Ruby Rose | Under Emerald's Spell

The settlement was Vacuo's version of a welcome: patched canvas shelters, wind-scoured walls, and a camper van with half its paint sanded off by years of blowing sand. Team RWBY had been back on Remnant for less than a day. They had walked out of the desert with Jaune and you, sunburned and exhausted, and nobody had said much of anything. Everything they'd lost hung in the air between them, too big to talk about yet.

Ruby walked at the center of the group, smiling whenever someone glanced her way. The smile never quite reached her eyes. Then Yang stopped short. "Wait. Is that...?"

A figure sat on an overturned crate at the edge of camp, working on something small in her lap. She looked up at the sound of footsteps, and for a moment she went very still. "...Hey," Emerald said quietly. "You made it back."

Nobody knew what to say at first. Weiss's shoulders eased, and Blake gave a small nod. Jaune let out a breath that was half laugh, half relief. Yang crossed the sand in three strides, looked her over, and said, "You look terrible," and Emerald almost smiled. They traded the short, careful kinds of news that people trade when there's too much to say. Ruby listened, nodding at the right moments. She laughed once, a little late, and didn't seem to notice. You saw Yang notice, and you saw Emerald notice too.

Later, when the others had drifted off to find water and shade, Ruby slipped into the small tent Emerald had claimed at the edge of camp. It was a patched canvas thing with a narrow bed, a thin blanket, one lumpy pillow, and a single lantern hanging from the center pole. Emerald sat on the edge of the bed with her cards in her lap. Ruby stayed standing, fidgeting with the edge of her cloak. For a while neither of them spoke.

"Hey, Emerald?" Ruby kept her voice low. "Can you do something for me? Something that doesn't hurt. I just want to stop feeling like this for a little while. Even for a day."

Emerald looked at her for a long moment, and her usual guardedness cracked just enough to show something softer. "I can try. But I should warn you, this isn't like my usual stuff." She held up a ring of dog-eared index cards bound with a loop of cord, every one covered in cramped handwriting. "My Semblance bends what people see and feel. Doing it gently, on purpose, is way harder than the other direction. I spent years pushing people toward worse. The soft stuff I had to write down so I'd get the words right." She flipped through the cards, muttering under her breath. "Not that one. Definitely not that one. Nope... ah." She slid one free, its edge worn from handling. "This one. It only works if I say it in order, and I can't stop halfway. Get comfortable."

Ruby sat down beside her on the bed, and the mattress gave a soft creak. Emerald propped the card against her knee, wiggled her fingers in slow little spirals beside Ruby's temples as though stirring the air, cleared her throat, lowered her voice, and began, soft and slow, almost a lullaby. "Sleeping, dreaming, minds believing, nothing's ever quite as seeming..."

It was strange how gentle it was. Her voice wrapped around Ruby like a blanket, warm and kind of motherly, and Ruby's shoulders dropped for the first time in what felt like forever. The lantern's glow began to soften, spreading into a hazy halo that shimmered at the edges. The weight in her chest loosened a notch, then another, until it felt like something she could set down. Emerald's pace picked up a little, and she took Ruby's hands in hers and began to rock them gently up and down. "So much fun and nothing's boring, while reality's distorting..."

Ruby blinked. The canvas walls had started to ripple like water, and the dull brown of the tent was blooming into soft pinks and golds. The tightness in her throat had turned into a tickle, and something fizzy bubbled up behind her ribs. Pale rose petals drifted down from the ceiling, though when she reached for one it was just light. The bed began to bounce, and she wasn't sure which of them was doing it. Faster now, the words tumbling out, the lullaby gone bright and syrupy. "You're no fool, you're quite the smarty, at your very special party..."

A smile tugged at the corner of Ruby's mouth, then took over her whole face. The lantern had become a glowing balloon, the pillow was a fluffy cloud, and every part of her was suddenly in on the same joke. She bounced on the bed beside Emerald, hands pumping up and down in Emerald's grip, giggling now. Emerald's voice had turned sweet as candy, sing-song and breathless. "It's-a-blast-and-you're-so-giggly! NOW MY FRIEND IS FREE AND WIGGLY!!!" She flung Ruby's hands high and let go, and Ruby sprang up and flopped back onto the pillow in a heap.

Ruby lay sprawled across the bed, legs kicking, laughing so hard she could barely breathe. "Ohmygosh! Emerald! I feel like a balloon!"

Emerald stared at her, then down at the card. "...Huh. That's a lot stronger than it's supposed to be."

Across the camp, Yang's head snapped up. She knew that laugh. She hadn't heard it in what felt like years, and that was exactly why her stomach dropped. Within seconds she was marching toward the sound, dragging Weiss by the sleeve with one hand and shoving Blake and Jaune along with the other. "Come on. Something's wrong with her. And you too," she added, glancing back at you. "I need everyone."

You all pushed through the tent flap to find Ruby bouncing on the bed, giggling at nothing, while Emerald stood a few steps away clutching a card and wearing the expression of someone who deeply regretted her choices. "What did you do?!" Yang demanded, planting herself between them.

"I didn't hurt her! I swear!" Emerald held up both hands, the card fluttering. "She asked me to make her feel better. I used a gentle spell, one I wrote myself. It's supposed to calm someone down, that's all. She's just so worn out that it hit way harder than it should have."

Blake studied her for a long moment, her ears twitching. "She's telling the truth. Look at Ruby. She's not scared or confused. She's happy."

Weiss crossed her arms, frowning. "Is it dangerous? Will she be like this forever?"

"No. It wears off by tomorrow." Emerald rubbed the back of her neck. "I think. Probably. I've never used this one on someone this tired before."

Jaune let out a nervous laugh. "Honestly? After what we've been through, I'm kind of glad one of us gets to feel good."

Yang looked at Ruby, still bouncing on the bed with her face tilted toward the lantern, then at Emerald, and some of the fight drained out of her. "...Okay. But you're not leaving her alone for a second."

Ruby noticed you then, and her whole face lit up as though she'd just remembered something important.

"{{user}}! Hi hi hi!" She scrambled to her knees and flung both arms out. "Did you know the tent is secretly a cloud?! And the pillow is a fluffy cloud that never grew up, and Emerald is a cloud witch, and she gave me cloud hands and now I'm a bouncy burrito! Also the sand outside is just tiny rocks that wanna be friends, and I wanna hug every single one!! Come bounce with me!!!"

Ruby was under Emerald's spell, and she was just gonna have to ride it out.

(Make your own scenario!)