Step.
Step.
Step.
The wind wailed around the cloaked figure as he walked through the deserted city, sand occasionally flying up to meet him. The young man kept his face shrouded as he walked, the ends of the cloak pressing against his feet in the winds.
Snarl…
The figure stopped. His hands slowly moved to the inside of his cloak.
Nearby, a Grimm slowly stalked forwards. A Beowolf. The most common species throughout the world. It sniffed, before locking on the figure. It dashed forwards, claws first as it leapt towards the man.
Slash.
The torso of the Beowolf crashed to the ground before fading to dust, the Grimm cleanly bisected. A single dark grey sword was held in the figure’s hand before it vanished behind the cloak, a soft click signifying its sheathing. The figure continued his walk.
As he did, memories began to flood in…
---
“Welcome to Sandshore!” a large man said, patting the young boy on the back. “The brand new Vacuan settlement.”
“It looks awesome!” the boy said, wonderment in his imperial topaz eyes. “Can we look around, Dad?”
“Sure thing, Topaz.” the large man chuckled. As his son began to walk off, the man thought for a moment before dashing after his son. “H-hey, not so fast!”
Zinc Stone was a large man, about six foot three, with a bulky build. Bulky as in strong, not fat. The bulky man wore a loose silver tunic, large brown track pants with silver boots and thin silver gloves. He radiated power with his presence, a faint beard growing in beneath his brown hair. The large sword scabbarded across his back similarly radiated power, as well as marking him as a Huntsman. Topaz, meanwhile, wore a bright orange shirt with black shorts, with recently-cut brown hair matching his father’s.
“Hey, Dad…”
“Yeah, Topaz?”
“Why are we here?” Topaz asked. “You go to a lot of places, but you usually have a reason…”
“Oh!” Zinc chuckled. “You know I’m a recognized Huntsman, right? Well, the Headmaster of Shade Academy is under pressure to send a defense force to this new colony, but since I’m not busy at the moment, he asked me to protect the town until we get an actual defense force.”
“So you’re the defense?”
“I guess…”
“No one makes a better wall than you, Dad!”
Zinc paused for a moment before chuckling, rubbing his son’s hair. “That’s right, Son. Your father’s a giant wall that’ll protect the people from any trouble that comes their way.”
---
The cloaked figure continued his walk, both swords now fully drawn and out in front of him. Behind him was a faint trail of black smoke - the husks of previously-defeated Beowolves.
Suddenly, a window broke behind him.
The man whirled around just in time to see a Beowolf flying from a nearby window towards him. He quickly flicked a switch on the swords, spinning them around until the hilt expanded, the blade moved to the bottom and was retracted into the gun, the handles were formed and the dual assault rifles were in his hands. The cloaked figure fired off a single shot, ending the Beowolf before it touched the ground.
BANG.
The sound reverberated. That was a loud shot.
Others would be coming.
The figure broke into a run, moving for the center of town. As expected, a crowd of Beowolves dashed towards him.
Hardly an issue.
Shifting his weapons back to sword form, the man stabbed the first two Beowolves before drawing out, spinning, and decapitating another. He leapt into the air, walking over a few Beowolves to slam them into the ground before twirling around and blasting them with bullets. Vim and Vigor transformed again as the man landed, and in a single slash with each sword, Grimm were slashed apart in a full circle around him.
No time to rest.
Vim and Vigor changed to assault rifles again, more Beowolves rushing in from the sides. Rapidly switching what direction he was looking at, the figure began to gun them down, surrounded from all sides. For each two he shot, two more appeared. He wasn’t making any headway, but their numbers weren’t inexhaustible.
There were only so many in a city.
Pity for the man he failed to notice the Beowolf jumping at him from behind.
---
“GRIMM ATTACK! ALL CITIZENS, EVACUATE TO THE EMERGENCY SHELTERS!”
The young boy ran through the town, glancing around. “DAD! Dad, where are you?!” Topaz demanded, looking through the crowd of screaming people.
