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Weiss put down her textbook as her study timer rang. She stretched her arms above her head and smiled. She’d finally hit the quota she set for herself and finally earned her reward: a weekend of binging Vytal Fantasy 14 .
Weiss had not picked up the best habits since leaving home.
She booted up the game and hummed a tune waiting for the login queue to pop. Before she knew it her delightful avatar, the human White Mage known as Whitaker Selene, dressed to the nines in her regal healing glam, was strolling about the fantasy streets of Vale, Remnant. Normally she’d take the time to bask in the wonderful atmosphere of the game, but after a week of grinding assignments, all she wanted to grind was dungeons.
It didn’t take long for her to get started. She quickly received an invite from one Yella Xiulan - a draconic faunus following the path of the Aura Knight. No message attached - her guildmates had come to understand that she didn’t especially care for the social aspect of the game, and they didn’t seem to overly mind, happy just to skip out on the group finder waits.
Weiss teleported to join up with the group before they began their dungeon to see who else was on board this evening. Yella was joined by a player Weiss recognised and a player she didn’t. The familiar face was the feline faunus Black Mage Blight Bastet, another guildmate, dressed head to toe in black and set to a ‘brooding’ emote. The newcomer was a lupine faunus named Ruby Rose. She seemed to be playing Red Mage, with gear set for a hybrid DPS-Healer loadout. Weiss silently judged the wolf girl’s gear - not bad, but those robes haven’t been the meta for a good two patches now - while the group discussed their preferences for what dungeon to start with.
The new girl noticed Whitaker’s model kept in its idle animation facing directly towards her. Just before Weiss realised she had been caught, a message popped up in the party chatbox.
Ruby Rose: hey girl, like what u see? ;)
Whitaker Selene:
Weiss had no idea how to respond to that. She thought back to the interactions she had had with other players in this game. She counted on her fingers. This was maybe the second personal, direct social interaction she’d had in this game, the second time anyone had ever tried to talk to her, not to ask about dungeon choice, or gear, or strategy. What should she say? What did this girl mean by it? What-
Whitaker Selene: No.
Weiss sighed with relief and smiled a self assured smile. She was a Schnee - her victory was guaranteed. What a display of her intellectual might.
Ruby Rose cries.
Yella Xiulan: DAMN lmao
Yella Xiulan: fukcin gottem
Blight Bastet: lol
Weiss was terrified she had actually hurt this stranger for a few moments, before realising that she was probably the one they were laughing at. She cringed as she took another look at Ruby Rose’s character. She was sporting silver eyes, black hair with red tips, a black corset and a red skirt, black boots with red accents, and a red rapier combined with a black magical focus that combined to make a staff resembling a red and black scythe. She certainly had a look going for her. Suddenly, Weiss remembered what kind of character this was. She glanced around her room - she was alone, of course, she always was - and scrolled up on the avatar viewer to zoom in on Ruby’s faunus features. Completing the girl’s look was a fluffy pair of wolf ears, pointed just enough to have shape to them, but not so pointed they stopped being cute. Oh, they were just perfect . Weiss looked around her room again and let out a small squeal of joy. This girl was so cute. Her face was soft and round with a little button nose. She sighed contentedly. Maybe she had given the wrong answer.
Whitaker Selene: Alright, alright, I’m sorry. Shall we start our dungeon? I don’t have all weekend you know..
An outright lie.
Yella Xiulan: sure thing princess. mountain glenn good for u?
Blight Bastet: good here yeah
Whitaker Selene: Fine by me.
Ruby Rose: yeyeyeye lezgo
Another satisfied sigh as the group began the game proper. The camera swept through a digital rendition of an abandoned, demolished city, a failed attempt at building a new life beyond the safe walls of an imagined Kingdom; now infested with snarling creatures of darkness known as the Creatures of Grimm. Navigating past the foul beasts, the camera dove into a fissure in the old concrete and through the city’s underground extension, an area filled not with monsters but with members of the White Fang - a Faunus activist group corrupted into a terrorist organisation. Finally, the camera turned towards a huge train readying for departure, and continued turning towards the tunnel it was preparing to journey into, before speeding along the rails into the darkness beyond. Gold font appeared on the screen simply reading “MOUNTAIN GLENN”.
It was a simple dungeon. First, they would proceed through the overground streets, fighting through packs of weak Grimm until they reached the hole leading underground. There, they would fight past the White Fang’s grunts in pursuit of their ringleader, Roman Torchwick. A scripted event would ensure they would be just a bit too late to stop the train from leaving, but would also ensure they were just about able to jump on the back of the train as it pulled forwards. There would be a gauntlet of mini-bosses as the train exploded behind them, leading to a final climactic confrontation against Torchwick himself. Linear, simple, a little bit of spectacle - a nice appetiser for a weekend of dungeoning.
Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath, imagining herself in the white boots of Whitaker Selene, unphased by the chill breeze, tasting the crisp air untouched by the output of an industrialised society. Whitaker smiled, already satisfied at the thought of impending victory. All that was left was to claim it. She turned to face her - associates? She felt “teammates” might be a bit too familiar - and took in their similar expressions of cocksure determination. She turned forwards again and set off with a smile.
The first pack appeared soon enough. Her frosted staff was drawn at the ready, her decorative rapier left by her hip. This would be a simple procedure. Yella would charge in and draw aggro, Blight and Ruby would let loose DPS hell, and Weiss would top up Yella’s HP as she tanked the beasts’ attacks.
