myself gracefully. "I'm Gemini T-" I coughed to cover my mistake, having almost said out loud that I am related to one the most famous criminal of the kingdom. "Lampwick. I'm Gemini Lampwick."
...Yeah, 'attempted' was the keyword here.
And come on, Lampwick? That was just the last name of the character Rooster Teeth took inspiration for my father's character. And it sounded way too similar to my actual name. I could, should have found something better.
"And I'm Yang! What were you doing this late outside?" She said, almost shouting.
"Ruby." The youngest girl said, half-hiding behind her sister and avoiding looking at me directly. She looked about as uncomfortable as I felt.
Fair enough, meeting new people wasn't a fun experience.
"Now that the presentations are made, you girls got to bed. You can get to know each others tomorrow." Mr Xiao-Long then spoke to me. "Gemini, was it? Come, I'll show you the guest's bedroom."
"Ah... Thank you Mr Xiao-Long, but that won't be necessary."
He gave me a surprised look. "Mr Xia-? No wait, what do you mean by 'that won't be necessary'? I'm not going to have you sleep on the couch when there's an empty bed. That'd be no way to treat a guest."
I shook my head. "No, I mean that I can't sleep. It's part of my semblance." I added the last part after the three of them looked at me quizzically.
"You... can't sleep? Like, not at all?" Yang asked.
"Not at all. I haven't slept once since my aura was unlocked, wouldn't be able to even if I wanted." It was really convenient to have all that free time, even if it did gets lonely during the nights.
"So you don't need the bedroom, makes sense." Mr Xiao-Long rubbed his head. "Still, I can't exactly leave you alone in the house while we all sleep. And sending you back outside is a no go."
The rain outside was still going strong. So yeah, I'd be sick if I walked away now.
"Well, if he can't go back because of the rain, and we can't leave him alone either, then what about... I don't know? Remnant: The Game, or something?" Ruby spoke up for the first time outside of saying her name.
"You're just using him as an excuse to not go to bed, aren't you?" Mr Xiao-Long said, easily seeing through his daughter.
Ruby looked down, embarassed at being called out.
Now that I thought about it, she was a lot more subdued than I remembered her from the show. Then again, she was younger. And I was a stranger in her home. Anyone 'socially awkward' would stay mostly silent in this situation.
The least I could do was to accomodate her wish.
"Please, use me as you'd like." I said with a straight face.
...I could have phrased that better.
Great, I've just met the hero and I already sounded like a creep.
Mr Xiao-Long raised an eyebrow at me. This time, it was my time to blush as I averted my gaze.
Ruby, however, perked up. "See? He's fine with it. Please please please please."
"Come on, dad, Ruby's got a point. We'd be pretty poor host if we just let him alone for hours, least we could do is cut that time down, even if it's just a little." Yang shrugged.
Mr Xiao-Long scrached his head. After a moment, he gave up and sighed. "Fine. But only one game, you girls still need to sleep at some point."
"I'll go get the the game!" Ruby said, leaving petals behind her.
"Ruby! I told you not to use your semblance in the house!" Mr. Xiao-Long said.
"It's fine!" Ruby answered from another room. "I've gotten a lot- woah! Better. See, I'm fine. I didn't run into the wall this time."
This time?
Eh, whatever. I'd almost forgotten something important, though.
I took the 3 000 Lien card from my pocket and handed to Mr Xiao-Long.
"Mr Xiao-Long, please accept this gift in exchange for your help."
"Huh?" He looked at the money and raised an eyebrow. "I'm not taking money from a kid, you can keep it. And it's a pleasure to help, really."
"Please, I insist."
"Nah, it's fine."
"Hey, if dad doesn't want it, I can." Yang said with a shit-eating grin. It was obviously a joke, though I doubted she'd complained if I accepted to give it to her.
"Yang, no." Mr Xiao-Long said
"I don't mind, Ms Xiao-Long."
Her face srunched up. "...Can you please not call me that? Makes me feel old. Just call me Yang."
"Alright Ms Yang."
"No, really, drop the 'Miss'. I don't want to be called with any kind of honorifics until I'm forty."
...But Miss was an honorific for young women...
"Oh, sorry." I didn't feel like debating the uses of honorifics, though. "But please, one of you take the Lien so I won't feel bad for bothering you at this hour."
"So that's what this was about, uh?" Mr Xiao-Long sighed. "Fine, if it can put your mind at ease."
He finally took it. Then, Ruby came back with the game.
"There, now I'm finally going to get revenge for last time and uncle Qrow isn't there to ruin everything." She said.
Oh right, with a semblance that gave bad luck to others, I guessed Qrow would be invincible at any game that include cards or dice. And Remnant: The Game has both.