No luck. There was too many people, he was too short, he couldn’t see anyone, WHERE WAS DAD-
The gears started to work. He was tall. Maybe Topaz could see his father if he just got higher? The boy quickly ran to the side, finding a statue of a human and a faunas holding hands. He began to scale it, eventually reaching the mid-point and looking about.
At the edge of the city, there was a ton of Grimm pouring in. Topaz trembled just looking at them. But… Zinc said he was here to protect the people. So that meant he’d be fighting the Grimm, right?
Dad would protect him, and he needed Dad right now.
Quickly descending from the statue, Topaz ran towards the edge of the city, looking for his father. As he pushed back the crowds of people… the people slowly became less and less apparent, until suddenly there was no one standing in his way.
The boy looked around. Where… where WAS he? There was no discerning landmark, just a ton of incomplete houses-
“HELP!”
Cries? From far off? They sounded like children - children his age. Maybe someone was trapped?
“-he asked me to protect the town-”
Topaz nodded, quickly running towards the sound of the cry. His father was busy, so he had to try and help however he could.
As Topaz approached the source of the noise, he saw two people running. A girl with dark yellow hair, and a boy with… blue hair? It seemed they were running in the opposite direction - or rather, while he was running towards them, they were running TOWARDS HIM.
And behind them was a Beowolf.
---
BANG.
The man whirled around as a shot sounded in the distance, the Beowolf behind him fading to smoke and vanishing. Looking back to where the sound came from, he saw a woman in an orange midriff vest, brown cargo pants and brown boots walking forward, a sniper rifle over her shoulder.
Giving a nod of recognition, The cloaked figure fired towards her, gunning down all the Beowolf in between the two. As soon as the way was cleared, they began dashing towards each other. The girl raised her sniper-staff, killing any Beowolf that got close to the man in a single shot.
As soon as they met, the man jumped into the air, the woman readying her staff before using it as a spring to launch him into the air.
As he flew, Topaz Stone threw off his cloak, revealing his imperial topaz shirt covered by his black vest and track pants. His black fingerless gloves gripped the handles of Vim and Vigor tightly before he rained lead down on the remaining Beowolves, killing the large wave of them.
Topaz landed on the sand, looking back towards his old friend as they both shouldered their weapons.
“What brings you here?”
---
Topaz’ adrenaline kicked in. The Beowolf would be on the two in seconds, his claw shredding them to pieces.
He didn’t know what happened then, but he would later - the first appearance of his Semblance.
Topaz dashed forwards, standing in between the Beowolf and the kids. The claws of the Beowolf ripped into Topaz’s shoulder, the kid wincing as blood flew.
Had his Semblance not been in effect, the pain would have put him out of commission then and there.
But now all he could see was a small area around him, the kids - outlined in blue - and the Beowolf - outlined in red. Topaz reached down, grabbing a splintered piece of wood with a sharp edge that had been laying on the street. With a yell, he stabbed upwards with it, striking the Beowolf in the chest.
The Grimm stumbled back, not expecting such an offense. It wasn’t dead yet, though.
Ignoring his bleeding shoulder, Topaz leapt forwards, slamming the wooden spike into the Beowolf’s head. It disintegrated into dust.
Topaz slowly turned around, looking at the two who watched on in abject fear.
“Are… are you two… okay…?”
The world went dark as Topaz fell down, the girl rushing forwards to catch his unconscious form.
---
“Looking for you.” the dark blonde replied. “Percival’s gone searching at the training grounds. I made him a bet I’d find you here.”
“What’s your prize this time?” Topaz said, looking at her with a smirk. The two had been doing this for a while.
“His good pillow.”
“He’ll have it back by tomorrow night.”
“I’m not losing to him in cards again!”
Topaz chuckled. “Let’s head back.” he said, grabbing his cloak. “Don’t want to make Dad worried.” Topaz quickly pulled on his covering before stalking back, Olivia Marigold right behind him.
---
“TOPAZ!”
