tupayapsina:

Weiss, realising she stepped on an ant: Oh no

Ruby: Has anyone seen my pet ant?

Weiss: OH NO

tupayapsina:

[After marriage]

Ruby: Isn’t this great?!

Weiss: Not really

Ruby, looking down from the top bunk: What’s wrong?

tupayapsina:

Weiss, to Ruby: So I hear you like bad girls

Ruby :Well-

Weiss: Tell her, Blake

Blake: She’s literally the worst

give ‘em hell, kid

Good night 

Music

I love my cat Dália

bodies.

Qrow took one long, slow drink from his flask, pulled it from his lips, and sighed heavily. <Alright, I’m good—let them in,> he mumbled as he capped it again, put it away in the inner pocket of his shirt.

Soon, the door on the other side of the room opened up, their first interviewee of the day strode to the dais in the center of the room, Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team surrounding her. They exchanged the usual formalities, before she knelt down on the large cushion provided for her, bathed in the light streaming through the high windows.

<Welcome to the first round of interviews for the Keeper Team!> Penny said smiling. <First off, congratulations for making it this far! Second, for the purposes of uniformity, we will have to request that you please communicate almost-to-entirely in Actaeon, save for any Nivian sayings, concepts, or quotes that you feel will not, or cannot translate adequately. Third, though we are sure you are already well aware, the questions we may ask you can get intenselypersonal, and that you are free to ask such questions back, if either of us feel that they may be relevant, or might prove to be a significant asset or liability in the future.

<With that out of the way: please state your name, who you are, and how your merits and achievements make you the best candidate for this position!>

<I am Anouke Kalla,> Anouke replied. <I have been a watcher since I was old enough to walk and handle a knife, and have been hunting down, slaying, and skinning almost every dangerous beast and horrific monster that lurks in this Valley for the past five decades. Whether they stalk no man’s land, lurk in the darkest, murkiest depths, or soar the most treacherous skies, I can guarantee you I have faced and bested them all, with one notable exception:

<Soul Eaters.>

Anouke put her hand to her breast, looked Ruby in the eyes, and said, <I swear, Keeper Rose, grant me the honour of serving under you, and those monsters will learn to fear my presence as much as yours.>

<Yeah, say no more, you’re out.> Qrow said calmly.

Anouke’s eyes widened, she snapped her head to Qrow. <Excuse me?!>

<We don’t need overconfident big game hunters who want to be part of team just get close to a Soul Eater, and try to bag its head for a trophy,> Qrow said. <They’re not ‘fun,’ or a ‘worthy challenge,’ they’re an abomination of magic and science we have to stop at all costs—even if it means killing it so hard there’s nothing left of it that you can see without the help of a scanner or a microscope.>

<Yeah, I’m really sorry, Watcher Kalla, but Uncle Qrow has a point,> Ruby said. <You have to put your very all into fighting a Soul Eater—and every bit you spend on trying to kill it in a way that preserves its body, rather than just doing everything you can to ensure it’s dead is more opportunity for the Soul Eater to kill you, instead.>

Anouke scowled, before she let out a short, disappointed sigh. <I feel you are incurring a great loss by rejecting me… but very well, I will respect your decision, Keeper,> she said, turning back to Ruby, and bowing her head. <Thank you for your time and the opportunity.>

Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team said their half of the formal farewell, before Anouke was out the door, and the next candidate came in.

“Wow, that quickly and just for that reason?” Weiss asked.

“Yep!” Ruby said. “It’s kinda like one of those economic theories or something, where there’s hundreds of folks that want to fill in a vacant, permanent spot in the Keeper Team, so we can just pick and choose whoever we think is going to be the absolute best of the best, though there were some folks where the issues were more, uh, personal.”

“Such as?”

“Well…”

It was mid-day now when yet another candidate strode into the room, a pair of well-worn headphones around their neck. <Yo, name’s Yral Revene, but you might know me by my stage name: ‘Jackdaw,’> they said. <Officiallymy job is as a watcher-weaver, but only to pay the bills while I work on my real job: music maker. I want in on the Keeper Team as you all are gonna be the key to my revolutionizing music and weaving, and it’s going to start with me helping you kick Soul Eater tail like never before!>

<That’s an incredibly bold statement,> Ren said. <May you please explain how exactly you are planning to do this…?>

<With the freedom to use my Sound, is what,> Jackdaw replied. <I’ve been forced to use all the stock standard sheets and songs, so me and the rest of the sound weavers can harmonize and collab easy-like, and even then, I’ve barely been allowed to use my Sound on the field.>

<Your ‘Sound’…?> Ruby asked.

<They mean their personally composed music,> Penny said.

<Oh!> Ruby said. <So, is this also a set of custom-made and modified spells, then?>

<Yes,> Jackdaw replied. <I could go on and on about how awesome it is, but I think I should just let my Sound speak for itself,> they said, pulling out an external speaker and their comm-crystal.

<Excuse me!> Penny said, rising up from her seat. <I would like to remind you that elemental weaving of any sort is forbidden inside the interview room, and will be considered an attempt to harm the Keeper or her teammates, with the according grave punishment!>

<Relax, it’s justthe music this time!> Jackdaw replied as they set it down, before they smiled. <You can experience the rest later, at the Grove. Ready?>

Everyone agreed to it, or didn’t mind, except for Qrow, who said <Hold on.> then ripped open one of the cushions, and plugged his hearing-holes with the stuffing.

<Oh come on, Uncle Qrow, aren’t you overreacting?> Ruby asked him.

<Alright, go!> Qrow said loudly, either ignoring her, or unable to hear.

Without any further issues, Jackdaw grinned, and pressed play, their personal music booming and filling the room. Merely ten seconds in, the smiles on Ruby and Nora’s faces disappeared, Zwei whined and pressed his two heads together and covered his outermost ears with his paws, while Penny looked concernedly at the increasingly uncomfortable and displeased members of the Keeper Team, sans Qrow.

<Oh, Eluna, make it stop!> Blake cried, clapping her hands over her ears.

<I’m really sorry, but please do!> Ruby added.

<Seriously?> Jackdaw asked, frowning. <It’s just new! It’s like an acquired taste! You’ll learn to love it, I swear!>

<My sincerest apologies, but I will really have to ask you to stop, or be forced to!> Penny cried. <Any more of this, and you might be charged with harassing and psychologically harming the Keeper and her Team.>

“And then there were some folks who’d been doing incredibly well, but we had to make the tough decision to reject them because of one deal-breaker or another…”

It was afternoon now, the curtains on the windows drawn to keep the glare of the sun from being too powerful. It was already past 2, their agreed upon lunch break, but they delayed it for the sake of their latest interviewee.

<… While I doubt I will be able to concoct, or even begin to research on something that might affect the Soul Eaters themselves, I’m sure that I’ve proven that my potions can be a great boon to you and the rest of the team, in combat or out of it,> he finished.

<Indeed you have, Maker Nyimu!> Penny said, smiling. <There’s just one more aspect from your record that we would like to address: we’re rather concerned about how dramatically your combat performance dropped after you finished drug rehabilitation, both in training exercises and live situations, and how that might be a liability when it comes to high-stakes situations like a Soul Eater attack.>

Nyimu frowned. <Ah, yes… to be honest, most of my stellar performance before it was all thanks to the constant abuse of enhancers, or using more to escape the consequences. Again, I swear I will improve myself without the cheap, dangerous shortcuts.>

<We know,> Qrow said, <but let me give you a hypothetical situation: everyone but you and Ruby are down or dead. She’s in deep shit, you’re the only one that has a hope in hell of saving her, but you know that the only way you can do it is if you pop a pot, or jam a needle into your arm, give you the boost you need.

<Would you do it…?>

Nyimu was silent, his eyes widening in surprise, before his face contorted into all manner of expressions, the inner turmoil clear for all to see. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, before finally, he sighed heavily, slumped his shoulders, and shook his head. <No, Watcher Branwen, I believe I cannot…> he said. <Even a single misstep will be all it takes to fall again into addiction, I’m certain of it..>

<So you don’t think you can sacrifice yourself, if it comes to that?> Ruby asked sympathetically.

Nyimu looked at her, and said, <No Keeper—I apologize.>

<Nothing to be sorry about.> Ruby said. <Though, I am sorry to say you’re not going on the Keeper team.>

<I expected as much,> Nyimu said, smiling ruefully. He bowed, they went through the formal goodbyes, and left.

As soon as he was out the door, everyone started getting up off their cushions and stretched, groans and sighs of relief echoing in the room.

<Ugh, I’m so glad it’s finally over…> Blake muttered as she arched her back. <Please don’t take this as a personal insult, everyone, but I never realized how much truth there was to the stories of what kinds of Fae would want to apply for the Keeper Team… I always assumed there was some element of exaggeration and fabrication to it to make it a more entertaining story, not that they were just reporting it as is!>

<Yeah, Keepers tend to attract misfits, outcasts, and oddballs almost as much as they do trouble,> Qrow said, bending his arms back and forth between their usual and flying configurations. <And sometimes, they’re both at once,> he added, looking pointedly at Blake.

She scowled, and said nothing.

<Benice, Uncle Qrow,> Ruby snapped softly, before she smiled at Blake. <So, since this is your first time in the Bastion and being out of the house in general since you got here, anything you want to get for lunch? There’s plenty of great restaurants here, and I’m sure we can convince the Council to foot for our bill.>

<If none of you mind, I would really appreciate someplace that serves fish,> Blake replied. <Preferably fresh.>

<Oh, well you’re in luck!> Nora said, grinning. <Ren and I know this great seafood place in the Tender’s Fields, serves pretty much everything—freshwater and saltwater fish, squids, octopi, shellfish, algae, seaweed—heck, they even have these neat compressed balls of plankton you eat like chips! You even get a discount if you catch it yourself.>

Blake smiled. <I’d really like that, actually.>

<Any objections?> Ruby asked. When there were none, she smiled and said, <Then let’s go get some lunch!>

Then as if on cue, all of their comm-crystals sans Blake’s started flashing and beeping wildly in alarm, similar alarms echoing elsewhere in the Roost. Penny projected a holo and read aloud the message:

<Emergency Alert! Research Facility Hyrkanos in the Thundercall Tunnels is under attack by an aerie of Thundercall Rocs, confirmed lead by ‘Zeus V!’ Requesting Keeper Team and other Apex-class watchers to reinforce within an hour or less! Outposts have been overrun or isolated, security has sustained casualties and infrastructure has been severely damaged, evacuations impossible without outside assistance!>

<Isn’t Thundercall where we were supposed to go in three weeks?> Ruby cried as they started running.

<Looks like the date’s been moved forward, kiddos!> Qrow cried back.

<Sorry to sound self-centered, but what’s going to happen to me?>Blake butted-in as she kept pace with them. <I’m supposed to be with at least one of you at all times!>

<Simple: we take you with us!> Ruby replied. <Your equipment’s all fixed now, and you said it yourself that you’re willing to fight and hunt with us, right?>

<There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo about Keeper’s deputizing folks, so don’t worry about going to jail, and just focus on not dying!> Nora chirped. <It’d be reallytragic and awful if you died so soon after you just got introduced into the story!>

Blake looked strangely at her, before she shook her head, and kept on running.

Note: Qrow, like many avian Fae, does not have ears, and has hearing-holes instead. Ren also has them, as reptilian Fae and some more exotic subspecies like snake Fae have acquired adaptations from others over the millenia, though the earliest of them reportedly could only “taste” sound or had very poor audio perception.

Soon, all the members of the Keeper team, permanent or part-time, were sitting on top of a tangle of roots, munching on energy bars and sipping from canteens as they looked at the holo Penny was projecting, listened to Ruby discussing their plan.

“…And just so you all know: if it turns out they’ve seriously hurt or killed Zwei, I’m murderingthem.” Ruby said by the end of it. “Everyone clear?”

“Crystal,” everyone replied.

“Great,” Ruby said before she put her mask on. “Let’s do this.”

Qrow took to the air, Ren climbed up the trees and jumped from branch to branch, both scouted out the area. They found Zwei with his heads stuck in a large knothole, balancing his body on the mouth and a sturdy, large branch just underneath him. When nothing else of interest turned up, they all began to prepare to move into position.

Qrow and Nora perched on branches within sight of the knothole, loading a crossbow, or grenades, gas and anti-magic. Ren readied his blades and climbed above the mouth of the hole, ready to drop on unsuspecting intruders. Ruby and Penny climbed up to the branch Zwei was balancing on, and began to approach him, weapons in their hands.

