Chương 1776: 7
Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_JolyneChapter 7
Chapter Text
Ruby… wasn't entirely sure how to deal with Emerald and Mercury, if she was being honest. Sure, they were polite enough, but she had no idea how to deal with two fourteen year olds who acted… the way they did. Both of them were paranoid, distrustful of others, and prone to casual acts of cruelty and malice in ways that spoke of a life that Ruby couldn't even imagine .
For Emerald, she'd learned that Cinder had caught the thief in Mistral trying to pickpocket her. Unfortunately, Cinder was a master at quickly forming and setting glass with her Semblance by this point- it only made sense, she'd been training it since she was eleven and she was sixteen now- and had shackled Emerald to her wrist before her bleeding heart made her drag the thief along with her because, in her older sister's words, no one should have to live on the street without any guarantee of when their next meal would be. Ruby was, at the tender age of eleven years old and just starting to get good enough with Uncle Qrow's Harbinger to start working on her own scythe that was going to be even cooler , very well aware that Emerald probably had a massive gay crush on her older sister.
For Mercury, it was… more complicated. Where Emerald was paranoid and hesitant at times and had to force herself out of her comfort zone, Mercury was just kind of a jerk sometimes? He could be nice enough, but he hated showing weakness and it made him panic if someone saw him being nice or having emotions other than callous disregard for others. He'd probably grow out of it eventually with proper socialization and therapy and lots of puppy cuddles… but since they weren't going to join the family proper and were, instead, going to be fostered with some nearby families on Patch that Qrow said were trustworthy… well. Ruby wasn't quite sure if she should let Emerald and Mercury know that she was half Grimm (or… maybe more, now?) and that she could turn into a puppy.
Maybe if they hung out with her and Yang and Cinder enough. She didn't think that the two of them really trusted her, though- Ruby wasn't stupid or blind and she had empathic grimm senses, she knew that her appearance was a little weird even when she hid her ears and tail. She knew she had a pretty unsettling aura around her, further compounded by her tendency to clam up and hide behind other people when she didn't trust them yet. So… if they wanted to be friends with Cinder, that was fine, but if they didn't want to be friends with her or Yang… well.
Ruby had kept her secret pretty well for the last seven years. It wasn't like she couldn't hide it from two more people.
Sighing, Ruby walked further into the forests of Patch, training scythe in hand- it felt awkward and way too light, but it wasn't like she had access to Harbinger at the moment- Uncle Qrow had apparently gotten some pretty bad medical news (because of something involving Mercury? Nobody wanted to tell her anything, and that was dumb) and was taking a while off and since he couldn't accompany her… she couldn't use Harbinger. Something about Uncle Qrow not wanting her to hurt herself with it? Which was dumb, anyway. Her aura was unlocked, she'd had her semblance since she was five , and had been using Harbinger as her primary weapon since she was six . Honestly, she could probably pass a Huntsman licensing exam on skill alone if she had Harbinger… but oh well.
As she entered the clearing that she'd marked off for her own use (a little thing with a really nice stream running through it on the southern side of Patch), she concentrated lightly and pulled at the burbling, roiling pit of tar within her- reaching for the weapons that she'd absorbed and letting them all spill out onto the grass one by one, each one covered in a thick slurry of pitch black tar that quickly took shape into a bunch of black and white clones of herself- shadowed bodies with faceless white masks lined in red and with singular eyes in the center of the face like a Geist, crimson capes fluttering in the wind, but otherwise identical in every other way.
Without a word, the clones all grabbed the weapons on the ground and took positions around the entire clearing as one- over a hundred total, with weapons ranging from revolver machetes to Atlesian standard issue rifles, baton staves to clawed gauntlets. Ruby herself took up her position at the head of the group and looked over the assembled group of silent facsimiles- each one under her control and linked with her own mind. It was straining, making so many 'Rosebuds' at a time, but she couldn't afford to slack off- even if her primary weapon was always going to be a scythe (she was already planning on making one based on Harbinger, and maybe another one more specialized to her own body type) she had to keep up with all of her other weapon drills too! It wouldn't do to get caught off guard and get disarmed and not know how to use one of the weapons at her disposal!
Even if it was pretty unlikely that she'd get disarmed in a fight, Ruby never wanted to be in a position where she couldn't still deal damage against an opponent with, say, a sword. Or a knife. Or a karambit. Or a chakram. Or a wind and fire wheel. Or a naginata. Or a kunai. Or a whip. Or a staff. Or a club. Or a mace. Or a katana. Etc etc. She'd look pretty silly if one of her backup weapons was untrained to the point that she just ended up flailing wildly and leaving herself full of openings.
