#posts I make before stepping off a cliff like Mary Poppins

[etz-ashashiyot]

What if perhaps I was a leaf?

[basically-rainbow-aus]

@youngjusticeharleyquinn replied to your post: expand on what RMEN and friends go through in accordance with the plot”

Okay *cracks knuckles* let’s do this!

VOLUME 1

Roman stops an armed robbery conducted by Ruby Rose

Ruby gets away with the assistance of a mysterious blonde man who uses amplified golden Aura as a weapon against Roman

Luckily Adrian drops in and saves him

Adrian takes Roman to an interrogation room and, after berating him for recklessness, introduces him to Professor Salem of Beacon (who gives Roman pumpkin tarts instead of cookies)

Salem comments about the oddly pigmented nature of Roman’s veins, particularly around his covered eye and neck

Roman reveals he attends Signal, is training to be a Huntsman like his older brother and parents, was taken under the wing of his Aunt Coco and aims to go to Beacon at age 17

Salem offers him a spot with the incoming Beacon freshmen, and he accepts

Mercury is overjoyed at this and says Roman is gonna be the “cat’s pajamas” (even though Roman just wants to be a normal boy with normal pajamas)

The airship carrying them to Beacon lands and Cinder runs off to immediately drop-and-roll, as her shoulders are on fire from her Semblance

Roman fanboys about how much Lien the weapons he sees are worth until Mercury reels his brother in and promptly abandons him

Dizzy and confused, Roman collapses into the luggage of one Neo Politan, who proceeds to berate him via a projected screen of text she is typing on her Scroll

Neither of them notice that Roman has dropped his shotgun cane until Neo steps back and accidentally fires off a shot, which affects the Dust being shaken in Roman’s face and triggers a chain reaction of ice, fire, lightning, etc.

Emerald approaches as Neo continues non-verbally criticising Roman and says Neo is the heiress of the Ironwood Dust Company

Neo storms off after accusation against the company are made, and with Emerald leaving too, Roman is left alone to slump on the floor

Cinder approaches from beside him and helps him up while introducing herself

As they walk, Cinder explains she has trouble controlling her Semblance due to its different nature from anything else in her “family”

They compare weapons (with Roman saying that Cinder’s bow is a classic and could cost a pretty penny to the right buyer) until they realise they have no idea where they’re going

They reach the auditorium and Roman runs off to be with Mercury, leaving Cinder alone to wander off (revealing Hazel behind him)

Roman tells Mercury about the incident with Neo until said girl pops up behind him, scaring him with an air horn effect from her Scroll

She shows him an article that moves too fast for him to read so she gives him a pamphlet to read about Dust

Salem steps up to a microphone and gives a short speech about the students’ new duties as training-Hunters

Adrian then steps up and guides the students toward the ballroom to sleep

At the group sleepover, Mercury teases Roman about writing back to the gang at Signal and Roman contemplates how he only has Cinder as a friend so far

Emerald lights a candle nearby, prompting Mercury to drag Roman over to formally introduce them to her

Mercury compliments her gloves and Roman bonds with Emerald over the book she’s reading until Neo storms over and smacks Roman with a foldable fan to communicate she wants the group to shut up for the night

The next morning, Watts is awoken by his childhood friend Tyrian

Tyrian proceeds to talk all throughout breakfast, teeth-brushing and sleeping bag-packing until they reach the locker room and Tyrian asks if Watts can imitate a sloth, to which Watts says “I don’t think sloths of all creatures make a whole lot of noise”

Mercury and Roman watch as Tyrian and Watts leave the lockers

Roman is extremely chipper because he doesn’t have to talk to anyone anymore — instead he can let his cane shoot and kill

Mercury says he needs people to grow up and when asked if he can be on his brother’s team, Mercury distracts himself away from the topic by playing with his hair

Cinder passes by trying to find her locker

Neo and Hazel are having a conversation about team formation (though it’s partially non-verbal on Neo’s part) but Neo’s scheme is interrupted by Cinder trying to flirt her way onto Neo’s team

When Hazel mentions the teams being of four, Cinder tries to flirt with him too until she is shot down by Neo bringing up Hazel’s fame (graduating from Sanctum, winning Mistral Regional Tournaments three years in a row)

Hazel quickly compliments that he would be honoured to have Cinder as a teammate

Neo proceeds to spear Cinder to a wall by her hair with Hush while Adrian instructs first years to proceed to the cliffs for initiation

At the cliffs Salem announces that not only will the students get their teammates today, they will also be partnered up with the first person they make eye contact with while on the hunt for relics in the Emerald Forest

The students are then thrown off the cliff one at a time (Cinder being launched without a landing strategy)

Each of the students land in a unique way

Roman fires off a few shots to slow himself down before catching a tree branch and using the leverage to descend at his own rate

Neo opens the canopy on her parasol and uses a Nevermore illusion as a platform to let her jump and float to the ground like Mary Poppins

Watts uses the Earth Dust inside his Dust-infused electric cables (named Voltage) to form stone blades so he can spiral around a large tree trunk to the ground

Mercury’s gunshots from his boots are propelling him further north, grinning and laughing all the while, until he crashes into the trees and bounces off two branches to tumble to the ground