Unfortunately for poor little Ruby, luck was a lie. As she would find out through my inevitable victory.
/-/
"Ha ha ha ha! Yes! Fear the almighty power of my forces! Cower as they pillage your homes and weep as they take your children from your very arms!" I laughed as my troops took another territory from Yang, now leaving her with a little less than half of Mistral and a single one in Vacuo.
"That's so unfair," She said, resting her head on the table. "Why? Why do you keep winning all engagement?"
"Hey! I haven't won all of them. Only most of them. And I win because the Evil Empire™ is unmatched by any other."
When the game started, I took Vale, wich I named the Evil Empire™. Ruby took Atlas as the Atlesian Technocracy, Yang with the kingdom of Mistral and Mr Xiao-Long took the brave Vacuan's Nomads.
It wasn't part of the rules, but a common habit people had in this world when playing Remnant: The Game was to make-up your own faction's name and roleplay as its leader. It made everything super fun.
Hence Emperor Gemini, General Ruby, Queen Yang, and Chieftain Xiao-Long.
At the begining, General Ruby proposed an alliance with me to beat Queen Yang. It seemed that they all thought I wouldn't be too big of a threat and that they prioritised Yang's defeat since she won their last game.
Unfortunately for the chieftain and her royal highness, he started the game by attacking Mistral, leaving each other vulnerable to General Ruby and I, whose turn come after theirs.
Vacuo was quickly picked apart by Ruby, Yang and I, leaving Mr Xiao-Long with only three territories. Of course, while he was now basically irrelevant, Queen Yang didn't come out unscathed, since while she did take some parts of Vacuo, she also lost twice the number of territories in Mistral. A comeback was technically possible, if luck turned around for her.
But alas, luck didn't exist.
When people shuffled cards, the cards weren't randomized. They had a starting position in the deck wich were changed quickly by human's hands. When using dice, the faces of the die stayed on the same side they'd always been and it was the movement of the hand, along with the angle and force with which it struck the table that determinated the result. Even when using a computer's card or dice game, it wasn't actually random, but an althgorithm, a mathematical equation.
In none of those things was luck involved, hence why luck was a lie, there was only causation. Peoples just called 'luck' the causations that got too complicated for them to follow.
In light of this, I couldn't help but doubt wether Mr Branwen's semblance was based on some sort of 'luck manipulation', though I wasn't sure what it could be either. Was it a psychological effect that stopped people from noticing things they otherwise would have, which people might simply chalk up to 'luck'? Or was it some kind of reality warping reality?
Was the glass the barman dropped in Volume 3 already wet and Mr Branwen's semblance prevented him from noticing, or did it make the glass wet? Was the wood Tyrian landed on already fragile and he would have put his foot elsewhere in normal circumstances, or did Mr Branwen's semblance make it about to break?
It was impossible to tell, so I could see why he thought his semblance was bad luck and didn't question it further.
But either way, when it came to dice and cards, it wasn't actually too complicated for the human brain. We could be trained to decide the result of a dice given sufficient time and effort. It was why I'd never won a game of Remnant: The Game before, my father and sister both learned the skill and managed to get the result they wanted nine time out of ten out of their dice throws. They also hid cards in their sleeves, which I wouldn't do against people who didn't do it because it was a bit much. My father managed to get himself banned from a few casinos too. Only the house was allowed to use these tricks, not the patrons.
They teached it to me too, but I only managed to pull it off a third of the time.
Still, having a third of the dice throws being guaranteed to win and having the other two-thirds equally divided (in theory) with the other players meant a noticeably significant advantage, allowing a crushing victory to the Evil Empire™.
"Well, I'm not complaining about how our alliance turned out, but why 'Evil Empire'?" General Ruby asked. She's been getting a little bit nervous when she saw how much of a threat I was in this game. I think next time I will be the one being ganged up on, victim of my current success.
"It's Evil Empire™, not 'Evil Empire'. You should get it right if you don't want to get sued."
"Sued?" General Ruby tilted her head.
"Yes. That's why it's an Evil Empire™, it's run by lawyers."
Mr Xiao-Long laughed when I said that "Ha ha ha! Oh yeah, that would make it evil all right."
"Yep! By the the way, I believe it's your turn now." I said.
"Yeah, but at this point I'm already done for. Oh well, might as well go out with a bang." Mr Xiao-Long said.
He distributed his three meager troops on a territory adjacent to one of Yang's less protected ones. If he could take this one without loosing too much of his remaining forces, he might be able to push through her half dismantled kingdom.