Weiss had her fingers ready over her first round of healing spells. Whitaker lowered her stance and gripped her staff tighter. Yella started to move into a sprint and-
-And a whoosh of air almost knocked Whitaker off her feet as a flash of red tore towards the enemy, a flurry of rose petals left in its wake. Weiss squinted at the screen, trying to process what was happening, and struggling to find a solution that she could accept. She was unsuccessful, so she accepted the unbelievable, unimaginable, unacceptable truth: the goddamn Red Mage was pulling.
“What in the WORLD are you doing, Red Mage?!” Whitaker called, furious and confused. Ruby had dashed right into melee range and was swinging her scythe madly as she began her rotation while the monsters responded in kind. Blight and Yella seemed unconcerned, moving into their proper positions. The Aura Knight began swinging her bright yellow greatsword and casting aggro drawing spells, but she was struggling to compete with the ire Ruby’s flurrying AOE combo was earning. Eyes flickering across the screen in a panic, Weiss realised that Ruby’s life was dropping dangerously low. She quickly hit the appropriate healing bind, barely saving Ruby as one the Beowolves smacked her with a heavy arm and sending her head over heels backwards.
Ruby Rose: what does it look like i’m doing
Ruby Rose: i’m gaming lol
Ruby Rose: thanks for the save btw uwu
She stood still for a moment next to Weiss’ avatar as she cast a healing spell on herself. Weiss didn’t have the time to berate her selfishness before she charged once more into the fray, stood directly on top of an enemy attack marker, landed one auto attack, and died instantly. Weiss and Whitaker’s jaws hit the ground.
—
Ruby’s eyes fluttered open a few minutes later as the automatic out-of-combat healing brought her back from beyond the veil. Blight and Yella glanced at each other awkwardly, while that Whitaker girl silently began to walk towards the next encounter. Ruby wasn’t especially annoyed, but called out after her regardless.
“Hey! How come you didn’t res me?”
The lady in white turned to face her with a baffled look on her face.
“Huh?”
“I was down and you didn’t pick me up! What gives?”
Whitaker looked more confused than any person Ruby had ever seen. “Why on earth would I res you? You went on a suicide mission! Twice! You’re a DPS! Have you even played this game before, you dolt?”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad! We’ve got two healers, we can afford to go a little more aggro!”
Whitaker sputtered. “That is not how this game works!”
The argument continued as they walked to the next fight - and the next, and the next. Ruby continued her reckless playstyle, and Weiss continued to disregard the Red Mage’s health bar. Despite everything, the enemy groups did seem to be dropping quickly, and no one else seemed to be dying (except Ruby, once or twice more).
Weiss did have to give the new girl some credit. She’d definitely learned her lesson about running into the very obvious bright orange attack markers, and she’d slowed down some of her barrage to let Yella absorb more of the enemy’s focus, and she’d even started to work some healing for the tank into her rotation, but she was still insisting on being the one to lead the charge every single time. It did seem to be working, admittedly, but it just wasn’t right .
The mini-boss gauntlet had been mostly manageable, but now it was time for the finale. As the train rushed through the dark and its rear sections exploded, the four heroines steeled themselves at the suave man in white. The cutscene played as he taunted them about the evil deed was about to commit (an evil deed that had been resolved about 8 years ago in the real world, which Weiss always found amusing), and the screen faded to black as the game gave control back to the players. Whitaker glanced sideways, seeing Ruby’s body tense, her eyes determined, the Sprint buff icon appearing above her head. She charged, and Weiss was ready this time. Ruby’s opening swing collided with Torchwick’s model as the boss swung a devastating opening blow. The light blue of the Red Mage’s health bar was empty for just a few frames as Weiss’ perfectly timed Cure spell healed her to full. Torchwick struck his attacker with a debuff spell a moment later, but Whitaker was prepared for that too, instantly curing the stun and keeping Ruby in the fight. After what seemed like an eternity, Yella was finally able to join the fray, and the battle truly began.
Minutes passed, and Torchwick’s health bar was nearing its end. Weiss’ attention had been… elsewhere tonight, but she was still surprised that she had forgotten Blight’s insane damage output. She was pretty sure the catgirl could join some high end raid group and help get some record times on the hardest content, but for some reason she didn’t seem interested. Weiss’ attention was quickly drawn back to the boss as he entered his final phase. A series of final desperation moves, more a check that you’ve got enough healing power than anything especially difficult. Weiss looked over her cooldowns and… she realised she didn’t. Blight was careful enough with managing her aggro, but even after Yella started tanking Ruby had still drawn the boss’ fire a few times. Weiss had been too stubborn to let their newcomer go down again, been careless with her rotation of healing spells, and now her cooldowns were out of sync - the party would survive the first three attacks, then wipe to the final one. Weiss groaned. If it wasn’t for this stupid Red Mage this dungeon would’ve been finished by now…
Whitaker Schnee: I messed up. I wasted all my cooldowns on Ruby. Let’s restart the dungeon.
Ruby Rose: are you making this my fault somehow?!
Whitaker glared at her. “Of course it’s your fault! If you had a basic grasp on how this game works I wouldn’t have had to waste my resources on you!”
Ruby rolled her eyes. “Oh come on! I’m playing fine! My damage is great, you just don’t know when to heal!”
Whitaker stepped towards Ruby, mouth open in indignant fury, but Blight stepped forward and cut her off. Torchwick monologued in the background, his final barrage slowly charging up. Blight looked to the two of them, an idea in her eyes. “Whitaker, what have you got enough for?”
