#naetk

(39) Survival/Wilderness Fic + (96) Scars

set in my Sanguine AU

(fanfic trope mashup requests are open.  I don’t promise a fic for each I get, but if inspiration does strike...)

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Pyrrha crouches low on the thick tree branch.  To keep her balance, she puts a hand on the tree’s trunk.  She feels exposed without her armor, but she can’t risk the metal catching the light of their campfire and giving her presence away.

CRDL is a huntsmen team Pyrrha can defeat in her sleep.  Even if they were to have forewarning of her attack, Pyrrha knows she can take them down with ease.  Usually.  Not under these circumstances.  Not when so muck is at risk.  Here, she needs to be careful.

They have Ruby tied up on one side of their campfire.  Close enough to the flames that the fire would affect her (fire isn’t quite as bad as the sun itself, Ruby had once told Pyrrha, but exposure to it would leave her feeling a little nauseous for a while), but not enough that it would put Ruby in critical condition.  A smart move when handling a captured vampire.  One Pyrrha wouldn’t have suspected CRDL of being capable of.  She narrows her eyes.  Either they’ve become significantly more competent since graduation or someone gave them a tip off on how to take down vampires.

Given they’re literally in the middle of nowhere, where no one should have been able to find them, least of all CRDL, Pyrrha has a feeling it’s the latter option.  She knows the Guild wouldn’t have just let her and Ruby disappear without retaliation.  She is—or was—a (somewhat famous) licensed huntress, the one who caught the notorious Vampire of Patch, reported it, and then decided to go on the lam with said vampire instead of turning her in.  Those kinds of things don’t just get swept under the rug.

If they’re ever caught, Pyrrha is more than aware, Salem will publicly (and gruesomely) see to Ruby’s end and make an example out of her.  Loyalty is the first vow one takes when they join the Guild.  Breaking it isn’t taken lightly.

Sometimes Pyrrha wonders if it’s her destiny to just keep making one terrible mistake after another.

Pyrrha pulls her hood up over her head.  No use ruminating on it now.  She made her choice when she freed Ruby from the holding cell she’d put the vampire in herself.  And, if she were being completely honest, she’d do it again.

So, let Salem send every last capable member of the Guild, Pyrrha can and will defeat them all.

She jumps down from the tree and lands lightly on her feet (which thank her for giving up heels before she left school).  As much as she wants to charge in and neutralize the four huntsmen, Pyrrha doesn’t.  If one manages to get to Ruby while she’s dispatching the others, well, she’s not sure what they’d do (their orders are probably to take Ruby alive, no use having an execution for someone who’s already dead), but Pyrrha doesn’t really want to find out.

Instead, Pyrrha remains in the shadows.  She silently circles the campsite, making note of where all the weapons are and, more importantly, which are made of metal.  Once she has all the intel she needs, Pyrrha raises a hand and activates her semblance.

Russel and Dove’s weapons hit them over the head and knock them out before either knows what’s happening.  Sky has a moment to prepare himself, right before Pyrrha uses his armor to shove him into a tree.  She gives Cardin an extra minute to panic, and then uses both his armor and mace to send him flying.  Satisfied that no one’s going to be getting up anytime soon, Pyrrha saunters across the campsite.

She kneels down beside Ruby and shakes her awake.  “Sweetie, get up, we need to get out of here.”

Ruby stirs.  She grumbles.  “Whaddisit?  I wanna sleeeeep.”

“We need to go.”

“But sleeeeep.”

Pyrrha frowns.  “Ruby, do you know where you are?”

“Camp?”  Ruby yawns.  She’s having a hard time keeping her eyes open, Pyrrha notices.

Pyrrha asks gently, “What’s the last thing you remember?”  She has a sneaking suspicion she knows what happened.

“Camp.  You sleep.  Went hunting.  Hungry.  Slow bear.  Slow bear makes a good meal.”  Ruby tries to snuggle up against Pyrrha.  Pyrrha uses the opportunity to cut the ropes around Ruby’s wrists.

“And after that?”

“Back to camp?”  Ruby tries weakly.

Pyrrha sighs.  “No.”  It’s a classic vampire hunting technique.  Find an animal the vampire is likely to go after, dose it with a special sedative that’ll stay in its veins, and then wait for the vampire to show up for a meal.  Once it drinks and it’s knocked out by the sedative in the blood, move in for the capture.

