章 6: Cracks
Alex, although excited at his new ability, was confused. When he woke up, he saw screens detailing his new abilities. As useful as they were, the idea that something, or perhaps someone could document every facet of what he was capable of was a terrifying thought. However, as it is for most children, he decided to ignore the potential death threat and focus on cool things. He could make stuff now, yay!
But it never lasts.
He hated that. Why wouldn't it last though?
If the screen that called itself a *System* said that it might be possible for him to be able to do so in the future, why couldn't the future be now?
So he started practicing with his semblance, making more and more copies until finally, something clicked. The object would need a certain amount of aura to exist for a second, then once the supply was cut and it ran out, the object would disappear. The next step was to see and figure out exactly -how- the aura went into an object. The issue with this is that he couldn't grasp how. The distance between him and the object had a negligible change in consumption, so it clearly didn't have to travel through space to get there. So how in the world did it work?
He would need to figure that out before he would be able to permanently make something.
But before he could do anything of that sort.... he needed to eat.
"Oi Alex, that's a lot of food there... you might get fat if you keep on eating like that."
"This is a one-time thing, but it must be really shocking if you're talking about overeating, Tai"
"BOYS! Stop arguing and eat the food that I made."
"If you don't want to eat Mom's food, I could make you some!"
Ignoring his idiot sister (who couldn't cook at all) he took out a notebook and started asking questions. "Hey Mom, Old Gold, how do your semblances work?"
"Well, it's like, I get surrounded by petals and then SHOOM I moved."
"And you?"
"Summer, do I have to tell him?"
"Yes, Tai, you do."
"Ugh fine, I summon a dragon that acts as an aura around me. When I get hit, it gets stronger, and if it's strong enough, I can detach it and use it to attack." (AN: No idea what his semblance is so I made it up, but given the fact that he has some relation to dragons, although I think it was a title, this goes into that a bit, but with a bit more Yang)
"Hmm, interesting... since sis doesn't have hers yet and Dad's is...confusing, I'll have to ask you some more questions."
Looking down at his bacon and realizing he would have to answer Alex's questions or be in a world of hurt coming from his wife, Tai sighed and pushed the plate away, less hungry than he was a moment ago.
"Whaddaya need to know?"
Taking out a pen to go with the notebook, Alex started writing.
"How do you use the aura to use the semblance?"
Summer was the first to respond, although her answer could have been a bit more...scientific.
"I just push the aura in my body, think about using it, and suddenly BOOM! Petals, and I'm going fast."
Deciding to answer the question Tai was the next to speak. "I think about-"
Cutting off his father without hesitation Alex looked up from his notebook to his mom. "Where do the petals come from?"
"I don't understand."
"The petals from your semblance. Where do they come from? Do they disappear after the semblance is stopped?"
Confusedly looking at her son, Summer could only mutter out a whisper. "I.. uh.. don't know?"
Marking -needs more investigation- next to Summer's name he swiveled to look at his "father".
Off-put by the seemingly soul-piercing gaze that his "son" was giving him, Tai could only say, and with no lack of mirth "Oh now you want me to speak?"
Without batting an eye, Alex responded, his tone condescending. "Now that what your saying isn't useless, yes I do."
Looking between her husband and son, who seemed to be shooting lightning at each other using their eyes, Summer looked at her daughter, and with a cheery smile on her face, dragged her out of the room so that Summer could... continue Yang's previous lesson about fluffy foxtails.
"So explain your semblance for me." Not bothering to hide his shit-eating grin, Alex looked at Tai.
"What's the magic word?"
"Abra cadabra"
"Why do I even bother?"
"Because that way at least it looks like you're trying to be a parent."
Resisting the urge to punt the child, Tai took a deep breath. "Say please or I make it so you won't get cookies for a month."
Closing his eyes and making a cost benefit analysis, Alex came to a conclusion. 'Mom's cookies are too good to go without.' Gritting his teeth, Alex asked his question, but with a please at the end.
Satisfied with the supposed progress, Tai began explaining his semblance. "When I activate it, the image of a dragon coiled around my body appears. The more I attack, the stronger it gets, and after a certain point I can unwrap it and use it for offence."
"Could you make the dragon permanently active?"
"No, but it seems to be tied to my general stamina."
Trying to dig deeper into the mystery of semblances, Alex asked a plethora of questions, which Tai was pseudo-forced to answer. To finish off the interview, Alex posed one final question, that he had on his mind since he heard of his mom's husband's semblance.
"Can you use it to defend others?"
"Short answer, no."
"Long answer?"
"Kinda? If I wrap it around someone and consciously make it move around them whenever they move then sure, but it's less effective."
"Aargh"
Closing his notebook, Alex couldn't help but groan in frustration. Sure, he got some good info and some ideas, but something was missing. How in the world did Tai even get such a semblance? How did anyone get theirs? Did personality shape it or was it the other way around? With too many questions, and not nearly enough notice to throw himself at a task that people for millennia had failed to do, Alex went back upstairs to his room, to try and work on his theories.
But first, he needed to deal with the elephant in the room.
The stupid "untainted" whatever that he had was really confusing him.
Whenever he looked at Summer, faint warning bells would go through his head. Why? Why did that happen? What was he scared of? Why her and not the rusted paranoid? That's not to say that he didnt get warning bells from Tai, but they were a different kind. His were like something that would annoy you forever, and Yang had a much milder, tamer version. Summer though....
Hers felt ominous. As if it were knell tolling.