“Zwei,” Ruby whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. “Zwei, are you alright?”

Zwei quietly tapped his right hind paw twice.

“Did you find an intruder, boy?”

Twice again.

“Do you think they’re dangerous?”

He tapped with his left once, then his right.

“Are they still armed?”

Again, the same gesture.

“Do you think there’s a good chance they might be a weaver?”

He double-tapped his left hind paw this time.

“Do you think they might escape once you pull out?”

Two taps with the right.

Ruby nodded, then turned to Penny. “You ready?”

“Absolutely,” Penny replied, putting her tail into Ruby’s hand, and her own hands around her mouth.

<This is Keeper Ruby Rose, of the Viridian Valley!>Ruby said, her voice booming through the trees. <You are suspected of trespassing into Keeper’s Grove, and for security reasons, we can’t just let you turn around and leave.Pleaseidentify yourself, your affiliation, and your purpose for being here, then surrender yourself peacefully into our custody within the next five minutes, starting now!

<If you do not, we’ll be forced to arrest you and hand you over to the Watcher’s Roost! Trust me, you reallydo not want to know what’ll happen if we have to do this thehardway!>

They waited for five long, tense minutes, and after there was no response, no motion, Ruby called out, <Your time’s up! We’re moving in to arrest you! Please do not resist, you are surrounded, we are all armed, and you’re in some seriously deep legal trouble if you try to fight, I’m warning you!

<Zwei! Get them out of there!>

Zwei barked, before he lunged, and carefully brought their intruder out of the knothole by the nape of their neck. Everyone tensed up, prepared to spring into action, until they all got a good look of their suspect: a female cat Fae, filthy from the tips of her ears to her tail, her armour severely battered and weathered, her whole body almost entirely skin and bones.

<Please…> she whispered, her voice barely audible as she trembled and shook. <Your dog…>

She fainted before she could say any more.

“Wow.” Weiss said. “Did you take her to the hospital?”

“No, but that was only because we could treat Blake just fine at the Grove,” Ruby replied. “Penny managed to revive her pretty much immediately, and since she was trying to head there in the first place, she went without a fuss—Nora had to carry her, though, because she didn’t want to be anywhere nearZwei.”

Weiss nodded. “That’s good to hear… so why was she trying to head into Keeper’s Grove?”

“I’ll get to it later, promise!” Ruby said. “Anyway, we gave her food, a sponge bath, fresh clothes, and a place to sleep. All we needed to do for security was station Zwei outside Varryn’s old room—or, I guess, Blake and Penny’s room right now— so we could sit down for a proper dinner ourselves. Then, we had a very important emergency meeting…”

“So, what are we going to do with her?” Ruby asked as they all sat around the kitchen table, the plates all cleared.

“I say we turn her into the Roost, let the Watchers and Seekers decide what’s going to happen to her,” Qrow said, resting his open flask on the table. “We’ve got enough problems as is, trying to look for a replacement for Varryn before the deadline, and there’s this strong feeling in the pit of my gut that she’s going to be bringing moretrouble than she will be solving them.”

“I say we keep her detained her at the Grove for the time being,” Penny said. “By my observations of her vitals and behaviour, it’s much, muchmore probable that she’s been desperately trying to reach this place, and has gone through great efforts and much suffering to do so. It would serve us well to learn her motives and reasons for this journey, and I believe that keeping her in our custody and care will help us earn the necessary trust.”

“I’m with Penny!” Nora chimed in. “Come on, guys: pretty much nobody ends up here in the Grove in a super dramatic, major ‘early-to-mid-season plot development’ way by accident! There has to be a HUGE reason she’s here, and she doesn’t feel like a one-off character to me! Plus, consider the timing: she came here on the same day that Varryn finally left the team for good, we’ve got a really short deadline to find his replacement, and she’s alsoprobably someone who’s a wilderness expert.

“Did you see how she looked like when Zwei pulled her out? Where we found her, so high up on the trees, away from most potential predators? Nobody does that if they haven’t had plenty of wilderness experience, and had been roughing it out for weeks, maybe even months.”

“Which begs the question of why she needed to do all that, and sneak into the Grove via the surrounding swamp, instead of taking the Tube station,” Ren countered. “I’m very sorry, Nora, but I have to agree with Qrow: the answer to that, among other questions, is likely going to involve some dark, complicated, and dangerous business, one handled best by the Roost and not by us.”

“So that’s two for two, looks like you’re going to be the tiebreaker, kiddo,” Qrow said as everyone turned to look at Ruby. “What do you think?”

Ruby looked uneasy, then sighed. “I think we should all finally go to bed, sleep on it, and decide again in the morning.”

“A prudent choice,” Penny said, smiling and nodding.

“And one that could potentially give whatever or whoever she might be running from time to catch up,” Qrow grumbled. “Eh, fuck it, just try and sleep with your weapons in reach, alright?”

“Alright, Uncle Qrow,” Ruby said, before they all got up, and got ready for bed, except for Penny who chose to charge herself just outside the room they were keeping their suspect in.

Morning came, and Ruby came over to their suspect’s room with a bowl of Fuerte Flakes, a bottle of milk for it, and a fresh cup of black moss tea. “How is she?” she asked Penny.

“According to my scans through the door, and Zwei’s visual checks from the window, she’s perfectly fine, and there have been no noteworthy incidents.” Penny replied. “She appears to have slept through the entire night, likely due to overexhaustion, and a severe lack of sleep.”

“Is she awake now?” Ruby asked.

“There’s a very, verylow probability of that, and Zwei is also currently taking a break, so we cannot check.” Penny replied. “However, I don’t think she will protest being woken up and offered breakfast! Am I correct in assuming that you also want to check up on her personally, and make some inquiries?”

“Yeah, I do,” Ruby said, nodding. “I still want to keep her here if we can, but I’ve been thinking about what Uncle Qrow and Ren said, and we really do need to know if it’s going to be safe to do so. Can you let me in?”

“Of course!” Penny said, smiling. “Though, for security reasons, I will have to insist on joining you inside.”

“Can we not?” Ruby asked. “I think it might be uncomfortable for her to have twoof us in the room, seeing as it’s not very big and all.”

“I’m afraid we really have to, Ruby,” Penny said. “The personal risk to you aside, we will be missing an extremely valuable opportunity to acquire information from her if I have to rely on your second-hand account, not to mention any small details you may miss, or lines of inquiry that you may not pursue.”

Ruby sighed. “Okay, you’ve got good points… ready?”

“If you are also, Ruby,” Penny said, smiling.

“Then let’s do this.”

Penny nodded, before she turned around and knocked on the door. <Good morning, Miss! I am going to enter your room now, apologies if we have caught you at an inconvenient time!>  she said, before she opened the door.

True to her earlier estimate, their suspect was just stirring from sleep, groaning and shaking her head as she slowly sat up in her nest. She sniffed the air, her eyes widening and her ears twitching in panic, before she quickly relaxed.

<How are you this morning, Miss?> Penny asked as she entered first.

<Better…> their suspect mumbled, pulling the sheets off of her and getting into a more comfortable position.

<You hungry? We brought breakfast!> Ruby said as she stepped in afterward, closing the door behind her with her foot.

The suspect looked, and smiled. <That’d be great. Thanks.>

<We’d also be quite grateful if you could answer some questions for us, starting with your name, your affiliation, and why you are here,> Penny added as she took the tray from Ruby, and set it down on the floor in front of the nest.

The smile on the suspect’s face disappeared, her ears flattening as she suddenly looked uneasy.

<Is there going to be a problem with that, Miss?> Penny asked, still smiling.

<Kind of… please, can I just answer the third question first?>

Penny glanced over her shoulder at Ruby, she shrugged, sat down behind Penny, and said, <Sure, why not?>

The suspect shifted again into a kneeling position, before she bowed, her head down as she said, <Keeper Ruby Rose, my life is in danger and I beg you, please, let me work for you, in exchange for your protection.

<This threat has been relentless, cruel, and determined, and they have already driven me out of my home; have forced me to cut ties with my friends, family, and community for their safety, if they had not done so already; and I know if they find me again, they will kill me, orworse.

<You are my best hope, among what little options I have left. This threat will stop immediately if they know I am serving under you, as they wouldn’t daretry to earn the ire of you nor the Eldan Council. I am a skilled and experienced huntress, spy, and warrior, and believe I can be a valuable addition to the Keeper Team, but I will be your obedient server doing whatever you ask of me, if I have to.

<So, please, I beg of you: let me work for you.>

<Can I at least have your name, what this threat is, and how you got to this point…?> Ruby asked.

The suspect was suddenly incredibly uneasy. <I fear what might happen to both of us if I share that information with you right now.>

<Because you don’t know if I’m going to stick my neck out for you yet?> Ruby asked.

The suspect nodded, and said, <Yes. If–>

<No.> Ruby said, firmly and calmly.

The suspect blinked, and looked at Ruby. <Pardon…?>

<No, I am not going to protect you!> Ruby said, scowling now. <I can’t blame you for thinking that we Keepers will take pretty much anyone who shows up at our doorstep, because we do, but do you seriouslythink that I’m going to risk my, my friends, and my family’s safety before you even tell me the most basicbits of information like your name, and who you are?!

<Before I commit to anything,show me that I can trust you, and you can do that by telling me everything.>

The suspect frowned, the dramatic internal conflict playing out inside of her clear on her face. <Keeper–>

<Shut up.> Ruby snapped. <Unless the next words out of your mouth are your name, who you are, and who or what you ended up pissing off so badly you needed to run all the way here from wherever in this realm you used to call ‘home,’ I am personally kicking you out of my house, shoving you into the cargo hold of a Log, before personally dragging you into the Watcher’s Roost.

<Then,you can go beg for protection from them.>

The suspect’s face fell, her ears and tail drooping; she was quiet for a while as Ruby continued to look at her, a calm expression on her face, until finally she said, <My name is Blake… Blake Belladonna.>

“We ended up spending the whole morning listening to her story. And sorry to say, Weiss, you’re going to have to ask Blake about all the details herself—she made us promise that she’d be the one to tell it herself.”

“I understand,” Weiss said. “It sounds like it’ll spiral into an entirely new story that’ll have us here till dawn, anyway.”

“Boy, will it ever!” Ruby said, chuckling. “Anyway, after we relayed it to the others, most of us voted to keep Blake around, though she ended up shuffled to the very bottom of the priorities list as we focused on finding Varryn’s replacement again.

“It all worked out though, because Blake was more than happy to spend all day indoors locked in her room, only coming out for food, exercise, and the bathroom. We ended up taking her with us when it was time for the face-to-face interview with the candidates, though…”

Note: Theoretically, you COULD in fact fit two average-sized individuals into a single Log, but it’s uncomfortable, to say the least. Abner experimented with numerous multi-passenger designs after the first single-passenger models were finalized and mass-produced, but thanks to the limitations of the supporting infrastructure, he ended up modifying it to the single-passenger plus cargo designs today.

<I’m really very sorry we have to part ways like this, Ruby…> Varryn said as they bowed, all of their belongings in a sack on their back, and the Grove’s Tube station behind them.

<It’s alright, Varryn, we all knew it was much more likely to end like this than not,> Ruby said, bowing back.

<I really do wish that I could have lasted longer in the team’s service, Ruby!> Varryn said as they bent back up. <You’ve been an excellent leader, both within and outside of the walls of the Bastion, and a great friend beside; and to say that the credentials and the experience I’ve acquired in my relatively short time with all of you will be invaluable for the rest of my life will be a severeunderstatement!>

<Aww, thank you, Varryn!> Ruby replied, smiling now. <You’ve been a great team member and a wonderful friend, too. I’m sure we’d have had spent waymore time and had a wholelot more stress trying to navigate, hunt, and trap in the wilds if we didn’t have your skills, not to mention your help with all the Big Game, like Grarr VII!>

The colour drained from Varryn’s face, particularly impressive due to the dark colour of their skin.

<Sorry.> Ruby whispered.

Varryn gulped down the lump that had formed in their throat, before awkwardly jerking a paw behind them. <I’m just going to be leaving now, Ruby… need to get settled in my new home, get my affairs here straightened out, before it’s back out to the wilds again!> they said, backpedaling to the Log that was awaiting them.

