♕ — protect; persist.

          ‘ you know i’m holding you to that, ‘ she mumbles, her head nuzzling against the elder’s shoulder, arms adjusting to grasp tighter onto nora’s form as if she may evaporate from her embrace. she feels the sting of tears reach her eyes & a lump begin to form in her throat just as nora hauls her smaller frame from the snow & swings her ‘round clockwise. the action easily manages to pull a stream of giddy giggles from her chest, a sound which rings out & echoes through the otherwise still forest around them, & lasts a few seconds after ruby’s been released, mildly unsteady on her feet.

          ‘ woah – head rush. ‘ she continues to chuckle as both hands gently press against each side of her face to quell the dizziness she feels. her head shakes side to side gently before her mind returns to reality & catches onto nora’s idle musings. ruby’s exhaled breath produces small plumes of white smoke as she listens & contemplates. ‘ huh. ‘

     one hand falls to her side, idly swinging as momentum leaves it while her other hand moves to cup her chin thoughtfully. her eyes narrow & soon fall to the ground, taking in the site of undisturbed snow nearby as if a single snowflake within the massive expanse of white could hold the answer to all their questions. ‘ i don’t know, ‘ she admits after a lengthy silence, silver eyes flickering back up to nora’s gaze, slight worry hidden in the depths. ‘ there’s something more to this than just waking up in a different place. i —- i think i had some kind of dream. it was cold & i swear there was some kind of voice … guiding me. ‘ her hands subconsciously conjoin in front of her to mimic the shape of an invisible sphere, remaining there for a short moment before they collapse on each other as if the object had simply shattered beneath her fingers.

     she sighs heavily & watches the large white plume escape from her mouth, her brows heavily furrowed with concern. the answers they seek surely didn’t lie in the empty expanse of snow & forest they found themselves wading through at the moment, & they certainly wouldn’t be found if they continued to stand out in the frozen tundra ill-prepared. ruby shivers, then hugs her own form, palms rubbing against biceps. ‘ i was, yeah. with that giant fire they’ve got going back in the village i figured it’d be nice to help out & bring in some more wood. i’ve only gotten branches from the trees so far. everything on the ground’s too wet. ‘

     ruby turns from the redhead’s gaze & wanders a short distance to the pile she’s been steadily adding to for the past hour or so out in the forest, gathers it up in her arms as best she can before turning back. ‘ i don’t think i’ll stay warm enough out here for much longer. you okay with heading back right now ? ‘

       a dream, ruby says. a dream. nora says nothing in response, gaze falling to her own hands in idle thought. her dream too, was cold, yet still warm. it was painful, heart wrenching, and she wonders if ruby’s was the same. and somewhere, in the corners of nora’s mind, she wants to wrap ruby in another embrace. wasn’t it painful to think of? to think of one of the youngest in their group to be inflicted with pain upon pain with little solace? was that what that dream was for? to provide comfort and hope in the most difficult of hardships? but what hopes did ruby desire? nora knew of her own, no matter how much peace she tried to convince herself she was in.

    expression soft, nora follows in ruby’s footsteps, taking half of the firewood from her arms with little word nor offer. she isn’t entirely sure what burdens the silver-eyed teen carries, but the elder did wish to help as best as she could. be it literally carrying weights for her or figuratively, nora would... except, she isn’t entirely sure how to even begin the topic for the latter, so she figures this is the least she can do now. 

    ❝ sounds good, ❞ she agrees, head nodding. “and then we can catch up and figure out what the heck else is going on here.” then she hums in that nora way of hers, attempting to brighten the oddly dim atmosphere. “the snow’s fun and all, but maybe not when we’re freezing...” then she pauses, eyes narrowing into the distance, lips pursing. 

    “... hey, you’d think we usually wouldn’t freeze, right? like... our auras were kinda a thing... do you think...” she wants to offer up the idea of the possibility of magic being involved, but instead nora shakes her head. “nevermind, we can talk about it when we get back.”

    the snow crunches beneath her feet as she begins trudging through, mind wandering. vaguely, she has to wonder if the magic ozpin knew of could even do anything like this... like... taking a part of their souls away. stripping away what protected them, what gave them confidence to keep fighting. sure, nora was confident regardless, but she felt... weaker. lost somehow. if magic could steal away parts of their souls, their semblances and auras, whisk them away from home and render their weapons useless... 

    inhaling and allowing a deep sigh to make itself known in the cold of the air, nora looks up to the sky. 

