"Talon."
"Tally."
"No, Talon."
"Tally!" Yang gurgled louder, clapping her hands together.
I clicked my tongue as I finished up changing her diaper and got to dressing her up for the long day ahead of us. This was Summer's fault. She'd definitely been going out of her way to call me by that stupid name in front of Yang and it was finally paying off. I couldn't get this girl to say my name right at all.
Frilly shirt and shorts slipped onto her, I stood Yang up, holding her up by her waist.
Only a few months off from finally hitting one year old and she already had a full head of long blonde hair. She reached out towards my face with one of the spit covered hands she'd been teething on, lilac eyes shining with the innocent wonder and constant excitement that could only be found in the young.
"You're a fat baby." I said, raising one of my hands to poke at her chubby cheeks. She giggled, grabbing the finger and shaking it around before turning it into her new chew toy.
It was always weird to look at her, or any baby really, and know that that I'd been so small and helpless. That's where the similarities between us ended in this life though. Yang babbled and cheered for seemingly nothing in between teething on my finger, happy and constantly loud about it. That didn't mean she didn't cry though. She had a real set of lungs on her, those sharp cries of hers a reminder of how vocal babies should be.
After the first few hospital visits I'd thought Tai was overreacting about how quiet I'd been when I first found myself here, but Yang really reframed that.
Eventually she lost interest in it, making more incoherent noise as if I should understand her.
Glancing towards my dresser, these days covered in toys that I'd never bothered with, I raised my hand and one of the stuffed bears flew into my grasp, rattling the whole way. I floated it around her face, Yang cheering and laughing as she reached out for it.
Freaking telekinesis.
I didn't know what Glynda actually called her semblance but after my Sharingan fully matured, both now home to three tomoe, I'd been able to copy it. While the first tomoe sharpened my perception and enhanced my aura control and the second allowed me to perceived aura, those two alone hadn't been enough for me to copy a semblance.
The third tomoe had been key. With it I could change my aura. Truly change it.
Before I'd tried mimicking the unique motions of her aura whenever she used her semblance but that hadn't been enough. Right now, my aura, a dark purple, didn't just match Glynda's in terms of color but even followed the minute movements hers dutifully carried out even while going unused.
I doubted there were many, if any, in the world who could change their aura's nature at will. Even fewer who could physically perceive aura. The near perfect aura manipulation needed to do what I did lowered that pool further. My Sharingan offered all three which enabled my ability to copy semblances.
Most semblances anyways. It was too early to say for sure, but I tried to copy's Qrow's only to be met with no visible results. I didn't notice anyone suffering from bad luck around me whenever I tried to use it. Either the effects were so subtle I hadn't picked up on them or passive semblances weren't something my Sharingan could copy.
Sort of like this world's equivalent to bloodline limits. Right now, that was just a theory.
"Talon." The teddy bear dropped into Yang's waving arms, Tai stepping into my room's open doorway. "Your mom has you changing Yang again?"
"No. She just sucks at it, so I took Yang from her."
Tai chuckled as he stepped in. "That she does." He said before picking up Yang, his cooing drawing more giggles from her. Not long after Raven popped up in the doorway, leaning against it and silently watching.
I hadn't shown either my ability to copy semblances yet. Raven had drifted further and further from Ozpin, her disdain for him far more prominent than it's ever been, but Tai still held a somewhat favorable opinion of him. Favorable enough to go to him for advice and check-ups on the development of my semblance. Ozpin already had some idea of what my Sharingan was capable of, but he was one of the last people that needed to know everything about it.
He was still a possible enemy after all.
"Alright, all ready for the festival?" Tai questioned, looking between us.
I nodded, holding back a grin.
The Vytal Festival, a celebratory event held in honor of the peace between the kingdoms, would be a golden opportunity for me. Glynda's was just the first of many semblances I'd have under my belt.
XOXO
"I'm supposed to be at a festival." I muttered.
Hand in hand with Summer, we stood outside an extremely tall high rise hotel in the fancier area of Vale's residential district. Like the neighborhood, the thing was the definition of fancy. Carpet rolled out beneath a pole lined entranceway. Valets handling the cars rolling through and another employee at the front, this one opening and closing the doors for all the dressed up people coming and going.