<Good luck with all that, Varryn!> Ruby cried, waving. <And if you ever need anything from us, don’t hesitate to call!>

<I won’t, thank you, Ruby!> Varryn shouted back, before they swiftly spun around, stuffed their sack of belongings as quickly as they could into the cargo hold, before diving in and strapping the belts in place all by themselves.

The two Tube technicians looked at each other, shrugged, and proceeded to shut the hatch on Varryn, before sending them out of Keeper’s Grove for the last time. Ruby stood where she was for a few moments, before she sighed, turned around, and went back to the house with her head hung.

As she stepped back into the living room, she found everyone still at the “command center,” a table set up with Ruby’s terminal, plus a handful of loaned units. Qrow was the first to look up from his screen, and waved at Ruby. “Welcome back, kiddo, got to say goodbye Varynn like you wanted?”

“Yep! Managed to screw it up, but hey, it’s not like we’ll probably be hearing or seeing from them any time soon!” Ruby said as she plunked herself down on her chair, and reactivated her terminal. “Thanks for the break, everyone, I really appreciate it.”

Penny bid farewell to whoever she was talking to, then smiled at Ruby. “You are welcome, Ruby, and please, think nothing of it! Proper closure is absolutely vital for mental and emotional health.”

Ruby nodded as she returned to her recently moved terminal, and resumed the search for Varryn’s replacement.

“… Thanks to filters, bots, and the Codex, it was easy to screen out almost all of the folks who were completely unqualified, or that we didn’t need as badly as a new wilderness expert, but there were still LOT of folks to screen, references to call up, and a couple of extra background checks to do.”

“I’m surprised that there’s actually so many Fae who want in on the Keeper Team,” Weiss said.

“It’s probably because of all the benefits!” Ruby replied. “The regular pay may be crap, and the job is difficult and dangerous, to say the least, but even if you only lasted a single season with us, that’s the same rep and credentials as you would have had if you spent a year—maybe two—only taking some of the highest risk jobs available in the Valley, nearly non-stop.

“And if you managed to help me put down a Soul Eater? Well, provided you could still fight and venture outside the walls after, the Roost and private contractors will pretty much let you set your own fee, among other things.”

“And if you haven’t had that distinction, and can’t continue working as a Watcher?”

“Then there’s hefty benefits you could live off of if you’re not too extravagant about living expenses, let alone the folks that’d loveto employ a former Keeper Team member for the PR points. And if you end up getting killed in action, whoever’s your beneficiaries will be pretty much set for life, and if you don’t have any, you’ll get a fancy, permanent memorial at the Roost—for some, that’s all they really want or need.

“Of course, there aresome folks that are just using it as a stepping stone for their careers—‘High Honour Hopefuls,’ we call them. After all, nothing pleases supporters, and looks damn good on a public service record than helping keep Avalon from getting overrun by near-unstoppable monsters!

“Uncle Qrowreallydoesn’t like it when we get them, though…”

“Fuckinghell,Penny, I thought you said you could screen out every single last one of these suck-ups!” Qrow griped as he angrily pressed the “reject” button, so hard his talon scratched the stone of the terminal underneath.

“I only said ‘Most of them,’ and I’m certain that your chronicle data will be concurrent with my own,” Penny replied coolly. “It’s not any fault of mine that some of them are able to avoid detection relying heavily on word and pattern recognition algorithms.”

“Heh, guess they wouldn’t be Honours if they couldn’t, huh?” Nora said playfully.

Qrow side-eyed her, before shaking his head.

“How many of them have you seen so far, Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked.

“One, and that’s already one too many…” Qrow grumbled, before he sighed then started to shut down his terminal. “You know what? I’ve had enough of screening hopefuls today, I’m clocking out.”

“Wehave been screening for several hours with just the bare minimum of breaks, it would indeed be wise to end now and resume tomorrow morning, to avoid unnecessary error and impaired judgment due to fatigue,” Penny said.

“Great, now it’s Mender’s orders, too!” Qrow said as he got up and stretched his legs. “Time for dinner—who’s turn was it, again?”

“I think it was Varryn’s, actually!” Ruby said as she and the others began to shut down their terminals, too.

“It was indeed!” Penny said. “So, with him gone, that means it’s Qrow on dinner duty, myself with dishes, and Ruby to attend to Zwei.”

Qrow paused for a moment, before he happy look on his face disappeared. “Ah, shit, you’re right…” he mumbled, before he dejectedly marched into the kitchen, pulling his flask out of his pocket as he did.

“We’ll help,” Ren said, as he and Nora got up, and followed him.

“And just so you know, I am starvingafter all that work, so it’s gonna be a total crumb-pocalypse tonight!” Nora said, chuckling.

“Please remember to pace yourself so you don’t end up with indigestion!” Penny called after them, waving, before she turned to Ruby. “Would you like some assistance with Zwei, Ruby? I was thinking of contacting some more character references before I stop completely myself, but I am willing to provide an extra hand and/or company, should you need or want it.”

“Nah, I’m good!” Ruby said as she pulled her cloak back on her shoulders and turned the hood up. “Besides, I wouldn’t mind some alone time with Zwei, he’s probably been so bored and lonely all day!” she said before she made for the door.

“If that’s what you wish, Ruby!” Penny said. “Don’t hesitate to call if you change your mind!”

“I won’t!” Ruby said, before she stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her, stood on the edge of the rail and yelled, “Zwei! We’re all done for today! We can go play now!”

She smiled as she leaned on the railing, gazing out at the overgrowth down below, waiting for Zwei to rip a new straight line through them in his rush. “Heh, he’ll probably leap all the way to the balcony and take me back down with him,” she thought, smiling.

The smile disappeared when she five minutes later, she didn’t see, hear, nor smell him. “Zwei!” Ruby called out again. “Zwei!Shift’s over today! Uncle Qrow’s already getting dinner! I’ll make sureyou get an extra serving tonight if you get back here within a minute! Counting down: 60… 59… 58…”

She peered out at the swamp, trying to notice anything off, closed her eyes and counted silently, skipped a few as she sniffed and tried to get even the vaguest whiff of Zwei’s powerful, unmistakable smell.

“… 3… 2… 1… 0!” Ruby cried. “Times up, Zwei! Maybe I’ll consider still giving those extra servings to you if you come back right now…!”

The door opened, Penny peered out. “Has Zwei still not returned, Ruby?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s really weird…” Ruby said, still looking out. “He’s never strayed that deep into the swamp without us, hasn’t he?”

“No, based on my own Chronicle, Qrow’s, and the previous chroniclers,” Penny replied.

Ruby turned around, the worry clear on her face. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Most likely!” Penny said, smiling as she stepped out of the house and towards Ruby. “He’s an incredibly powerful, durable, and intelligent dog! That aside, it’shighlyprobable that he’s found an incredibly comfortable, secluded spot and fell asleep there, and it just so happens that he can’t hear you.

“Shall we go look for him?” she added, putting a hand on Ruby’s shoulder and gesturing out to the swamp.

“Please,” Ruby said, heading to the boat-elevator.

“I will inform the others that we’ll be searching for Zwei, then will join you post-haste,” Penny said.

Soon, the both of them were wandering deep into the swamps surrounding Keeper’s Grove, beams of light shooting out of Penny’s unblinking eyes; her ears slowly rotating around her head like radar dishes; her mouth open and her hands cupped around it, and her tail in Ruby’s hand and leading up to her mouth as she used her like a megaphone.

“Zwei!” Ruby called out, her voice booming and echoing off the trees as they hopped and walked on the giant roots. “Zwei! Where are you?! I’m reallyworried, boy!”

After yet another minute of silence, Ruby whined and let go of Penny’s tail. “He’s not answering or anything!Do you think something bad happened? Should we call the others?!”

“Itis extremely concerning, but I urge you to please remain calm, Ruby,” Penny said as she put her hands off her mouth, shut off the spotlights in her eyes before she faced Ruby. “I’m going to contact them now, so we can get the equipment and the heads for a proper search.”

It was then that something fell from high up above, and noisily plopped into the water, followed by some leaves and branches that had been messily cut apart, likely by accident. Ruby and Penny both looked above, into the thick branches and leaves obscuring whatever was above, before turning to the water where the object had landed.

They shared a look with each other, before Penny reached in, and pulled out a black breakneck, now covered in swamp muck and dripping with water. She reactivated the lights in her eyes, Ruby frowned as she examined the weapon.

“This is Celestian made…” she muttered.

“Indeed,” Penny said, before she contacted the others back at the house. “Sorry to interrupt your dinner, everyone, but it appears that Zwei has found an intruder, possibly still armed and dangerous. Please prepare accordingly, bring the necessary detaining equipment, and alert the Roost.”

Qrow sighed. “And of course it’s right as I sit down and got my plate ready… alright, got your location,got a visual and any info for us?”

“No visual, and two things: there’s a good chance they’re from Celestion, and down a primary weapon,” Ruby said, holding up the breakneck for the others.

“Oooh, a possible assassination attempt!” Nora chimed in, her mouth obviously full of cookies. “Isn’t this exciting, Ren?! I mean, it’s not great obviously, but we get to check this off our milestone list of being with the Keepers!”

“I suppose so, Nora,” Ren said. “ETA 25 minutes—you want us to bring anything else alongside your gear, Ruby?”

“Yeah: dinner to go,” Ruby added. “Something tells me this is going to be a LONG night…”

Note:The Watchers, Seekers, Weavers, Makers, and the rest of the Orders are free to make recommendations for replacements and additions to the Keeper’s team, but aside from the most basic litmus tests, all the screening, interviewing, and hiring is done by the Keepers themselves, usually (but not always) with the help of the current and/or recently retired members.

This is because the Keeper Team has historically had a LOT of questionable hires, who turned out to be incredibly great assets, such as Abner.

Crack!

The spider golem’s last weak point shattered, it frantically, uselessly flailed about before it fell over on its back, legs curling up into itself as it deactivated. Weiss smiled as she ripped her runeblade out from it, held it up into the air as all six of Winter’s summons joined her and posed beside their “kill.”

Winter cheered from her place on the balcony above, Tygan just nodded his head, and switched to the other feeds in front of him.

Thoom!

Sayuri sent the wooden slab rocketing back with a compressed air explosion, before she thrust out the hand her “spitter” was mounted on. The weapon whirred and screamed like a miniature jet engine, a cyclone exploding out and blasting the slab. Her arm wavered slightly, Sayuri braced it against her other wrist, and the slab didn’t move an inch for the rest of the minute.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Goro stood at the pole again with his cannon this time, raining fiery balls of death down on the golems swarming around him, the hapless constructs exploding into smouldering pieces and ash before they could even get close to the barrier.

<Come on! Come on!> he yelled, taking a hand off his cannon to beat his breastplate. <Let ‘em at me, set ‘em allloose, this shit is too fuckin’ easy!>

<We’re not sending any more golems at you until you dial it back!>cried one of the technicians via comm-crystal. <You’re breaking them too badly, we won’t be able to recycle even half of the ones you’ve already busted!>

<Fuck you!> Goro snapped back. <What’s the point of training if you don’t always put your 110% into it?!>

<That’s enough, Aneyama,> Tygan interrupted calmly. <You can get off the pole now, you’ve already got full marks for this test.>

<Tch,> Goro said, shaking his head as he holstered his cannon over his back. <Next time you want me to break out my big guns, bring out the bigger golems, too!>

<I’ll keep it mind,> Tygan said. <For now, get started on your cooldown.>

Goro jumped off the pole and back to the ground, the clean-up crew gave him dirty looks as he passed them by; he just smiled, admiring the smoking ground, smouldering wreckage, and numerous craters left in his wake.

By 9:30PM, all of Tygan’s students were back underneath their tent, in much higher spirits, and with far less injuries or wounds to be treated by Penny, or the others—and even then, they were usually from accidents, overexertion, or bruises and cuts from earlier acting up. Lively conversation abounded, folks bragging about how well they had done on a certain test, complimenting others, and discussing plans for future lessons.

Meanwhile, Tygan was in the corner, sitting on a large root with Penny, reviewing the statistics and the footage, talking with her in hushed tones. Eventually he got up and strolled back into the front of the class, clapping his hands for attention, waiting for the hubbub to die down before he spoke.

<I have to say, everyone: I’m impressed!> he said. <All across the board, you’ve all done spectacularly with this round of evaluative tests, most of you scoring well above the average or better. I can really see why your peers, families, and mentors thought you’d be best off in a special, focused combat class like this!>

Folks cheered this time, beaming and soaking in the praise, giving out high fives and other friendly gestures..