          They’re both so, so lucky that he saw her before she crash landed into him, because, if he didn’t, they’d probably both have a broken nose ( his would have been inflicted by her afterwards, as a punishment for his reflexes. ) and a lot more snow in their pants. He doesn’t even have the time to say anything before his legs are bracing against the ground, arms open to catch and hold the other. 

         Red hair, blue eyes, and the most drawn smile anyone he’s ever met could have. Nora. Of course. Of course she’d end up here– why wouldn’t she, especially after so many others of the party had already joined in the trend of it? It’s not a surprise, considering the information that everyone had to face recently. How depressing– his past had dragged everyone down with him. And he had been so desperate to keep it hidden too. So he stands, stone still, arms in some haphazard half-hug with fingers hovering over the ginger’s back. They’re both still standing.

         “ … Miss Valkyrie. “ What else can he say? “ I… apologize for misleading you. It’s not Oscar. “ 

       disappointment is but the first emotion nora feels. then it’s confusion. then it’s concern. then it’s worry. then anger, but ultimately, it simmers down to simple disappointment, and the ginger does little to hide it on her features. he must know, after all. as it stands, none truly wish to speak one on one with their headmaster. nora much preferred the young boy she had come to be fond of, as if he were her own brother. and in all actuality... she doesn’t think she’s ready to speak to the man that sent one of her closest companions to a losing battle. 

    ( just thinking of it hurt, and the fire that had begun to quell almost roars back to life ).

    after a millisecond of stunned silence, she pushes away from their awkward embrace, brows furrowing, backwards steps forcing distance between them. nora looks at his freckled features, takes in everything about his appearance, but those old worn eyes coupled with that eloquent speech... she isn’t sure what she was searching for. maybe a sign of a prank? oscar knew she liked jokes, but masquerading to be ozpin was a cruel one, and both were aware.

    eventually, her wide eyes narrow, shoulders unconsciously squaring, the excitement and joy wiped clean as if buried by the blistering cold. 

     even as an introvert herself, ruby was no less affected by the sting of loneliness which had plagued her from the moment she’d found herself in the mysterious land of eidolon - as it seemed to be called. & despite her familiarity with ozpin beneath the aesthetics of a seemingly absent oscar, ruby couldn’t shake the melancholic mood from her shoulders. no teammates of her own; not even a fellow resident of remnant seemed to be present in the village, all of them either native or seemingly stuck in the same predicament she found herself in now. thus, she leads herself into voluntary isolation in the woods to gather small loads of firewood to fuel the rekindling. that seemed to be helpful, at least, & kept her away from the frightening throng of unfamiliar people gathered at the village center.

     the only resource she’d been left with was her crescent rose, which greatly helped with the task at hand, however without her usual abundance of dust rounds to properly propel her scythe through objects like a knife through warmed butter ruby found herself nearly at an impasse, having to push the weapon with great effort to achieve her desired results. bits of twig & bark fell from the branches every now & again with some mix of ice & snow, each fallen item punctuation with a distinct grunt only ruby could manage to make sound cute.

          ‘ gah —- stupid … branches. stupid, weird fate thing-y, taking all my extra ammo. this would be so much easier with DUST !! ‘ ruby gives a hefty shove as she shouts her frustrations into the void of forest & snow, & surprisingly enough the scythe finally manages to cut through the thickest branch she could reach within the tree, but at the cost of her own balance. she stumbles forwards through the bank of snow in front of her & faceplants into it, her trusted scythe following shortly after, the pointed staff sticking into the ground after it slips ungracefully from ruby’s grasp. ‘ D’OWW !! ‘ the desired branch joins her on the ground moments later, missing her leg by a hair’s width.

     thank the gods for interruptions. otherwise, she might have indulged in some choice words most would find unbecoming of a child her age. ruby’s attention quickly shifts from her agitation to a familiar voice from somewhere beside her, her head dislodging itself from the snow just in time to see none other than nora valkyrie in all her thundrous glory.

