8 Merlot Industries Part 1
POV Aly
The oldest living follower of Salem was a title that the crocodile faunus, Aly, was quite fond of, and she loved boasting to that upstart Tyrian, who was hardly more then a sprout in her eyes. That being said, she was in deep contemplation on her trip to the Merlot Industries Building, where she was to meet with Dr. Merlot on behalf of the queen.
When the Mountain Glenn expansion of Vale was first decided upon, Dr. Merlot was among the first companies to relocate into the newly claimed territory, improving the reputation of his company among the residents here and providing a great many jobs. Some thought that he did it out of the kindness of his heart, but Aly knew differently.
She knew about his research into the Creatures of Grimm, and that he moved here to more easily lure in Grimm away from the prying eyes of the Vale Council, and up until now he had acted completely under the radar with no suspicion falling upon him.
Now, however, the Council had started getting suspicious that the Grimm attacks might be a bit too vicious, that something about the situation reeks. They hadn't come to suspect Dr. Merlot yet, but they potentially could in the future.
Thus, Salem thought that it was the perfect moment to approach and to recruit him to her cause. The meeting with Dr. Merlot was deliberately scheduled for the day after the two Huntsmen sent by the council arrived, hoping that they would unwittingly serve as motivation to encourage the good Dr. Merlot to serve her Queen.
Aly was expecting a favorable outcome when she entered the office and found an annoyed Merlot who was not happy to be away from his research for some meeting. "Good morning Dr. Merlot. Did you find the package we sent to you to your liking?" she asked while taking a seat across from the man.
"Not at all." Merlot answered coldly "Blackmail materials may be useful if I actually wanted to rise to the Vale Council as you seem to have alluded too, but that would take time away from my research, like you are doing now." he snapped a bit at her.
"That may be so, but the Council has already sent elite huntsmen to investigate here. Aren't you afraid that they might expose you? But with our help, that wont happen, I can promise you that." Aly insisted boldly.
"One Huntsman and one Huntress don't scare me, especially after they were rescued by a little kid." Merlot laughed at her, making Aly quite angry, though he hid her rage inside.
"You said they were saved by a kid?" Aly asked, recalling the matters from before in Atlas and Argus "I gather you got it on video?"
"So what if I did? It's no business of yours. We're done here" Merlot dismissed her, and Aly sighed as she was leaving, thinking that the meeting didn't go at all like she had guessed it would.
In any case, she was done in Mountain Glenn after this meeting, so she started heading to the airport while calling Arthur on her scroll.
"Did you hear from Tyrian?" Arthur asked her.
"Afraid not. And my meeting with Dr Merlot did not go well either, but it seems he may have a video that might interest our Queen. He wouldn't' share it, though. Could you be a dear and get that for me, please." she said using her kind old lady persona.
"You needn't pretend with me. I know the real you" Arthur reminded her "Sure, I'll get it."
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POV Death
Death, meanwhile, was unaware of what had happened with Dr. Merlot and Aly, nor did he know that he had already made another change without realizing it. Because Death was there, Summer, who had contemplated using her silver eyes to survive that fight, did not have to do so, as a result, no video of her using them reached Salem's minions, so they had no reason to track her, and eventually hunt her down and take her life.
All Death knew was that he got another notification.
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Hidden Quest Complete : Prevent Summer Rose's Secret from reaching Salem
Reward : Premium Roulette Spin (Value 100,000 Shop Points), Yellow Feather, 1,000 Shop Points, Ruby Rose does not lose her mother.
Failure : Summer Rose is assassinated in the next three years.
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Death's first thought was that one of his Siblings did something again and he was just reaping the benefits of it, but then he saw that the reward included Shop Points which would be halved if someone else completed the quest. That made him wonder just what he could have done while they were eating breakfast in Qrow's hotel room.
"Are you alright little one?" Summer asked Death like a doting mother.
"I think so. I just received a weird message from the big man that makes no sense to me. " Death confessed to Summer "He said congratulations for preventing Summer Roses secret from reaching someone named Salem. He said that I prevented her from being assassinated in the next three years . You know, when I think about it again, the first time I saw Ruby before I descended to this world, she was at a white marble grave, the lower part with the named obscured by snow, but the upper part had a rose on it. It seems the man upstairs is saying I prevented it somehow, I just don't know how."