Hazel (with a crystal Dust spear in one hand and two smaller fire Dust crystals stabbed into his other arm) rolls into a branch before looking at Cinder and rocketing his Dust spear towards her

This firm sticks Cinder to a tree

Roman runs through the Forest evaluating his choices for partners, seeing himself with Cinder and Emerald before he crashes right into Neo

Neo turns and walks away, but when she comes across Cinder hanging by her glove pinned to a tree with a Dust crystal spear, she turns back and hauls Roman over her shoulder to confirm him as her partner

Hazel soon approaches and asks if Cinder still has any spots open on her team

Roman and Neo have a brief conversation that eventually dissolves into Roman saying he’s not a people person, but he’s a monster person before disappearing

When he runs off into the forest, Neo tries to find him, but finds large Beowolves instead

Elsewhere, Mercury is walking around, not seeing a shadow zoom past him, and peaks into the bushes to see if his brother is there

Instead he finds two Ursai

He leaps over the second and the first gets knocked back with a fiery kick, so Mercury charges the second from the underneath and kicks it several times before punching it to send it back

The second Ursa swings are him, creating a small cut on his cheek through his Aura

The sight of his own blood infuriates Mercury and triggers his “adrenaline junkie mode” dilating his eyes to pinpricks and fuelling him with rage

He unleashes a barrage of devastating kicks onto the Ursa, effectively killing it

The other Ursa tries to attack too, but it is killer swiftly by Emerald’s sickle revolvers as she makes eye contact with Mercury

Back with Neo, she has become surrounded by a Beowolf pack as she raises her extended blade on the parasol and dashes forward

Roman suddenly appears and lands a fiery hit on the Beowolf Neo is aiming for, forcing her to reroute and accidentally cut down a tree which causes a chain reaction and takes out the whole clearing

He’s knocked back into his partner and the two stand back to back for a moment before a tree collapses near Roman, so Neo leads him out as the avalanche kills the Beowolves

Neo and Roman argue about their coordination in a fight (with Neo still using her Scroll to speak for her) until Neo storms off and Roman blasts down another tree, which serves as a landing platform for a giant black feather

Hazel and Cinder are making their way through the forest until Hazel accidentally causes a branch to smack into Cinder’s face, cutting her cheek

When it is revealed that Cinder doesn’t know what Aura is despite having her Semblance, Hazel explains

Meanwhile, Watts finds trouble in the form of a King Taijutu

It surrounds him before attacking with long fangs, Watts leaping away before being hit with the monster’s snout and being encircled again

Watts destroys the stone blades on his cables to instead release arcs of fire before kicking it and shocking it with electricity

The white head charges him but he jumps over the black head and sends arcs of fire and electricity towards the black head

He is then struck by the white head and loses his cables, leaving him to only raise his arms in defence

Cinder compares Aura to a forcefield

Watts struggles against the white head, holding it back by its fangs, until he rips them out and stabs a fang into the creature’s eye, driving the new weapon into its skull

He then attacks the black head

Hazel releases Cinder’s Aura with his own, tiring him somewhat and revealing Cinder has a lot of Aura

Watts has successfully killed the King Taijutu when he hears a strange noise from above

It’s Tyrian, who swings upside from the tree beside Watts and when told that that’s not the sound a sloth makes, taps Watts on the nose with a small “zap”

Back at the cliffs Adrian comments on the partnerships that have been formed

He also that he doesn’t think Cinder’s ready for team cooperation and asks what Salem used as relics this year

Salem is silently watching footage of Neo and Roman, the former repeating turning and walking only to retcon herself seconds later

Roman angrily asks why she won’t admit they’re lost, and when he doesn’t get a clear response he calls her a “tiny dumb jerk”

Neo uses Remnant Sign Language to try and get him to follow her again, but he loudly exclaims he doesn’t understand it

They argue again and Neo storms off

Mercury and Emerald arrives at the temple holding the relics, which turn out to be multicoloured pocketwatches

Cinder and Hazel arrive at a cave that they enter (Cinder lighting the way with her Semblance) until Cinder trips and the light goes out

Mercury picks up a silver watch with a horse carving for himself and Emerald and the two smile at each other

Cinder finds a large glowing point of gold in the dark that she mistakenly addresses as a relic when it is really the stinger of a giant Death Stalker

Hazel rushes out of the cave with the Death Stalker hot on his heels, Cinder still on the stinger

She eventually gets thrown off, screaming, and Hazel runs away from the attacking Grimm

Emerald has her eyes trained on the sky, from which Roman is falling

Cut to Roman and Neo clinging to a giant Nevermore

Neo repeatedly creates temporary Signs with her words on them to talk to Roman about how stupid this all is

Roman jumps, hurtling toward the ground towards his brother and Emerald, but is intercepted by Cinder crashing into him from the side, sending them both into a tree

An Ursa then comes roaring out of the bushes but collapses very soon, revealing Tyrian to have been riding on its back

He observes the carcass as Watts comes running up beside it and tells Tyrian never to run off again, only for Tyrian to run off

Tyrian claims a golden pocketwatch with a castle engraved into the back before Watts calls him back

Surprised keep coming when Hazel crashes in with the Death Stalker still on his tail

Roman reunites with Mercury briefly

Mercury very quickly becomes angered by everything that’s happening and only gets two second to chill out before Roman points out that Neo’s still hanging from the Nevermore

