35Prologue
Do you ever wonder why we're here?
Seriously. You. Reading this sentence. Probably when you should be doing something else right now. Aha, no point hiding it now; I'd now... I been there.
I really have been there. I love reading fanfics like the ones on this website, and I've had the pleasure of writing a few that people seem to like. Even when I should've been working on a school assignment, or later on, on a work project. Ugh, things really never change as we grow up.
Me? Well I mean, you know me probably. Fanfic author, working young adult, and admitted otaku who needs to spend more time in the gym instead of playing gacha games. You can just call me Phantom, it's fine. Anyway, back to the worldbuilding exposition here.
This world of ours is already a pretty weird place. Some of us like our lot in life, most of us are still trying to find our way. But even if we have everything we need - which, lets face it, most of us don't, myself included - there's still that lingering question of Why Are We Here in the back of our heads that gets subconsciously put to the back burner... at least until you get it as a totally useless 'woke' job interview question, or maybe some random philosophy class which we're gonna try to BS our way through anyway because we need that participation credit.
Or wait.
Maybe... until you wind up in my situation. As I stare at my gloved hands, weak hand-me-down armor, and Crocea Mors clearly slung to my side. So now I ask myself...
WHY IN THE HELL AM I HERE ON REMNANT!?
𒈙𒀭𒈓𒀭𒈙
Day 1
I mean seriously. I've got a scroll now. This is cool... might as well make a diary out of it. I wonder if I can learn the schematics and submit this to Samsung if I ever find a way to get back to Earth. Yeah, Samsung, because iPhones suck. Just kidding, I had one for three years and I still use one for work. They're pretty. Still hate 'em, though.
Alright, so let's see... language is the same here, time and date measurements are the same, and I don't care about the year here so I'm just gonna stick with 2020. So, here goes. Typing Time!
=𐊔=
Entry: November 20
I'm on Remnant. How? Not sure. Maybe I slipped into a temporal rift, maybe I got hit by a truck and have been reincarnated like in at least three different animes I've watched in the past year (SOB, those guys were onto something!), or maybe I caught COVID-19 and died. In any case, it seems fitting to gauge my surroundings now. It's a bullhead I'm in, with tons of kids surrounding me. I can make out CRDL and a few other extras that get launched off the cliffs in Volume 1 of the show.
This... is surreal. At least they're not shadow people like the old animation graphics Rooster Teeth used to have lol. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is the day before initiation in canon. I'm going to need to really gather my wits about me for this one... because as much as I'd like to say this is a really deep dream, or coma, I'm not getting that lucid feeling you get when you know you're dreaming, and I sure as hell am not about to try and hop off this tin can and end up dead in both worlds a la Molly from that Inception movie.
Oh, and uh, also because according to the scroll ID, my gear, and my messy blonde locks... apparently, I'm now Jaune Arc.
ᙿᙿᙿᙿᙿ
Aish. I put the scroll down, scratching the back of my head and at least celebrating the little victory that QWERTY keyboards are also a thing in this world.
Jeez, this head-scratching thing wasn't just a character mannerism... turns out Jaune has a mad itchy scalp! And dandruff!
Okay, okay, chill dude.
I stand up, walking to a nearby overlook from within the bullhead as I notice Glynda's holographic counterpart pop up somewhere talking about Beacon and how privileged everyone there is to be attending. Please, that's classic college counselor talk, nothing but fluff meant to be like catnip to the ears of unsuspecting teenagers. Been there, done that, graduated with honors. The image I see reflected in the windowpane is hardly more uplifting.
As I suspect, I'm... definitely Jaune. Ergh, that's not great.
With it, I have two options... do I follow canon and just eke out a meager existence of survival for the next eighteen months? Or do I do my own thing? On the one hand, I at least know what's about to go down up until Volume Seven. Spoiler alert, Salem makes a grand entrance into the public eye. How? I'm not sure, I never watched the end of the season. Some guy from Ace Ops dies and all I know is that everyone made a hissy fit to RT over it because they as supposedly all-powerful fans already shipped him with Qrow, and how dare they axe their favorite couple! ...Even though neither of them were ever confirmed to harbor romantic feelings for the other. Ooh, speaking of which, maybe I get to confirm whether Bumblebee is a real thing!
Oh jeez, I'm just as bad as the Qrow and lucky-guy shippers, aren't I.
But this world I'm in is just following canon, I think. Hm. That leaves a lot of people dying. But still, the other option is to diverge, which exponentially increases the chances of ME dying. Which, once again, could very possibly mean actual death. Either way, I'm in trouble. Why, you ask? Because I'm NOT A NARRATOR. Which sucks, because guess which author isn't in the third-person omniscient form anymore!?
That's right. THIS GUY.
