HereComesTheSnow

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Crimmy

wew LAD

We worked in tandem on the mechanism for a few minutes, with April essentially putting me through a review session of everything I had figured out. The general concept of what I was working with was all but there, with the next step being trawling through the spare parts to get started on reverse engineering...

But...

"So, catch me up, nee-chan! How'd you de-steam without beating him into next week, anyway?"

Nobody loved to get caught up in their own whirlwind of conversations like a pair of sisters.

Can't be helped, can it?

While they began to prattle on off into their own little world with April retelling the grand story of kicking me in the face, I took the opportunity to take a small breather from trying to force my brain to work in so many dimensions at once.

Inevitably, I found myself locking eyes with a familiarly stoic gaze.

"Sorry, you must be getting pretty bored just watching us try and do something resembling work."

Even if she didn't outwardly indicate... much of anything, really, it couldn't be fun. She almost definitely had family to be seeing around here... Really, who the hell did those brats think they were, dragging this poor girl around like she was one of their playmates?

Well, I'm also sure that, in fairness to them, they were expecting something more lively than this to be dragging her too, but I still digress.

Galla was here for family day, that much was a certainty. I knew I'd seen that flat expression on someone here before.

Someone with the same dark hair and eyes.

The same sharp features.

The same accent, even...

I should have pieced it together sooner, really. Perhaps it was the lack of aggression beneath that threw me off, like getting a stone instead of ice. Beneath the blank, all I could read was more blank, after all.

No undercurrents there to terrorize or mystify.

"Say... you're Gratia's sister, aren't you?"

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

@Crimmy

75% GLAD

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew you were still a good guy deep down, Nii-chan!"

"AAAAARGH WHAT THE HELL GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF!"

Picture this scenario, if you would.

A young man of a slight build is trapped in the position of leaning against the edge of a table, where there sits a very intricate piece of partially disassembled machinery. He is trapped for reasons twofold: one being that the necessary force to free himself could send something, like a small and difficult to notice gear or widget for instance, flying.

The second is what he is trying to escape: In this instance a little sister. However, she is no normal little sister. Struggle and squirm though he might, with all of his available might, he is at a distinct disadvantage in three areas.

Firstly, and most simply, size. Despite being her elder by 3 years and male, the young man is actually shorter and only mildly stockier than his sister. Her longer limbs give increased leverage on her squeeze, making his advantage in mass nearly useless.

Secondly, positioning. He is leaned, practically seated upon, the edge of the workbench, which thereby leaves his body in a suboptimal position for force generation in relation to it's base and center of gravity. She is fully clinging to him, and squeezing tight leaves her no need for such stability in the base.

Finally, skill. She is a girl who regularly trains her jiujitsu with black belts, and is herself at the upper end of a brown belt level. He is the result of some slapdash cross-training in many arts for a mere six months, with an emphasis on getting skills up and running as fast as possible since the time for refinement was lacking.

All in all, it's a desolate scene for him, isn't it?

"April, this is seriously starting to freak me out!"

Even as I thrashed and tried my level best to extricate myself from her clutches, the most dangerous thing to wear bumblebee colors since nuclear waste held fast, giggling happily. Giggling! Happily!

Call hell, tell it to stop freezing!

"Heeheehee, it's been so long since I've given you a big ol' hug like this..."

"I know, that's why it's creepy! What's with this sudden 180 in personality?! We've fought since middle school!" I demanded, trying and failing to pummel for an underhook. What happened to the mutual antagonism from five minutes ago?! I mean, I could understand if my offer had simply gotten her off of my back, but how the hell did glomping enter the equation?

"Well... To be honest, Nii-chan," she began, calming down but still not letting go. P-Progress, right? "I was actually really hoping I would get to use those gauntlets one day. Like, super hopeful about it."

"...Is that right?"

Well, it wasn't as if that didn't make sense. April had always been the one we all agreed took after our mother the most, and not just because she inherited all the height. Though it's tempered with age, I've heard stories of Mom being a similar firebrand who loved brawling when she was younger, and it's not hard to see where all that heat in April's blood comes from.

If you choose to believe it, that is. But it's reflected in Dawn too, if more subtly, and therefore I'm fairly sure it's my only option to believe that the unbelievable woman that was my mother was once a crazy kid too.

"Mm. It's right." April affirmed, somehow finding space to casually use me as a springboard when she finally let go. What a mind-bendingly understated handspring... Forget martial arts, she even made gymnastics seem like a cakewalk. You're that Ninja...

...Or maybe I'm just stiff, slow, and unathletic.

We are Huntsmen-to-be.

"I was pretty down when I learned they were headed off to Beacon with you, but I've been making sure not to show it. Whining about your own misfortune isn't justice, right?"

I blinked, plopping back down into the chair with a thoughtful "hunh".

"So then, you've been holding out for me to not use them anymore?"

What kind of plan was that? For someone who could make due with just her fists and semblance, I suppose it was more feasible than it would be for most.

But even so, she herself admitted that it wasn't going to last her for much longer than it had. If I weren't planning on giving up the gauntlets, where would that have left her aside from shit out of luck?

"Of course not, stupid." she scoffed. "Like I said, I was beginnin' to think of other options... But none of them would have felt as right as taking up Mama's mantle. So I'm really happy you'll let me, is all."

"Wow, so you guys actually made up? Impressive!"