"Well, Queen Yang, my brave warriors of the desert launch their final assault." He took all of his troops and put them next to Yang's soldiers. "And I also activate my weather card 'Sandstorm' to give my troops a combat bonus."
Yang groaned, and with a determined spark in her eyes she showed her own card. "Well, Chieftain, you fell into my trap; 'Giant Nevermore'. Here's hoping fate is kind enough to give me a seven or higher." She rolled the two dice and got a nine. "Yes! Ha ha, take that."
I smirked. "Not so fast, your royal highness, for you've fallen into my trap as well." I revealed my trap to counter all traps. "'Diverted Fate forces you to reroll your dice." This card was usually used to protect oneself from cards like 'Giant Nevermore' but could also be used to interfere between two other players.
Yang groaned and executed herself. In more than one way, too, since she got a four this time, thus destroying all of her armies defending the territory.
Chieftain Xiao-Long grinned. "And I also activate my very last card; 'Resourceful Raider' to add your discarded 'Giant Nevermore' to my hand.
Her head hit the table as Chieftain Xiao-Long then swept through several of her remaining territories, managing to double the number of his controlled regions.
Unfortunately, he did so at the price of his defences. Although to be fair, he didn't have much of one to begin with. 'Going out with a bang' really was what he was doing.
"All right, now it's my turn!" General Ruby said, before placing her new armies next to the city of Mistral's region. "I'm taking out Mistral this turn. Prepare yourself to lose, Queen Yang!"
Since Yang had almost no troops left and had no card either, Ruby quickly captured the city before conquering what was left of both the queen's and chieftain's presence in Anima. The now mistress of both Solitas and the eastern half of Anima drew her card.
Thus came my turn, where I finished the two weaker parties in Sanus.
"And so, it come to this; a final war between the two masters of this world: The Atlesian Technocracy against the Evil Empire™. May the best, that's me, win." I said.
Ruby looked at the board, where she controlled all of Atlas and half of Mistral and I controlled Vale, Vacuo and the other half of Mistral.
"W-wait! We are allies aren't we? We could just leave it at that and declare both of us winners, right? What do you say, partner?" She tried to convince me with a slightly nervous grin, to wich I met wich a raised eyebrow.
Why, it was almost as if she didn't want to be at the receiving end of the buttkicking we gave to her sister and father.
"Ah... But General Ruby, were ye not related to Queen Yang, wich thou have just slainth on the battlefield? How can my people be assured that this peace will last, knowing of thine treachery? War is the only option!"
"What!? I'm not treacherous! I didn't even betray you or anything!"
"Dost thou think I have not seen how thou hast placedst thy armies near my borders throughout this war? Thou were preparesd-" I cut my little speech with a cough, having choked on my own words because I wasn't used to talk in old Valean. "Sorry, em...you were prepared to go to war against me for most of the game and you know perfectly that all 'alliances' in this game are temporary at best, since there can only be one winner. We're all in competition."
"Y-yeah, but it's a board game. House rules are thing, you know? We can decide to overwrite the rules and call it a day." Ruby tried to argue.
"Sure, if you want to stop the game now and go to bed already." I said.
"It is past midnight." Mr. Xiao-Long added.
Ruby mulled over our words, her eyes switching between her father and me.
"No, no. I'm good. Let's continue..." She said, before looking at her cards. "Uh, I think I might be able to win, actually."
Yang perked up at that. "Wait, really?"
"Maybe?" Ruby answered. "It's worth trying."
I really didn't think she could, even if I didn't use dice control anymore I still had a pretty hefty advantage. I was curious to see how she was going to try, though.
Ruby took the pieces for the troops she gained a the beginning of the turn, but instead of placing them on her territories, she grinned and put one of her cards on the table.
"I use 'Atlesian Dropship'."
Uh oh. That was bad. That was about the worst card she could have used. For me, at least.
"Thanks to this card, I can deploy my troops on a territory of my choice, even if I don't control it."
Since she didn't have to deploy all of this turn's reinforcement to that territory. She put half of them on her frontline and put the other half in Vale's industrial District.
With my own troops being placed to protect my borders, Vale had almost nothing to defend itself. And even with dice control Ruby still took half of the city. I could take it back easily during my next turn, but for now I still lost my faction bonus.
Like Risk, this game has bonus troops for holding an entire continent, but unlike Risk, there was also a bonus that each faction could have by holding all regions of their respective city.
Mistral, per example, receive two cards at the end of its turn instead of two.
Vale's bonus is a protection against 'Grimm' cards.
High risk, high reward, theses cards could either turn the game around or dig yourself deeper into your own grave. Controlling all regions of Vale meant that the only way to be on the losing side of a Grimm card was to lose the dice throw of my own card. A risk I'd been unwilling to take since the beginning of the game, counting on my other cards to keep my advantage.