"Don't worry, we'll be heading to the festival right after this. We're just meeting an old friend of mine." Summer assured me, grinning as she led us forward. The employee at the door raised a brow but let us in with a welcome. "And you'll also be getting a friend your own age."
What little interest I had in all this was stolen away by those words. They'd tried getting me to make friends during trips into the city, going as far as to take me to parks full of other children, but, to no surprise at all, I absolutely hated being surrounded by others my age. I just ended up playing babysitter to a bunch of curious idiots with zero survival instinct. I'd never been a teacher or parent, but I absolutely understood their struggle after all that.
Children were a major pain in the ass.
"What's up with that face?" Summer asked. I stared up at her. "Come on, this is something to be excited about. She's actually a little older than you and from what I've heard she's pretty mature for her age. I'm sure the two of you will get along."
Mature for anyone in my age range usually just met quiet and well behaved. Still not someone I cared to bother with if I could help it. I drop my frown, I can't really be too annoyed at her of all people, and busied myself looking around.
Carpets rolled out across the front common area where people could sit and talk on elegant gold trimmed sofas. More carpets rolled up towards the sizable reception area and leading back to the lobby of elevators at the back. The distant scent of some kind of food swept by as bellboys rolled by with luggage, a dining area somewhere nearby.
This wasn't just upper class fancy; this was top one percent fancy.
"I'm here to see misses Lumi." Summer said once we reached the reception desk.
"Ah, she did call ahead about you. You'll want to take one of the elevators up to the tenth floor and-" After getting directions, we moved towards the central lobby and into an empty elevator.
Lumi? No matter how much I racked my brain it wasn't a name I recognized. I didn't give up though, running and rerunning through every member of the cast I could remember when we stepped off the elevator and into the equally fancy halls of the hotel's upper floors. I only resigned myself to the mystery when Summer stopped us in front of a room at the very end of decorated halls and knocked.
The door opened.
After adjusting to my situation there weren't many things the others could show me that caught me off guard. Hard to be earnestly surprised by everyday things when I'd already lived out an entire life and knew plenty about Remnant just through watching the show.
My eyes widened as I looked up.
"Surprised you didn't go for the penthouse." Summer said.
"There wouldn't be much of a point in going by a different name if I did that, now would there?" said the woman on the other side of the doorway. "It's good to see you again, Summer."
"You've been stuck in Atlas by yourself too long. What kind of hello is that?" Without even waiting to be invited in, Summer stepped right up, letting him go to hug the woman.
Hair, a pure white comparable to that of snow itself, was meticulously straightened and made to fall over her left shoulder, the ends curled. Eyes that were a light shade of blue he'd yet to see in any other in this world. Pale skin that, aside from faintest marks of bags forming beneath her eyes, was free of any mark or blemish.
"How have you been, Willow?" Summer asked as she pulled back.
So, this really was Willow Schnee in the flesh.
I leaned to the side, looking past her skirted legs and to the head peeking out around the corner. A girl with the same snow white hair and blue eyes. She yanked herself back when our eyes met.
That must be Winter in there then. The show had never been clear about her age, the only hard detail being that she was obviously older than Weiss.
How in the world did Summer know them?
XOXO
(A/N: Been a long while since I been around babies but I'm pretty sure they don't really start talking much until at least after the first year. Yang is just mimicking a noise she constantly hears from Summer, not really talking.
Semantics aside, we got some surprise guests for the next few chapters before we wrap up this arc. That and the full development of Talon's Sharingan. It's limits and certain aspects of it will be explored a little more but I just wanted to get him trained up to the third tomoe before the end of his childhood. I might have to go back into the editing and add the overpowered tag to this story just so there's no misconceptions. I didn't think this needed saying based off all the advantages he's got but the main cast generally won't be able to contend with him for the bulk of the main story.
Now hand over all your stones.
and the link for those who want to read ahead:
patreon .com/ thirdratewriter
Finally, happy holidays to those who celebrate stuff and have a good week to those who don't. Not sure if I'll be posting more this week because of my own family stuff but I at least wanted to get this out before that.)