<And on that same note, I now know exactlywhy you’re all still going to be Initiates for a long time yet!> Tygan said cheerfully, before his eyes opened, his mouth curled into a scowl, and his voice became deathly serious. <Because without your foci, almost all of you suck, and suck hard.>

All the smiles were suddenly wiped off faces, the students looked at Tygan in a mix of confusion or indignation.

<Adept and Master Weavers uses their foci as an extension of their body and power, notas a crutchnorcompensationfor their failings and lack. Your weapons and tools are supposed to amplifyyour natural capabilities to greater heights and allow you to take on incredible challenges, notensure that you can reliably pass the most basic batteries of evaluative tests!

<I get it: you are Watchers, you are Pit fighters, you are Makers. You live and die by the quality of your tools, by the skill with which you wield them, and by the echoes they have gained under you, and whoever else may have used them before. But you are all also Weavers, and there is no putting away, no unloading, no blunting the most dangerous weapons you have:

<Yourselves.>

Tygan closed his eyes again, his frown turning into a neutral line, his voice flat as he said, <In time, you all have the potential to become truly great, ready to fight, defend, and change this realm, for fame or infamy… but before all that, you must learn to control that power, withorwithoutthe help of your foci.

<Remember this: the Primals are not in their positions because they can unleash power like the most devastating storms and phenomenon in nature; they are there because they know when to stay their wrath, when and how much of a percentage of their power to use, and when to unleash fury like Avalon herself.

<And with that: you are all dismissed! I will inform you all within two days time when our next session will be, and if you have any other inquiries, please send me a message via my public line, and I will get back to you tomorrow morning by 8AM at the very latest.>

Tygan bowed, the class stood up and did the same, before he turned around and left, gracefully launching himself up into the tree tops, before hopping from branch to branch, leaving a stunned, silent, and scowling class in his wake.

<Well, shit got heavy real fast—who’s up for drinks?!> someone cried. <Last one not under the table gets a free pass on the bill!>

<You’re on!> Goro said, grinning as he stepped up to them.

They blanched immediately. <Hell no, Goro! Not you! You stay away from this, I likemy regular!>

<Well maybe you should have thought of that before you sent an open invite to everyone, ah?!> Goro snapped, hunching his shoulders.

Winter shook her head, wrapping a shoulder around Weiss and coaxing her away from the rapidly heating up argument.

Penny floated up to them and asked, “Would either of you like to join your classmates for dinner, or their other recreational activities? It would be an excellentopportunity to strengthen bonds and make potentially helpful connections in the future.”

Weiss yawned, and shook her head. “Maybe some other day…” she mumbled. “I am soready to be completely, absolutely done with today…”

“Winter?” Penny asked.

“I think Weiss needs me more than I need to start making a new professional network,” Winter replied, patting Weiss on her arm. “On a related note: you think you can make it all the way back home like this, little sister?”

“So long as we can take the teleporter back…” Weiss mumbled, before she yawned again. “I want to walk as little as possible from here on out…”

“I’m afraid the teleportation functionality is severely limited for the moment, due to the repairs in the Water Quadrant diverting majority of the resources and mana of the Terrace,” Penny said.

Weiss groaned. “Great…”

“Guess we’re just going to have to do this the old fashioned way,” Winter said, shrugging before she knelt down to the ground.

Weiss stared at her in disbelief. “Are you seriouslygoing to give me a piggyback ride back home?”

“Are you going to refuse?” Winter replied calmly.

“No.” Weiss said, fixing up the contents of her belt, before wrapping her arms around Winter’s shoulders.

“Huh, this is strange…” Winter said as she grabbed Weiss’ legs and stood up.

“What is…?” Weiss mumbled as she nestled her head on her shoulder.

“It’s been a decade and a half since I last did this, and it’s still just as easy as it was then!” Winter hummed. “It’s like you’ve barelygrown at all, little sister.”

Weiss scowled. “Oh, screw you…” she mumbled, before she quickly fell asleep, smiling.

A little over an hour later, Weiss was standing alone on the balcony of her and Winter’s home, dressed in her nightgown with one of her jackets thrown over it, leaning on the railing with a cup of black moss tea in hand.

She wasn’t doing much but sip and maybe gaze around for interesting sights in the Grove, until her comm-crystal beeped, with a message from Ruby: “On nightwatch. Super bored. Want to talk for a while?”

Weiss smiled, and replied, “Text or talk?”

“Talk. I need to keep my hands free for my farsighter.”

Weiss took a sip from her tea, and established a connection; soon enough, the holo in front of her showed Ruby standing on the edge of a rail, her hood up and her cloak tied tight around her. “Hey Weiss!” she said, waving and smiling at her, before she put a telescope-like device to her eye.

“Good evening, Ruby,” Weiss said, nodding. “Sure you’re not going to get in trouble for this?”

“Nope!” Ruby said, still looking through her farsighter. “I’m really only supposed to be a fail-safe, Iaros is the one we expect to catch anything suspicious out here.”

“Who’s Iaros?”

Ruby spared a hand to move her holo around, Weiss saw a rather large, hawk-like creature, jet black eyes, a sharp-hooked beak, prominent talons, and bright, fiery feathers. She shuddered, and said, “Yeesh, security crystals not intimidating enough for you Fae, huh?”

“Nope!” Ruby said, turning the holo back to herself. “It really helps with keeping wild animals from trying to sneak onto our convoys and into the supplies, having an apex predator keep guard. Though, he’s mostly just been eating domesticated meat and treats, since we still have plenty of animal repellents, there’s still a lot of us traveling together, and we’re not in the reallywild zones yet.

“Anyway, enough about me: what’s up on your end? Penny hasn’t updated me on today yet, and I won’t really have the time to catch up for a while, anyway.”

Weiss sighed. “Just the usual, with life and the universe screwing with me… I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Is it because it hurts to talk about it, or because you don’t want to bog me down with your baggage?” Ruby asked. “Because if it’s the second, I’m 100% open to hearing you out and lightening your load.”

“Are you sure about that?” Weiss asked. “It’s going to be about an hour, hour and a half worth of griping.”

Ruby chuckled. “I’m sure—that is what girlfriends do, right?”

Weiss blushed and looked away. “Well, if you’re so willing…” she muttered, before she gave her an abbreviated account of the day’s events, up until Winter’s giving her a piggyback ride back home.

“Wow,” Ruby said. “Pretty much just all action, combat, and the Pits since you woke up this morning, huh? You sure you should still be up and talking to me, instead of getting some sleep?”

“I should be, but I can’t right now,” Weiss replied. “We were starvingby the time we got back, and myself and Winter proceeded to quite literally stuff our faces with as much food as we could fit in our mouths. By the time mystomach finally sent the signal that it was time to stop, it was already way too late, so here I am now, standing out at our balcony, sipping coffee while I wait till it’s safe for me to lie down again.”

She sighed. “I’m really worried that this might be my new normal, when it comes to food.”

“Why?” Ruby asked. “I mean, I’m pretty sure you and dad are growing enough to feed all even without allowance from the Council, and Qrow, Blake, and Ren are able to hunt enough for everyone on the reg.”

“It’s not how we’re going to get food that worries me, Ruby, it’s where all of it’s inevitably going to go,” Weiss grumbled, looking down at herself. “Penny assures me that most of it is going to end up metabolized and turned into mana, and that I can burn off the rest of the calories pretty quickly with spellcasting, but I’m concerned at just how much of both is going to happen while I still have this collar on,” she said, touching it.

“I might have to buy a new wardrobe for the meanwhile, and I’ve got this sinking feeling that Blake might have to permanently modify all my old clothes by the time this comes off!”

“I won’t mind if you gain some extra weight, Weiss,” Ruby said.

Weiss scowled. “Well Ido, and I know your intentions are good, but I’d rather not hear that from you, especiallybecauseyourgenetics lets you eat cookies on a daily basis, and still keepyour rock-hard, six-pack abs.”

She sighed heavily. “Anyway… how are things on your end?”

“Eh, pretty boring and tedious, actually,” Ruby said.  “Lack of action aside, I miss you, and everyone else, too. This is actually the first time I’ve ever had an expedition where it’s just me that went, no close friends nor family.

“I mean—I’ve always accepted that there’s going to come a time where they might not be around, especially with how dangerous our jobs are, but when it actually happens… it’s never as easy as how you imagined it to be, you know…?”

“Do you want to talk about it, too…?” Weiss asked.

“Yeah but, I don’t really know where to start!” Ruby replied. “Kinda always relied on Penny for these things, seeing as it’s her job and all.”

“Maybe you could try one of your more memorable expeditions with them?” Weiss asked. “Or maybe your first trips together? Knowing you, there haveto be some interesting stories there.”

Ruby paused, then nodded. “Huh… now that you mention it, Blake didstart working with us because one of our old Keeper Team watchers quit on us, right on the eve of an important extended trip! How well she did then was how she became a permanent of the team now, actually.”

“Then would you mind telling me all about it?” Weiss said, smiling.

“Sure thing!” Ruby said, smiling and nodding. “It all started about a year ago…”

Note: Since some of you have been politely asking me to show Ruby doing her Keeper duties, y'all are getting a flashback series of chapters.

A farsighter is not just a simple telescope, it also automatically “tags” points of interest and living beings, and with relatively modern developments, have been used to sync up the data to comm-crystals and improve information in the wilderness and the battlefield.

Weavers have VASTLY increased caloric needs than other Fae. Aside from mana water, many watcher-weavers are equipped with energy drinks made with it as a base in case of emergency, extra watcher chocolate bars and similar treats, and receive the lion’s share of food and hunts.

Few mind, as they can perform tasks by themselves that would take scores more of non-weavers to do, and not nearly as efficiently.

In case of emergency or times of scarcity, large amounts of sugar, be it lactose, sucrose, or fructose, can be used to refuel weavers instead of mana water. It’s not nearly as effective nor efficient, but if the situation requires you to desperately shovel table sugar down into your mouth before washing it all down with a fruit milkshake, most weavers don’t really care.

Not all weavers have sweet teeth, and a good chunk of them abhor the taste of mana water, which is generally sweet with additional flavours and undertones that are difficult to describe in Nivian, or translated Actaeon. There are actually some famous Primals, Masters, and notable Adepts who have gone to great lengths to avoid using it, try to make them more palatable to their taste, or both, to the point of inventing entirely new classes and types of beverages and alchemical products over the course of their research.

This is actually how the famous “Fireki’s Fizzy Fun” series of drinks was invented, when the creator Weaver Fireki Venquen tried and failed miserably to make viable variations of pure mana water, and proceeded to sell the prototypes to fund future research. She became ABSURDLY rich from it, but unfortunately never did manage to find those mythical formulas she was looking for, before she died.

Note: Sorry for late update, life and such.

<DIE! DIE! DIE, DAMN IT!> Goro shouted as he stood on top of a wooden pole, blasting at the hordes of foot-large, bird-like golems swarming around him, pecking at or gleefully hurling themselves at the barrier emanating from the pole’s runes.

Crash!

One section burst open, the elementals rushed in like air into a vacuum. Goro roared as he blasted the invaders with a massive jet of flame, nigh-instantly incinerating the ones who’d gotten in, the fire quickly spreading among the rest of the horde.

<HAHA,FUCK OFF!> Goro yelled, grinning as he threw an explosive fireball at them, blasting a good chunk of them into little pieces of burnt wood and singed plant matter… and dramatically widening the breach in the shield, too.

The smile on his face disappeared as the golems charged back in, stronger than ever, pecking at and ramming into the beams keeping the pole up. Goro frantically shot at them with laser beams, but the pole was already starting to rock back and forth.

<MO-THER-FUCKERRR…!> Goro howled as it finally tipped over.

Beneath him, the hordes spread out and made room, before waiting for him with wide-open beaks…

Whoosh!

Sayuri blasted a thick slab of wood with a cyclone from her hands! It flew backwards on its track, until it stopped, and slowly started to move towards her. Sayuri kept on blasting it, eyes occasionally glancing at the one minute timer on the side; by 37 seconds, her arms started to shake from strain, sweat started to pour down her skin, and the slab inched ever faster.

Sayuri yelped and thrust her arms out further, the vortex cyclone growing stronger, larger, and more chaotic, but the slab just kept on going…

SLAM!