Now though? I looked at Ruby's hand, four cards. And if she'd taken away my Valean's bonus, then she must be counting on a Grimm card to push back against my armies.
Turn out I wasn't exactly correct, as the next card she used proved to be far worse.
"And now I use 'Smuggler of Wind Path'. Now gimme those cards." She said, much more confident in her chances than earlier.
I looked at my hand, holding two cards I had so far refused to use, lest it ruins my victory.
And so, 'Giant Nevermore' and 'Ursa Major' went to Ruby, who now held five cards.
So after three Grimm cards, two of wich Ruby took from me, my armies had been wrecked. She then managed to push back against what was left and in the few turns it took me to get back on my feets, actually managed to take the lead.
I still won, but instead of finishing her off quickly after her father and sister, we slogged it out for almost an hour.
When Ruby finally lost, Mr Xiao-Long got up and stretched. "Great, now, can everyone goes to bed. Well, except you Gemini. Err... Do you have something to do while everyone else sleep?"
"I have video games on my scroll."
"The same scroll that still needs to dry?"
Ah, crud. I forgot about that.
"Oh, right. Meh, it's fine, I have books too." I said.
"Books?" He raised an eyebrow. "I didn't see you transport any books."
I grinned. "That'd be thanks to my semblance."
"I thought you said your semblance was to not sleep." Yang said.
"No, I said I couldn't sleep because of my semblance. That's not exactly the same thing."
"How does that work?" Mr Xiao-Long asked. "These two traits doesn't really sound like they goes together."
"Eh eh, wanna see how it works?"
"Well now you made me curious. Dad, can we, please?" Ruby said.
"Ruby, you agreed to go to sleep after the game!" Mr. Xiao-Long said, his voice hardening with authority. "I hope you're not trying to delay."
He reminded me of my father when he was scolding me. Did all dads sounded like that?
"No!" She almost screamed, before blushing and looking down. "I mean, no. Sorry, I just got curious."
Mr. Xiao-Long sighed. "Come on, you can ask about his semblance tomorrow."
Then we heard snoring and he, along with Ruby and I, turned our heads toward Yang, who was sleeping soundly with her head on the table.
"Great, guess I'll just bring her to her room. Ruby-" He stopped when he saw his younger daughter sleeping as well.
However, unlike her sister, Ruby's breathing clearly showed she was faking.
"You lazy little... You aren't fooling anyone. Help put the game away and go to sleep." Mr Xiao-Long pulled her ear, forcing her to drop the act.
"Ow, ow!"
"No, it's fine. I don't need to sleep so I'll just take care of it, you guys can go." I said.
"Oh, alright. See you tomorrow then." Mr Xiao-Long nodded, before taking his eldest daughter in his arms and bringing her upstair.
Ruby followed them, after mumbling a "'morrow."
I then cleaned up the table and stored the game before going in front of their TV and activated my semblance to get access to my hammerspace.
I retrieve a box which contained six books I borrowed from the library. Half of them I had finished reading already.
I had been reading a lot about the four kingdom's cultures. Some of wich I had already read about, but having now my memories from Earth, it gave me a new outlook on these.
It'll keep my mind occupied for the rest of the night.
/-/
A few hours later, as the sun's ray started to peek over the horizon, I put the book down with a tired sigh.
I'd read about Remnant's history, politics, philosophies and religions. It took some effort, but I was confident that I had a decent grasp of the four kingdoms' cultures.
Mistral was founded around a thousand years ago, a short time compared to Earth's almost 6 000 years history, but still making it the oldest civilization on the planet. The capital city itself originally had a somewhat ancient chinese like culture, though its military was more similar to japan as it had samurais and ninjas, and their emperor, who lived at the very top of the city and was believed to be of divine blood (I wondered how this could have come to be, did it had anything to do with the first emperor and founder of Mistral being a god who wielded magic, according to Mistral's mythology? I did note that his name started with Oz), was looked up by the mistrali people in a similar manner to how the chinese and the japanese used to view their emperor.
And yes, emperor, not king. The 'kingdom' of Mistral was more of an empire. There used to be two more cultures on Anima. One to the west of Mistral, who was similar to ancient Greece, and another south of both, wich was similar to the Celts. And by similar, I meant a superficial ressemblance that a brief look would make an Earthling make the comparison. Mistral conquered both, city state after city state, and just like how the conqueror's culture influenced the conquered, the conquered's cultures also influenced the conqueror.
