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“Come on Rubes! I don't wanna be late!”
Suddenly Ruby was having second thoughts on joining Yang's game night.
Ruby pulled her far too large hood over her head. “I, uh, think I've changed my mind! I'm feeling reeeaally sick.” She fake coughed into her hand a few times to sell the bit. “How about I go next week?”
Yang sighed and shook her head. “No way. Dad wants you to make friends. You know, other human beings to speak to on a regular basis?”
Okay, Plan B. “You caught me. I didn't do my character sheet.” Ruby laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck. “I guess I'll have to wait-”
A loud voice cleared their voice and Ruby slowly turned around. Ah, Uncle Qrow. He lifted up a few pieces of paper that had a clip around them. “Funny. Because this looks like a character sheet to me. And I think that's your name right there, isn't it?” He pointed at the name written in red ink, with a little rose doodled at the end.
Well, there went Plan B. Where was Zwei so she could get on with Plan C?! Ruby looked around before she felt her Uncle's hand on her shoulder.
“You don't have to go, kid. But I know you'll love it if you do.”
Darn. He was always right. Ruby sighed and pulled her hood back down. “Okay, I'll go, I'll go. Don't miss us too much!” She gave her Uncle one last hug before she bolted out the door, Yang chasing after her to make sure she didn't go the wrong way.
Qrow just shook his head. Kids. Then again, he was pretty sure TaiYang still had all their character sheets buried in the back of the closet…
~*~
“So who's gonna be there?”
Yang tapped her chin. “Pyrrha, Nora and Ren for sure. Think some guy named Jaune's coming, haven't really played with him before.”
Ruby bobbed her head up and down, kicking a stone along the pavement. “You think they'll like my character?”
“Who wouldn't? You made her, and people are definitely going to like you! They'll think you're the bee's knees!” Ruby was about to object to this idea when Yang skidded to a stop. “We're here!”
Wow. This was pretty nice for a college student's place. Ruby stopped to gape for a few seconds. Yang pulled her out of her standstill by grabbing the shorter teen's arm and pulling her towards the door. “Come on!” Yang half dragged Ruby up the apartment steps and without knocking, threw open the door. “Guess who's ready for a round of Remnant?!”
The door stopped short as it slammed against something that was certainly not the wall, as walls do not make screams of pain. Ruby cringed.
“Uh, Yang? I… think you hit someone.”
Yang peered slowly behind the door. A teenage boy with thick blond hair had a hand over the lower half of his face, attempting to stop the flow of blood coming from his nose. “… Oh. Wow, that is a lot of blood. Don't get any on the floor, Cinder will kill you. And me. But you first.”
“Good to know.” The boy mumbled nasally.
Ruby stepped into the apartment, looking around at her surroundings before digging in her pockets. “Been there, done that. Here's a tissue.” She pulled out a tissue and the bleeding blond took it gratefully.
“I'm Jaune. Sorry for stealing your tissue.”
“Ruby. No biggie, you'd do the same for me, I hope.” This was the other new guy! Friendships could be made on the grounds they both seemed to be socially awkward!
Someone cleared their throat and Ruby looked behind Yang. A girl with pure white hair peered out from behind Yang. “Is this the right address for a Remnant meeting?”
Yang looked behind her and perked up. “Oh hey! You came to the right place, errr...”
“Weiss. Weiss Schnee.” The girl stepped inside, raising an eyebrow at Jaune holding a red stained kleenex to his nose. “What happened to you?”
Jaune raised his free hand. “I'm fine. Just got hit with the door.”
“I see.” Weiss looked slightly befuddled at this announcement when a girl with bright orange hair peered out from the living room.
“Come oooon, quit chatting and get in here! We have so much to do, I wanna see all your characters, ooooh, Yang is that your little sister, Ruby? She's so cute, is she shorter than me? No wait, I'm still shorter. Darn! At least I'm taller than Neo, but like everyone is taller than Neo! Well, what are you waiting for, get over here!”
That. Must be Nora. Yang had brought up a girl who didn't know the meaning of silence. At least she was nice too?
Ruby got herded in with everyone else walking into the dining room. Nora was now sitting next to a guy that Ruby assumed was probably Ren, as Nora was babbling his ear off and he'd not respond, just occasionally nod.
And the woman at the head of the table was Cinder.
The Game Master.
All right, Ruby was now intimidated. Yang had mentioned that Cinder seemed scary but was nice… sometimes. When she felt like it. And that wasn't very often. Cruel GMs made the game harder but occasionally made it even better. And Cinder was one of the best.
“You must be Ruby.”
Oh crap she was speaking to her. “Uh- yup! That's me! Ruby!” Was her voice normally this squeaky?
A few seconds of awkward standing before Ruby realized there was a chair right next to where Yang had sat down. Safety! She bolted to that chair and immediately sat down. On her other side was Weiss, who seemed to be focused on her character sheet. Ruby looked it over, huh, also focus on the speed stats, that was cool-
“If you don't mind, can you stop reading over my shoulder?”
… More awkward. Ruby slunk down in her chair and pulled her hood over her head. Why was everyone so naturally terrifying?
The doorbell rang and Jaune almost got up to get it but Cinder raised her hand. “I saw Neo already heading that way. She'll answer it.” Sure enough, two more girls walked in, one with long red hair tied back into a ponytail and the other with long dark hair and a bow.
“Pyrrha, Blake.” Cinder nodded at them both. Pyrrha actually waved back while Blake just took the nearest open seat. Cinder briefly glanced at her phone before she spoke again. “Well, that's all of us. This is the start of a new campaign, a few of you haven't been here before, and we have at least one beginner to Remnant entirely.” Cinder looked up at Ruby, who just slunk down more in her chair. No attention on me please.