She almost snarled at Blight, but relented. “I’ll be able to heal us through the first three attacks, but not the last one. I just won’t be able to keep up with the damage over time effect.”
Blight nodded. “Alright. I have an idea.” She turned to Yella, who had been awkwardly standing in her defensive position, a little unsure how to engage with the argument as it was happening. “Hey Yang, you wanna get coffee sometime?”
Yella’s jaw dropped, and she began stuttering an attempt at a response. “Do I- With- Like as a- You’re asking me- Like now- Like in the game or-”
As a hundred other half-sentences fell out of her mouth and Ruby rolled her eyes, Torchwick’s first attack was readied. Who is “Yang”? Weiss asked herself, then noticed as Blight let loose the biggest spells she could with no regard to mana costs or rotation. She realised what was happening. Yella - Yang? - was too distracted typing and didn’t have time to cast an aggro spell. Torchwick turned his attention - and the first hit in his swansong barrage - towards Blight. A demonic flurry of blows with the character’s iconic cane devastated Blight’s health bar, and the Black Mage hit the ground. Cold. Lifeless.
The group stared, shocked. Whitaker hurriedly started to ready a resurrection spell when Blight’s cold and lifeless body turned its head to her and said “Save it!”
Weiss frowned. Players being able to type in the chat after their character went down always took her out of the fantasy a little bit.
Blight Bastet: the win condition now is just surviving
Blight Bastet: it doesn’t matter if i’m dead
Blight Bastet: just save your healing for the end
That made… some sense, Weiss supposed. It certainly meant she’d have an extra healing spell or two ready for the final attack.
Whitaker closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Okay. We can do this.”
Yella charged forwards with a yell, apparently having composed herself (although Weiss noticed she had been unsuccessful in actually sending a response), drawing the boss’ attention in a flurry of explosive strikes. The second desperation move: a solid kick to the midsection. Easily absorbed by Yang’s ( I should probably learn their names if we go to the same university ) defensive spells. The third attack: Torchwick firing explosive shots around the train, an AoE attack that hits the whole party. The girls braced, weathering the storm, and with practised timing Weiss immediately cast a group healing spell after the blitz ended. One more attack. The train began to rumble. The final “attack” was actually the train derailing, dealing damage in a handful of spikes - if you didn’t have the healing and tanking power you needed, or you messed up your timing, you were dead. Weiss wasn’t sure if she was ready, but she would do her damn best to make it work.
The screeching of metal tore at Whitaker’s eardrums as she breathed deeply, concentrating on the magic flowing through and around her, waiting for the exact moment. The train bumped and the first round of damage was dished out. Instantly, Whitaker turned her staff towards Yella and sent wisps of white healing magic towards her. The train wobbled to the right, but righted itself. Another round of damage as the room shook, another healing spell towards Yella-Yang. Another shake, and Weiss grimaced. Despite Blight’s sacrifice, she didn’t have the mana or the cooldowns for more healing just yet. Whitaker closed her eyes in defeat and accepted her fate…
When she was brought to by a red glow and the smell of roses.
Ruby had saved enough mana to heal Yella, and her… unique playstyle had left plenty of her healing cooldowns ready for this. Weiss thought back to Ruby’s equipment, the robes she considered outdated and out-of-meta…
“Is that a DPS-healing hybrid build?!” She asked, slowly putting the pieces together in her head. “You pulled with a DPS-healing hybrid build?!”
Ruby Rose: is now rly the time??? shut up and heal i don’t have INFINITE mana
Whitaker nodded and readied a group healing spell as the train shrieked and launched off the rails, knowing the dozens of hits about to hit the party in rapid succession. The train fell sideways with a mighty roar, the group flung around the compartment, Roman monologuing and ignored, and Weiss let the spell fly. Health bars filled and were rapidly emptied, over and over again. Whitaker healed, damage landed, Ruby healed, more damage landed. Weiss, Ruby, Weiss, Ruby. Healing together.
What seemed like minutes passed and the final, monumental hit loomed as the train shot towards the wall of the cavern. Weiss and Ruby burned as much as magic as they could towards Yang; her defensive abilities having the best chance of surviving. Their resources spent, all they could do was wait to see if they passed the check, yelling as one:
“COME ON!”
The train hit the wall. Rumbling; piercing metal whines; the clatter of tons of steel colliding with itself. The screen faded to black, and Weiss covered her eyes. After a few moments, she slowly spread her fingers apart and took in the scene.
Ruby Rose laid battered and bruised in the centre of the carnage. Zero hit points.
Whitaker Selene was left crumpled in the corner where wreckage met earth. Zero hit points.
Blight Bastet had been thrown clean from the cabin, left on the far side of the disaster zone. Zero hit points.
Yella Xiulan… Weiss’ eyes scanned for the final party member, skirting along the edges for an unconscious warrior before realising she had completely overlooked a figure in the middle of the room.
Yella Xiulan stood proud, bloody, and triumphant over Roman Torchwick’s unconscious body. Fanfare began to play as the golden font from the dungeon’s introduction reappeared:
DUNGEON CLEAR!
A smile began to creep across Weiss’ face as she checked the final party member’s status.
Yella Xiulan: 1HP
Weiss’ eye twitched.
Whitaker’s eyes slowly flickered open. She looked up through the dust and settled carnage and slowly processed Yella’s blurry form throw her head back and pump her arms in the air.