On Earth, the conqueror nation would often culturally assimilate the defeated, but with the Grimm, suppressing the conquered's culture lead to negativity which lead to a destroyed city. Since it defeated the point of conquering them, wich was to grow Mistral's power, the emperors of Mistral allowed them to keep their culture.
The flip side of the Grimm's presence was that because the Grimm could just barely reach the lower levels of the capital but weren't physically able to reach the higher levels, where the nobility lived, Mistral's nobility was also the most corrupt and decadent of the four kingdoms. There had been a few rebellions from the people against the nobility during Mistral's history, but they all had the same result : the Grimm hit the rebels from behing and by the time the rebels managed to kill the Grimm, they had lost so much troops and were so tired that the emperor's troops just walked all over them.
Vale was similar to europeans countries, especially Britain, the architecture was similar to modern european countries, although the upper class district had victorian-style houses and manors. That was a relatively superficial likeness, though, focused more on architecture and how the kingdom's buildings looked like Britain's. Apart from that, the shallow waters of Vale's bay allowed the kingdom to actually develop naval engineering. Because of this, Vale had a long history of naval expeditions, which was why Mistral, Vacuo and Vale had know of each others for centuries and interacted instead of remaining isolated. The bay was also why sea food was a thing almost unique to Vale. One might think that Remnant's 'asian'-analogue would be the kingdom where sushis came from, but it turned out that a city atop of a huge mountain wasn't likely to develop a fishing industry.
The kingdom also attempted to explore the dragon-shaped continent in the north-west. The rare times when the explorers came back was with new fruits and vegetables, wich the kingdom started producing. This was why today the four kingdoms had access to all of the same foodstuff that modern Earthlings had, instead of being locked to local ingredients. Corn and tomatos were notably two of the crops brought back from that Grimm infested hellhole of a continent.
Vale also attempted to establish several oversea colonies, of which only Mantle, a little over 200 years ago, was successful. But with the Grimm between the colony and Vale, communication was limited, so for over half of its history, Mantle and Vale had a long political struggle in wich the colony tried to become independant and Vale tried to keep its control of the colony. By the time the Great War was about to start, the colony of Mantle was almost fully independant, but Vale still had some authority over it that they refused to let go of.
The more I read about the Great War, the more convinced I was that the whole anti-art and self-expression policies was a pretext that Mantle's leadership came up with to cause tensions between them and Vale. That their ally, Mistral, only nominally adopted those policies but never really enforced them and Mantle didn't care one bit only further supported my suspicions.
I strongly suspected that Mantle's real motivation for going to war against Vale was to obtain full independance. Mistral, on the other hand, probably tried exploiting the rift between Vale and its colony to try to conquer and annex Vale to their empire, which always had expansionist ambitions. In that sense, while they 'lost' the war, they obtained exactly what they wanted from it.
Being a colony of Vale was why Mantle's ruler had the title of General instead of king. Being called a kingdom was a sort of vestigial name. There never was a 'Kingdom' of Atlas, but Atlas used to be part of a kingdom, so it kept that part in the name.
Altlas also had what passed for 'extreme' gun-control laws on Remnant, requiring its citizens to register their weapons. Yep, that was it. There was no restrictions on who could buy and what kind of weapons people could buy. It turned out that being surrounded by hordes of monsters made Remnantians(?) very pro-guns. To the point of making the US looks anti-gun in comparison.
Atlas didn't even have that registration law for weapons, since it really was only imposed on Mantle.
And then there was Vacuo. Oh boy, that was the fun kingdom of the four.
Vacuo had a large part of its population living as nomadic tribes, but its settlements had several similarities with the american far-west, with saloons and sheriffs. They also used to have cowboys (think less cattle herder and more gunslingers that could be seen in modern US' pop culture), but those were replaced by huntsmen in a similar manner to Vale's knights and Mistral's samurais. Although Vacuo's cowboys already operated in a decentralized and individual manner, so outside of the name, not much changed as far as Vacuo was concerned. So, basically american far-west with arab nomads instead of american natives (again, a terrible comparison that failed when looked at more closely.)
Russian roulette, sorry, vacuan roulette, was a also a popular form of gambled in that kingdom. It's wasn't as lethal as on Earth, thanks to aura, and Vacuo was the kingdom with the largest percentage of aura unlocked population. It was also the kingdom with the smallest population.
The fun part of the kingdom was that, while it did have a council, the people didn't give a shit about it. The council kept writing more laws, but the people and local enforcement never cared. Vacuo technically had the most authoritarian laws of the four kingdoms, but with no sheriff caring about what politician outside of their town says, there was nobody to enforce those laws.
Basically, I liked to imagine Vacuo's councilmen as crying wojacks saying : ''No! You can't just ignore what we say. You have to obey us.'' And the inhabitants of Vacuo as the chad meme going : ''Did you hear something?'' ''Nope. Wanna go have a saloon brawl?''