Emerald says she’ll fall, which she does, so Cinder jumps up and catches her before they both hurtle to the ground, Neo using Cinder as a landing pad

Hazel lands in a heap before everyone else

Roman dashes forward to fight the Death Stalker, but he’s knocked back by its claws and has to run back to the group, not making it far when the Nevermore sends down sharp feathers and pins Roman in place by his coat

Neo races forward and puts up a thin surface of ice to shield herself and Roman

She continually summons Signs to talk to him easier, in which she says that while he’s an idiot, she’s been more than difficult to deal with, so she’ll try harder to be better if he stops being a “dum-dum”

Roman mumbles to himself about normal pajamas

The Nevermore starts to circle back and the Death Stalker starts to break from the ice, so Roman decrees they all make a break for the cliffs with their relics

He grabs a horse-printed watch for himself and Neo, and Cinder grabs a castle-printed one for her and Hazel

The group heads into another series of ruined structures, spreading out when the Nevermore approaches above and perched on a tall column

The Death Stalker soon arrives, forcing the group to run while Tyrian distracts it by firing emblem-topped shells at the Nevermore, exploding into bursts of purple smoke and forcing it to retreat

Emerald and Watts perform a cross slash against the shell of the approaching Death Stalker and are chased while Neo grabs Tyrian and creates a weak trampoline illusion for them to jump off

Hazel stans more red crystals into his arm and sends out explosive blasts from his hands alongside Watts’ cables until the Grimm reaches them and swipes, provoking the students to sprint for the bridge

The Nevermore’s feathers shatter the path right in the middle, splitting the group into 5 and 3 (Roman, Neo, Mercury, Cinder and Tyrian near the centre) (Watts, Emerald and Hazel on the other side)

Emerald is knocked back by the scorpion, so Tyrian extends his wrist blades and slams them into the ground to slingshot Cinder over to the other side before replicating the result on himself, allowing him to slam the blades right into the centre of the Death Stalker’s skull

He fires too and blasts back to avoid the stinger, accidentally knocking over Emerald, who launches her chain so her blade sinks into the bridge and swings up onto the Nevermore so she can slash along its wings before jumping down to join Neo, Roman and Mercury

The new team of four in the centre fires a barrage at the approaching Nevermore until it crashes, forcing them up higher

Roman sets out a plan and starts firing as Neo covers him with her parasol

Back with the other half of the eight, Hazel punches the Death Stalker after deflecting its claw with his foot and Cinder blocks the other pincer with her bow, firing at it for a split-second so Hazel can attack its face

Watts manages to get onto the stinger and shocks it with his cables as Tyrian fires more shells

Watts is soon thrown from the tail when Hazel punches the Grimm in its eyes explosively, him not getting up

Cinder notices the new hanging nature of the stinger and calls for Hazel, who rips out his red crystals and hurls then like darts to cut down the stinger and stab it through the Grimm’s head

Tyrian jumps onto Hazel’s shoulders and aims his blast down as he jumps, twirling in the air and coming down heavy and hard on the stinger, killing the Death Stalker and crushing the bridge underneath

They manage to all land safely save for Watts, who collapses soon after

Mercury’s still burning all his ammo on the Nevermore, and when it charges him, he leaps into its mouth and forces it open as he serves up kicks and shots down its throat

The monster crashes into the cliffs as soon as he jumps out, and Neo appears to freeze the tip of its tail feathers with the ice canister of Dust in her parasol, leaving the Nevermore stuck no matter its flapping

Emerald throws half of Thief’s Respite to Mercury so the two can tighten the chains between two columns in order to make a slingshot before Roman jumps into the centre with his cane charged up and Neo pulling the chains back with her parasol

The ground cracks when he’s launched, gunpowder flying in his wake, and he catches the Nevermore around the neck with his cane’s handle while Neo creates rock-climbing grips up the cliff-face (which Roman reaches by firing off shots from his cane)

Roman reaches the top of the cliff, fires off one supercharged shot and kills the Nevermore via decapitation

In the assembly hall at Beacon, teams are being announced after initiation

Arslan, Bolin, Reese and Nadir form Team ARBN (Auburn)

Watts, Tyrian, Cinder and Hazel form Team WTCH (Witch)

Roman, Mercury, Emerald and Neo form RMEN (Ramen)

That night, Ruby meets with a white masked man after an angry Scroll conversation, gives him a stack of Lien and opens a case of Dust

The next morning, Neo is rudely awakened by Roman blowing a whistle in her ears

Mercury announces that they need to decorate and unpack with Emerald adding that cleaning would also help

When they’re done unpacking and organising, they find they have no room for the beds, so instead they make bunk beds (majority vote, sorry Neo)

Roman’s bunk is hung from ropes above Neo’s, and Mercury’s is balanced atop Emerald’s many stacks of books on her bedposts

Neo then realised they’re gonna be late and drags her team out to join WTCH in their frantic race to class

Professor Terra Cotta-Arc begins a lengthy speech about being Huntsmen and Huntresses

(Mercury and Emerald are paying attention, Neo takes notes, Roman distracts himself by tapping out a rhythm)

Terra starts talking about her years as a young Huntress as Roman shows Neo a crude drawing labelled “Professor Terror” that Mercury and Emerald laugh at