Yella Xiulan: LET’S
Yella Xiulan: FUCKING
Yella Xiulan: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
Whitaker winced at the scream, smiled faintly, and passed out once more.
—
Whitaker Selene: I cannot believe we won that.
Ruby Rose: i can
Ruby Rose: did you SEE how fast those guys dropped
Ruby Rose: my dps is sick af
Yella Xiulan: pretending that blake isn’t like a top 10 worldwide black mage
Blight Bastet: top 5*
Yella Xiulan: NO WAY
Yella Xiulan: YOU GOT PAST NOSHI?????????
Whitaker Selene: You’re getting distracted. This was the first dungeon of the night, probably the easiest, and we almost wiped *so* many times.
Whitaker Selene: It should NOT have been that intense.
Ruby turned to her with a smug smile. “It was fun though, right?”
Whitaker opened her mouth to argue, but couldn’t find the lie she needed. It was fun. The tension in her shoulders, her thumping heartbeat, the jitters in her fingers and the smile she can’t stop. Ever since she caught up with the story, all she’d been doing was grinding. She thought she’d been doing it for fun, but after this dungeon Weiss wasn’t sure she was. Well, maybe she had been, but after this, it was possible she might need to re-examine her definition of it.
Whitaker crossed her arms and turned away from Ruby with a humph and a pout. Ruby’s smug smile transformed into a full-on grin.
Yella Xiulan: when u two are done flirting do u wanna do more dungeons
In a dormroom somewhere on the far side of campus, a girl with black hair threw a pillow at her sister.
Blight Bastet: yeah let’s do it
Blight Bastet: ggwp
Ruby Rose: gg!
Yella Xiulan: thanks cuties <3
Whitaker Selene:
Weiss sighed.
Whitaker Selene: Fine. Good run.
Somewhere on the far side of campus, that same black haired girl pumped her fist in victory. Weiss, meanwhile, sighed and prepared her heart for an exhausting night and pretended she wasn’t excited for it.
—
Over the next few weeks, Ruby became a regular in Weiss’ VFXIV group. The next time she appeared, Weiss noticed her nametag now read Ruby Rose <<BCNU>> , the invite-only guild for students at the university. They were guildmates. And potentially classmates, but that wasn’t important. Weiss knew immediately that she had a choice. She could play with randoms - somehow a more volatile option than Ruby; she could play with some of the other people in the guild - unlikely, since it would probably mean getting those “JNPR” guys to swap someone out for her; or she could stick with Ruby, Yella (who she was now confident was called Yang), and Bastet (who she thought might be called Blake).
It was an easy choice really. Staying with this group would give her a regular, reliable set of people to queue with, and most of them had a good skill level. As for the one that didn’t, well, Weiss was more than happy to help teach her how to play. It just made sense. Ruby needs to learn how to play the game properly , and naturally I’m the best person to teach her, Weiss told herself. Her cute avatar doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Ruby’s freestyle (impatient) gameplay continued, despite Weiss’ efforts to explain the traditional approach that different classes ought to approach the game, and the tension in Weiss’ shoulders didn’t get any better either. They continued to bicker, but everyone could tell they had both quickly stopped caring, even if Weiss refused to admit it to herself. Their jabs had become little dashes of flavour throughout the night.
“You’re like an old married couple!” Yella grinned, met with two sets of eye rolls.
“Y’know, it gets funnier every time you say it, Yang,” Ruby replied. Whitaker had never heard Yella’s True Name before Ruby joined the group, but now it felt like she heard it constantly.
“Yeah, you do seem to make that joke a lot for someone who breaks down every time Blight talks to you,” Whitaker followed.
Yella ignored Whitaker’s attempt at distraction, so focused on her own point that she didn’t even blush. “Look, I think it’s nice! I’ve never seen Whitaker so talkative. She always seemed nice enough when we played, but it’s been fun actually getting to know her. And it’s so nice to see you coming out of your shell a bit too, Rubes.”
Whitaker and Ruby seemed a little shocked at the earnesty on display. At home, Weiss added this to the growing list of evidence that Yella and Ruby knew each other, although she still hadn’t seen Yella call Ruby by her real name.
“What are those looks for? Come on, you know all the teasing is out of love, right?” There was a genuine, warm smile on Yella’s face. Just as Weiss was re-evaluating her opinion on her, the smile turned into a grin. “Just like how you two complain at each other out of love, y’know?”
The two mages lunged for her and she dipped out of the way. The chase took the three of them across the city of Vale.
Blight, who had been at the sidelines of the discussion, looked a little confused at suddenly being left alone. She sighed and went to look at the marketboard.
Despite fifty percent of her team trying to work against her both inside and outside dungeons, Weiss grew to appreciate the rhythm of the group. She started to accept and admit (to herself) that she was having fun. Ruby’s guns blazing playstyle, while risky, did seem to be efficient, bringing in faster clear times for the group and often letting them squeeze in an extra dungeon each night. Blight even noticed that one of their more recent Mountain Glenn clear times was in the upper 10th percentile. Having learned how to play around a kamikaze Red Mage, they’d become very effective together (especially after Yella managed to convince Ruby to hold back just a tiny bit).
Yella tore into the boss of tonight’s final dungeon, a large, winged, dragonlike Grimm atop a tower in the midst of a huge battle. Slash after fiery greatsword slash clashed against its dark scales while Ruby and Blight unloaded as much magical power as they could. Whitaker was on standby a small distance away, poking away with comparatively weak blasts of ice and damage over time spells. Weiss watched Yang’s health bar steadily deplete, then quickly gave her a single top up mere moments before the Aura Knight dropped.