Vacuo would be the best kingdom if it wasn't for all the sand. I don't like sand, it's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
As for religions on Remnant… Mr Branwen said in Volume 4 that most people on Remnant weren't religious nowadays. I thought it meant that most of the population were atheists, but it turned out to means that most people weren't praticing. Less 'didn't believe something like gods existed' and more 'Yeah, gods exist. No I don't really know much about it. I just finished my shift and want to go home.'
Monotheism wasn't a thing here. All religions were polytheistics. That was why I at first assumed that Remnant's religions were similar to Earth's back when paganism was the majority (yes, I knew that 'paganism' was just a general terms for polytheism, but there was a reason why I was using it the term to separate Earth's polytheism from Remnant's,) but after looking more closely, I realised there was a pretty big difference between the two that made the comparison unfair to Remnant.
Earth's paganism's moral foundation was a subjective one. As long as someone did what the god he worshipped approved of, his actions were morally right. So a pagan whose god supported telling the truth and approved of acting with honour was just as moral as another pagan whose god demanded human sacrifices.
Moloch's followers were moral in burning babies alive. The norse pagans were moral for attacking, pillaging and raping other people's villages. The lithuanian pagans were moral for throwing away all of their female babies and only keeping the male ones, ensuring their people's reproduction by raiding and enslaving other culture's women and having each lithuanian man keep a harem of sex-slaves. The Aztecs were moral for their mass human sacrifices. Any act could be considered moral, so long as you found a god that approved of it, which was much easier than working on oneself to become a better person, what with how many gods there was.
Contrast with monotheistic religions, which worked on objective morality, as there was only one god with the authority to declare what was moral or not. Even the worst of monotheist societies were a far cry better than any pagan one for this very reason. Of course, people were inheretly flawed, so the perfect society was never going to exist and even one with objective morality still had people does pretty horrible stuff from time to time.
This was why the comparison was unfair to Remnant. While Remnant was very much polytheistic, its moral foundation was objective. Since the Grimm were so obviously objectively evil, then it must meant that there was an objective good too, right?
As far as the gods went on Remnant. There were the Two Brothers. The god of animals, only worshipped by faunus, I didn't know much about this one. Then there was the wandering god, a god that was said to roam Remnant, his appearance changing from generation to generation and helping the faithful with his divine magic. Pretty sure it was good ol' Oz being deified against his wishes. There was the god-founder of Mistral, wich was today considered to just be pro-emperor propaganda (don't go and say that to a Mistralian, it was a flip of a coin on whether they'll agree or be offended.) Then there were various goddesses represented with fire instead of eyes. Deified maidens? Maybe.
Fun fact: Angels were a thing on Remnant. But unlike Earth, where the root of the word came from 'messenger', the root of Remnant's word for angel came from ancient words meaning 'god', 'warrior' and 'light'. They were also considered full-fledged gods, rather than a type of holy spirits serving God. I only recognized them as Remnant's equivalent to Earth's angel because modern representations showed them as human-like figures with white wings. A few centuries ago, the wings were made of light instead of white feathers. Further away from today, around the time of Vale's creation and a little after, the wings of pure light were depicted as coming out of the angels' eyes instead and ancient pre-valean artefacts showed figures with light coming out of the eyes, but it didn't take any particular shape.
I wondered what Weiss would have thought of being called 'snow angel' by Jaune at the beginning of Volume 1 if she knew about the word angel referring to Ruby. If my memory served right, Weiss was still at the stage of not liking Ruby.
Also, did that meant that the bright light saving Vale from the dragon Grimm at the end of volume 3 might have been interpreted to be a literal divine intervention by some inhabitants?.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps slowly descending the stairs.
They were awake already? A quick glance through the windows showed that the sun wasn't quite up yet, but its ray were starting to poke over the horizon. Still, it was pretty early for people who went to bed after 1 o'clock.
Except it wasn't them who descended the stair, but something much smaller and covered in fur.
Zwei!
I had forgotten about him! He must have been already asleep when I came, so that was why I didn't see him sooner. Dogs weren't nocturnal after all.
Zwei stopped moving when he saw me, likely surprised or unsure of how to react to a stranger in his home.
I crouched in front of him and extended a hand, my palm opened upward.
"Hey there, little guy. Do you mind if I pet you?" I said, smiling.
I was more of a cat person, but that didn't mean I couldn't like dogs too. Except chihuahuas, I hated chihuahuas, they were little yapping errors of nature.
Unfortunately, it seemed Zwei wasn't a Gemini dog and he did mind me petting him, because when my hand got close to him, he started to bark.