That means whether I go along with canon or against it, I can't guarantee my Jauneness will be perceived as genuine to whomever I interact with, and I won't be able to tell if things are going as planned in the background. Bad! I sigh, glancing at my hands.
At least I still have both of them, considering that I've been writing a fic where Jaune gets an arm ripped off in the intro chapter. I really hope that's not this universe, and actual canon Remnant. But really... what's the best choice here? Eh well, the answer I guess depends on what I can do with my Aura starting now.
That's right, right now.
I sit down, leaning my back against the windowpane while crossing my legs in a semi-meditative position. The way I see it, if my Aura can only be unlocked in canon format, then I'll follow canon. But if I can unlock it now...
I close my eyes, taking a deep breath and remembering that there's plenty reason to believe a person can unlock their own Aura in canon. My mind's thoughts echo as I try my best meditative voice in my head.
It's... canon RWBY...
I feel a rush of light pressure across my skin. Maybe the air conditioning?
Hm... Volume Four...
Another rush of pressure. Weird.
Anyway, Ren unlocks his aura in a flashback we see in that volume, gathering his courage in a difficult situation back in Kuroyuri as a kid. I figure my current predicament is somewhere in the same ballpark. I'm definitely stressed enough to unlock it myself if this damn itching on the back of my head is anything to go by. Let's see... which episode was it...
Episode... Ten?
"Whoa," I speak aloud for the first time, Jaune's voice obviously coming out in lieu of my own as I watch white shimmers of aura cascade down my entire body.
"Cute party trick. Showoff," one of the CRDL guys snark as he happens to walk by me. Was it Russel? Or Dove? Meh.
I don't care.
But I just unlocked my own Aura, baby!
I grin at my accomplishment, realizing it was actually much easier than expected, though I'll admit I'm still pretty sure my high stress levels contributed to the ease of activation. I've been a single Ruby Rose away from hyperventilating this whole time. On the other hand, I'll have to say Jaune's constitution might've also given my otherwise frantic mind a great psychological buffer against freaking out, since I'm not sure how 'human' the humans around here really are compared to Earth and maybe they're just better suited to stress.
I raise my hand as my mind's voice echoes around again, wondering if my Semblance will change now that Pyrrha wasn't the one to unlock it.
"Yeah, I'm pretty calm. Maybe my Semblance might even include something like the Gamer's Mind from Ryuugi's fic, The Games We Play."
At that, an odd rush precedes an unnatural calm settling in my mind. That... was weird. I blink away my momentary confusion, only to test something by looking over the window pane at the ground far below.
I should be getting vertigo by now, since that's what happens to me with heights, or at least in Jaune's case, a serious bout of airsickness. I am receiving neither.
"This just got interesting."
I take another look back at my hand, raising a brow at the possibilities. This... can't be Gamer's Mind, can it?
Or maybe I'll get a pop up menu about the Gamer skill list like... what's his name again... oh, yeah! Smiling Jester, and his fic Gamer Arc!
DING!
"Nooo... WAAAAY..."
『Skill List』
A Gamer's Mind
Okay. Whoa. That's a literal floating window.
I click it and see an equally awesome pale blue window pop into existence that no one else seems to be able to see.
『A Gamer's Mind (Passive) Lv MAX』
Allows the user to calmly and logically think things through. Allows peaceful state of mind. Immunity to psychological status effects.
"Duuuude..."
This is insane. So this will be like one of the other Gamer Jaune stories out there? I mean, in terms of fics, it's horribly overdone, but who am I to complain? Oh, right. BECAUSE I'M THE SCHMUCK ACTUALLY HAVING TO LIVE WITH IT!
And just as quickly, a wave of serenity washes over my thoughts, calming me down to acceptable levels. Jeez. This really is real, isn't it.
In any case, I turn my attention back to my hand, wondering if Aura would be a skill I need to attain, or if it's already inherent.
Hm, well. Or... I wonder if I can manipulate Aura like Jaune does in my fic, Viral.
That same rush of pressure again. I look around briefly... am I under an air vent or something!? Anyway, I return my attention to Jaune's, or my, hand.
Input commands... to output source.
And just like that, a flow of white aura appears and coalesces around my palm and fingers, and I can't help an awed smile at that. It took Jaune way longer than this to move aura around in canon! Maybe I really am having an effect here being in Jaune's body!
"Still... maybe that means I also have Jaune's Semblance from that same fic then, Viral?"
Yet again, another draft of pressure! What gives, man!?
But no sooner to I try and turn to ask someone what's going on with the AC units when my eyes practically bug out my head at the sight of several lines of code wafting out of everyone's scrolls around me! 1's and 0's, everywhere!
This... can't be right! I thought I had a Gamer Semblance, but this is completely weird! I reach out to the stream coming from that CRDL kid who passed by a while ago as a controlled experiment. Holding my hands out in an L-7 shape to capture his stream and freeze it, I'm stunned when the energy complies, just like in the Viral fic. But I have to be sure. I recite the lines I remember from the fic to prepare my hand.