Neo, angered by Roman’s repeated antics, sticks her hand up when Terra asks who believes that they possess the true qualities of a Hunter, only to be surprised when Terra brings out a cage with a Boarbatusk

The rest of RMEN cheer on their teammate, but Roman is the only one who is told to shut up

Neo deflects the Boarbatusk with her canopy and rolls as the Grimm studies her, only for Roman and Terra to be unhelpfully loud

Her parasol then gets caught in the tusks of the beast, being thrown away along with Neo after she takes a split second to glare at Roman for his once more unhelpful comments

Neo rolls away to avoid being crushed and reclaims Hush before Roman calls for her to piece the stomach, to which she creates a Sign telling him to stop begging for attention

She ends up killing the Grimm and Terra congratulates her as she dismisses the class

As Neo storms off after class, Roman catches up and asks what’s wrong

Neo turns the question back on him bitterly and calls him an attention seeker, Roman looking disheartened after what she said back in the Forest, before she says Salem made a mistake and she deserves better than him

As if summoned, Salem appears beside Roman

Neo finds Terra on a balcony on top of the building, the latter noticing something troubling her student to which Neo confesses she doesn’t think Roman should be RMEN’s leader

Terra says that’s ridiculous

Salem confesses to Roman that among her hundreds and thousands of mistakes, she does not believe him to be one of them

Terra continues on with Neo, saying that she trusts Salem’s decisions without hesitation

She also says that in Neo she sees a girl who got nothing in return for everything for seven or eight years, and then suddenly she could get anything she could want with the snap of a finger (Neo crosses her arms and looks to her shoes at this)

Terra recommends Neo home her techniques, perfect her skills, and be the best person she can be in her position just like when she was younger

When Neo returns to the dorm room that night, she finds Roman with papers scattered across his bunk and a pencil in his hand and a RSL website open on his Scroll

Momentarily shocked by the consideration towards her, Neo shakes Roman awake and makes him another coffee

She moves to leave, throwing an offhanded comment that it took years for her caretaker to learn RSL just for her, before she says she’s always wanted bunk beds

Another day, Cinder is going toe to toe against Arslan Atlan, with Arslan winning by a large majority

Adrian stops the match when Cinder’s Aura drops low enough, stating that it means that in a tournament, she would be eliminated

Adrian also comments to the crowd of students to learn of gauging one’s Aura without referring to a Scroll

The Vytal Festival is then announced to be coming up this year, with the majority of RMEN excitedly eager to participate in a few months

Class is dismissed and everyone heads for the cafeteria, where Tyrian tells a story about him and Watts fighting and killing Ursai (Beowolves) to make some Lien (Watts reveals this is a dream)

Cinder is oddly despondent and Hazel asks if she’s alright before the eight of them notice Team ABRN picking on Summer Bloom, a wolf Faunus with red-tipped ears jutting from her hair

Hazel states that Arslan’s been picking on Cinder since the first week of school, and proceeds to list off the many times that Cinder denies she’s been bullied

Tyrian suggests they break Arslan’s legs

The laughing of ABRN gets louder as Arslan tugs on Summer’s eats and pokes around at her sharp teeth before she pulls up her hood and scampers away back to her team

Hazel expresses his disgust about the racist act against Summer, and Emerald echoes his views

Cinder leaves without noticing Arslan watching her

Later on Professor Saphron Cotta-Arc zooms around the room while giving a hyperactive lecture about the Faunus Civil Rights history

When she asks if anyone has been discriminated against for their Faunus heritage, Summer is among those who raised their hands

Saphron carries on, and when she asks the advantage the Faunus had during one of the War’s battles, Cinder incorrectly answers “binoculars” despite Hazel’s cues for night vision

Arslan also answers incorrectly by saying animals are easier to train before Hazel gives the right answer and Emerald adds on that the general leading the humans was inexperienced and captured soon after

Saphron keeps Cinder and Arslan back after class to give them further assignments and a lecture about repeating history

When Cinder emerges from class and is pushed by her tormentor, Hazel offers to actually break her legs and then drags Cinder up to the roof

It’s here that Hazel, with the best intentions in mind, offers to help train Cinder so she can be more capable with not only her Aura but also her weapons, which Cinder takes as Hazel seeing her as weak

Cinder also admits that she faked control of her Semblance by using experimental fire Dust just so she could get into Beacon, when really she has no control at all

After Cinder yells that she needs to do this on her own, Hazel leaves glumly, and Arslan climbs up onto the roof after hearing Cinder’s truths

Arslan proceeds to blackmail Cinder into doing her bidding, including those readings Saphron gave them

Another day, Tyrian and Watts ponder over the recent disappearing acts their teammate had committed to, only for Hazel to firmly say that he’s sure Cinder knows exactly what she’s doing with Arslan

Cinder is actually outside the dorm listening in on the conversation when Roman comes out of his dorm and sits beside her to talk, a talk that quickly escalates into Cinder calling herself a failure and Roman saying she can’t afford to be a failure because now she has a team and friends to look after

Once Roman leaves, she gets a call from Arslan asking if Cinder can round up some Rapier Wasps that are really important for their next field trip

Said field trip takes RMEN, WTCH and ABRN into Forever Fall, led by Adrian, to collect sap, wherein Cinder seems to be carrying all the equipment in the back