“That’s right Ice Queen, that’s all I need!” Yella called, a daring grin on her face as always.
Whitaker rolled her eyes and held her staff in slightly shaking arms. Blight and Ruby had crunched the numbers, and in theory this plan would work, but it still felt so wrong . Nevertheless, Weiss sat and watched the boss’ own health bar steadily deplete alongside Yella’s. It was time.
Yella gave a battlecry as the Wyvern entered its final phase. It raised a claw and swiped at her, dropping her instantly. Whitaker immediately spun to Blight and began her barrage of white healing magic, glancing over her shoulder to confirm Ruby was following her lead. It was a stupid plan. In theory, putting all their efforts into keeping Blight alive in these final moments could let them burst their way through a normally difficult, protracted final act. But if they messed up then, of course, they would wipe. As with all of Ruby’s plans, it was needlessly stressful. Weiss hated herself for enjoying it.
“Whitaker! Area heal!” Ruby called, spinning her ‘scythe’ madly as she readied more life magic.
“I’m on it!” She called back, recovering the health lost to the boss’ stray area of effect spells.
“Whitaker!” Ruby called again.
“I said I’m on it, you-” Whitaker suddenly found herself shifted halfway across the arena, covered by the rose petals that Ruby had made her signature spell effect. She looked to where she had been standing just in time to see Ruby take a hit that had been meant for her. Oh God. She swapped us. “Ruby!”
Ruby’s model went flying and landed at the edge of the tower. She lifted her head and smiled weakly. “I’ll be-” she coughed, and a small splatter of blood appeared on the ground. “-fine. Go on- and…” she collapsed before she could finish, still smiling.
“RUBY!!!” Whitaker cried.
In a dormroom on the far side of campus, a tear rolled down a saluting girl’s face while her sister looked at her in utter confusion.
Whitaker ran the numbers in her head, and turned away from Blight, away from Ruby, and levelled her staff at the Grimm.
“Let’s finish this, Blight. For her.”
“You mean for them, right?”
Weiss blushed.
Whitaker Selene: Right. Obviously.
Both girls kept up the offensive. Weiss knew this boss. She knew her own ability, she knew Blight’s ability, she knew they could kill it before it killed them. And so she brought out her severely under practised DPS rotation and tried her luck. She knew deep down that if Ruby had died already then it meant they had already messed up their calculations, but what would they gain by giving up?
Blight fell, her damage drawing all of the monster’s aggro. The Wyvern’s health fell and fell, but Whitaker was not built for taking damage. In just a couple of swipes of a giant claw, she was at death’s door. She was out of cooldowns, out of mana, out of healing. She closed her eyes, accepting her fate as the boss drew back its head for one final biting attack. We had a good run. I hope Ruby’s not too disappointed.
Weiss waited with her eyes closed, expecting a mournful musical sting to announce their failure. Instead, all she could hear in her headphones was the sound of a monster in pain. She opened her eyes once more to see the boss in its death throes, her own health in double digits, inches from death. Yella was spamming celebrations into the chat too fast for Weiss to follow.
Whitaker Selene: Wait, what happened?
Yella Xiulan: LET;S GO ICE QUEEN
Ruby Rose: your dot killed it!!!!!!!!
Yella Xiulan: not even closeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Yella Xiulan: easy game
Whitaker rolled her eyes and smirked. The celebration continued for a while before everyone began signing off for the night. She logged off herself and started getting ready for bed, thinking about the game all the while. I can’t believe I missed that attack marker Ruby saved me from. I’ll need to pay more attention when we do runs where Yang goes down. I wonder if I can increase damage without losing healing… Her thoughts continued as she brushed her teeth, changed, set an alarm, and got comfortable in bed. I wonder what else I can do to keep Ruby alive…
The thoughts continued on into class the next day. The professor’s words softly drifted into the ether, unnoticed by Weiss, daydreaming about healing rotations optimised for focusing on two players at once, wondering if it would be possible to get more cooldown reduction on her gear without sacrificing healing power. She was shaken out of her thoughts by a small buzz from her phone on the desk. Pyrrha, the girl in charge of running the Beacon U guild and inviting members, had sent her a message.
Hello, Weiss! I hope you’re doing well.
We’re planning another get together, and I was wondering if you’d like to come along.
I know you’ve not really been interested in the past, but since I’ve seen you play with “team RWBY” so much I was wondering if you’d like to join this time.
They’ll all be there too, of course. No pressure, but I know they’ve all said they’d love to meet you.
Another message followed with a place and a time. Weiss paused for a moment. She hadn’t bothered with the meetups before because she hadn’t had much interest in VFXIV as a way to socialise, but that reasoning rang a little hollow now that she’d made… well, friends? Could she call them that when she didn’t know their faces or voices? Well… even if they weren’t her friends yet, she definitely wanted them to be. If knowing a face and a voice was a requirement to being a friend, then this was the perfect opportunity. She looked at the message again. They’ve all said they’d love to meet you. A small, shy smile snuck onto her face. She started typing.