          ‘ nora !! ‘ ruby exclaims, hurriedly pushing up from the ground in order to fling herself at the other girl. she wraps nora in a tight hug around the waist. ‘ oh gods, i thought i lost you !! what are you doing here ?! i dunno what the heck is going on around here but it’s weird & i was so worried i wasn’t gonna find anyone because everyone else here doesn’t know anything about what i’m talking about when i mention home. i’m so glad to see you ! ‘

       at the impact of the younger’s body hitting her own, nora lets out an ‘oof!’ but it still doesn’t hide how happy she is. sure, they weren’t sisters like ruby and yang were, but nora was protective of ruby to almost the same extent. of course, if ruby was left behind with ren, jaune and the rest of their friends, she wasn’t exactly worried. however, the fact that ruby was out here alone did raise a few of the ginger’s concerns. if ruby was here, where was everyone else? or, perhaps it was only a select few that ended up in some frozen wonderland?

    well, whatever. what matters is both were safe, and if anything happened, at least they had each other’s backs... to, er, some extent. if nora herself lacked her semblance, aura, ferocious strength and all those fancy upgrades to magnihild, she had a feeling ruby did as well. in all her time scouting out the area, things seemed relatively safe however, so the concern died down, even if her alertness never fully did.

    ❝ hey, hey! you’ll never lose me, promise, ❞ the elder chides and comforts all the same, squeezing the girl in a tight embrace... before lifting her off the ground and spinning a tad out of joy. laughter bubbles past nora’s lips as she does so, only plopping ruby back down after she finds that spinning in the snow? very difficult and should probably only be done in moderation. 

    “never thought i’d be able to do that again! anyway, i’m so glad to see you too! it’s like, i fell asleep and then ended up here! isn’t that crazy? if we manage to get back and i tell ren about this, he’d think i was just making stuff up if we didn’t just disappear from there!” and then she pauses, worry etched upon her features. “uh... you don’t think we just up and vanished from home, right?” bright aqua irises fall from ruby’s visage to the snow beneath their feet, anxiousness misplaced on her usually grinning features. 

    there is an unspoken truth within the remains of jnpr, of how they all fear losing one another and more, however before the panic even tries to settle within the pits of her stomach ( implying it hadn’t already ), nora offers ruby a smile, shoulders shrugging as nonchalantly as the elder could manage.

Honestly at this point, it feels as though the entire population of remnant is just going to show up. Not that Qrow blames any of them, as the days go by it grows more and more difficult to look at his home world fondly. Guess that’s what happens when you learn there’s no true way to save people from the darkness constantly gripping it.

Still, bit of a surprise to see Valkyrie here. Then again, as he recalls jnpr’s fourth and missing member, maybe it’s not. Does she even know yet? No, he’s not going to even ask.

“Sure am,” Qrow responds with a bit of a sigh. Her enthusiasm is overflowing as usual. Originally, the huntsman had plans on doing some hunting, now he’s just trying to force back a headache. Red eyes inspect Nora’s beaming figure, the large baskets in her hands, and the nearby path out to the forest.

“Doing that request for the mayor’s kid, huh?” 

What did the pipsqueak want again, some sort of berries? And Nora was going to carry three full baskets all the way back. Riiiight. Well, it’s better than not doing anything at all and wasting the daylight. He shrugs.

“Alright sure; I’ll help. Hand me one, just tone it down a little on the volume, huh?”

       telling nora to ‘tone it down a little’ was like telling jaune not to consume so much pumpkin pete cereal. both were difficult tasks, but not completely impossible... it just. took a lot of effort. however, nora wasn’t one unwilling to compromise either, so she offers the man a nod. 

    ❝ right! ❞ oops. immediate failure. she seems surprised by her own mistake, mouth agape before she shakes her head, a finger being raised to her lips, voice hushed. “right...! quiet nora... stealthy nora...!” the stealth certainly wasn’t necessary, though perhaps repeating it out loud motivated her to actually remain quiet. if it sounded fun, it seemed she were more willing to cooperate. after all, not as though they were actually going into battle anyhow. 

    offering her stack of baskets over, she gestures with her chin for qrow to take the top of the stack, humming as she did so. an obvious pleased aura radiated off of the ginger, both due to his cooperation though also simply due to seeing a familiar face. sure, things were rocky back home, and sure, both probably wanted to see different familiar faces, but at this point, nora would take what she could get.

       it’s not like nora had any qualms about gathering firewood on her own. teams had to do independent things! ... uh, does that count when she’s away from her team? ... well, whatever! details, details! even if she did feel alone, other villagers seemed to be taking part in the task as well, so it’s not as though the area was completely empty anyway!

    and speaking of not empty, the otherwise quiet freezing air seemed to be full of rather high-pitched grunts. and the sound of a scythe cutting into something. very fishy, very recognizable! 

    with all the grace of an ursa, nora dashes towards the noises ( which is quite a feat, considering the snow ), skidding to a stop upon finding a certain red-clad girl. other people might’ve found the method a tad excessive, but nora? nah. you keep doing you, little ruby! ... doesn’t stop the elder from giggling at the sight though.