Cinder tries to sneak back to her teammates but Arslan snatches her up and forces her into collecting six full jars of red sap from the trees, and when Arslan brings up the sixth jar to an exhausted Cinder, she reveals they are going to throw it at Hazel and then release the Rapier Wasps

To further worsen the morality of the scheme, Arslan reveals that she’s letting Cinder throw the sap

Cinder, however, refuses and shatters the jar against Arslan instead, angering the rest of ABRN who grab her and start to dish out punches and kicks

She gets pushed to the feet of a looming Arslan and then punched

Cinder is willing to put up with beating if it protects her teammates and Arslan tries to punch her again, but Cinder’s Aura triggers a bright flash of light that burns Arslan and heals Cinder

Arslan is about to get back to beating her, but an Ursa suddenly approaches from within the forest (attracted to the sap now on Arslan’s robe) as her teammates run away heroically

The other students hear the Ursa’s roar and when BRN comes running out of the trees, Mercury grabs Reese and all she says is that “it’s got Arslan!”

Hazel is much more concerned about Cinder, so Roman tells Mercury and Emerald to go find Adrian while he, Hazel and Neo go find Cinder and Arslan

Arslan tries to get away from the Grimm as Hazel, Roman and Neo arrive on the scene, but the Ursa swipes and is only blocked by Cinder’s bow

As Cinder fights the Ursa, Hazel holds Neo back from interferring, so Cinder proceeds to fire arrows into its stomach before rolling out of the way of a strike

She is unprepared for the next attack though, wherein she is almost hit while performing a leap attack, so the arrow goes askew while her back shimmer orange to signal her Aura is super low

The lost arrow is headed straight for a shocked Roman, but it’s blocked when Hazel stretches out his hand and pale energy gathers around it as the arrow stabs into his palm

Cinder lifts her bow and blocks another swipe before aiming up and firing right through the Ursa’s neck, decapitating it

Roman and Neo are shocked at the fact that Hazel took the arrow in the arm without any pain and he explains that his Semblance is numbing any sense of pain (which Roman momentarily misinterprets until Neo explains in RSL)

Hazel also tells them not to tell anyone else about his Semblance or that Cinder “hurt” him

Cinder, bruised and beaten, starts to collect up her arrows and then pulls up Arslan, pulling her in and instructing her to never mess with her team or her friends ever again

That night, atop the Beacon dorm roof, where Cinder apologises to Hazel and asks if that offer for training is still on the table

Hazel playfully pushes her and tells her her stance is off 

It’s another day again, and RMEN is heading to the docks as per request of Neo to “welcome the new competition” from the other kingdoms

Roman gets distracted by the robbery that appears to have taken place at the Dust shop he defended at the beginning of the series, and the detectives have their suspicions of the White Fang being involved again

Neo huffs and puffs over the mention of the White Fang, calling them degenerates until Emerald calls her out on it, saying that it doesn’t make sense for the White Fang to rob a midtown Dust shop

Roman adds on that it could’ve been Ruby Rose

The conversation derails when a dock-worker calls for people to stop a Faunus - Neon Katt

Neon leaps off the ship she stowed away on with a turkey leg, which she eats while balanced on a lamppost before tossing the bone at the dock-worker’s head

As Neon runs away, she goes into slo-mo mode and winks at Emerald before being pursued by RMEN 

Neo crashes into a boy and loses the chase, much to her dismay, before getting up from atop the boy she knocked down - Oscar

Oscar introduces himself with immeasurable enthusiasm despite his awkwardness with words (though he manages to shock Neo with his understanding of her RSL introduction)

Roman calls Oscar “friend” as he walks away with the rest of RMEN, who almost begin to argue over Neon, until Oscar appears back in front of the group and makes his way to Roman, getting super close and asking if they’re really friends

Roman awkwardly agrees

It turns out that Oscar is here to compete in the Vytal Festival Tournament which Neo doubts highly due to his cutesy-farm boy aesthetic (Mercury calls her out on her choice of fashion, but Roman backs up their “combat coat” partnership)

She soon starts questioning if Oscar knows the “filthy Faunus from the boat”

At this, Emerald snaps and starts an argument with Neo that continues on late into the night when the team returns to their dorm

When Emerald angrily asks why Neo could possibly hate the Faunus so much, she replies that she’s had a target painted on her back since she was first adopted by James Ironwood, as well as having her parents killed in a violent (yet vague) act that there’s an article on from nine years prior

Emerald tries to apologise for bringing up bad memories, but Neo snaps at her by calling Faunus liars, thieves and murderers

Emerald yells back that “we were just tired of being pushed around”, finally revealing she is a Faunus, before she runs away from her team into the night where she removes her leather gloves to reveal gecko scales along her arms and hands

Neon approaches her from behind

The next morning Emerald is still gone from the dorm so Roman, Mercury and Neo go out looking for her, with Neo coming along reluctantly due to her still-standing views on Faunus now applying to her teammate

On the roof of a cafe RMN pass, Emerald sits with Neon in silence until she starts to talk about her childhood in the White Fang and how when their old leader stepped down, she was replaced by someone who believed more in violence to achieve peace, so Emerald ran away to become a Huntress