“Topaz, are you alright?!” Zinc asked. Topaz’s eyes slowly blinked open as his father looked down over him, concern all over his face. In the background, he could hear what sounded like Atlesian soldiers.
“Dad…?” Topaz slowly sat up, only to fall back down when he felt his shoulder in incredible pain. “What… what happened…?”
“We… lost the town.” Zinc said, regret in his voice. “I tried my best, but one Huntsman against that many Grimm…? We saved as many people as we could, though.”
“Saved… w-wait, Dad! What about those two kids…?”
Zinc looked to the side. “You mean those two…?”
The dark blonde girl hid behind the blunette boy, the latter of which nervously chuckled.
“They’re the ones that brought you here.” Topaz said. “They said you fought a Grimm…”
“I… I did.” Topaz said, looking at them. “I killed a Beowolf, Dad! I saved them!” Despite the pain in his arm, his elation was great.
“You did.” Zinc chuckled. “But… you got hurt. Badly. I… I should have been there, Topaz…” Zinc looked down, clutching his fist in rage.
“Um…”
Zinc and Topaz looked up and back towards the girl, who was finally speaking.
“Th…” The girl slowly walked forwards, her dirty and torn clothes obvious, just like the boy’s. “Thank you!” With a sudden shout, the girl bowed. The boy quickly did the same, with his own repetition of “Thank you!”
“Thank you…?” Topaz wondered. “I did what any Huntsman is supposed to do. Is that really worthy of thanks…?”
“O-of course!” the boy quickly spoke up. “You saved our lives!”
Zinc chuckled. “That was brave of you, Topaz. But, please… don’t pull any stunts like that again.” The large man looked down at his son. “Not until you have a weapon of your own, at least.”
“...okay.” Topaz said, leaning back.
“...hey, Dad? Something weird happened while I was fighting…”
“Huh? What was it?”
“It was like everything had these weird outlines, and I couldn’t see anything out of a certain range, and I stopped feeling pain…”
“...Topaz?”
“Yeah, Dad?”
“I think we need to have a good talk about your Semblance…”
---
“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”
Olivia and Topaz laughed a bit as Percival Periwinkle, the blue-haired boy, yanked at his hair. “I was SURE he was at the place! That’s my favorite pillow!”
“MY favorite pillow now~” Olivia teased with a smirk, booping him on the nose.
“I was doing a bit of reminiscing.” Topaz said. “About the past.”
“You got nostalgic?” Percy asked, forgetting his earlier grief. “TOPAZ STONE got NOSTALGIC?”
“It sounds so stupid when you put it like that, Percival…”
Heavy footsteps hit the floor. Topaz and his trio turned to the side, looking at the new entry, Zinc Stone walked into the room, his full beard obvious. “Dad?” Topaz asked.
“Hey, Topaz.” he said. “Congrats, you’ve gotten into a Huntsman academy!”
“Aw, nice work!” Percy said with a smile. He and OIivia both hugged Topaz, who quickly shook them off.
“It’ll be nice to see what Shade Academy’s like after all this time.” Topaz said, looking towards his father. “All the stories you had to tell about it, and all…”
“You’re… not going to Shade, Topaz.” Zinc said, holding out a letter. “I got Leonardo Lionheart to accept you to Haven Academy. We’re taking a trip to Mistral!”
“...Haven?”
[FOLLOW THE REST OF THE ADVENTURE IN RWBY: LEGENDS OF HUMANITY]
Step.
Step.
The wind wailed around the cloaked figure as he walked through the deserted city, sand occasionally flying up to meet him. The young man kept his face shrouded as he walked, the ends of the cloak pressing against his feet in the winds.
Snarl…
The figure stopped. His hands slowly moved to the inside of his cloak.
Nearby, a Grimm slowly stalked forwards. A Beowolf. The most common species throughout the world. It sniffed, before locking on the figure. It dashed forwards, claws first as it leapt towards the man.
Slash.
The torso of the Beowolf crashed to the ground before fading to dust, the Grimm cleanly bisected. A single dark grey sword was held in the figure’s hand before it vanished behind the cloak, a soft click signifying its sheathing. The figure continued his walk.