They would never have known Ruby prefers bigger, stronger animals like bears if Pyrrha never wrote (and sent) such extensive reports to the Guild, she thinks grimly to herself.

“Sorry, sweetie,” Pyrrha whispers so quietly Ruby may not have caught her words.  Then, in a louder voice meant to be heard, “You think you can wrap your arms around my neck?”

Ruby shakes her head furiously.  “Won’t drink from you.  Promised.  Won’t.”

“I know.”  Pyrrha takes off her cloak and wraps it around Ruby’s shoulders.  “But, I need to carry you out of here.  You think you can try to hold on to me?”

“Okay.”

By the time Pyrrha’s lifted Ruby onto her back, the vampire is asleep again, and lightly snoring in Pyrrha’s ear.  She’s small enough that she doesn’t slow Pyrrha down too much.  They make it back to their campsite before the sun rises.  Pyrrha gently settles Ruby in her sleeping bag and packs everything up.

Traveling during the daytime is a risk they usually don’t take, but they need to put distance between this place and themselves.  As long as Ruby has a cloak on to cover herself (and Pyrrha to watch over her), she should be fine.

Pyrrha jostles Ruby awake again.  She holds out her wrist to the vampire.  “Here.  Drink.”

“No.”  Ruby protests.  Now that the sedative is fading from her system, she’s more alert.  “I—I promised.”

“We need to leave.  There’s no time for you to hunt.”  Pyrrha speaks more calmly than she feels.  “I had some rations already, but you need a meal to keep your energy up.  Especially after last night.  Please.  I’m giving you permission.”

Hesitantly, almost fearfully, Ruby agrees.  She takes Pyrrha’s wrist between her hands and lifts it to her mouth.  Her fangs sink into Pyrrha’s veins.  The whole process makes Pyrrha feel slightly woozy.  It only lasts a minute before Ruby pulls away.

The two dots on her wrist where Ruby’s fangs broke her flesh will leave scars, Pyrrha notes while wrapping a bandage around them.

who’s the cuddler: Ruby is more quick to initiate physical affection.  After years with Adam, Blake is more hesitant when it comes to personal boundaries (Ruby, by comparison, has always known hugs bc of Taiyang and Yang).  So, in the beginning, Blake keeps herself distant, and Ruby has to bridge the gap between them.  Eventually, as Blake grows more comfortable, she starts to really love their cuddle time.

who makes the bed: Blake.  After her years traveling with the White Fang, she likes keeping things organized (and leaving few traces of her presence behind).  Ruby never got into the habit of making her bed while living at home with Taiyang and she’s not about to start now.

who wakes up first: Blake.  She’s an early riser (whereas Ruby will remain snoozing away unless someone wakes her up).  Generally, Blake reads for an hour or two while she waits for Ruby to wake up.

who has the weird taste in music: Ruby likes really obscure rock bands no one else knows of.

who is more protective: Blake.  She knows Ruby can handle her own in battle, but she worries anyway.  Ruby still isn’t the best at hand to hand, so if she loses Crescent Rose, she’s at a disadvantage someone can exploit.  When they first got together, Blake tries to protect Ruby, which was detrimental to her own fighting.  Then, after they talk things out, Blake starts helping Ruby get better at hand to hand in practice matches.

who sings in the shower: Ruby.  She’s not the greatest singer, but she doesn’t care.  She’ll sing as loudly as she wants to.

who cries during movies: Ruby.

who spends the most while out shopping: Ruby tends to spend money more impulsively or carelessly on things she doesn’t need.  Blake never spends more than what she needs (unless she’s indulging herself on books).

who kisses more roughly: In the beginning, Ruby is just not really a great kisser.  She doesn’t exactly know how, so she ends up a bit more pushy.  Eventually, she gets better (as well as learns how Blake likes to be held when kissed).

who is more dominate: I wouldn’t say either of them are more dominate, but Ruby is more likely to take the lead in social situations while Blake tends to dominate more of their private conversations.

my rating of the ship from 1-10: 9.8 out of 10.  I haven’t done much with this ship yet, but I really, really like it (and I definitely want to do more with it).

5. Nicknames? Pet names? Any in-jokes?

Blake calls Ruby her ladybug.