Hi Pyrrha. That sounds great! I’ll see you then. :)
Smiley faces were unusual for her, but she thought it was cute when Ruby used them, so she was trying them out. She giggled a little. This was great! She was a little nervous; she’d turned down joining them on Discord on the past, and this was definitely a leap past that, but the fun she had with the group outweighed the nerves. She’d get to see if Yella (or Yang, she supposed it would be in person) talked like she did in game, she’d get to chat strategy with Blight (Blake?), and she’d get to see if Ruby was as headstrong as her playstyle suggested, not to mention she would finally learn her real name. She wondered if everyone looked like their avatars. Obviously Faunus weren’t real , but she was curious if they suggested anything about the players.
The rest of the class passed with Weiss’ head in the clouds, now thinking about the meetup instead of strategy. The notebook page set aside for that lecture remained blank.
One classroom over, a phone buzzed with confirmation of good news. Its owner pumped her fist and let out a “Yes!” far louder than she meant to, met with a professor’s stern “Miss Rose!”
A week passed, and the day of the meet came.
The plan was to meet up at the food court around 1, chat a bit over lunch, then likely choose someone’s place to hang out at and play Mistral Kart or something. Weiss arrived at 1 on the dot (it was a nice balance between the voice in the back of her head screaming about the importance of punctuality she was taught and the understanding that this was a casual meeting) and was quickly waved over to a table near the entrance by Pyrrha. She was easy to spot, with gorgeous, long, red hair that matched her in-game appearance. Weiss made her way over and said hello to the rest of the group Pyrrha kept calling “JNPR”: a calm boy named Ren, a girl loudly sipping a bubble tea named Nora, and an awkward, lanky boy named Jaune who was very adamant that he was not the team leader. After their quick introductions, Weiss went and joined the queue for food. She’d totally forgotten her nerves; Pyrrha was a lovely, calming presence, and even a brief hello with the others had her smiling warmly. She turned back to the table to see a tall girl with a mass of blonde hair had joined them, alongside a slightly shorter girl with slightly shorter dark hair. Yella and Blight perhaps? Weiss smiled, paid for her food, and made her way over, trying her best to contain her excitement and walk normally (Oh dear God what does a normal walk look like).
Up close, everything about the blonde girl was all about being large and loud . Her broad shoulders, her wild yellow hair, her huge grin, the laughter that probably reached the other end of the cafeteria, the hands on her hips and the sheer confidence she emanated. Not to mention the jacket and crop top combo showing off her midriff and her- Weiss forced her eyes to stop wandering. The dark haired girl meanwhile seemed much more tame, more modest. She looked a little unused to being a presence in a conversation, both vocally and physically, like it was a skill she’d learned recently, or was maybe still learning. Despite the slight timidity in her eyes, she smiled warmly, seemingly encouraged by blondie’s presence.
Still smiling, Weiss arrived at the table and greeted the two newcomers. “Yella,” - a nod to the loud girl - “and Blight, I assume?” - a nod to the quiet one.
As presumed-Blight opened her mouth to answer, presumed-Yella beat her to the punch with a grin.
“Other way round, actually! Blake Belladonna aka Blight Bastet, pleasure to meet you.” She extended a hand as Weiss put her food down on the table.
Weiss took it, her smile disappearing as her mouth opened slightly in shock and confusion, as the dark haired girl put a hand to her face and shook her head, sighing.
“I’m sorry, please don’t listen to her. I’m Blake Belladonna, and this,” giving the other girl a smack on the arm, “is Yang Xiao Long, aka Yella.”
Weiss looked again to the girl still shaking her hand, her grin somehow even wider than before.
“Well, that adds up I suppose,” Weiss sighed to Yang’s amusement.
“I assume you’re Whitaker then?” Blake asked as Yang finished chuckling.
“That’s right. Real name Weiss Schnee. A pleasure to meet you, Blake,” she replied, then turned to Yang, “not you though.” Yang stopped laughing and the two girls gave each other a serious stare before they both broke into giggles. Weiss sat as Blake and Yang went off to get their food. Weiss chatted warmly with JNPR about their studies until they got back.
“So, Weiss,” Yang began as she took a massive bite out of a stacked burger, “What year are you?”
“Second,” she replied, “studying Biology. How about you?”
“Third! Doing Business!” Yang’s response sounded mostly chipper, but was somewhat muffled by her mouthful of food. She swallowed and added, “That’s where I met Blake!”
“I’m majoring in Literature, but I’m studying Business on the side. It seems like it’ll be useful down the line,” Blake herself added.
“I see,” Weiss said. “How long have you known each other?”
“A couple of years now.”
“Cool,” She smiled, the word a little unfamiliar in her mouth. “Are you two, y’know, dating?”
Blake blushed slightly and Yang started choking on the clump of fries she’d just put in her mouth. Blake gave her a few light but firm smacks on the back to help while she answered Weiss. “We’re just friends." Both girls received raised eyebrows from the whole table.
Weiss smiled again and decided to change the topic to the thing she was most curious about, and the one person who was missing.
“Gotcha. Do either of you know Ruby?”
Yang finally recovered, having downed the water Ren offered her. “Yup! She’s my baby sister!”
“Oh, interesting! What’s her real name? I managed to pick up your names through context, but no one seems to have mentioned hers.” Weiss took a sip of her water, trying to distract a little from how eager she was.
Yang made a big show of rolling her eyes while Blake gave a small smile. “Ruby Rose is her real name. Different moms. The name means a lot to her, so she tends to use it wherever she can. I don’t know how to tell her it’s a little embarrassing,” Yang explained.
“Not to mention that it’s terrible internet safety,” Blake added.