As he did, memories began to flood in…
---
“Welcome to Sandshore!” a large man said, patting the young boy on the back. “The brand new Vacuan settlement.”
“It looks awesome!” the boy said, wonderment in his imperial topaz eyes. “Can we look around, Dad?”
“Sure thing, Topaz.” the large man chuckled. As his son began to walk off, the man thought for a moment before dashing after his son. “H-hey, not so fast!”
Zinc Stone was a large man, about six foot three, with a bulky build. Bulky as in strong, not fat. The bulky man wore a loose silver tunic, large brown track pants with silver boots and thin silver gloves. He radiated power with his presence, a faint beard growing in beneath his brown hair. The large sword scabbarded across his back similarly radiated power, as well as marking him as a Huntsman. Topaz, meanwhile, wore a bright orange shirt with black shorts, with recently-cut brown hair matching his father’s.
“Hey, Dad…”
“Yeah, Topaz?”
“Why are we here?” Topaz asked. “You go to a lot of places, but you usually have a reason…”
“Oh!” Zinc chuckled. “You know I’m a recognized Huntsman, right? Well, the Headmaster of Shade Academy is under pressure to send a defense force to this new colony, but since I’m not busy at the moment, he asked me to protect the town until we get an actual defense force.”
“So you’re the defense?”
“I guess…”
“No one makes a better wall than you, Dad!”
Zinc paused for a moment before chuckling, rubbing his son’s hair. “That’s right, Son. Your father’s a giant wall that’ll protect the people from any trouble that comes their way.”
---
The cloaked figure continued his walk, both swords now fully drawn and out in front of him. Behind him was a faint trail of black smoke - the husks of previously-defeated Beowolves.
Suddenly, a window broke behind him.
The man whirled around just in time to see a Beowolf flying from a nearby window towards him. He quickly flicked a switch on the swords, spinning them around until the hilt expanded, the blade moved to the bottom and was retracted into the gun, the handles were formed and the dual assault rifles were in his hands. The cloaked figure fired off a single shot, ending the Beowolf before it touched the ground.
BANG.
The sound reverberated. That was a loud shot.
Others would be coming.
The figure broke into a run, moving for the center of town. As expected, a crowd of Beowolves dashed towards him.
Hardly an issue.
Shifting his weapons back to sword form, the man stabbed the first two Beowolves before drawing out, spinning, and decapitating another. He leapt into the air, walking over a few Beowolves to slam them into the ground before twirling around and blasting them with bullets. Vim and Vigor transformed again as the man landed, and in a single slash with each sword, Grimm were slashed apart in a full circle around him.
No time to rest.
Vim and Vigor changed to assault rifles again, more Beowolves rushing in from the sides. Rapidly switching what direction he was looking at, the figure began to gun them down, surrounded from all sides. For each two he shot, two more appeared. He wasn’t making any headway, but their numbers weren’t inexhaustible.
There were only so many in a city.
Pity for the man he failed to notice the Beowolf jumping at him from behind.
---
“GRIMM ATTACK! ALL CITIZENS, EVACUATE TO THE EMERGENCY SHELTERS!”
The young boy ran through the town, glancing around. “DAD! Dad, where are you?!” Topaz demanded, looking through the crowd of screaming people.
No luck. There was too many people, he was too short, he couldn’t see anyone, WHERE WAS DAD-
The gears started to work. He was tall. Maybe Topaz could see his father if he just got higher? The boy quickly ran to the side, finding a statue of a human and a faunas holding hands. He began to scale it, eventually reaching the mid-point and looking about.
At the edge of the city, there was a ton of Grimm pouring in. Topaz trembled just looking at them. But… Zinc said he was here to protect the people. So that meant he’d be fighting the Grimm, right?
Dad would protect him, and he needed Dad right now.
Quickly descending from the statue, Topaz ran towards the edge of the city, looking for his father. As he pushed back the crowds of people… the people slowly became less and less apparent, until suddenly there was no one standing in his way.