       even overly energetic tiny people require a little peace and quiet every now and then. and honestly? considering the adventure nora had been ( supposedly ) unwillingly whisked away from, perhaps it was for the best. indulging in anything deemed normal felt like an opportunity from ages past, but she had to admit.

    it did give her time to think about the unwanted. 

    and perhaps that was why she had immediately jumped at lighting some lanterns. she had to focus on not burning herself and making sure she didn’t miss any! very thought consuming things, mind you. plus, the sound of snow crunching under her boots? absolutely satisfying. yet, as she nears a line of dimming lanterns, she sees a figure so lovingly ( and painfully ) engraved in her memory. no matter how much time has passed, she’d never mistake this girl for any other.

    they were family, after all, but nora can’t stop the way her brows furrow in slight heartache. she’s heard spirits and lanterns have an odd connection before... or maybe her heart’s just not as calm as she wanted to believe it was.

       leave it to nora to try to do multiple things at once ( aka carry three baskets to and fro... to would be easier, really. the question is the fro ). granted, she’s more of an act now, think later when it came to non-life threatening activities like these. she’ll see the problem... well, right about now actually, as she’s nearing the exit of the village. 

    as she’s mulling on the situation, her gaze wanders and... wait? do her eyes deceive her? nah, she can’t forget that brooding atmosphere, no matter how much of a downer it was! ( sorry, qrow... kinda ).

    it’s not to say that she was lonely. or bored. no, nora’s never really either of those things... around her friends, that is. but, well, right now how could she be? after all, she was in the unknown! the ( almost ) wilderness! plus, the village was having a fancy festival! that should be the definition of exhilarating! except... seeing a familiar face would really hit the excitement home.

    unfortunately, she hasn’t seen anyone she knows nor could she really sit still. gathering wood? yeah, that seemed fun. probably better than sitting around the campfire watching other people be all comfortable around their familiar people. that is, until she sees a familiar tiny figure in the distance and oops. there goes her gathered firewood, tossed over her head and spread about in her excitement.

i need to do things here so uh. ya know!

       ❝ oh, oh! you wanna play? sure! ❞ she had been returning from another wandering across the cold tundra, and yet nora didn’t seem at all exhausted. as the pig nudges at the hammer head of magnihild, nora squats down and picks the little thing up, placing the animal on top. and now...

    she holds magnihild by its handle, making sure to balance the cute little piggy on her weapon. somehow, she looks as though she were ready to launch the pig into the distance but! unfortunately, she didn’t have her usual strength to even bother... plus, not like she’d do that anyway. still.

       oh, she is so not getting ‘good guy’ vibes at all. maybe he’s just shady? yeah! ( though, she has to wonder if giving him the benefit of the doubt’s a good idea ). nonetheless, she grips magnihild in her hands, head tilting as she stares up at the man with a guarded curiosity shining within her irises.

    ❝ uh... are you lost? i mean, i know i look like i am, but i’m kiiiinda working right now... ❞ scout duties and all that, you know? “if you want, i can point you back to town... i mean, not like there’s much to see here, considering it’s all snow.” but then she shrugs, and that guard is hidden with a blanket of mild amusement. 

       ❝ holy cow! are you like. weiss? from the future? ... wait, if you’re from the future, then where the heck am i?! ❞ the shorter pauses, blinking for a moment. “well, like, obviously we’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow and town’s just a little way’s that way, but like... oh, you get what i mean! anyhow, if you’re from the future, can i ask some questions? more like, does ren ever let me get a cute little puppy? nora and little bolt! wouldn’t that be cute?!”

    and then she pauses. really pauses this time and squints long and hard at the elder and realization dawns on her. doesn’t this woman look... different? she totally gives off a different air than the weiss nora knows... of course, they have the same sort of regal atmosphere but...

nora valkyrie | rwby | literal queen of the castle ☆

she may have lost her semblance at the moment, but ( flexes )

may be impulsive, but she’s fun to be around promise

thor but tiny. very tiny.

likes sugar, but too much is not very good for the tiny ( but ren isn’t here to be her impulse control so pile it on )

if you get on her good side she will protecc

likes! hugs!

she’s still overcome with grief, but she’s working past it.

don’t ask her about how she’s feeling though she’s not very good at talking about that in a how do i explain and honestly? where do i even start sort of way.

if you see a dorky blond and a tired ninja, please contact her immediately thank