I immediately took my hand back from in front of him, but he continued to growl and bark, his lips drawn up to show his teeth, and his ears and tails tucked.
H-he really didn't like me.
"W-wait! Please calm down, you're going to wake them up." Oh Great, now I sounded like a thief.
Of course, because Zwei didn't stop, it didn't take long before I heard someone upstair.
Crap. 'I'm sorry Mr Xiao-Long.'
It wasn't him who descended the stairs, however, but Ruby, still in her pyjama and rubbing her eyes.
"Hmm, what's going on?" She asked. "Why is Zwei barking?"
"It's not my fault! I mean, I don't know." I said, a bit too loudly despite restraining myself, fearing I'd wake the others. "Please, help."
"Bark! Bark! Grrrr."
"Alright! Alright! Just calm down."
"But I am calm!"
She stared at me for a second, still looking a bit tired. "Look... err, sorry, what was your name again?"
"Gemini."
"Right. Look, Gemini, just take a few steps back and wait without saying anything, okay?"
I nodded and did as she told me, leaving her as the only one close to the corgi. I watched her calm him down, before picking him up and sitting on the couch.
"What happened?" Ruby asked, once Zwei calmed down.
"I tried to pet him when I saw him. But I don't think he appreciated seeing a stranger in his home." I explained, unable to think of another reason Zwei got so angry at me. Animals usually liked me just fine.
"Mmh." Ruby sat down on the couch, still holding Zwei in her arms. "That must be it. He was trained to be a guard dog after all, even if his training was more focused on fighting Grimm."
I raised an eyebrow at that. I knew that Zwei had his aura unlocked and that he had a semblance, but wouln't it makes more sense to train a larger dog?
"He's trained for combat? Despite being so small?" I said.
She nodded. "Yeah, size doesn't matter that much when he can turn into a fireball and kill a Beowolf 15 times his size." Then she turned toward Zwei. "Who's a good fireproof corgi? You are! Yes, you are. Good boy."
"Fireball?" I saw Zwei and his semblance in the show, but the specifics were never really explained.
"Yeah, that's his semblance. When he runs, he can surround himself in fire and project himself superfast and he hit about as hard as a cannonball." She said with a proud smile. "Or you know, dad also just throw him at Grimm."
"Wait, what?"
"Ah ah, yeah, he does stuff like that all the time. Don't worry for Zwei though, he's fine." Ruby said, laughing at my surprise.
I just nodded.
So not only did Mr Xiao-Long mailed his dog, but he threw him at Grimm too? If I didn't know better I'd be considering calling an organisation for the protection of animals... Or maybe not, if those on Remnant were anything like PETA, Zwei would still be better off being threw at Grimm even if he didn't have aura.
Yeah, he was fine.
We sat in an increasingly awkward silence for a few minutes.
I wanted to say something, if only to break the silence, but had no idea what.
Story of my life. Well, lives, actually.
...
"...Ruby?" I blurted out, hoping that just starting the conversation would inspire my brain.
"Yeah?"
"..." It didn't.
Come on! How was I supposed to tell her about Cinder and work with her if I couldn't even have a normal conversation with her?
"Gemini?" Ruby was looking at me, waiting for me to say something.
"Do you too sometimes feels like the world is a play and that you're the only one who didn't receive the script?" Oh God! What the hell was I talking about?
Ruby looked at me with wide eyes.
Great. Now I was officially a weirdo.
"Yes!" Ruby exclaimed. "Yes! Yes Yes Yes!"
Uh?
...Did she broke?
"Yes. I- That's..." Ruby took a deep breath. "Sorry, are you talking about being socially awkward? I never heard it being said like that, but yeah that's pretty much how it feels."
My shoulders untensed. "Yeah..."
She giggled a little. "Soooo... Does that means you don't have many friends too?"
"...Does my father's employees counts as friends?"
"I, uh, I don't think it does?"
"Then no, I don't have any friends." I said. Now that I thought about it, yeah that was pretty sad.
"Not even one?"
"Big whopping zero. In my defense, I pass most of my time either training, reading everything I can get my hands on in the VRL or playing video games at home." These weren't exactly the activities with the most chances to meet new people. Being a huge introvert didn't help.
"O-okay, but what about school? You didn't make a friend there, not even one?"
"I'm homeschooled."
"Oh."
Yeah, father did try to put me in school and enrolled me using fake papers and identity, but six years old me didn't understand why it was important to keep my last name a secret and I dumbly introduced myself as Gemini Torchwick. The teacher, upon learning I was related to an infamous criminal, bribed the other students with candies to bully me.
