34

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 34

Notes:

"Blake! Blake Blake Blake Blake Blake Blake!" Ruby called out, rushing into the RWBY dorm room with a swirl of rose petals- entirely bypassing the door somehow as the petals erupted around the cracks above and below and turned into a tornado of petals that culminated in the grimm girl standing in front of Blake as catgirl read a book that Ruby had frankly never heard of and honestly wasn't super interested in hearing about at the moment when she had something so much more important on her mind. "Blaaaaaaaaaake!"

"Yes, Ruby?" Blake asked, sighing as she slid a bookmark to keep her place before snapping her book shut, raising one eyebrow at her partner and examining the stack of rolled up blueprint papers in the girl's arms (resisting the urge to just reach up and pat her on the head out of nowhere because even if she didn't like dogs, dog faunus were fine and Ruby was adorable) . "Do you… need something?"

"Yeah! I need your opinion! I want to help upgrade Gambol Shroud!" Ruby answered, grinning as she bounced in place and held out the blueprints, unrolling them and all but shoving the massive pages into Blake's arms without further ado. "See, I noticed you were complaining a little about how the blade portion doesn't do so great against larger or more armored grimm beyond your usual strategy of cutting it down slowly and with precise attacks, and that the pistol part is better for propelling the actual kusarigama form instead of actually doing serious damage on anything bigger than the average Ursa we get around Vale so I wanted to ask if you had any opinions on making it bigger and more robust?"

She paused, then pursed her lips as she hopped into Blake's bunk and started paging through the designs she'd come up with. "So I started working on some of these already, but the general outlines are more important- we can make the blade bigger, but then you'd have to kinda relearn how to fight with the sword because it'll be so much heavier. That, or we could replace a bunch of components with upgraded versions so you can channel Dust into the blade for an extra punch! Oh, and do you want a general caliber upgrade for Gambol Shroud or do you want to have the option of a secondary launch system for more powerful rounds while keeping the standard 9mm rounds for propulsion? And, I was thinking that we can integrate a shotgun into the sheath since there's a lot of wasted space in there- I know it's bladed, but it's about three times wider than it actually needs to be for a blade the size of Gambol Shroud's so I was wondering maybe if you'd like to add some extra components in?"

"Uh- I… um… hang on- what was that about upgrading Gambol Shroud? I… don't really need an upgrade. It works fine as it is," Blake spoke up rather awkwardly, clearing her throat and furrowing her brow at the amount of mechanical thought and engineering that had gone into the drawings on the page in front of her. "How… did you make all of these so fast? It's barely been a few weeks since classes started…"

"Oh, I drew 'em up earlier today. Professor Mulberry kinda… sorta… said I could just… not do anything in his class and he'd gimme a pass anyway. Y'know, since… I uh… y'know," Ruby shrugged, idly flipping Crescent Rose out in its idle form before returning it to her back, snugly under her cloak. "It only took like an hour. Honestly, Gambol Shroud's kinda a simple weapon? Not that it's a bad thing! Um- it's just… she's very straightforward about how she works and how she functions, and… maybe you want something a bit bigger?"

"... I… suppose I could go for some of these upgrades- I made Gambol Shroud out of scavenged parts and stock mechashift components," Blake admitted, picking her sheathed weapon up from where it was lying against her bed and hoisting it into her lap. "Half of it used to be made out of regular sheet metal before A- er… my… old gang… found a reliable source of Huntsman grade material stock. It's… I guess I can see why you'd think it needs an upgrade… Crescent Rose is all shiny and new… Gambol Shroud is…"

She sighed, running her fingers over the battered and worn sheath, tracing the places where she'd sloppily applied spray paint when the black anodization had been scratched off, going over stripped screws and worn down corners where her hand had eroded the metal for a more comfortable fit as the years went by. "Maybe it's time for a change. Something new, to distance myself from the past. Not too different though."

"Mm! Gambol Shroud is great as she is- changing her too much would take away from what makes her special to you and would make her too unwieldy without an entire revamp- it's why the bigger blade idea was kinda scrapped for now unless you wanna start training for it while we can," Ruby nodded, explaining her thought process as she picked through the pages. "And this one is where we swap out Gambol Shroud's pistol mode for a modified, wider base- larger caliber bullets, with a 9mm blank firing system on top, with supports and damping structures to make sure the blade is attached to the parts of the gun that don't move. You'll have to get used to bigger bullets- I think I've got some spare extended mags chambered in… what's the largest caliber you've ever fired?"