A “spider” golem stomped one of its legs into the grass, Weiss just barely jumped out of the way, landing prone on the ground. It lifted it up and prepared to strike again, Tiki, Wala, Nunu, and Mei-Mei swooped in and took her away to safety, the rest of Winter’s summons rushing in and formed a wall between them and the golem.

From her position on a balcony high above the arena, Winter smiled as she watched the Tetra-Tropica set Weiss safely back down on her feet, before a loud splash and agonized whinny wiped it right off her face. “Bubblegum’s down!” she shouted into her comm-crystal. “Tetra-Tropica, run interference! Weiss, get ready ASAP, we can’t afford another casualty!”

“I know!” Weiss shouted back hoarsely, before she ripped off a mana water bottle from her belt, shoved it under her mask and into her lips, and tilted her head back.

She spluttered, gagging at the taste and the sensation of so much mana surging down her throat for who-knew-what-time this fight alone, but she choked it down, threw the bottle away as her hands glowed bright blue once more.

“Ready?”Winter asked.

“Ready!”Weiss shouted back.

Winter started barking new orders, her four summons and Weiss pulled back, surrounding the golem on all sides. The “eyes” all over its body watched them warily, guarded the one remaining weak spot on its underside. Tension filled the air as the Schnees and their summons started to glow and focus their power, the lines of mana in their bodies surging and roiling.

“NOW!”

Armin the Armadillo curled up into a ball and dashed forward, slamming into the golem full-force like a wave! Two of its legs went airborne, Tetra-Tropica grabbed them and kept them up, the other summons striking the golem again, or biting down on its other two legs before freezing themselves in place. The spider violently struggled and kicked, its eyes frantically darting around as its weak point was completely exposed.

Weiss screamed as she dashed forward, launched herself into up into the air with a pillar of ice, bringing her hands together and turning them into a sharp icicle!

Crack!

The spider broke free, and didn’t hesitate to bring its legs down on Weiss, swatting her into a new crater in the ground.

Tygan winced and frowned as he watched via holo, before turning his attention to other the live-feeds, watching Goro nurse and fix numerous beak-shaped bite wounds on his body and armour; technicians pulling Sayuri out from the two wooden blocks she was sandwiched between; and the progress in all the other training exercises he was currently putting his students through.

A call request popped up beside him, he glanced at the ID, before answering it. <Is there an emergency, Mender?> he asked.

<No, nothing of the sort, Weaver,> Penny replied. <It’s just that I’ve noticed that all of your students seem to be consistently sustaining numerousinjuries over the course of their exercises, emotional distress aside. I do not mean to question your authority nor your qualifications, Weaver Tygan, but perhaps the intensity and danger levels could be lowered…?>

Tygan thought it over for a moment, before shook his head, and replied, <No, I don’t think so, Mender. Besides, this is combat training!> His eyes opened up to reveal gleaming topaz eyes. <What’s the pointif someone doesn’t get hurt?>

<Fair enough, Weaver,> Penny said politely. <Thank you for listening to my request.>

<Any time, Mender!> Tygan said, before he disconnected, and went back to watching the holos.

By 6 PM, everyone was back underneath their tent, having walked, limped, or been carried there by their fellows or elementals. All of them were filthy with sweat, small bloodstains, grass-stains, tree sap, mud, and/or magical residue; sitting slumped, leaning against someone else or a tree, or just laid out on the ground; and with quite a few half-naked to put ice packs, hot towels, or medicine on themselves or others.

Tygan was standing up front like before, his hands behind his back as he gazed out at all of them. <Well, this has been an exciting, enlightening, and entertaining first day, hasn’t it?>

Groans and complaints rose up from the class, a few of them threw out half-hearted elemental shots again; Tygan didn’t even have to move as they all fizzled or burned up well before they could even reach him.

<Rest assured, things will be getting muchmore fun in the coming meetings!> Tygan continued. <All of your exercises today are just evaluative tests, meant for me to see if you’re all really everything your original instructors said you were, find out where you excel, and more importantly, where you lack! I can assure you that as early as our next meeting in four-five days, you’ll all start enjoying specially tailored exercises and sets, according to your specific needs.

<However, since I’m still only the one instructor, and the whole Terrace will be sharing space and equipment while the Water Quadrant’s closed, there’ll still be the usual team exercises and group activities where I expect all of you to take your educations into your hands, or hand-equivalents.

<So, try and get to know your classmates, especially over this long break!> Tygan said throwing his hands out and smiling brightly. <Aside from the fact that you’ll probably be working with or leading them in group exercises soon, you never know when they might be the key to your graduating from this class!

<See you all again in an hour, everyone~> he hummed, before he waved goodbye and left.

Groans and sighs of relief filled the air as most of the class got up, either heading to the nearest communal dining area, or some other place to spend their long break. The Schnees joined the former crowd, with Penny on Weiss’ back once more, a power cable attached to her and running into the bucket full of mana water Winter’s summons were soaking in.

<Cripes, this sure as shit is one way to get students to want to graduate ASAP…> someone mumbled.

<Is it just me, or does anyone miss when class involved a whole lot of reading assignments and talking?> someone else asked.

<It’s just you,> a third said. <Guh, Teach being a fucking sadist or no, I’d still take a guaranteed8 hours of straight action, two days a week.>

A murmur of agreement came from most of the class.

<Anyway, anyone want to join forces? I’ve got ideas on how to get a scratch on Weaver Tygan, but I’m gonna need help doing it.>

Weiss watched as a couple of Fae took up the offer, and the rest started to form their own groups and chat. With Penny charging, so many conversations going on all at once, and how drained she was from the exercises, it was all but impossible for her to make heads or tails of what anyone was saying, let alone try to find some way to gracefully enter the conversation.

“Do you think it’s just going to come down to the two of us to pass Weaver Tygan’s test?” Weiss asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Winter replied. “In my experience, a language barrier certainly makes interaction and cooperation difficult, but not impossible, so I’m sure we’ll both find allies here in time.”

Weiss nodded. “Here’s to hoping,” she said.

However much of a problem the emergency relocation and crowding was in many respects, there seemed to be at least one unquestionably positive side to it: luxurious, diverse, and generousspreads at the public buffets.

<Take your pick, take your pick, I guarantee you we’ve got something for everyone!> cried a weaver standing on a post above the long tables of food and drinks, helping control the masses of hungry Fae in need of a high-calorie snack, or an early dinner. <Oi, oi, oi!> she cried, shining a spotlight with her claw, the fins on her head flaring up. <This is the thirdtime I’ve seen you four back there, give someone else a chance to get some, why don’t you?>

If everyone had to grab their own individual servings, the one hour or so they all had for break wouldn’t have been nearly enough, but it seemed that almost everyone was grabbing baskets and trays to bring back to their seated companions, asking to join groups with free space and food, or were explicitly invited in by friends and strangers alike.

Weiss and Winter stood just outside of the sea of Fae, debating whether they should attempt to join the crowds coming in, or just ask around with the many groups already seated.

<Yo, Weiss, Winter!> a familiar voice shouted over the crowds. <Over here! We got room and food, if you want it!>

Weiss looked, try to peer into the crowds, before sighing and turning to Winter. “It’s Nami,” she said, pointing. “Should we join her?”

“So long as we both agree not to drink anything she offers us,” Weiss said.

Winter nodded, and lead her through the crowds, to a section among where the magitech and projects being tinkered on seemed to outnumber the folks and the trays of food.

<Sup, Raindrop, Big Raindrop!> Nami said as she stood on top of Cheska’s shoulders, waving with one hand as her other rested on top of Cheska’s head.

Calmly munching on her seaweed wrap, Cheska raised a hand and waved also.

<Hello, Nami, Cheska!> Weiss said as she and Winter found free spaces and sat down. <Thank you for inviting us.>

<No problem! We’re all water weavers here, we should always be coming together.> Nami said as she climbed off Cheska’s shoulders, and back to the spot next to her. <Now come on, eat, eat! You both must be right-ready to chew on the barrels after your Cap’n sanded you down to the grain.>

<Saywhatnow?> Weiss asked as she started building her own seaweed wrap.

Cheska took a hand of her wrap, projected a holo, and typed, “She said, ‘You both must be starving after how hard your teacher worked you earlier.’”

“What is this, slang?”Winter asked.

“Nomadic Celestian Fae, yes,” Cheska replied. “Just so you know, if I’m not around, Bee’s just as able to translate.”

Weiss nodded as she looked around. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Networking,” Cheska replied, before turning the holo to Nami and translating for her.

Nami suddenly started giggling.

<What’s so funny?> Weiss asked as she and Winter brought their wraps to their mouths.

<Oh, just that ‘Networking’ is a pretty funny way to call Bee’s trying to get some motion in her ocean,> Nami said, bursting into renewed giggles.

Cheska groaned loudly and shook her head, Weiss and Winter turned to her, curious. “Should we ask…?” Winter asked.

“NO.” Cheska typed.

Winter and Weiss nodded, and returned to their food.

<So! Enough talk about who is and who isn’t around, how’s the water been your stretch of this sea on this voyage?> Nami asked, before she took a sip out of her cup of tea.

“She asked ‘How’s your day been so far?’” Cheska typed, before taking a bite out of her wrap.

Weiss groaned. She chewed through her mouthful and replied, <To be honest, I don’t want to talk about it…>

<And to be honest, I want to hear allabout it!> Nami said, her eyes brightening. <Shit hasn’t been this interesting in our class ever since the twins came along!>

“We could help offer some solutions and tips, too,” Cheska added, nodding. “I mean, at the very least, we’ve been in training longer than both of you, and are more familiar with how it works.”

“She has a very good point,” Winter said.

Weiss sighed. “Fine,” she said, before with Cheska’s help translating back and forth, she and Winter told them about their hellish training earlier that day.

<Huh!> Nami said by the end of it. <Seems like you two need plenty of hands on deck, if you want to make it back to port!>

“She said, ‘I feel like you two really need help from others, if you’re ever going to graduate.’”

<We are planning to use more of our off-hours to learning Actaeon, actually, and try to make some allies while they’re still around,> Winter replied.

<Yeah, a solid crew’s all well and good, Big Raindrop, but you’re gonna need so much more than that!> Nami said, patting her potion satchel nearby. <You all good on supplies? Pretty sure you’re going to need at least plenty of sore-stiff ointment, when the tide rolls back in.>

“That last part meant, ‘When the consequences of training finally come around, full-force.’”

<I’ve already got plenty in stock, thanks, and can make more myself,> Weiss said.

<Yeah, but what if you mess up and it ends up turning into an elemental again?> Nami asked playfully. <Best to be sure and have a professional do it for you, eh, Raindrop?>

Weiss scowled. <That was an ACCIDENT, before we realized I had powers to begin with!> she snapped.

Cheska waved put down her wrap and waved her hand in front of Weiss, her other hurriedly typing “I think what she’s TRYING to imply is that she reallywants to use your lab back at Keeper’s Grove.”

Weiss blinked, and relaxed. <You want to use my lab?>

<Aye,> Nami said, before she turned to Cheska, and said, <Did you really have to raise my roger? Asking straight up isn’t as fun.>

<Do you think risking getting smacked for accidentally offending someone is ‘fun?’> Cheska typed back.

<Uh, aye…?> Nami replied, confused.

Cheska just groaned and shook her head again.

Nami turned back to Weiss. <Anywho: can I do a deep dive at your brewer’s over short-shore leave? Heard it’s sweet as.>

“She said ‘Can I use your lab over for a few days? I hear it’s very impressive.’”

Weiss spent a few minutes trying to formulate a response in her head, before she turned to Cheska and said, “Can you please tell her, ‘No offense to you, Nami, but I don’t trust you well enough with my stuff to let you use it, especially in a place as prone to accidents and unexpected catastrophe’s as Keeper’s Grove.’?”

Cheska did, and afterwards, Nami said, <Eh, suit yourself, Raindrop! Just know that if the winds shift, you’ve got my deets!>

“She said, ‘If you ever change your mind or your circumstances change, you know how to contact her.”

<I’ll keep it in mind,> Weiss said. <So, how’s your training been?>

Cheska and Nami shared their experience volunteering their talent and magic to the reconstruction effort, and the equipment and supplies being used by all the temporary laboratories, classes, and training areas, until a bell rang, and several birds in the area started cawing, <15 minutes! 15 minutes till the hour!>

<Welp, time to raise anchor and set sail, Raindrop!> Nami said as she shotgunned the last of her glass of tea, before she got up on her and slung her bag over her shoulder. <Till the tides bring us together again!> she said as she left.