The boy looked around. Where… where WAS he? There was no discerning landmark, just a ton of incomplete houses-
“HELP!”
Cries? From far off? They sounded like children - children his age. Maybe someone was trapped?
“-he asked me to protect the town-”
Topaz nodded, quickly running towards the sound of the cry. His father was busy, so he had to try and help however he could.
As Topaz approached the source of the noise, he saw two people running. A girl with dark yellow hair, and a boy with… blue hair? It seemed they were running in the opposite direction - or rather, while he was running towards them, they were running TOWARDS HIM.
And behind them was a Beowolf.
---
BANG.
The man whirled around as a shot sounded in the distance, the Beowolf behind him fading to smoke and vanishing. Looking back to where the sound came from, he saw a woman in an orange midriff vest, brown cargo pants and brown boots walking forward, a sniper rifle over her shoulder.
Giving a nod of recognition, The cloaked figure fired towards her, gunning down all the Beowolf in between the two. As soon as the way was cleared, they began dashing towards each other. The girl raised her sniper-staff, killing any Beowolf that got close to the man in a single shot.
As soon as they met, the man jumped into the air, the woman readying her staff before using it as a spring to launch him into the air.
As he flew, Topaz Stone threw off his cloak, revealing his imperial topaz shirt covered by his black vest and track pants. His black fingerless gloves gripped the handles of Vim and Vigor tightly before he rained lead down on the remaining Beowolves, killing the large wave of them.
Topaz landed on the sand, looking back towards his old friend as they both shouldered their weapons.
“What brings you here?”
---
Topaz’ adrenaline kicked in. The Beowolf would be on the two in seconds, his claw shredding them to pieces.
He didn’t know what happened then, but he would later - the first appearance of his Semblance.
Topaz dashed forwards, standing in between the Beowolf and the kids. The claws of the Beowolf ripped into Topaz’s shoulder, the kid wincing as blood flew.
Had his Semblance not been in effect, the pain would have put him out of commission then and there.
But now all he could see was a small area around him, the kids - outlined in blue - and the Beowolf - outlined in red. Topaz reached down, grabbing a splintered piece of wood with a sharp edge that had been laying on the street. With a yell, he stabbed upwards with it, striking the Beowolf in the chest.
The Grimm stumbled back, not expecting such an offense. It wasn’t dead yet, though.
Ignoring his bleeding shoulder, Topaz leapt forwards, slamming the wooden spike into the Beowolf’s head. It disintegrated into dust.
Topaz slowly turned around, looking at the two who watched on in abject fear.
“Are… are you two… okay…?”
The world went dark as Topaz fell down, the girl rushing forwards to catch his unconscious form.
---
“Looking for you.” the dark blonde replied. “Percival’s gone searching at the training grounds. I made him a bet I’d find you here.”
“What’s your prize this time?” Topaz said, looking at her with a smirk. The two had been doing this for a while.
“His good pillow.”
“He’ll have it back by tomorrow night.”
“I’m not losing to him in cards again!”
Topaz chuckled. “Let’s head back.” he said, grabbing his cloak. “Don’t want to make Dad worried.” Topaz quickly pulled on his covering before stalking back, Olivia Marigold right behind him.
---
“TOPAZ!”
“Topaz, are you alright?!” Zinc asked. Topaz’s eyes slowly blinked open as his father looked down over him, concern all over his face. In the background, he could hear what sounded like Atlesian soldiers.
“Dad…?” Topaz slowly sat up, only to fall back down when he felt his shoulder in incredible pain. “What… what happened…?”
“We… lost the town.” Zinc said, regret in his voice. “I tried my best, but one Huntsman against that many Grimm…? We saved as many people as we could, though.”
“Saved… w-wait, Dad! What about those two kids…?”
Zinc looked to the side. “You mean those two…?”
The dark blonde girl hid behind the blunette boy, the latter of which nervously chuckled.