Summer frowned when she heard what Death said, and thought back to the previous late afternoon "When I saw that horde and wanted to beat them in a hurry, I thought about using my secret weapon." Summer admitted to Death "But since you dropped from the sky, I didn't have too use it. The only thing that makes sense is there was some kind of video recording device in the forest."
Death chuckled "So that One-Above-All might just be looking for excuses to help me a bit, if you are right. I wont complain though. Miss Summer has been nice to me, so I'd much rather that you not die."
"I prefer not dying as well." Summer admitted to Death. "Now eat your breakfast so that we can resume investigating" she said while warmly smiling at him.
Death nodded and resumed eating while using his system to mentally activate Newtube and see if anything had changed there. What he found surprised him. The 'system clock' with Newtube showed that a year and a day had passed in his original world, and Rooster Teeth's channel showed nineteen new Remnant related videos that he hadn't seen before, with Volume One, Episode Sixteen, titled "Black and White" being uploaded about eleven hours prior, which he estimated to be around the exact same time he entered this world!
Though for him arriving at this world had taken him but five hours or so, supposedly, in the world he left behind an entire year had passed, or pretty close to it, if his original world. He couldn't really binge watch them right now, though, and the clock on his system seemed to be moving at a regular rate, so it was not anything like time flowing differently here. Hopefully watching these would help him prepare for the future.
He checked out the White Trailer while he ate and thought that the girl was pretty cute, He only watched it once, but thought he heard that her name was White Schnee, which seemed a bit weird, but he figured he could watch it a few more times later and see if he misheard her name, which was possible.
Qrow and Summer had been conversing while they all ate, and Death couldn't really tell them to shut up so that he could watch a video that they could neither see nor hear. He also didn't want to be rude to someone that had been so nice to him like Summer had, so the best option was to binge watch it after they finished working today, after all, failing this quest would mean a lot of people would die, and any who survived would likely be homeless.
The quest did not specify how long he had, so he could have twenty minutes or twenty days. Saving lives and livelihoods seemed far more important then anything, since he was here to be a hero and all that. An advantage would be great and all that, but the risk was much too high and there was no guarantee that he'd get anything from it.
They cleaned up after breakfast and left the remains in a tidy pile for the cleaning staff, then Summer picked up Death to carry him and they headed out with Qrow. While Death hadn't expected to be carried, he didn't object either, knowing that it wasn't as though she could get away with it for too much longer, considering he was three years old, with most estimating closer to five thanks to his Nephilim heritage. The fact was that the current him couldn't move as quickly as Summer and Qrow could, though the him back in his prime was even faster.
Since Death was being carried, he ignored the stares he received from passers by due to his unusual skin color and held on to Summer while secretly watching the Black trailer, then the yellow trailer, and finally he just finished watching episode one of volume one when they reached the forest again. Since it was time to work he did not start another episode of the show for now and went into serious mode to survey their surroundings.
As they neared where they had the epic battle the previous day, Death saw his first peculiarity that was out of place "Miss Summer, something reflective" he pointed to it.
Summer looked towards it and spotted the tiny glint with a little effort "You have a sharp eye there, don't you?" she chuckled as Qrow moved closer to examine it, and looked back to summer after a few moments "Camera." he confirmed to them "Lets go. The information was accurate."
Summer nodded "Lets go back and discuss what to do next" she obviously did not want it to be reordered.
On the way back, Death re-watched the White trailer a couple times times, and figured out that the girl whose name he initially thought was White was actually Weiss, which he thought sounded much nicer The 'black' trailers girl was Blake, but he didn't know her last name yet, and the Yellow trailers character was Ruby's sister Yang, so he assumed her last name was also Rose, though they looked nothing alike and Yang Rose didn't flow to well, so he guessed that her name might be different.
Back in Qrow's room, Summer finally set Death down "Qrow, call Ozpin please. We should fill him in on everything now that we know Salem is involved somehow."
Qrow nodded and headed into the bedroom portion of the hotel room to call Ozpin on his scroll, leaving Summer alone with Death "You know, you're pretty well behaved. Quiet too."
"So unlike your eldest daughter, Yang?" Death asked jokingly.
"Oh, you know about Yang?" Summer asked with surprise "She can be rambunctious, but I love her even so."
"I saw her once in what I guess was the future, she got in a major brawl in a club and beat a bunch of people up. She seemed like a battle junkie." Death confessed to Summer "I think Ruby fought monsters because she aspired to help people, but Yang did it just because of the love of fighting. Harnessing her battle junkie status to do good I guess."