“She says ‘It’s time to go, see you next time,’” Cheska said as she got up herself, turned off her holo.

<See you two, thanks again for the seats and the food,> Weiss said. “Oh, and Cheska?”

“Hmm?” Cheska went, looking at them pointedly.

“What does <Raindrop> and <Big Raindrop> mean and why does Nami keep using it?” Weiss asked.

“I’ve been quite curious as well,” Winter added.

Cheska smiled, and started typing, “<Raindrop> is a slang term for water weavers who are weak and new, and aren’t much more dangerous or useful than an actual, single raindrop. <Big Raindrop> means they’re older than usual. Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll start calling you the better nicknames soon enough,” she said, smiling as she off her holo, and waved goodbye.

Weiss and Winter waved back, before they rinsed off their hands, picked up Penny and the bucket. “Ready for the second half of our training from hell?” Winter asked as they walked.

Weiss sighed, and raised her fist, a small smile on her face. “Let’s do it.”

Note:“Chew on the barrels” came from starving Fae sailors so desperate for food that they would lick, or even chew on the wooden barrels that their food was stored in for any last trace of nutrition, or alternatively, as a last resort for fiber and cellulose.

“Sanded down to the grain” came from the Fae practice of painting on and growing numerous protective and beautifying substances and organisms on the hulls of their ships, to serve as added protection against the elements, or to help sustain the on-board systems. As you might expect, these layers were meant to last as long as the ship was seaworthy, and removing them right down to the wooden base beneath would take plenty of skill, specialized equipment, and a WHOLE lot of time.

Depending on the context, it can be used to imply being overworked or overworking someone, that a task is incredibly boring and laborious, or that something isn’t worth the effort and time required.

“Raise the Roger” was derived from Old World humans practice, of broadcasting a false ID signal that gave you cover as a civilian ship, until you either got close enough for the ruse to be found out, or you intentionally identified yourself as a pirate. Even further back, it was based on the “Jolly Rogers” of pirates during the age of wooden galleons and sea travel, long before space travel was even plausible let alone possible.

“Get some motion in (your/their) ocean” means looking for sex or romance, generally in your off-duty hours. While it can refer to serious, committed relationships as much as casual, short term flings, it’s more often used in the latter context. No guesses as to why it’s phrased that way.

A “deep dive” is long and oftentimes hard work, generally uninterrupted over the course of several hours or even days. It can also be used to refer to bingeing on something, or used sarcastically to imply that someone hasn’t read up or learned as much as they should have, i.e. “Aye, I bet you dove real deep into the manual, didn’t ye?”

“Brewer’s” refers to alchemical labs, which the Nomadic Celestian Fae frequently use to brew alcohol for pleasure, business, or both. Given the enchanted nature of many of their drinks, “Liquid Courage” can just as easily mean someone downing an alcoholic drink that grants them immense power, as someone who’s drunk and doing an incredibly stupid, dangerous act that they would not sober.

“Short-Shore Leave” is a few day’s break, the weekend, or a brief lull in an otherwise eventful and oftentimes unpleasant week, month, or even year. It does not have to actually refer to a physical location that the folks stop and rest at, but it’s also oftentimes used alongside slang for nooks and crannies of the ship used for unofficial recreation.

“Sweet as” never has an object at the end. “That ship is sweet as.” is considered a complete sentence.

“Deets” is short for “details.”

Bee actually IS out networking. It just so happens that some of them end up in her professional contacts, and others end up in her more private lists, whom she has no qualms asking out on dates or having sex with.

Appropriately enough for an air weaver, Sayuri’s fury was like a raging storm, electricity violently discharging and sparking from her fur and her claws as she shouted at such a high volume and speed, it looked like even someone as normally calm, collected, and professional as Bee was quickly looking overwhelmed.

She quickly shot Weiss a look and gestured for her to back off, a stray jolt of electricity giving her some extra encouragement. Sayuri was still going as Bee tapped her staff on the ground, and a bubble formed around them, dulling the sound of her rage significantly, her ever intensifying discharges exploding, crackling, and fading all over the inner surface.

Penny’s eyes suddenly brightened up, the pieces of her tail rapidly floating off of Weiss’ shoulders as she shot up into the air. She quickly spun around once, before slowing down and stopping at Sayuri and Bee.

“Identity, and source of your elevated stress levels both confirmed,” Penny said as she hovered down by Weiss’ head. “Are you alright, Weiss?”

Weiss nodded slowly. “Yeah, yeah I’m good… should we… should we step in or something?” she asked, watching as Bee seemed to be trying to talk to Sayuri, keeping the warm, friendly expression on her face even as Sayuri was still seething, violently discharging electricity everywhere.

“Definitely not,” Penny said firmly. “If your mere presence alone could incite this level of extreme, violent emotions in Sayuri, you’re best off avoiding her, especially if you don’t have a mediating figure such as Bee, or alternatively, some cause or crisis that will cause her to temporarily put her personal grudge aside.

“I advise you and I both leave until Sayuri calms down completely. In line with that, I’m detecting Winter’s comm-crystal signal nearby; would you like to go to her?”

Weiss nodded, and the two of them made a discrete exit, pushing back into the crowds once more.

They came out of the crush and to a mana water fountain, which seemed to be built out of a still living tree. Winter was loitering by a small pool near the roots, her summons’s soul stones deep inside the water. “Did something happen?” she asked as they came up.

“Just the usual,” Weiss muttered, before Penny perched herself on a nearby branch, and replayed the earlier events.

“Seriously?!” Winter asked. “I could understand her coming for you specifically from the whole team name business, but what are the odds, even, that she’d join up in the same class as Weiss, just in time to save it from being dissolved…?!”

“I’m afraid I don’t have enough information nor similar events on record to make an estimate, let alone an accurate one,” Penny replied. “That aside—and full disclosure, this is speaking purely through basic pattern recognition without any further experimentation, research, or theory testing on my or anyone else’s part—the most extremelyimprobable events just seem to keep consistently happening to Weiss specifically, against most laws of probability, so long as it inconveniences, threatens, or harms her in some way, shape, or form.”

“Seems Grandpa really WAS onto something when he talked about our family probably being cursed…” Weiss muttered, before she sighed heavily, and leaned into Winter’s side. “I’m really glad you’re here with me now, Winter, and staying for the long-term; it makes me feel more confident about whatever impending shit storm I’ll be facing, knowing you’re back here with me.”

“Think nothing of it,” Winter said, wrapping her arm around Weiss’ side. “I’ve got about a decade’s worth of big sister-ing to catch up to, anyway.”

“Excuse me, don’t mean to interrupt your sisterly bonding moment, but I feel I should really talk to you three before you get to class,” Bee said as she stepped up.

Weiss turned to her and looked around warily. “Where’s Sayuri?” she asked.

“She’s already on her way to class, and I’m happy to report, I managed to talk her down without incident,” Bee said, smiling, before her expression turned serious. “And speaking of Sayuri: I really have to please ask you that you don’t let her be a deal breaker; it took a LOT of time and effort to shift about and reschedule your eight other classmates from your original arrangements, and it’s a serious decision for any teacher to let go of their students to a special class like this, however short-term.

“A lot of the latter are working towards their Master’s Rites, and often are doing this as their full-time jobs; one less student under their tutelage could mean the difference between getting the opportunity to even be consideredfor the Rites within the next couple of years, or a serious blow to their income.

“Not to mention, if you back out of this now, it’ll be a lot harder for you to argue for special considerations and classes in the future…”

“Alright, alright, I get it! I won’t quit because of Sayuri, you can stop now,” Weiss said, before she shook her head. “Piper, are all you teachers this fond of guilt-tripping?”

“We Fae prefer to think of it more as, ‘politely reminding you of the consequences your actions can have on others,’” Penny chimed in, before she and Bee chuckled.

Weiss scowled, unamused.

“Anyway, you should probably be getting to class now, and meeting your teacher for today,” Bee said. “Most of them tend to be extremely lenient on the first day, but others are pretty strict about punctuality.”

Weiss nodded. “Do you happen to know anything about who they are?”

Bee shrugged. “I’m sorry, I was too busy with the begging and looking for recruits for the class in the first place. I do know that they’re going to be a representative of Primal Wenua, but there’s several of them that could fit the bill.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I really need to go, too.”

“Don’t let us keep you, Bee,” Weiss said. “Thanks for all the help.”

“Any time!” she said, before she hurried on over to a nearby “skyway,” launched herself up into the air via a sudden gust of wind.

“You ready to go, sis?” Weiss asked.

“Of course,” Winter said, smiling before she held her hand out over the basin. “Everyone out of the water!” she said.

There was disgruntled burbling and bubbling coming up from beneath the surface, before five of the six soul stones shot out of the water, arcing into Winter’s palm. She glared at the sixth. “You don’t get special treatment because you’re my main summon, Idun.”

Splash!

Idun joined the others, Winter smiled as she picked her up and slotted her back into her belt. “Good girl.”

With Penny having already calculated the most efficient route, the Schnee sisters followed her to their destination.

Their class was being held at the ground level, at a tent city set up at a long, flat, open field that Penny explained was for a Fae sport, “Huracan.” Other classes, work, and training sessions had already clearly begun, the sounds of shouting, exercising, casting, fighting, chanting, and swearing flooding the air, the Schnees and Penny having to maneuver very carefully through the too thin walkways allotted between tents and sectioned-off areas.

If it was any small comfort, the numerous shields put up everywhere were doing a damn fine job at keeping any potential disasters and mishaps contained.

Boom!

Weiss winced as pieces of a rock target smashed and disintegrated on the translucent barrier just beside her.

<Sorry!>called the air weaver who’d blasted it to pieces.

Weiss shook her head, and they turned a corner down a line of tents.

Fwoosh!

Winter instinctively pulled Weiss to her chest and wrapped her arms around her as a giant jet of fire erupted not inches away from them, the flames licking and raging violently, fighting against a flashing barrier.

Idun flew off from her belt, “fur” bristling and magic lines roiling as she eyed the flames.

<We’ve got it under control, it’s fine!> a fire weaver yelled. <Just keep going!>

Winter and Weiss looked unconvinced, they carefully inched forward, Idun reluctantly jumping back onto Winter’s belt.

WHAM!

The sisters and Penny all jumped as a massive, bulky weaver slammed into the side of a shield, all his limbs splayed out, his face squished up against the enchanted wall as if it were made of glass. He peeled off of it, and collapsed onto a heap on the ground below.

<Are you alright, Weaver?> Winter asked.

He raised a claw, and made a thumbs up. <Mmm a’right!> he said as he picked himself up, and walked back to his fellows

Winter shook her head as they started walking again. “Piper, it’s like I’m right back in the Applied Sciences department at R&D…” she muttered.

“What was it like down there, anyway?” Weiss asked.

Winter sighed, and said, “Let’s just say the Queensguard’s emphasis on ‘you only need to be functional, talented, and capable of taking orders’ was never more obvious than it was down there…”

Eventually, they made it to the opposite end of the field, where most of the space had been converted into a running track, exercise equipment and machines spread out, with a handful of dueling pits in the center, most of them small enough only for 2-3 Fae to fight comfortably. Already, almost all of them were in use, weavers heaving and puffing, sweat pouring down their bodies as the lines of magic on their skin gradually pulsed harder and brighter.

<Heh, about time you three got here…> said a male Fae as he walked up to them.

He was a gazelle Fae, looking to be in his mid-twenties, neatly cut and dramatically shortened horns on his head, what little hair he had tied in a single braid that ran down the back of his head, a pleasant smile on his face and the squint of his eyes so pronounced it was almost like they were constantly closed.

<My name is Rokuro Tygan, one of Primal Wenua’s personal students!> he said opening his arms out wide in welcome, before offering them to Weiss and Winter both. <No need for introductions from either of you, we all know who the both of you are—hard not to, really.>

<It is a pleasure to meet you, Weaver, thank you for taking me under your tutelage,> Weiss said politely, before they each took a hand and shook.

His grip was incredibly strong and firm, the muscles of his bare, lean, and chiseled arms already tightening from just that motion alone. Weiss quietly wondered how the bejeweled metal bands running up from his wrist onward didn’t snap or seem to bend.