As one, the Rosebuds all began moving in what Ruby liked to call organized chaos- individual groups with similar weapons all moving in rough synchronization, while other groups ended up looking completely out of sorts as they all did their own weapon drills. Ruby herself simply watched for a long moment, feeling the breeze on her skin and letting both pairs of her ears twitch happily to the sound of weapons slicing through the air and blanks being fired. The sun shone down on her and warmed her skin, cape fluttering wildly in the breeze and stretching off far longer than it should have for dramatic effect.
Honestly, life was good. Even if she couldn't talk to a lot of people and she didn't really know how to socialize and was pretty sure that her schooling wasn't quite standardized to the Signal curriculum… she was having fun. She was happy. She had two awesome older sisters, a great dad, a really cool Uncle, and was learning how to be a Huntress- a hero , destroyer of grimm and savior of the helpless, someone who could make the world a better place! What else was there to want, really?
Ruby paused, tilting her head as she stuck out her tongue a little.
Well. She did want a cookie…
Maybe later. She still had to train her scythe drills and then start working on her marksmanship- she really wanted to make a super high impact sniper scythe, but Uncle Qrow wouldn't even let her think about it unless her aim was just about perfect. Oh- and then she had to go clear out the Beowolf nest on the west side and make sure the Boarbatusks were beaten back, and make sure that flock of Nevermores was well and truly gone this time- if they'd managed to make a spawning area, there'd be no end to the pesky birds… Ugh. Ruby would take Beowolves over Nevermores any day of the week- at least Beowolves were easy to kill in the woods and didn't fly around and draw a whole bunch of attention when they got near a population center.
With a quick little sigh and a turn on her heel, Ruby slipped on her headphones (a gift for Ruby's tenth birthday from Yang, bright red and with her mom's emblem stamped on the side) and began her scythe drills, the training scythe in her hands flashing through the air in blazing fast arcs and spins as she stepped and slashed and stepped and blocked and stepped and sliced and whirled and turned and lost herself to the rhythm of an endless dance, the sound of guitars echoing through her ears as she imagined herself fighting off a horde of Beowolves, slashing and dashing and using her Semblance and her scythe to their fullest potential as she ran around the spot in the clearing she'd made for herself. Her muscles would have burned had she been a normal eleven year old, the weight of the training scythe making her entire body stretch and bend in ways that most couldn't dare consider when it came to combat training- every part of her body had to be finely tuned not just to the muscle memory of a scythe, but to swords, tonfas, brass knuckles, claws, knives, daggers, crossbows, staves, batons- everything and everything because-
"Oh, Ruby! There you are!" Cinder called out, interrupting Ruby's flow and making the girl immediately halt as she turned to face her older sister- clad in a fancy red dress with tasteful accompaniments of black and white and gold as always.
"Cinder!" Ruby called back, waving as her Rosebuds all halted at once, staring in eerie unison at her sister as she walked into the clearing. "What're you doing here? I thought you said you were goin' shopping today with Emerald and Mercury!"
"Well I was, but I wanted to come ask if you needed anything before I met up with Trivia and the others. You're getting pretty big, and as much as you say you can- you really can't make all of your clothes out of grimm stuff. What happens if you need to wear, like… blue? Or a green that isn't neon and acidic?" Cinder asked, raising an eyebrow as she took in Ruby's standard color palette, which was entirely black, white, and the various shades ranging from pinkish red to yellow. As evidenced by Ruby's actual outfit, which was currently in the form of black and white gym clothes. And her ever-present red cloak.
"... Why would I wear blue? Or green? I don't even like those colors that much," Ruby huffed, folding her arms lightly and letting her Rosebuds fade into rose petals, their weapons and bodies turning into black petals that flooded around and rejoined her actual body moments later. "I'm fine as I am, Cinder! It's cool, alright?"
"Mhmm… I'll get you some new blouses, then. And a few skirts?" Cinder hummed, clearly not willing to take no for an answer.
"... Fine… can I get a new puppy onesie too? My old one is… a little small."
"Of course, baby sister."
"Cinder nooooo! I'm not a baby anymore!"
"Still just as small as one~"
"Cinderrrrr!!!!"
[It's like a flower patch made of nightmares and body horrors and the utter decimation of the treats jar]
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