“So, might as well introduce our characters. Ruby?”
Curses! Her hood wasn't not one of invisibility! Ruby nervously sat up and gave a quick wave. “Uh… Hi.” So many eyes on her. So many. “My character is Ruby Rose, her weapon is a scythe-sniper rifle combo, and her semblance is speed… she's a happy and loyal character, but she takes a while to get used to people. Her weakness is difficulty working with others, and her secret? Uh, I don't have that down yet.” She had to force herself to look around the table. Jaune looked, by far, the most interested… but no one looked irritated at least?
Cinder looked approving. “All right, Jaune… what's your character?”
“Uhhhhh...” Jaune scrambled through his bag to pull out a very wrinkled character sheet. Ruby tried to hide her giggles, at least she had her sheet out. “Uh, Jaune Arc, he uh… has a sword… he's a klutz, gets airsick, but he's… he's a good guy. Just doesn't think. Uh… I really didn't fill out semblance part… oh, maybe he doesn't know it?”
Now Cinder looked a tad annoyed. “He's your character, Jaune.”
“Ohright.”
Pyrrha smiled kindly and leaned over to whisper something into Jaune's ear. He immediately perked up. “Thanks, I'd really appreciate that!”
The redhead smiled before clearing her throat. “I might as well go next. My character I've used before, Pyrrha Nikos, she's a competitor but she is very caring about her friends and everyone around her. Her weapon is a spear that can also transition into a sword or a short sword. She also has a shield. Her weakness is that she wants to please people too much, risking herself to make everyone else happy. Her secret is her semblance, polarity, to give her an edge in her battles.”
“Thank you, Pyrrha.” Cinder glanced over to Blake. “Blake?”
It went around the table like that. Weiss' character had a rapier and was apparently an heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Blake's character had a katana-pistol and apparently had a dark past, Nora's character had a giant hammer that turned into a grenade launcher, the list went on. At least Ruby's scythe-rifle didn't seem over the top now…
***
“What are you doing?!”
“Uh, uh… sorry…”
“Sorry, do you have any idea the damage you could've caused?!”
“Ohcrap, I'm gonna roll Charisma to talk myself out of this horrible, horrible situation... which I wouldn't be in if Yang didn't abandon me.” Ruby gave Yang an angry look while she just grinned. Sisters. Never there when you needed them. “That… that's not high enough, is it?”
Yang looked over at the die and snorted. “I don't think at any time, a one is a high enough roll.”
Now Cinder's grin was looking rather evil. “No, no it was not. While Weiss scolds you for your carelessness, some of the dust in the air gets up your nose, and you sneeze, causing a small explosion.”
Laughter exploded around the table, even the quiet Blake cracked a smile. Weiss just looked flabbergasted. “You caused an explosion. With a sneeze.”
Ruby giggled innocently and rubbed the back of her neck. “Oopsie.”
Finally, a smile crossed Weiss' face as well. “Okay, that is… a little funny. A little.”
“Just because it didn't happen in the real world.” Cinder cleared her throat. “Now Weiss, how is your reaction? You're mildly singed but not damaged.”
“Right.” Weiss cleared her throat before she jumped back into character… which she did almost scarily well.
“Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!”
“I'm really, really sorry…”
“Ugh, you complete dolt!”
***
It was odd that the tense meeting between Weiss' and Ruby's characters caused them to click much better in the real world. But Ruby wasn't complaining.
“I say today was a real success! I blew up Weiss, made friends with Blake, and next week we're gonna be sorted into teams!”
Ruby skipped out the door, in much higher spirits than when she exited it. Yang just shook her head as she followed. “And you didn't want to go at first.”
“Lies. All lies.”
Weiss followed them out. “I don't have to be home until ten, it's only nine. Hey, Ruby?”
Ruby skidded to a stop and turned around. “Yeah?”
“I think there's an ice cream place a few blocks away. I'll buy.” She lifted up her debit card.
Ice cream. Truly the best of bait. Ruby gasped and looked at Yang. “I'll call home and tell them where we're going!”
Yang laughed. “I guess that means I'm coming along too.”
“It won't be a problem.” Weiss actually looked… pleasant. Considering how frosty she had been when she walked in, it was a complete turn around. “I didn't think this would be my thing, but once you really throw yourself into it, it gets really fun.”
Ah, typical. “Yeah, you're really good at staying in character...” Yang trailed off when she saw Blake leave the house and start walking away. “… Hold on a sec. I think we should invite one more person.”
“If it's Jaune, make sure his nose is done bleeding, I don't want-”
“Not Jaune.” Yang took off after the girl in black. “Blake! Wait up!”
Blake stopped in her tracks and turned around. “Did I forget something?”
Yang skidded to a stop. “No, no you're good there. Me, Ruby and Weiss are going to hit up ice cream. I just wanted to know if you wanted to come along.”
There was a short pause as Blake raised an eyebrow. “… Wait, seriously?”
“Of course seriously! Come on, I'll buy for you if you don't have the money.” Yang smiled broadly. “You were super fun during the game, I want to get to know you.”
Why was Blake so surprised about being invited? Meh, Yang would figure that out. Sooner or later. Blake finally ended up returning the smile.
“Sure. Why not, I don't need to be home for a while. Thanks, Yang.”
Victory! Yang looped her arm in with Blake's and dragged her back down the sidewalk. “She's in. Ruby? We got permission?”
Ruby hung up and fist pumped. “Uncle Qrow gave the green light! Let's go have ice cream!”
Yang snickered. “Did you, I don't know, ask Dad? Or one of our moms?”
“Bah! I went for the answer we wanted to get. Come on guys! I'll race you all there!” Ruby took off like a bullet.
Yang sighed. “RUBY! WRONG WAY!”
“… I knew that!”