I was fairly sure I had not heard that door open.

In walked two young women, one I instantly recognized and the other I had the vaguely familiar feeling about that, in hindsight, should have told me who she was. Dawn Schwarz was very distinct in her colorful yukata, feminine and subdued demeanor (comparatively [in regards to her sister]), and family resemblance to me, being my little sister and all.

The other was a girl about April's age, maybe a bit older, with dark hair and all the expressiveness of a particularly joyful rendition of the Thinker statue. Very familiar, but I was drawing a blank at the moment with the whirlwind I was going through.

"Oh, Hiya, Dawn an' Galla!" April chirped in greeting, raising a hand. "Sorry for running off on you guys like that, but I found Nii-chan!"

"...Hi. I'm Luke."

I didn't really know what to think or say beyond that. It wasn't like Galla was giving me much to work with...

"Aw, drat, I wanted to handle introductions..." Dawn groused momentarily, before returning to her prim smile. "You look well, Onii-chan! In one piece and everything!"

"Don't say 'in one piece' like that's exceeding expectations. I'm not porcelain."

"Yeah, but like I was telling Galla here, April was trying to rip your head off..."

A very poorly, "innocently" whistled tune from my left cued a flat look aside to my bigger sister before I continued to address the littler one.

"Alright, fair point. And yeah, I am managing, more or less, but the year's just started and it's about to kick in. As in, kick in in full."

And kick in my teeth.

I refused to delude myself whenever I appraised where I stood in life. And, to speak of appraisal, I shifted in my seat to face the stoic girl alongside my sly little sister, and inclined my head in a small gesture of supplication.

"I'm sorry if they've been dragging you along on their hijinks, Galla. These two don't understand the concepts of 'personal space' or 'leaving well alone', so it's alright to let me know."

Galla.

GallaGallaGalla.

...Was that Central Mistralese?

Hm.

I just had to know the answer to this...

I knew this. I could figure it out.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

We don't talk about her here. Boo, hiss.

For what it's worth, I do echo the sentiments of @Crimson Raven and @Crimmy regarding credit upgrades and established canon, NPC characters we'll at some point be interacting with. For the former, I feel like some arbitration does need to be made, even if it's just finding a baseline for "how much is X shit worth", since we can't always come to terms on power scaling as a community (Re: Gren)

And, you know, the canon characters just being in anyone interacting with them's hands will be chaotic as hell, and while Ozpin's schizoid ass may be able to pull it off, other characters such as Glynda or Big Papa Ironwood need the stability of characterization and motive to really stay in one piece.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

one of these days you'll read something and i'll be so happy

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

That third slot of ours is cursed, seriously. It's STILL trying to kill off poor Write

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Nobody does edgy and confrontational better than me, he knows his place.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

If I recall correctly he got a killer concussion or something, but that's just hearsay.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Who said you needed to be the strongest to be the main character though

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

Well, as I said, you can keep the warrior goals for the long term, but your problem seems to be stemming from the fact that you are trying to make an ork in power armor while everyone else is making fairly decent to good freshmen hunters.

That is to say, the scales are substantially different. If I recall correctly, the main issue with, say, the reactor idea, was that if shit went wrong (with his old and I believe you specified faulty) gear, was that it was very likely to level the academy simply due to how nuclear reactors work (and fail). It's just a ridiculous amount of power to be dicking around with, even in the given setting with a large concentration of out-and-out superhumans dotting the landscape. That was what spooked most people, and I think many of the other criticisms were along those lines.

An ork in a world of spess mehrens is perfectly fine, but first-year hunters and huntresses are not spess mehrens. The simple physical capabilities may be comparable, but armaments like a bolter would fuck this entire setting's shit up.

Heroes of Beacon - the Next Chapter

So, would it be entirely wrong of me to say that your primary motivation for Gren is writing out combative technology and armaments and their usage?

Because while that's a perfectly fair attraction (it's RWBY after all), I think if that's ALL that's there, it's just a limitation on your skills that you don't have any need for. If all your character is to you is their gear and fighting skills...

You could explore a lot more with him, you know? You can keep the upgrades as an eventual goal (Shoutouts to my girl Gigi), but in the meantime, why not try and look at other sides of him? There's gotta be more than just that. The love of food, for instance? You could take that and the passion for cooking somewhere, and even if it's not too far, it could easily open up doors to other, more engaging stuff. Feasts are gatherings, maybe put one on and try to invite his friends and get some solid interaction down? Those sorts of situations oftentimes go a long way towards building connections and friendships between characters and, oftentimes, players. I first met Krayzikk waaaaaay back when some seven-odd years ago, when his character and mine both ended up being on the run from the same group and had to gut it out together, simply because my character was walking down the same alleyway.

Terrible example, but I hope the point's still there. You can take some small quirk or facet of your lad and use it to go places, even if they aren't the main point of why you wanted to play them.

Hypocritical though it is coming from me ("write more araragi, write more araragi, write more araragi"), I'd call exploring those other things a good start towards motivation. It's why I'm such a contest-whore, I get to look at different angles of Luke than the main game normally allows. It freshens up my takes on him, rounds him out and gives some supplemental info when I can sneak it in, and really helps me delve into how everything all connects back into who he is.

Whenever one of those character-driven prompts comes up, maybe give it a shot. Someone's bound to run another contest eventually, assuming this game's a fighter and comes back from these maybe-death throes.