RMN are still out trying to find Emerald when Oscar suddenly appears behind them, offering to help find her once he knows the situation before Neo and Mercury disappear to avoid Oscar

Neon fills in Emerald about a huge shipment of Ironwood Dust Company that could help them find out if the White Fang are actually involved with the robberies

Roman and Oscar talk about how Emerald ran away and Oscar says that if Emerald were his friend, he’d want her to talk about what’s troubling her

That night, Emerald and Neon (who has stolen honeycomb bars) camp out near the docks, making small talk until a Bullhead approaches

White Fang soldiers come out of the ship and Emerald admits she always knew they were involved, but when Ruby emerges from the ship as well, she makes a move and approaches from behind

She puts her blade to Ruby’s throat and asks why the White Fang are collaborating with a human criminal, to which Ruby answers that it’s a business venture before Bullheads emerge alongside the first and Ruby shoots at Emerald’s feet to escape

Emerald gets out of Ruby’s line of sight and fire while flying bullets destroy cargo, with Neon soon joining the fray with her glowstick-nunchaku

She manages to fight away the White Fang members that charge her before creating an icy shockwave to drive the last of them back and being shot at by Ruby’s sniper, a bullet she easily blocks 

Emerald closes the distance between herself and Ruby, becoming nothing more than illusionary after-images as she slashes at Ruby three times

Ruby only blocks the strikes with her scythe’s blade and landing blow after blow on Emerald until one final hit causes her to go down

Neon comes from behind and with her nunchaku tied around the wrists she creates spinning wheels of flame, the wielder repeatedly cracking into different Dust types at rapid fire speed that Ruby still manages to block until she pauses and Emerald gets a hit in

A swinging container is shot down to seperate the two students so that Ruby can aim at Neon, only for Roman to attract attention to himself and Oscar

Oscar momentarily distracts Roman and accidentally allows Ruby to get a shot in at him, angering Oscar enough to enter the fray

His backpack unfolds to reveal a series of metal batons 

Three batons knock down White Fang troops before he performs many graceful maneuvers to knock several others down and blocks shots from the three Bullheads 

Oscar creates several lasers that emerge from the tops of his batons, cracking the ground beneath him but still cutting through each Bullhead, sending White Fang member flying

Ruby grimaces and calls for another Bullhead that takes her away from the fight

Later on, Neo and Mercury find Oscar, Roman, Emerald and Neon at the docks with the police and when Emerald tries to explain her ex-affiliation with the White Fang, Neo stops her and says she’s done a lot of thinking

Neo has decided she doesn’t care about Emerald’s past, all she requests of her now is that when something comes up, Emerald tells her team instead of running away again (she still doesn’t know how she feels about Neon)

Oscar has disappeared into a black car with a driver who says not to wander off without his sister again

Salem, back at Beacon, receives a message from Coco Adel saying “KING HAS PAWNS”

In an abandoned warehouse in Vale, Ruby is confronted by Jaune, Blake and Yang, with Jaune saying that they need her to cooperate with the White Fang if the plan is to work

Volume 2 will come along soon! I hope this helps for Volume 1 though!

- Admin Neon 

[twentysomethinginorlando]

Wine & Dine Weekend Part Two: The Half Marathon

New Post has been published on https://twentysomethinginorlando.com/wine-dine-weekend-part-two-half-marathon/

Wine & Dine Weekend Part Two: The Half Marathon

Part One of the Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend covered Jay’s last minute sign up for the Half Marathon at the Expo and my running of the Wine and Dine 10K. Now for the fun part, the grueling 13.1 mile race that Jay didn’t know he was running until two and a half days prior. 

I have long said the hardest part of doing the Challenges, where you run the 10K on Saturday and the Half Marathon on Sunday, is getting up that early two days in a row. Thankfully the Half Marathon happened to fall on Day Light Savings Time so we gained an extra hour of sleep so the 2:20 a.m. alarm felt like a 3:20 a.m. alarm. It’s the little things in life. 

Jay and I had attempted to figure out matching costumes we could piece together in time, but ultimately decided it wasn’t going to be worth the effort because it still wouldn’t be what we wanted. I busted out our Team Rocket shirts from the Color Run 5K. While not ideal, at least they would match. I gave Jay the Running Buddy I used the day before, and planned on wearing the new running belt I had just ordered.  (My one complaint is that even at the smallest setting it’s too big for me. I’m going to get another one and give this one to Jay, it fits him perfectly!)

We left around 3:10 a.m. and arrived at Epcot just after four. This time I didn’t bother with going through the bag check, but security wanted to check the towel and space blanket I had for warmth. (At least I found the silly space blanket this time.) We jumped on the bus and this trip seemed to take twice as long as the one the previous day. They weren’t running the air or the heat, and it was just humid and stifling. 

As soon as we got off the bus, we headed straight for the Start Corrals. Since we were in the last one, I wanted to make sure we were as close to the front of the corral as possible so we could hopefully get a few mini waves between us and the Balloon Ladies. (The Balloon Ladies are the unofficial timers of the RunDisney races. They are the last to start and run at exactly at a sixteen-minute mile. The sweepers tend to pick up anyone who falls behind them.) I’ve never been in the last corral before and it scared me. I dropped Jay off in the corral and went to use the bathroom, planning on letting him go after me. Good grief, I had never seen the line for the Port-a-Potties so long. I got in line just after 5 a.m. and they were on Corral B by the time I actually got to go. It was actually semi-hilarious listening to the announcers from the line, and during the national anthem, the only sound was the slamming of doors. I hurried back to my corral to find that it had shifted up, and Jay had obviously moved. I called him and asked him to hold his hat straight up in the air. Thankfully, I spotted him quickly and had to “pardon me, excuse me,” all the way through the crowd. There wasn’t time for him to go to the bathroom, and it wasn’t long before we were moving. 