Weiss giggled. “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of cute. And besides, I know I didn’t think it was her real name.” She ate some of her spaghetti, careful not to get any on her blouse. “Where is she, by the way?”
Another roll of Yang’s eyes. “She’s on her way, but she said she had something she needed to do before she got here. She is useless with her time management. This is just like her.”
Weiss raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised. She’s always on time for raid night.”
“That’s the only thing she’s on time for!” Yang laughed.
The conversation turned to the game, and the three of them laughed as they recalled their many near misses, explaining Ruby’s ridiculous playstyle to team JNPR and the years of life Weiss had lost to the stress she caused her.
“...And then she said “Watch this” and walked straight into a fireball! I have no idea what she was even trying to do,” Weiss laughed, enjoying the warmth of the fast friends she’d made.
Blake and Yang glanced at each other and smirked as the group laughed. Another story about Ruby? Yang broke through the noise by pointing a fork at her. “Man, you really do have it bad for her, huh?” The table went quiet for a moment and she laughed as Weiss’ face turned red all the way to her ears.
“Don’t be silly. I’ve never even met her. I do think her avatar is cute, but that’s it.”
Yang laughed again, unconvinced. “Well, that’s good, because having a crush on someone when you’ve only spoken, like, virtually is really short sighted, y’know?” Weiss looked a little forlorn at being brought back to reality, and Yang winced a little bit. Maybe that was a bit too far. She thought quickly, then smirked. “I’ve been telling Ruby the same thing for like a month now!”
Blake chipped in before Weiss could finish running the mental arithmetic on that statement. “I think it’s cool how everyone seems to have the right energy for their avatar though. Weiss seems very proper and is the definition of beautiful,” - her voice was level and objective, but Weiss still blushed and Yang still looked a little jealous - “Yang is a bombshell and is brighter than the sun,” - Yang’s took her turn to blush, not noticing Blake do the same - “and Ruby is… literally a puppy. She acts like one, she’s cute like one, and she plays like one too.” Weiss and Yang both nodded at the assessment.
Weiss was getting a bit impatient about meeting her. It was 1.30 now, and Weiss was starting to get very curious about what her teammate actually looked like. She knew the ‘puppy’ comparison was a metaphor, but she was struggling to picture Ruby in her head without a cute pair of wolf ears.
“It’s a shame we can’t look like our avatars though. I think you’d be cute with cat ears, Blake!” Yang commented, apparently having quickly forgotten about teasing Weiss.
Blake blushed, and replied, “I… can’t see it. I think a lot of people would probably be cute with animal features, though.”
Yang grinned. “Yeah! And the way 14 does it where there’s just one standout animal feature makes for such a cute charm point.” She sighed. “It’s a shame that faunus… aren’t… oh my god.” Her train of thought disappeared as she caught movement at the entrance to the food court.
Blake saw what she was looking at and tried (and failed) to suppress her laughter. Weiss stared at the two girls, confused, before turning to look over her shoulder at what they were laughing at. Standing there was a girl sporting silver eyes, black hair with red tips, dressed in black and red from head to toe. She had a cute, round face with a little button nose, and completing the look was a pair of fluffy, novelty wolf ears on a headband. They were a little too pointed, and on any other day Weiss would have docked points, but for some reason she didn’t seem to mind too much today. She was a little too stunned by the exact, real world replica of Ruby Rose standing in front of her.
The girl was trying and failing to suppress a massive grin at her own joke. “Hi guys! Sorry I’m late! I ordered these things online and it said they’d arrive between 9 and 1. Guess when they showed up!” Her eyes flicked across the familiar faces at the table, a warm smile on her face that disappeared when she finally noticed Weiss, her jaw choosing to drop instead. Weiss blushed. The newcomer blushed. Yang had been shocked into silence, confused by her sister apparently turning into a fantasy wolf girl, but recovered just in time to notice their reactions to each other.
“Oh, wow. I was joking before but you two actually have it bad, huh?”
The new girl snapped back to reality, sporting an expression of surprise and frustration, creating an all new kind of blush on her face. “Yang!” She cleared her throat, and the confident energy that she had entered the room with seemingly dissipated as she turned to address Weiss properly. “Um, hi. I’m Ruby Rose. I assume you’re, uh, Whitaker?” She offered her hand.
Weiss recovered some of her composure as she shook it. “Y-yes, that’s me. Well, Weiss Schnee, actually. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Yeah, likewise.” Ruby replied, a small smile forming on her lips.
Ruby went to buy some food, and Weiss glared down the smirk she was getting from Yang. She returned in short order and casually took a seat next to Weiss. Only Yang and Blake were able to see their rigid, blushing faces trying to act normal.
“So, uh, what did I miss?” Ruby asked.
“We’ve just been getting to know Weiss for the most part,” Blake answered. “She’s a second year Biology major.”
“Oh hey! I’m a second year Chem major! Our classes are probably in the same building!” Her nerves seemed to have disappeared as fast as they arrived.
“Oh, cool!” It was more enthusiasm than she’d probably normally express over something like that, but she didn’t want her instinctive disinterest in small talk to put Ruby off.
“Other than that we’ve just been chatting about Vytal Fantasy and telling team JNPR all our dumb stories,” Blake continued.
Yang chimed in. “She has an awful lot to say about you, Rubes!” Weiss blushed. “Almost as much as you do about her!” Ruby followed suit. Yang turned to Blake. “You should see her when we play. She spends all her time staring at her in the avatar viewer. She pops off at every play Weiss makes. It’s so cute.” She was met with a giggle.