Now to own it... Okay, I am Jaune Arc... And this is my Semblance - the sudden, awareness? of digital data flowing around people that has the potential to do God-knows-what... And now, I'm going to touch it...
No sooner did my fingers make contact with the data when a new unbidden flow of information raced through my mind in the blink of an eye.
[Sky Lark] [Age 17 | First-year] [Last Call: N/A] [Last Message: from Alauda - 'Remember sweetie, break out of that shell~ And don't talk rudely to anyone!' - sent 32mins ago] [Previous Affiliations: S...
"Guh... this is trippy," I eke out, letting my concentration drop and whisking the flow of data from my line of sight with a flick of the wrist, "Had the wrong CRDL guy the whole time, too. Anywho, so is this two Semblances, then? Hm. Skill List."
I waited... and nothing came up.
"Okay, maybe just one at a time. And it woulda been great to use some other Gamer skills, too. Maybe not the ones in Gamer Arc... hm, Jaune, The Charismatic Gamer by Random o' Panda was also a good Gamer fic," I thought quietly to myself, a hand to my chin in thought as a familiar cloak of red flashed across my sight to take a look at her old academy in the distance, "Hell, I'd even take Observe-oh."
PING!
Oh, God.
Ruby Rose
Title: Little Red Fighting Hood
LV: 42
HP: 750/750
AP: 1000/1000
STR: 31
DEX: 62
CON: 25
INT: 28
WIS: 33
CHA: 45
I just scanned Ruby without permission. I facepalm in shame, considering she's underage and totally didn't give consent to my prying eyes, but my hand slowly goes down as I realize one of two things.
First, the style of the Gamer window was different, mirroring the fic in question and not just the general "idea" of a Gamer Semblance. Second... the switch had happened only when I had a clear idea of the actual fanfic the Jaune-centric Semblance came from.
My mind went reeling with questions, kept in check once more with the telltale hint of Gamer's Mind from that particular Gamer fic, as the realization dawned on me.
I, The Phantom Scribe, have been inserted into the world of Remnant. After unlocking my own Aura, my Semblance has been borne from a mix of RWBY mechanics as well as knowledge from Earth...
Necromancy, Mimicry, Time Bending, and more... so many fics, so many Semblances...
I slowly draw Crocea Mors, eyes wide and heart palpitating against the constraints of my Semblance as the name of another comedy fic I favorited a long time ago comes to mind.
"Ten-Tailed-God..."
A rush of pressure.
"Jaune Arc: Weapon Whisperer..."
Another rush, the sensation now familiar to me of my Aura in action.
"Chapter... One."
"Oi, looks like ya figured out yer Semblance, eh boyo?"
I freak out without the safety of Gamer's Mind to stop me, dropping the sword in surprise as it rebukes me with a voice no one else can hear.
"Agh! Ya dropped me!" it cried out with an obvious Irish accent... or maybe Scottish, "I hate getting dropped! Ya know how many times your great-grandfather dropped me before he could wield me-!?"
"Let me guess... 'too many bloody times'..." I quoted in disbelief form the fanfic in question.
"Aye! TOO MANY BLO- wait a sec. That's right. Pretty sharp, aint ya boyo?"
I'm... I'm gonna be sick.
My Semblance is the ability to manifest any Semblance Jaune wields from any fanfic I can remember reading into the physical RWBY-verse in which I now reside.
I settle back against the warm window pane, my mind now on two things to figure out before this flying hunk of metal reaches Beacon.
One, whether I know of any fic where Jaune actually manages to kill Salem.
And two, whether I can remember any fic where Jaune can wield multiple Semblances so I can start doing so as well.
Because I'm about to raise the OP level of this world's Jaune to god leve-
"OI! Remember me!? Gonna pick up yer ol' Cro anytime soon!?"
...Right.
A/N: I'm not gonna apologize for this one haha, just an idea that came into my mind that'll likely remain a one-shot but that I might use to battle writer's block should it ever creep up again between chapters in my other fics. The idea literally just hit me an hour ago and I couldn't help at least put in on paper. I love a good SI fic when done right, and hey even OP Semblances can be pretty rad, but this one is a slightly different take I couldn't help but post.
What happens if not just an SI, but a FFN author, gets translated into the RWBY-verse with their fic knowledge intact!? I have no idea. Really, I don't.
Honestly, feel free to give suggestions on fanfics with interesting Jaune Semblances. Describe the Semblance within, and the only real constraint I have is that it has at least 100 followers. It's to avoid people submitting OC stuff, since I'd rather choose Semblances Jaune specifically is slated to use in fics people have had the chance to read and like. Simple enough, so have at it!
Happy Reading!