Summer took a seat at the table and faced Death with interest "Well, it sounds like that future has already been altered and any aspect of it very possibly wont happen at all, but I am curious what else you saw. Please continue."
"Ruby and Yang attended a school called Beacon, with Ruby entering two years early after foiling a robbery at a dust store called 'From Dust til Dawn' and getting a personal invite from the Headmaster of Beacon. That should be the man we talked to before and that Qrow is talking to now." Death insisted to Summer "Oh, their teammates were named Weiss Schnee, and a girl named Blake, though I didn't catch her last name. She was always wearing a bow on her head, so she may have been a faunus, but I'm not sure. She seemed nice enough, though."
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POV Summer Rose
Hearing that Ruby had jumped two years because of Ozpin troubled Summer somewhat, considering that she was supposed to be dead by that time. Her motherly instincts were making her question Ozpin's intent for doing that. It was hard to judge his intent based on what little Death had seen, but it was nice to hear that her girls had friends.
"Thank you for humoring me and telling me" Summer chuckled and gently rubbed the top of Death's head.
"So, is there a reason why you were carrying me before? I didn't mind, but it was curious" Death insisted.
"Oh, just protecting you. Qrow is a good man, and a powerful Huntsman, but his semblance is bad luck. For some reason, I have a fair bit of immunity to it, but everyone else around him suffers from misfortune." Summer answered simply "Carrying you when we are with Qrow is my way of protecting you from bad luck."
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POV Death
Death nodded when he heard Summer's explanation, as it made sense while she was with Qrow he was carried and when they walked to Qrow's room they walked side-by-side. He checked his store under semblances and found bad luck there, but also good luck. Both were ridiculously expensive, though.
He started contemplating how to get the Good Luck semblance, but sadly came up with nothing at this moment. If he had Good Luck, though, he realized that he wouldn't have to fear Qrow's semblance, so it was worth future consideration once he had a reliable method of collecting Shop Points.
As far as semblances went, Good Luck would have another benefit in that it should help him get better things through his systems roulette, or at least he hoped that it would work that way. He made a mental note to never use any of his roulette spins when Qrow was around, just in case. He felt fortunate that when he rolled previously that it was just him and Summer, since if Qrow had been there he might not have gotten Ebony and Ivory!
Qrow returned from the bedroom "I spoke to Ozpin, and he'll talk to the Vale Council about our findings. If all goes well, they'll send more Huntsman to assist us in examining Merlot Industries facilities, but we have to lay low the rest of the day in case Oz or the Council needs to speak to us again."
"If I learn anything more from above, I'll let you both know, as long as it is useful." Death reassured Summer and Qrow.
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New Quest : Get Qrow to agree to partner up with you in the future for system quests.
Reward : Luck Nullification Semblance
Failure : Bad Luck Semblance
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"Noooooooooo!" Death suddenly called out in surprise.
"What's wrong?" Summer asked with worry.
"Um, first off, you spell your name with a 'Q?'" Death asked Qrow while trying to calm down.
"What did you hear kid?" Qrow asked him, also baffled.
"Oh, I was told that in the future I need to bring you with me on some tasks I am given. If you accept, I'll get a passive Luck Nullification ability, but if you say no I'll get that Bad Luck semblance Miss Summer told me about. I don't want that one. I'd rather have Good luck over that." Death explained to Qrow "So please agree."
"Luck Nullification?" Summer asked Death "Wait, so this deity can give you a second semblance?"
"He calls himself the One-Above-All, so I guess he would be able too, yeah." Death insisted to the Duo "My memory is still a bit of a garbled mess, but I recall the Horsemen used to serve a group called the Charred Council, but I don't believe that's the case any more. I'm not sure what happened after I jumped into the Well of Souls, risking never being able to come back alive, to resurrect humanity, which had been driven to extinction in the worlds I guarded. That One-Above-All must have brought me out and permitted me to reform, then I found myself looking at this world and entered it because of Ruby." this was the story he had decided to go with, figuring that if he were weaker then the other horsemen, then he could say that his strength was lost due to the Well of Souls.
"Sorry, I'm spouting a bunch of stuff you can't understand" Death apologized to them, hoping he came off as an ordinary kid trying to be as honest as possible "So Qrow, will you agree to join me in my missions?"
"Why wouldn't he agree?" Summer asked Death, then looked at Qrow "I've already said I plan to bring little Death home with me, so that Luck Nullification ability would certainly be better then having two people with your semblance, right Qrow? And if he's there, you can visit more without worrying about your semblance burdening us or the girls."