Ruby tries to come up with nicknames, but isn’t as good at it bc nicknames are not a strong suit of mine I’m sorry

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13. What do they do for fun? Do they have a favorite activity or do they like to switch things up?

Their favorite activity is comfortably sitting by each other and reading.  Sometimes each will have their own book.  Sometimes, Ruby will rest her head on Blake’s shoulder as Blake reads out loud to her in a soft, soothing voice.  Sometimes, Ruby will narrate a story to a spellbound Blake - Ruby can’t remain still when she reads out loud, she uses a lot of gestures and tries to change her voice for individual characters.  Ruby used to think it an embarrassing habit, until she saw the loving look Blake watched her with.

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14. Anything they both dread?

Blake dreads not being enough (or worth a long term relationship) to Ruby.  The way Ruby can just draw people to her, Blake thinks there’ll come a day when someone will come and take all Ruby’s attention (and she’ll forget about her).  When Ruby finds out about Blake’s insecurities, she does her best to reassure her that that’ll never happen.

Ruby fears that Blake will be the one to lose interest in her (cause Blake is way way more cool than she is).  Why would she want to spend all her time with someone like Ruby?  Ruby has tried to overcompensate at times, to appear more ‘cool’, but Blake always manages to get the truth out of her.

For all they fear the other will eventually tire of them, they are really good at opening up to each other about things.

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15. How adventurous are they?

Very adventurous.  Neither hesitate when it comes to going out and exploring.  Some would say they’re probably too impulsive (especially when put together).

23. How do they hug? Kiss? Tease? Flirt? Comfort?

Ruby is the hugger.  She’ll often use her semblance to rush up to Blake and surprise her with a hug.  Sometimes Blake will use her semblance to leave a shadow copy to take the hit, sometimes she’ll allow herself to be hugged.

No one’s seen them kiss (both Yang and Weiss have teased them about this), but that’s because neither is completely comfortable with public displays of affection and like to keep things just between them (when Yang and Weiss find this out, they stop teasing (so much)).

Blake flirted with Ruby for months, but Ruby never caught on that that was what was happening.  It culminated in a point where Blake did try to ask Ruby out, but Ruby completely missed the context of the question, only figured it out later, and then disrupted Dr. Oobleck’s class to shout at Blake, ‘yes, I’d really like to go out with you!  I’m sorry I didn’t figure that out!!’  It’s an awkward moment, but one they turn into a funny story later.

Ruby comforts Blake by sitting quietly with her until Blake is ready to talk.  Blake comforts Ruby by bringing her cookies, joking until she gets Ruby to laugh, and then gently pushes her to opening up.

I like these!  I can see the cat toys being a method of self-soothing when Blake’s aggravated (for instance, I tend to play mindless phone games when I’m frustrated to calm my brain down so it can think better).

My favorite RWBY ship would probably be Pyrruby/Milk & Cereal then.  Before Volume 7, it and Nuts and Dolts were in a pretty tight race for the status of My Fav RWBY Ship.  It was Penny’s return that gave her pairing with Ruby the edge it needed to take the lead.

(still love pyrruby a lot tho, btw)

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I don’t like the idea of saying a single ship illuminates disgust for everyone, regardless of what the ship is.  There are ships that squick me out, and so I wouldn’t personally touch them, but I’m not going to hold judgment against anyone who does decide to ship those things.

For instance, in my last fandom, there was a ship I (rather blatantly) disliked (to the extent of kinda hating it there for a while).  However, that same ship was extremely popular (and canon to boot), so though it made me personally feel disgust, I recognize it didn’t do that for everyone.  

(And everyone who made content bc of their love of it was completely valid in doing so too.)

Also, negative generalizations, imo, can destroy the creative parts of a fandom.  They can make people afraid or wary to create something that might contradict the opinions of a big name fan (who won’t hesitate in sending harassment after them), and so a fandom’s content will shrink until it’s just a specific few people who like things a specific way who hold power over everyone else.

somewhere between

2 = Don’t see it, Don’t care about it, Don’t know it.

and

3 = I could see why others like it but not at all my taste.

I’m not opposed to it (I generally follow the loose rule of ‘ship and let ship’), but it’s not really my thing.  There’s not enough info about the waitress for me to really get invested in her as a character.