After two weeks, the bullying went too far and I came back home with bruises, father decided I was never going to school again and that he would teach me himself. Of course, since he never got a formal education himself, he had to learn the material along the way.
Also, sis went and broke the teacher's leg. Bitch deserved it.
"Well... Wanna be friends?" Ruby asked.
I looked at Ruby, shocked.
It couldn't be this easy to become friend with the main character, could it? What? Was I in some kind of low-tier fanfiction with a crappy writer?
"Really?" Please, author, could I please have better dialogue lines?
...Oh shit! Please, don't give me a harem. That wasn't a life I wanted, I was monogamous!
"Y-yeah. I don't really have friends either. I mean, I have a few at school, but they're more likes classmates I go to the arcade with sometimes. I could use a real one. You know? Outside of school. If you want to." Ruby's voice gradually became lower as she talked, so much so that I could barely hear her last sentence.
"Sure! I't be a pleasure." Should I tell her about Salem and all now? Wait, no. I'd probably just sound like a raving lunatic. I should wait for a better moment.
...Not that I knew what a better moment would look like. Eh, I'll figure it out.
Maybe.
Not knowing what else to say, we both let silence settle between us again.
I glanced at Zwei, who stopped growling at me and was now enjoying Ruby's petting.
"Hey... uh, can I try petting Zwei again?"
"Sure," she told me with a smile, "he got a bit spooked earlier, but he loves people. He'll be happy to make a new friend."
I nodded and approached Zwei, but when my hand got close to him, his body went stiff and he snarled at me.
"Woah! Zwei, what's up with you?" Ruby said, concerned at her dog's unusual attitude.
She let the corgi go and he walked outside the room, though not before throwing me another unfriendly look.
Ruby turned toward me, looking a bit upset. "I- I'm sorry, I don't know what's gotten into him, he usually love people."
"...S'fine."
She threw me a dubious look. "Gem? Er... is it okay if I call you Gem?"
I answered by shrugging my shoulders.
"Okay, sooo..." Ruby stopped for a second, looking a bit hesitant. "Are you pouting?"
"...No, I'm not." I said, looking away from her. "Why would I be pouting? I'm not sad I couldn't pet the cute puppy. Why would I be disapointed for that? That's his loss, not mine... And I prefer cats anyway, so there."
"So you are pouting."
"Am not."
"...You are."
"No."
"...Okay, sure, you aren't." Ruby rolled her eyes, a sign that she believed me.
Then she noticed the rising sun and stood up. "Guess it's morning already. Hey Gem, err... you said you play video games. Which games do you play?" She asked me.
"I have Kung Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle on my scroll."
She grinned. "Awesome! I'm going to change and eat breakfeast, do you want to play afterward?"
"Sure." I said, before frowning. "Aren't you tired, though? You've had a pretty short night."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Meh, I'm fine. Might get sleepy sooner tonight but for now I just woke up."
"Okay, then. Your call."
While she went and eat something, I profited of the wait to check if my scroll had dried enough to be turned on again.
It was, and I had receive a message from uncle Perry a few minutes ago, asking where I was and if I was alright.
I was usually back by this time, so no wonder he was starting to get worried. It was a good thing I didn't have to wait longer to answer.
I told him that I got caught by the rain and got lost on my way back home, but a huntsman found me and offered me shelter for the night. Of course, learning that I was with an unknow huntsman hadn't exactly reassured him, so I had to give him Mr Xiao-Long's name and tell him he was a teacher at Signal. Being able to ascertain my host's identity and legitimacy went a long way to calm him down.
I didn't blame him for being worried in the first place, though. The average huntsmen are just mercenaries with good PR. If I had met one of the bad ones, the kind who took less savory jobs than what most people would, I'd have been in deep trouble. Of course, Vale was decently safe concerning this, unlike Mistral, but that didn't mean talking to strangers couldn't be risky.
In any case, I told him I would be home in a few hours.
I'm surprised at how smooth meeting Ruby went, though. Social interactions were usually something I screwed up.
Few, well, that's done.
Fun fact: Every chapter so far has had at least one foreshadowing concerning major plot points. Hell, Gemini's full name: Gemini Alexandrite Torchwick contains more than one foreshadowing by itself. Torchwick is because he's Roman's son, but both the first and middle name weren't chosen randomly.
And I'm pretty confident nobody is going to guess what it foreshadows before it happens.
Anyway, the next chapter will be out on October 17rd. I'm going back on my switch for the rest of the day.
Edit: Fixed an embarrassing spelling mistake. Thanks to CinderBestGirl for pointing it out. Also noticed a few typos while I was at it and reworked the wording of a few lines, nothing major.