I missed this part, but apparently there was a conversation with one of the announcers with a newlywed in Corral A, whose wife was in Corral D. “She said it was fine! She didn’t want to slow me down!” “You’re new at this! That was a test and you failed!” 

I don’t know who was more nervous, Jay or me. He kept saying, “You set the pace and I’ll follow you,” over and over again. My concern wasn’t actually his endurance, but how much longer his legs are than mine. This was not only Jay’s first Half marathon, but my first Half Marathon with another person. I have always run alone until the Color Run. Normally Jay just chases me around the course at the spectator points. I’m not used to having to accommodate for someone else, but my plan was the same as it always is: the harder you run at the start, the slower you can go later. 

We crossed the Start Line at 6:10 a.m. I do my own version of run-walk intervals without a timer, and my “walk” is a power walk that’s almost as fast as some people’s run. Jay’s run is much faster than mine and I can’t hold a run as long as he can, but he can’t walk as fast as I can. It was a struggle through most of the course and I am determined to teach him to shorten his stride before we do one of these things again. Most distance runners take short steps, but his swallow the ground. 

“I thought you were a treadmill runner before you met me!” 

“I was!” 

“HOW DO YOU DO TAKE THOSE STRIDES ON A TREADMILL!?” 

“It’s easy if you set it fast enough!” 

Well, that explains a lot. Currently the only use the treadmill really gets is when the cat sleeps on it. 

Racing through Hollywood Studios.

The 10K course went past the first turn and then made a left down World Drive. The Half Marathon made the first turn and the marching band was in the same spot, but the course continued back towards Magic Kingdom to turn onto Bear Island Road. We had the pleasure of running past the Walt Disney World water treatment plant, but at least it was early enough in the day that the smell wasn’t too bad. 

Just past the first mile marker we saw Tinkerbelle and a Fairy Friend. No idea who it was, I didn’t stop long enough to look. Just before mile two was a group of people and a camel wearing a fez. Not a real camel. I would have stopped if it had been. I couldn’t see them well enough to get any more detail, and I thought they were just random themed commentators like they sometimes have on the course. Spoiler alert, I was wrong but I wouldn’t learn that for another fifteen or so hours at the Post Race Party. Right before the third mile marker was Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa, and I asked Jay if he wanted to stop. I’ve met them both before, but he’s only met Jack and he loves Barbossa. He said to keep going. 

Apparently, I shouldn’t have told him about the Balloon Ladies. He wanted to stop but was too worried about time to do so. 

We hit the 5K marker and I stared at my Fitbit waiting for the text to come in. My mouth almost dropped open. Somehow, we were averaging thirteen-minute miles. That’s just about the fastest I’ve ever gone in a race. I knew we wouldn’t be able to keep it up however, and we dropped to a walk until we reached Animal Kingdom. Even then we didn’t start running until we made it out of backstage and into the park itself. We passed King Louie from the Jungle Book and kept going, then Rafiki followed by the dancers from Festival of the Lion King. Jay couldn’t believe I didn’t want to stop for them, and I would have if the singers had been out, but it was only the stilt walkers and a couple of the dancers. 

The next portion of the course was a first for RunDisney as it turned out of Africa and took us into Pandora: The World of Avatar. I’ve been a handful of times now, but it has yet to get less impressive. Lots of people were stopping for photos, and I realized a lot of them were seeing it for the first time. That’s one of the things I forget about a lot during these races, I know every inch of these parks, but for a lot of these people it’s something they seldom get to experience. They had one of the drummers out instead of the usual trio, but it was still awesome. The course turned back towards the Tree of Life and then towards Dinoland U.S.A. We made a pit stop so Jay could use the restroom, and I insisted he use one in the parks because they’re so much easier than the Port-a-Potties. I waited for him and seized the opportunity to switch my eggs on Pokémon Go. Then we headed out towards the Animal Kingdom parking lot and Mile Marker Six. There was a whole slew of cheering volunteers stretching to the roadway and the 10K marker. I pointed the marker out to Jay and asked him if he could hold a fast run that far. He said yes so we took off. We hit the 10K with a pace of 15:36 per mile, much slower but we were basically half way there! There was another water stop just after that and more members of the Hogwarts Running Club with their “I’m not at the wrong park!” signs. 

Then began the long, boring stretch of road between Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. It’s about three miles with next to nothing in them. Just after the 8 Mile Marker was the food station, and it broke my heart. It’s usually the Cliff Bar gel packs, and this year it was jelly beans. I was so looking forward to the gel pack! Jay seemed happy enough with the jelly beans and I just kept going sadly. I guess I’ll buy my own for the next race. 