<And I have to thank you, for the honour of training the Keeper’s Mate, and her kin, at that,>  Tygan said as he took his hands back, and clasped them. <Come, come, we’ve all just been waiting for you before we start—and before you get any ideas, this is the first and last special privilege any of us will be affording you for your status.>

<That’s just fine with us, Weaver Tygan,> Weiss said.

Tygan lead them to one of the few tents in the area, where Sayuri and seven other weavers were sitting around on the benches, tree branches, and rocks, waiting. They all seemed to be teenagers, just entering puberty, or already looking like young adults who’d clearly been through some shit. Temperaments ranged from meek and nervous, tensed up and warily eyeing the others, to bold and restless, clearly itching for the fighting to start already, or debating starting something themselves.

About the only thing that seemed to unite them all was that all of their gear had been clearly modified for combat, reinforced with armour plating; had slings, belts, and packs for extra weapons and/or ammo; or even decorated with the remains of their past kills, bones especially.

Weiss and Winter found a free spot together, Penny readied herself for a live translation as Tygan stepped up in front of all of them. He scanned the faces in front of him, took in a deep breath, and calmly said, <I will be completely honest: I really want to see all of your faces gone from this class as soon as possible.>

Many in the class clearly did not appreciate that, and didn’t hesitate to make it known, through scowls, disappointed sighs, and the odd minor spell thrown at him. Tygan stood in the center of it all, casually dodging or blowing away any projectiles, still smiling.

<This is because as long as you’re in this class, there is something keeping you from regular training with the rest of your peers; working on your apprenticeship to graduate to Adept level; or gaining the much more valuable experience and education that only being on the field, or working an actual job can give you, where the failures for consequences are much higher than a simple failing mark, and your instructor telling you to try and do better next time.

<In short: the longer you’re here, the more precious time you’re taking away from better things.>

<Then why don’t you just get to the fucking point already?!> a gorilla Fae shouted from somewhere in the front.

Still smiling, Tygan casually held out his finger; electricity arced from the tip, striking the gorilla Fae and him alone.

<OW! SON OF A BITCH!>

Tygan ignored him and continued, <My job is simple: I will teach you all how to fight, and fight well.

<I will not be encouraging you to read up on the philosophy of elemental weaving, write essays and give speeches, and spend long hours in meditation, pondering on the nature of magic and the realm. I will not be testing you on how well you can remember past events, significant weavers and their accomplishments, understand how they led to certain milestones, or the present state of magical theory. I will not be tasking you with internships, and forcing you to contribute your talents and powers to certain ongoing public projects.

<Your job is equally as simple: hit me with your magic.

<Specifically, you will have to do it within five minutes, in a fair duel 1-1, or however many of you you think you’ll need, successfully hit me once with any spell, or magically charged technique. This can be anything from something that knocks me out completely and leaves me absolutely devastated, to a drop of water hitting my cheek.

<Basically, so long as there is clear, undeniable evidence that you have successfully struck me, you will pass, and are free to return to regular training or whatever else you please>

The same gorilla Fae from earlier snorted. <Shit, that’s all? You’re not fucking with us?>

Tygan nodded. <Yes, that is all. Do you wish to try—Goro Aneyama, is it?>

<Yeah, and that’s my name, Teach,> Goro said, getting up from his seat and walking up to Tygan. <Not that you’re gonna need to remember it, ‘cause I’m gonna be out of here soon enough.>

<Are you certain about this, Aneyama?> Tygan asked calmly.

<Did I fucking stutter?!> Goro snapped, throwing his bulky arms out.

Tygan nodded. <Very well then. Mender Polendina, if you will please bear witness and officiate, and if someone else would please help set up our duel, that would be much appreciated.>

Penny and two other weavers came up to draw a circle and barrier just outside of the tent, Tygan and Goro inside of it.

“This probably isn’t going to end well for him, isn’t it?” Weiss asked.

“Definitely not!” Winter said, before she smiled. “If it’s anything like Queensguard screening, though, it’s going to be extremely entertaining, at the least…”

The rest of the class seemed to agree, excited chatter and what sounded like talk about bets already starting, especially among those who knew either Goro or Tygan already. Weiss looked around and shook her head, declining when someone asked if she wanted to throw some money in the growing pot.

The barrier went up, at the barest minimum regulation would allow for two combatants. There was barely any place to move around in, close quarters engagement all but inevitable, little to no time to dodge any projectiles thrown, and absolutely no space to outrun all but the smallest of explosions or area-of-effect spells.

The two combatants put their masks on, pulled their hoods up, and had their respective spotters search and remove any accessories or weapons that weren’t allowed, or would prove a hindrance. As they hauled out of the barrier, Weiss and Winter looked at the combatants in turn:

Tygan, lean but muscular, his “coat” really more just a loose hooded vest, and equally loose pants. There were metallic threads and intricate designs on the fabric, and his rope belt had pulsing, enchanted fibers woven into it, but otherwise, there wasn’t much that would protect him from a direct hit, physical or magical.

Goro, stocky, his muscles thick and bulging, his coat covering his whole body, and adorned with numerous armour plates on non-flexible sections, most prominently his breastplate. Silvery lines covered the ceramic-like material, repaired cracks from battles and incidents long ago.

<Last chance if you want to back out, Aneyama!> Tygan called out, loud enough for all to hear. <No shame in passing on a fight when you know there’s nothing worth fighting for.>

<Oh, shut up, and let’s do the stupid ritual!> Goro yelled, punching his palm.

Unfazed, Tygan shrugged, and said, <Alright!>

Penny lead the pre-duel rites and projected a timer from her tail: 5:00. The audience started to cheer and howl as the two fighters got into their stances: Goro roared and slammed a foot on the ground as he threw his arms out, hands and the blood red “eyes” of his mask exploding in flames; and Tygan calmly spread his hooves apart, moved his open palms up to his chest.

One of the spotters blew the dueling horn, and Goro figuratively and literally exploded into action.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

He swung his arms wide through the air, throwing out five fireballs each time!

Tygan barely moved his hands, every single one of the projectiles suddenly violently veering off-course, exploding harmlessly on the barrier.

Goro roared as he charged Tygan with his fists swinging, flames raging from his knuckles to his shoulders, fiery explosions filling the barrier as he punched, lunged, smashed, and grappled with him. Tygan dodged and weaved around each and every single strike, ducking and bending his body at dramatic angles and elaborate poses, seemingly disappearing into thin air as he escaped Goro’s grasp and circled around and behind him.

<Hahaha! Teach is just straight fucking with him!> one student cried.

<Go Goro!> another one cried mockingly. <Flail harder, you’ll get him eventually!>

Goro howled in rage, exploding into white-hot flames; he cocked his arm, a brilliant flash erupting from his fist as he threw a flaming haymaker at Tygan!

Boom.

The students shielded their eyes, or cried out as they were temporarily blinded. A section of the barrier broke, thick white smoke pouring out of the breach before it quickly healed. Inside, Goro waved an arm in front of him as he shook his punching hand, his whole body glowing with faint red, magical residue.

The air suddenly cleared, the blinding smoke exploding out from the top of the barrier like a volcano; at its base, Tygan, calmly whisking his glowing hands up in turn, completely, absolutely untouched.

Goro stared at him, slack-jawed, before he glanced at the timer:

0:37

He turned back to Tygan, looking straight at him with his “smiling” mask, his arms spread wide as he made a “Come at me” gesture with his palms.

Goro roared, pounding his fists on his chest, the lines of red magic all over his body glowing painfully bright, fire shooting out from the silver seams in his armour, his whole figure enveloped in brilliant white flames.

He jumped up and raised his fists, slammed them both into the ground and sent a giant wall of fire and molten earth exploding out around him!

Tygan swept his foot in front of him, the burning shockwave blown away just before it reached him, the molten rocks flying to the side and breaking harmlessly on the shield. Then, he threw his glowing arms out, a ball of yellow, crackling magic spreading out around him, going past Goro, and sticking to the edges of the barrier, the inside now tinted in Tygan’s topaz yellow magic.

Goro snarled as he pulled himself out of the new crater in the ground, angrily pounding his fists on the dirt, before he suddenly gasped, clutched at his neck. His flames died out quickly as they burned through what little oxygen was left in the bubble, the red lines of mana all over his body rapidly faded. He frantically raised a violently trembling hand, the tip of his finger glowing in ever intenser red…

Pew!

Tygan didn’t even need to move as the feeble laser Goro shot at him missed completely.

The timer hit 0:00, one of the spotters blew the horn. The arena was filled with a loud, rushing sound as Tygan dispelled his magic completely, Goro gasped, coughed, and violently trembled, curling up into a ball as he hyperventilated.

Tygan stepped out of the dirt circle and left Goro to the spotters and Penny, taking his mask off to reveal the same pleasant expression as always. <Does anyone else want to try today?> he asked, holding his arms out. <You get a single chance every session, whenever you please!>

No one took him up on it.

<No takers?> Tygan shrugged, before casually thumbing behind him to the track. <Then all of you, except the spotters, Polendina, and Aneyama on the track, now,please.>

Note: A Vacuum Field is rarely, if ever used in real combat situations, as it can be easily escaped if used without the help of other physical/magical barriers, and the spell itself requires constant, intensely focused channeling by an air weaver to prevent new air coming in, much more for the time it would take for all the oxygen levels to deplete so dramatically that living beings aside from the weaver start to suffocate.

Unless they were being completely protected or unseen, the channeling can be disrupted very easily, and the spell will fail nigh instantly.

Air weavers are able to control their breathing extensively, to very dramatic effect at higher levels of skill. This is what allows them to completely hold their breath without ill-effects for stealth, survive poisoning by gas if they are unable to simply vent it or sustain a field of clean air around them, or stuff extremely, ill-advisedly large portions/servings of food in their mouths in one go.

Bee is still at Initiate level, but at the cusp of graduating to Adept, likely within the next few years after continued apprenticeship under Aeilana. The rest of the class still have a decade or so to go, excluding Weiss and Winter who are exceptional cases.

Tygan is already at Adept level, and remains under Primal Wenua as a post-graduate, assistant teacher. He is 25, and currently has no solid plans for trying to qualify for Master’s Rites.

There is no set minimum age for graduating to Adept, but the average age is 20, standard deviation of 3 or so years.

Only a very small percentage of Weavers ever graduate to the level of Master. Alongside having exceptional skill that far exceeds your peers’, you need to have proved that you can apply said powers to the betterment of Fae society in a significant manner, and earn an endorsement from an unbiased source.

This can involve training the newer generations of weavers and pass on your expertise (which can take decades of work, but is considered one of the two surest paths), but it can also be earned through exceptional combat records on the field or even just in the Pits (controversial and easily contested, but relatively faster and easier); through inventions, innovations, and advances in magitech and/or arcane theory (the second surest); outstanding service during a time of crisis (heavily reliant on luck and preparation); or a combination of any of the above.

The endorsement generally comes from a current, retired, or only recently deceased (within five years from their officially recorded date of death) Master Weaver, but non-weaver Fae of sufficiently high standing and influence in the society can endorse someone for the Master’s Rites all the same. In either case, however, there is still a screening board made of Adepts, Masters, and chosen individuals from the other Orders, though an endorsement from a Master Weaver tends to go much smoother.

The actual Rites tend to be a heavily guarded secret, mostly known only to Master’s, the most senior Chroniclers, and the Council, though there are allegedly several variations and ancient temples used for the ritual all over the Valley and the Cradle. There is no stigma to having failed a Master’s Rite, and it is generally considered an honorable distinction all on its own.

Once the title is earned, a Weaver can never be stripped of it, regardless of what they do afterward. The folks who endorsed them are rarely, if ever blamed or stigmatized if a weaver’s career tanks, or they go Rogue after achieving Master status.

As far as everyone’s concerned, as soon as you begin the Rites proper, everything you do from then on is entirely your responsibility, and no one else’s.  

Glynda earned the privilege to go through her Rite through her teaching work, and her experience with the Watchers, as a field soldier and as an administrator/officer. Aeilana’s was through a lifetime of Watcher service as both a warrior and trainer, along with several successful high risk missions/expeditions over the years, generally during the Flood.

In line with what Yang said, the three Furies plus Penny agreed to dedicate the rest of the morning to opposition research.

Reputation-wise, the original Furies were unremarkable. Individually, all of them were still at the lowest possible bracket, and as a team, they were still unranked; all of their official matches were open sign-ups, random selection, or took advantage of Sayuri being a weaver; and none of them were ever mentioned by name in the intros and the ads, much more folks clearly paying specifically to see them.