"Um… that's… a good question?" Blake hummed, bow twitching as she looked down at the drawings with a slight bit of confusion and more than a little shock- Ruby had done all of this in an hour? What kind of- whatever. Focus. "I think… .45 caliber rifle cartridges? I've… had to use my… um… ex… boyfriend's… weapon a few times. I got pretty okay firing it one handed, but my accuracy's never been the best with something so big."

"Mmm, that means we can use something of similar size- a little shorter so there's fewer grains and it's easier on the wrist… I already drew up these plans in .45 ACP so it should be fine- I think? Um- so, the double shot design does take more ammo, theoretically, but I also included allowances for double stack magazines and since it's blank firing the bullets are way cheaper and way easier to get," Ruby shuffled the papers again, bringing a new design to the surface- this one for the sword part of Gambol Shroud. "So, the folding mechanism you've got is pretty good, but the steel is a little weak and seems kinda depleted from use and reuse and re-sharpening. We can just replace the blade with a new model with some Dust channels and additional Dust vial cartridges near the bottom? If- that sounds good… if any of this sounds good, at least."

"No-! No, this is all… really, really good- I'm just… not used to people saying that Gambol Shroud needs some work. Back in the W- my old gang… we didn't have a lot to go around, so maintenance was about all we got to do. Upgrades were scarce and replacement parts were few and far between. It's true that Gambol Shroud's a little older and a little weaker than it used to be… um… What if we… combine all of these?" Blake asked, taking the blueprints and sort of half layering them together after going through the ones that seemed the most viable- the double firing mechanism that Ruby had mentioned, plus the Dust infused and channeling blade, plus the shotgun in the sheath. 

The last one… made Blake feel a bit of unease at how much it reminded her of… him … but… it was okay. It was so different from Wilt and Blush that it was a negligible reminder- and seeing Ruby's earnest face as she started talking about all of the alloys and materials she could use to bring Gambol Shroud back to its full glory (even if that meant more or less turning it into a Ship of Theseus situation) made it hard for Blake to want to say no at all. Ruby was just… too darn cute. And too darn nice. And also too darn smart.

"Oh! Right, and one other thing- a Gravity Dust module!" Ruby grinned, flicking to the last bit that showed Gambol Shroud with two tiny extra nodules- one on the sheath, and the other on the gun, with an accompanying pair of rings. "In case the ribbon snaps or you need to throw the kusarigama farther than you normally do- that way it's easier to retrieve. If we make it strong enough, it can even fling people- or grimm- around! Like that Bumblebee team attack we've been working on, but even better!"

"That… does sound useful," Blake admitted, flexing her fingers and pursing her lips as she recalled some… embarrassing memories of the first few times she'd started seriously training with her weapon. "Gods know I've accidentally thrown this thing into a lot of random bushes and spent hours finding it again… hasn't happened in years… but it'd be pretty nice to not have to worry about it anymore."

"Mm! It's a little expensive since Gravity Dust is kinda hard to get in some places, but a little goes a long way and if you learn to Aura modulate it just right, you can do some really cool stuff with Gravity Dust," Ruby grinned, holding out her hand and letting Crescent Rose fly into place with the ever so unfamiliar sound of Gravity Dust warping it out from behind her back. "I use it on all of my weapons! Well… Crescent Rose and Augury, at least."

"Ah… yeah. Well… um… do you just wanna take it or…?" Blake asked, awkwardly holding out Gambol Shroud as if she wasn't at all sure how to approach giving her weapon to the crimson reaper- it was a part of her, after all, and as much as she'd been raised to not care that much about her weapon… she was still leery of letting someone else touch Gambol Shroud like that. Even if Ruby was demonstrably a much better mechanic and weaponmaker than she was.

"Nope! You're coming with me! I'm not gonna work on someone's weapon while they're not with me- it's rude! It's like fingering up someone's soul without them knowing exactly what's going on! Plus, I need you to test her out after every new stage in the upgrade process, y'know?" Ruby huffed, shaking her head as her ears and tail twitched in anticipation. "Now c'mon- forges close in three hours and even if Professor Mulberry lets me use the forge any time I want, I wanna get started now!"

"Wah!"

And with that, Ruby very firmly grabbed Blake by the wrist and dragged her off without another word.

Notes:

Sadly, not every weapon can become heavy artillery despite Ruby's desires. Can you imagine what would happen if Blake tried to fire 50 caliber? Her poor wrists...