Near the ninth mile marker were the penguins from Mary Poppins. They’re common on RunDisney courses, but Jay had never seen them before so we stopped. Their line was probably only five minutes long and they were so excited! It was hilarious because the character attendant was switching penguins, so there were four out at once and one of the ones that was leaving stopped to fuss over a Bert and Mary Poppins in line behind us. The character attendant stopped halfway back to the RV with this sort of, “Wait, I lost a penguin.” look on his face. It was our turn and we posed super quick, just relying on Photopass since I get all the downloads anyway.

Then we kept going and made our way to the Death Turn. This is where the course began to repeat and I was essentially looking at doing the second part of the 10K again. The Green Army Man was once again at the top of the hill barking orders. All that mattered to me was that meant I should see another repeat once we got to Hollywood Studios. 

I managed to coax Jay into running down the hill. He had pretty much reached the point where all he wanted to do was walk. We hit the backstage water stop behind Tower of Terror and then climbed the hill to the Fantasmic amphitheater. Jay stopped off to use the restroom again, and I headed down the hill to see if a certain Lucky Rabbit was there again. 

I was so happy when I saw those ears! I jumped in line figuring Jay would come join me. His line was about ten minutes long, compared to the probable twenty-five I had seen during the 10K. The previous day his backdrop had been the prop of a train and now it was a plane. I’m not familiar enough with Oswald cartoons to know if either is significant. A moment later I got a text from Jay that said he was in line for Oswald, and I looked behind me to see him about four people back. I laughed at him, “I’m up here, goof ball!” He joined me, and in no time at all it was our turn to see Oswald. I wasn’t taking any chances this time and we took pictures on both my phone and the Photopass camera. I wanted to hug him so bad, but I was soaked with sweat and didn’t want to do that to him. 

We left Oswald and entered the park beside Tower to see several Bellhops taking photos and guests coming out of the gift shop. I checked my watch and realized Extra Magic Hours were going on, and the rides were operating. It took a little bit of prodding but I managed to get Jay to run through the park so our Photopass photos would turn out great. No one wants to see you walking in photos! 

Genie was the only repeat character in a different spot. He was backstage at Hollywood Studios, but we pressed on, passing the long lines of guests waiting for the park to officially open. 

We made our way through the tight areas of the Boardwalk where a DJ under the bridge was playing music so loud we had to cover our ears. By Atlantic City Dance Hall, they once again had the strange Italian women that were supposed to be a vineyard of some sort. I made Jay stop for a photo there because I thought it was hilarious. (Jay was born and raised in San Vito, Italy, for those who are unaware.) He found it much less funny than I did, and called it offensive afterwards. Admittedly, all I could think was about those Halloween memes about “I’m a culture, not a costume.” I don’t think I would have found it funny at all if it had been anything but Italians. 

We rounded the corner heading to Epcot and I promised Jay, “We enter World Showcase between the U.K. and Canada and we go left and straight to the front of the park!” 

No, Chelsea, that’s not what you do. He glared at me as we made a right and found ourselves running the length of World Showcase. They had a ton of characters out here, but they were all ones scheduled for the party. We passed Remy and Emile in France, Dopey in Germany, and Mushu in China. I’ve met them all before, and Jay just wanted to be done.

Here we have a happy Chelsea and a Jay questioning his life choices.

We made it to Spaceship Earth and Jay wanted to stop in for the restroom again, since he’d been drinking two to three cups of Powerade or Water at each water stop. 

“We’re like a minute and a half from the Finish Line. Can you wait?” 

“Oh really?” 

“Soon as we go around this corner, there’s going to be a Gospel Choir and the thirteenth mile marker.” 

Well, there was a marching band instead of the Gospel Choir but there was the marker for Mile Thirteen! We came around the bend and could see the Finish Line. 

“I’m going to go when we hit the straight away. Are you good?” 

“Go, I’ll follow.” 

I tore off for the Finish Line, running as hard as I could. There weren’t any characters waiting to pose with you, like there were on the Princess Half, so I just booked it. He must have kept up with me, because by the time I stopped and looked back, he was across the Finish Line too, but according to the runner tracking, I was a full four seconds ahead of him. 

We made our way to the medals and once again, they were handing them out instead of presenting them. I resisted the urge to huff, and we put them around our own necks. We continued down to the cooling towels, snack boxes and water bottles. For some reason, we kept getting handed drinks and wound up with three waters and two Powerades. I told Jay we’d have to split up so I could get my Challenge medal and he would have to just wait for me. At least that medal was presented correctly and the volunteer put it around my neck. 

It was a long, slow shuffle out of the reunion area to the characters, where we got in line for Mickey and Minnie. Everyone else was a five-minute wait, but of course, they were half an hour. I didn’t care. We spent most of our time in line watching Goofy, who was dancing his heart out next to them since he didn’t have many people. We wound up going to meet him afterwards because he had so much energy. 

I was literally bouncing while we were in line, trying to keep my legs loose, and Jay was just staring at me. 

“How do you have so much energy?” 

“You slowed me down just enough to not use it all!” 

It’s true. It was one of my slowest times ever for a Half Marathon, and Jay honestly saved me from being a total wreck the rest of the day, because I never pushed myself to my limit. 

Mickey and Minnie were super proud of us, but Goofy was the real hit. 

We headed back to the car and headed home so we could try to rest up for the Post Race Party that will be featured in Part 3, where I finally encounter the famed Adventurers Club! 

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