Why? He hated that. It reminded him that eventually, she would die.
HE HATED THAT.
Deciding against going down the path of what would happen if mom died, he focused inwards, to what was arguably the best thing he got out of his conversation with the muscle head. He felt a .... a thing in his body that his semblance used. First he thought it was his aura, I mean that's what it runs on. But it isn't.
His last question was specifically about that. Tai said that the timing of how long the dragon would be out wasn't the same as his aura reserves, but the two grew at the same time. So now he had to test his theory. Throughout his discussion with Tai, he had been slowly draining his aura reserves by strengthening and the canceling said strengthening repeatedly. Yet no matter how low his aura got, the core stayed the same. But now, now that he was making a string of cotton with his sembalnce, the core was dimming.
He was over the moon.
He didn't care that Tai bad obviously held back some info as to what or where semblances come from. Now that he had a better idea as to how to control his, he didn't care about that missing piece of knowledge, confident that he would learn it soon enough.
All he has to do was come up with a cool design for the present he was giving to mom, and make it permanent. Nothing else mattered to him right now.
Tai was conflicted. He knew he was becoming paranoid, the fact that he was outside Alex's door listening to him talk to himself was proof, but what was the point in all this? Alex loved what he considered his family. Despite that definition not including himself, Tai was...happy? at that thought? He didn't know how to feel. Ever since the brat's semblance activated, Tai would get weird vibes from his son. As if he were ... somehow ... evil? No evil wasn't the right word for it. Ominous? he couldn't articulate it. Grimm are supposed to be attracted to negative emotions, and Alex's, although clearly positive, somehow felt like those villages he saw when on the job. Thanks villages where corpses were littered everywhere, with the houses either caved in, bathed in blood, or abandoned with no remains. Chuckling to himself he got up from his sons? door with a funny thought flowing through his head.
'Despite not being Qrow's son, it looks like he got his awful luck.'
Mildly berating himself at the thought of Alex getting injured, he went outside, only to see Yang on the ground, kneeling towards his wife with worship in her eyes, and pure delight in Summer's.
"Explain. Now."
-------------------------
Alex was now thoroughly annoyed.
He had tried for almost a week now to get his material stuff made with his semblance permanent but nothing was working, nothing was working!
He needed a break, not only from this but from-
"Alex!"
"Dear god Yang what do you want?"
"Give me your tails."
That. That is what he needed a break from. Ever since he had his talk with Tai while Mom talked with Yang this happened. When he confronted Summer about it, all she said was that she told Yang that sooner or later, Yang would need to realise that the two were different genders, and that being so close to the *ahem* behind of another would cause issues.
Summer was 100% right, but the gleam in her eye and smirk at the edge of her lips begged to differ.
He really needed to figure out what in the world was going on here.
"And why do you want my tails?"
"So I can fluff them?"
Biting the bullet, he decided to throw his sister a bone, after all it did feel great when they brushed it.
"You already can though? I'm not exactly stopping you? As long as it's not clearly a bad time I don't have an issue with it."
But instead of being enthusiastic about it, Yang's mood got more extreme.
"But it'll be an issue when we get older! And I won't be able to get my fix of tail, I'll completely run out of juice!"
It was official.
Everyone in this house, was insane.
Looking back on Yang's speech, he was flabbergasted at how she used normal logic to try and get something impossible from him.
Honestly, what does she think I am? Where I can just cut out a part of me and it'll become... a source ... of... ENERGY!
"You've got to be kidding me"
"You know Alex it won't be that painful of a procedure, Mom'll just-"
"Yang, please stop for a minute. I'm reveling in a discovery thanks to you and you're kinda ruining it."
....
"I get to fluff them for a day."
"I won't even care, just don't grab them too hard, I'm working with my semblance and I don't want to pass out because you grabbed a sensitive spot."
He really didn't care.
He was way beyond pumped for this.
He'd have done it! Thanks to Yang and kind of Summer's obsession no less!
Sitting down on his bed he took at out a second notebook from his drawer and placed it next to the first. This one was for ideas for clothing instead of semblance stuff.
Flipping through the pages, he came to one he preferred. A silver band with purple and red etching in it with Mom's white rose symbol.
Looking back he saw Yang's eyes shining, with her fingers outstretched, as if she were a tigresse about to pounce on prey. When their eyes met and hers narrowed for a second he realized exactly what he had gotten himself into.
With a heavy sign, he conceded. "Fine, but this deal is only from today."
Getting a nod from his older sister, he willed his tails back out of his body? Making a mental note of figuring out exactly what was going on with his tails, he heard a *POOF* signifying that they were outside now.
Suddenly, Summer burst down the door and with glazed eyes and a drooling mouth spoke, "There are three of them! Must... stroke, tails."
Deciding to ignore the fact that Summer knee about the tails the moment it happened, meaning she was eavesdropping, Alex closed his notebooks.
Yang might respect the conditions he set about letting him work, but Mom certainly wouldn't.
クリエイターの想い 
Derivative_God
Derivative_God Yohoho, did it in less time than I thought I would despite having used a phone, so if paragraph spacing is wierd, sorry I can't fix that, I've tried.
Also I would like some names for some OC characters that'll pop up in a bit
-Silver haired mom/daughter Loli pair.
-Some of Qrow's flings
-A good alias for Alex (thinking about Rex)
-an alias for Cinder
y'all don't have to but it would make my life easier.
Cya in like two weeks when I post what should be Ruby's birth
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