“They’re what we call ‘Grist,’ newbies and amateurs the management sets against each other to fill up the shows in between the big-name bouts,” she explained further. “Most folks forget about them after their fights, and they usually only get flat fees upfront for their footage, seeing as it tends to be generic highlights, B-rolls, or compilations, like people taking bad hits to the nuts.”

“Seriously?” Weiss asked.

“Yes,seriously!” Yang replied. “Anyway, don’t take their being Dust league to mean that they’re going to be weak! Everyone that rises up past that is a certified badass among decent fighters, and some folks willingly stay there as official, or self-appointed quality control, keep things exciting for Stone and beyond.”

Weiss and Pyrrha started to see just how much dangerous they were as they started renting holos, and watching the original Furies in action.

Fzzssh!

A lightning ball struck a muscular rhino Fae, she gritted her teeth and stiffened as her whole body visibly coursed with electricity, sparks flying everywhere. Keren launched Vigne into the air, a rain of throwing spears isolated the stunned rhino from her allies. Vigne and Sayuri chased them off immediately after, either forcing them to dodge and weave around a flurry of dance-like kicks and slashes from her talons, or blowing them away with a compressed air explosion.

The rhino recovered, just in time to see Keren charging for her; the two of them figuratively and literally locked horns, kicking up huge clouds of dirt as they wrestled.

WHAM!

Keren headbutted her opponent, dazing her long enough to pick her up, and hurl her into both of their teammates’ ways!

Vigne’s eyes widened and her feathers rose straight up, before she tackled Sayuri into the dirt, lightning discharging into the ground, several throwing spears spilling out of her quiver and clattering onto the dirt.

Their opponents smiled as they readied their weapons over their prone forms… then, their rhino friend slammed into them both, sending the whole trio flying and rolling out of bounds, right into the arms of a waiting spotter team.

“That was sloppy,”Pyrrha said, frowning. “She could have seriously injured her teammates, too; left them vulnerable to attack; and caused unnecessary down time in the middle of the combat, not giving any heads-up whatsoever like that.”

“Yeah, that tends to be the reason folks like her stay in Dust league,” Yang said.

The original Furies were eliminated soon after, and they moved on to another match. KO/scoring; objective-based fights like capture the flag; or special rule sets and arenas, they found that the Furies won some, lost some, and generally worked well together, until someone made a reckless mistake (Keren), a risky, flashy, elaborate maneuver ended in catastrophe (Vigne), or they simply ran out of energy (Sayuri).

By 1PM, they wrapped it up, both for lunch, and the Schnee sisters being due at the Terrace at 2.

“… So let me get this straight,” Winter asked as they ate, “you’ve only just registered, haven’t even had a single official match, and already you have sworn enemies, and will be having an important, possibly career-jeopardizing bout with them in a month?”

“Pretty much,” Weiss said as she picked up some more savory pie with her fork. “Looks like that mysterious force that’s been constantly fucking me over has regained its momentum, after its two week break. On the bright side, maybe I’ll finally start becoming desensitized, and this constant cavalcade of crap will start feelingless awful,” she said, before she put it into her mouth.

“Aww, c’mon, Weiss, don’t be like that!” Nora said, talking with her mouth full and gesturing wildly with her hands and utensils as she spoke. “This’ll be a greatopportunity for you Furies to earn some serious brownie points with the audience!:

“Fighting for the right to keep your name from jealous rivals? The whole Fae VS Human/Hybrid dynamic you’ve got going? Your reputations each?

“All that’s going to make you stand out from the crowd now—definitely end of act 1 material for your future documentary holo, for sure!” she said, nodding.

Weiss swallowed, and asked, “And if we happen to lose?”

“You can still turn it around to your favour!” Nora replied.

“You can hope that the original Furies become your long-term rivals, matching you rank for rank as you both climb up the ladder, drive each other to improve, all the while developing a deep, mutual respect for one another as fellow Pit fighters, andmilking for all its worth in your advertising!

“You can take the defeat as a baptism by fire, that one match you never, ever forget, and flashback to it when you’re on the verge of defeat, before using it to turn the tables and kick ass to victory! Or, you can use as the story for your big motivational speeches, inspiring you and everyone you’re fighting with to win the big tournaments, especiallyaround promotion season!

“Then, when you’re finally in the Etherite league, and you happen to run into the original Furies off-field and set, and you can tell them, ‘Thanks for beating us in that match-up way back when. I’m sure we wouldn’t have made it this far if it weren’t for that fight.’” Nora said, making a poor impression of Weiss’ voice.

“I mean, technically it could go in a whole lot of other, less awesome ways, like you quitting the Pits because you can’t earn enough Shinies to make a decent living out of it,  but honestly, I’m not getting that sort of vibe from the conclusions of the arcs you’ve already been through, so I doubtthis’ll end up being just a one-off event during the early or middle episodes, before being forgotten entirely as the plot revolves around some other recurring conflict for the rest of this season.”

Weiss, Winter, Jaune, and Pyrrha blankly stared at her.

“Nora tends to see the world in terms of story structure, character archetypes, and how certain works in specific genres tend to go, thanks to all her HV consumption over the years,” Ren explained calmly.

“Before you ask: no, the menders have yet to declare her excessive HV consumption as a problem, as none of her behaviours directly related to it have significantly impeded her daily living, nor caused her or anyone else any clear, significant distress and/or harm,” Penny chimed in as she charged on the counter.

Pyrrha nodded slowly. “I don’t mean any offense, but that seems like an overly simplistic way to understand the world—It’s infinitely more complex and unpredictable than fiction ever could be, for one.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know!” Nora replied. “But in my defense, that’s only when you expect the wrong kind of development and events to happen to a certain character! If you know what role someone is playing in a story, then predicting what’s going to happen next or what they’ll do will be easy—take Weiss being a protagonist, for example.”

Weiss stopped in the middle of bringing more food to her mouth. “Excuse me? No, you know what? Nevermind, can we please switch topics?”

“Sure!” Nora said. “How about the game plan for how you’re totally going to kick the original Furies asses in your big duel?!”

“Eh, it’s really only just vague ideas at the moment!” Yang said, waving her off. “We’ve still got at least 2-3 official match-ups before we tussle with Keren’s team; still need to find weapons Pyrrha wants to stick with; and still need to see just how much Weiss can do while that collar’s still on her.

“Speaking of which: Weiss, do me a favour and try and sign up for combat training today, alright? We need to know ASAP if the worst you can do to someone is throw a nasty snowball at them.”

“Will do,” Weiss replied.

The rest of the conversation moved on to recommendations about Fae weapons and their associated styles that Pyrrha had yet to try and might suit her, before Weiss and Winter headed back to their home and started gearing up for their trip to the Weaver’s Terrace.

With Idun and five other summons in the soul stones on Winter’s belt, and Penny hitched on Weiss’ back like a bag, they headed out.

The Terrace was even busier than usual when they got there, the Water Quadrant surrounded with what looked to be an area-wide, semi-translucent barrier, with numerous warning signs, cycling notices, and numerical counters slowly revolving around it.

Even from the very edge, it was easy to see the giant aquatic and amphibious animals, elementals, and summons constantly diving into and emerging from numerous points all over the water; massive construction equipment and maker/weaver teams working by the docks, the shallows, and the destroyed buildings and trees; and the convoys constantly bringing in materials and supplies from outside, or taking away debris and salvaged equipment from within.

The other three quadrants were no exception to the construction and logistics blitz.

Everywhere you looked, there were canvas tents, mud buildings, and huts so recent the leaves on their roofs were sometimes still fresh, being used as temporary shelters, or upgraded into more solid buildings. Alongside them were no shortage of industrial water pumps; pools of all sizes; and cooling devices from outdoor air conditioners, temperature-controlled enclosures, or even just refrigerators to keep drinking water, beverages, potions, cold packs, and the occasional overheated elemental cold.

The myriad research, projects, and training were still mostly going on as usual, but evidently the crowding was making some of the more space-consuming and adventurous of them difficult—the folks underneath the more fragile huts clearlydid not appreciate the air and fire weavers flying overhead and nearly ripping their roofs off.

In spite of Weiss being one of the root causes of this whole predicament, however, it seemed no one really held a grudge against her, or cared to show it to her face; she and Winter were calmly informed of which quadrant they were assigned to for the day, and though heads turned and folks talked, it seemed to be without malice, and they willingly gave them seats on a large flying ship that was about to head out.

Granted, this time, they were expected to help power up the turbines and propellers along with everyone else.

<Weavers, ready?!> said the Fae standing at the fore.

<Aye!> everyone cried back, their summons making similar noises.

<ONWARDS!>

Everyone cheered and roared as the interior lit up with all manner of colours of magic, until they merged into a uniform blue-green. The pipes started to rattle and hum from the pressure, the turbines roared to life, most of the folks and some of their summons broke into a chantey, before the vehicle flew off, into the dense thickets and floating islands of the Air Quadrant.

Eventually, they disembarked a busy shipping dock, the ancient wooden floors crowded with folks, animals, elementals, and cargo moving, boarding or being loaded on the ships landing and taking off like clockwork.

“Weiss! Winter!” Bee yelled over the hubbub, only the glowing, pulsing tip of her staff visible from where the sisters stood. “Over here!”

“I think you should go ahead without me,” Winter said as she watched her summons return to her, each one of them “sweating” and struggling to keep their forms stable. “They all look like they could use a longsoak in mana water for a while.”

“It’s fine, we’ll meet up later!” Weiss said, giving Winter a quick hug before she tried to slip into the crowds.

“Try not to cause any more massive disasters in the meanwhile!” Winter called out cheerfully.

Weiss scowled and tried to shoot her a look, but the crowds were already pushing her further away, blocking her from view; with a quiet sigh, she turned her eyes back to Bee’s staff and worked her way through the crush.

“Good afternoon, Weiss!” Bee said as Weiss stepped up to her. “You ready to resume your training?”

“Yes, but is there any chance I might be able to focus on combat?” Weiss asked. “I’m pretty sure this has made my control and excessive output problems non-issues for now,” she said, touching her collar.

“Already way ahead of you, Weiss!” Bee said, grinning. “I’ve been sending out requests to the other teachers to borrow their own students, to make the minimum headcount for a combat class with special cases much like yourself. It was almost dissolved today, actually, but then the one student we needed to make it suddenly came beggingfor the last slot, right out of the blue!”

“That’s convenient!” Weiss said, smiling. “A little tooconvenient,” she continued, frowning.

“Is something rubbing you the wrong way about this, Weiss?” Bee asked.

“Just a hunch that the universe is going to compensate for this in the most awful way possible, as usual,” Weiss replied.

Before Bee could reply, she noticed someone behind Weiss. “Oh, speak of the devil, there she is right now!” she said as she raised her staff and waved it in the air again. “Over here, Sayuri!”

For a brief moment, Weiss considered that perhaps “Sayuri” was just a common name among Valley Fae, and that this was an entirely different Sayuri altogether, much like how you could find a great deal of people named “John” and variations thereof…

… But as offended screeching pierced through the air, and a tiny, angry, sparking meerkat quickly stormed up to Bee, she remembered she just wasn’t that lucky.

shrimperini:

its prom time

ALT

IGHT

Bonus:

ALT

Weiss: “Winter are you a big spoon or little spoon?”

[Winter eating cookies]: “Fork?”

Whitley: “That’s not what she’s talking about.”

Winter: “Okay then, a knife.”

[Robyn walking past the room]: “LITTLE SPOON!”

Winter: “NO ONE WAS TALKING TO YOU!”

Robyn: “It’s true though-”

Winter: “Shush!”

[Robyn glowing green]:

“Anyway,Winter is a little spoon.”

*Weiss and Whitley giggling*

[Rubywalking in]: “There’s nothing wrong with being a little spoon, right Weiss?”

Weiss: “I hate you.”

Ruby: “I love you too”

*Ruby reaching over to grab one of Winter’s cookies*

*Winter slaps Ruby’s hand*

“No.”

Ruby: “Meanie”

[Whitley gives Ruby a cookie]

Ruby: “See Winter why can’t you be more like Whitley”

Winter: “Heterosexual?”

Whitley: “hEY I AM NOT HETEROSEXUAL!”

Winter: “Right, right…You and Oscar.”

Robyn: “Haha, gaaaaay”

I keep forgetting to post my art on here rip anyways, here’s some V1 white rose ♥

Follow my art insta for more @zoeekar