“They’re the ones that brought you here.” Topaz said. “They said you fought a Grimm…”
“I… I did.” Topaz said, looking at them. “I killed a Beowolf, Dad! I saved them!” Despite the pain in his arm, his elation was great.
“You did.” Zinc chuckled. “But… you got hurt. Badly. I… I should have been there, Topaz…” Zinc looked down, clutching his fist in rage.
“Um…”
Zinc and Topaz looked up and back towards the girl, who was finally speaking.
“Th…” The girl slowly walked forwards, her dirty and torn clothes obvious, just like the boy’s. “Thank you!” With a sudden shout, the girl bowed. The boy quickly did the same, with his own repetition of “Thank you!”
“Thank you…?” Topaz wondered. “I did what any Huntsman is supposed to do. Is that really worthy of thanks…?”
“O-of course!” the boy quickly spoke up. “You saved our lives!”
Zinc chuckled. “That was brave of you, Topaz. But, please… don’t pull any stunts like that again.” The large man looked down at his son. “Not until you have a weapon of your own, at least.”
“...okay.” Topaz said, leaning back.
“...hey, Dad? Something weird happened while I was fighting…”
“Huh? What was it?”
“It was like everything had these weird outlines, and I couldn’t see anything out of a certain range, and I stopped feeling pain…”
“...Topaz?”
“Yeah, Dad?”
“I think we need to have a good talk about your Semblance…”
---
“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”
Olivia and Topaz laughed a bit as Percival Periwinkle, the blue-haired boy, yanked at his hair. “I was SURE he was at the place! That’s my favorite pillow!”
“MY favorite pillow now~” Olivia teased with a smirk, booping him on the nose.
“I was doing a bit of reminiscing.” Topaz said. “About the past.”
“You got nostalgic?” Percy asked, forgetting his earlier grief. “TOPAZ STONE got NOSTALGIC?”
“It sounds so stupid when you put it like that, Percival…”
Heavy footsteps hit the floor. Topaz and his trio turned to the side, looking at the new entry, Zinc Stone walked into the room, his full beard obvious. “Dad?” Topaz asked.
“Hey, Topaz.” he said. “Congrats, you’ve gotten into a Huntsman academy!”
“Aw, nice work!” Percy said with a smile. He and OIivia both hugged Topaz, who quickly shook them off.
“It’ll be nice to see what Shade Academy’s like after all this time.” Topaz said, looking towards his father. “All the stories you had to tell about it, and all…”
“You’re… not going to Shade, Topaz.” Zinc said, holding out a letter. “I got Leonardo Lionheart to accept you to Haven Academy. We’re taking a trip to Mistral!”
“...Haven?”
[FOLLOW THE REST OF THE ADVENTURE IN RWBY: LEGENDS OF HUMANITY]
Topaz Stone has been my long-time RWBY OC, and I've worked a lot on him! This is only a tease at the character he truly is, but it was super fun to write - done on impulse tbh - and I can't wait to explore him more in the RP.
Topaz is the leader of Team TARO, aka Team Tarot, a team comprised of himself, @Godjacob's Aryle Winthrop, @Grand Master Koop's Ryan Green, and thread creator @Generation Sect's Olivia Ulysses! Yes, I know there's two Olivias in Olivia U and Olivia M, shut it >> The other RPers are @SailorInSpace - who actually proofreaded this for me, thanks pal! - @Red Gallade, @Stormursa and @Mr Fishykarp, all great RPers! I can't wait for LoH to get going, and I hope you'll join us for the ride!
Topaz is the leader of Team TARO, aka Team Tarot, a team comprised of himself, @Godjacob's Aryle Winthrop, @Grand Master Koop's Ryan Green, and thread creator @Generation Sect's Olivia Ulysses! Yes, I know there's two Olivias in Olivia U and Olivia M, shut it >> The other RPers are @SailorInSpace - who actually proofreaded this for me, thanks pal! - @Red Gallade, @Stormursa and @Mr Fishykarp, all great RPers! I can't wait for LoH to get going, and I hope you'll join us for the ride!