Weiss’ blush went darker and darker, while Ruby simply looked… devastated at being exposed like this. Pyrrha, who had been watching from the sidelines with her team, leaned over and asked: “Is this why you were so desperate for me to ask her to come, Ruby?” Ruby carefully slid her plate of pizza to the side and smacked her head into the table.
“Aw, don’t worry sis! Like I said, Weiss has been talking about you all day too!” Yang grinned, having the time of her life. Weiss stammered as Ruby slowly rotated her head to face Weiss. She looked like she was about to burst into tears, but continued looking expectantly anyway.
“I- I was simply explaining your… unique playstyle to Pyrrha and everyone. Just… offering my critique, and explaining how much we have to adjust to you pulling every mob you can, and…” She trailed off as Ruby sat up and cringed, covering her face with her hands.
“Oh, God, I’m… sorry about that. I’m just so used to… action games, I guess? I’m still struggling to learn… patience,” she said. She wasn’t blushing anymore; Weiss would have said her expression now was simply resigned .
Weiss shook her head and waved her hands. “No, no, it’s fine! Honestly! It was a little… frustrating to get used to at first, but it’s honestly… pretty fun.” A shy smile came to both of their faces as they looked each other in the eye. Yang and Blake watched intently. At some point, the Nora girl had appeared behind their shoulders to spectate too, and Pyrrha was leaning pretty far into the ‘RWBY’ section of the table too.
Ruby continued unaware, having cycled back around to a kind of gentle nervousness. “S-still though, I’d like to make it up to you somehow, if that’s okay? I do feel bad that I still don’t have a handle on it.” The onlooking crowd’s eyes flicked to Weiss.
Weiss spoke quietly but continued smiling. She looked away as she answered, “Well…” she thought for a moment. “You could… take me to dinner?” Ruby froze. Blake froze. Yang’s jaw dropped, while Pyrrha raised and eyebrow and Nora grinned savagely. Jaune and Ren looked up from their own conversation and kept chewing their lunch. Weiss took a deep breath as she realised that her filter had catastrophically malfunctioned.
Blake recovered first, her eyes darting back and forth between Ruby and Weiss. Yang recovered second, but before she could figure out a jab to diffuse the tension, Ruby gave her own response: “S-sure.” Her face was deep red. Pyrrha’s and Blake’s eyebrows rose as high as they could go, while Nora stood up and spread her arms, grandstanding to an invisible audience.
Weiss, deep red, simply replied, “G-great. Are you free tomorrow?”
“Uh… yeah, I uh, should be. Do you… like Chinese food? I know a… pretty nice place off Second Street.” Ruby was stock still besides moving her mouth to speak, her eyes desperately trying to find a place to look besides the girl next to her.
Weiss nodded, her eyes similarly lost. “That sounds… great.”
“Y-yeah.”
Both girls were crimson. Yang finally reacted. “How did you get a date within five minutes of getting here?” She asked her sister in utter disbelief.
“It’s not a date!” They both replied in unison. Yang was not impressed. The sisters exploded into a shouting match, and Weiss let out a massive sigh in relief as the attention of the table was drawn elsewhere. Until she looked up at Blake, that is, who was giving her a sly smile and a knowing nod. Weiss shrunk inwards slightly and sipped at the dregs of the lemonade left in her cup.
Lunch continued for a little while, with Ruby and Weiss’ dramatic first encounter being quickly forgotten amongst the laughter until their hands brushed against each other and they both froze, faces red. More laughter followed, and that embarrassment soon floated away too. Eventually, the group migrated to Nora’s confusingly spacious dormroom to play party games for the afternoon and into the evening, laughing and yelling all the while. Jaune and Pyrrha left first as the late Spring sun began to set, followed a little while later by Blake and Yang (Ruby wiggled her eyebrows at her as they said goodbye, which Yang responded to by simply sticking her tongue out). It seemed like Ren wanted to hang out with Nora a little longer, so eventually Ruby and Weiss packed their things and left too.
They strolled leisurely out of the dorm building, smiling and saying nothing. Weiss was the first to speak. Her voice was a little hoarse from an afternoon of yelling at the TV.
“Uh, so about tomorrow…” Ruby looked at her with a little blush, one that seemed more in control now than it had been in the afternoon. The wolf ears were still on her head; eventually they had just started being a normal part of Ruby. Weiss met her gaze, then looked down at her shoes, then up at the early night sky, trying to figure out her words. “...I just wanted to say that there’s no… pressure, or anything, if you don’t actually want to do it. I didn’t mean to… put you on the spot like that. Or be so forward.” She looked away, but Ruby moved around to get into her field of vision. She definitely looked nervous, but she was smiling through it anyway.
“I’d really like to go, actually.” She powered through the whole sentence without hesitating. When Weiss didn’t react straight away, she added: “If you’d like to go, that is. Do you want to go?”
Weiss smiled. “I’d like to, yeah.”
“Me too!”
Weiss’ smile spread further, and she took a deep breath. “Then… it’s a date.” Ruby smiled broadly, her nervousness leaving her, and making Weiss smile even more in turn. Ruby’s shoulders suddenly slumped, her confidence reserves expended, and she grinned up at Weiss. They both burst into laughter. After a few moments, they smiled, said goodnight, and turned to walk to their dormrooms in opposite directions. Weiss looked over her shoulder as she walked to see Ruby looking back at her. She turned back around and kept walking, her smile lasting for the rest of the night.