Qrow nodded "Very well, kid. I hope those jobs remain ones beneficial to us all, though, and don't turn evil or something"
"I think that it'll be fine. I'm going to choose the side of the cute scythe girl, Ruby, so I'll be a good guy too." Death insisted, while being relieved to see the notification that he had the Luck Nullification semblance.
The rest of the day was spent in the hotel room, so Death had plenty of time to watch the rest of volume one, and thought that Penny was another total cutey, but she seemed a bit weird too. He found himself thinking that she had better not be a robot or something, because that would be terrible!
(ooc-Remember he was ten-years old before dropping into this world, so there is nothing weird about him finding Penny to be cute. Suddenly felt like that needed to be pointed out just in case someone wanted to freak out or something lol)
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The next morning, Death awoke next to Summer again, who was sleeping peacefully. He checked Newtube to see if another year had passed overnight, but it had not, so it appeared that his suspicion checked out, that he lost the year during the trip from his world to Remnant, so he was in for a long wait to get more episodes.
He gathered from the end credits that the previous episode was the season, or rather volume finale. Even though it wasn't conclusive, he felt pretty confident about it, and it made sense with episode sixteen released exactly one year to the day after the first trailer.
While patiently waiting for Summer to wake up, Death briefly thought about what it would be like to build his own weapons, like Ruby with Crescent Rose, but when he recalled how mighty the weapons he already had were, be began to doubt that any constructed weapon would be much stronger, and even if it was stronger, it would be dependent upon him having dust to remain so, which might not always be convenient.
As he thought this, Death felt a slight chill accompanied by a bit of weight on his stomach, and he looked at the crow that was standing there. "Good morning Dust." Death said to the crow named Dust, realizing that he might have to be careful in the future when thinking about the compound called 'dust' or he might accidentally summon 'Dust' the crow again.
Dust cawed in response to being addressed, thus waking up Summer Rose, who seemed surprised to see the crow "Qrow?" she asked while rubbing her eyes.
"Good morning, Miss Summer. This Crow is my familiar, his name is Dust. I accidentally summoned him while I was thinking about the 'dust' of this world." Death explained to her "We hadn't really discussed my abilities yet, so I hadn't mentioned him. One of them lets me conjure up and control a murder of crows and have them attack for me."
"Dust, is it? He seems cold" Summer noted, realizing the sudden drop in temperature.
"My crows are ice affinity in nature" Death admitted to Summer while sitting up "By the way, murder is just the name for a swarm or a flock of crows, if you prefer, while the equivalent for Raven's are an 'Unkindness', but you probably already know that."
Summer nodded "Conjuration sounds pretty magicky." she chuckled as there came a knock at the door "That should be Qrow. I'll go shower first, please go meet him." now that Death had Luck Nullification Summer could relax a bit more with him around Qrow.
While Summer headed to the bathroom, Death headed to the door, with Dust seated atop his head, and he opened it to greet Qrow. Only the person outside was not Qrow Branwen at all, but someone he had never seen before.
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Name : Death
Age : 3
Race : Nephilim
Transformation : Reaper Form (Cooldown : Approximately 40 days)
Summon : Despair, Dust
Semblance : Divine Regeneration (100% of all energies and heath regenerates every five seconds), Luck Nullification (Passively Negates the properties of semblances dealing with luck)
Other World Abilities : Kurama's Negative Emotion Sense
Level : 21
Experience : 560/3600
Health : 510/510
Wrath : 310/310
Aura : 1310/1310
Strength : 31
Defense : 31
Arcane : 31
Resistance : 31
Allocate Points : 84
Primary Weapon : Desolation Twin Scythes
- Damage (Fast) : 241-277
- Crit Chance : +30%
- Crit Damage : +32%
- Strength : +79
- Health Steal : +30%
Secondary Weapon : Decimating Hammer
- Damage (Slow) : 673-775
- Defense : +194
- Strength : +79
- Resistance : +195
- Wrath Steal : +30%
Tertiary Weapos : Ebony and Ivory
- Damage (Very Fast) : 172-228
- Crit Chance : +40%
- Crit Damage : +58%
- Arcane: +112
- Wrath Steal : +20%
Shop Points : 1072
Inventory : Torchwick's Lighter (Infinite Lighter Fluid), Yellow Feather, Yellow Feather
