Cunning Challenge #34 - 05/05/2020
Merry Quarantinemas, and welcome!
I, u/SmallJon, am here to host and oversee tonight's event! As always, I'd like to thank everyone who came out for our event last go, and for those who join us today.
CC revolves around a system of, you guessed it, challenges! Users post top-level comments to submit themselves as a writer for the event, including a number of challenges they are willing to accept. Responding users provide a prompt they wish the other to write a story based on: this prompt is preferably drawn from our own list, but is not restricted to it.
The challenged user may refuse a specific prompt, but this refusal will not count against the number of challenges they agreed to face. Once accepted though, the challenge changes. The original user responds to the challenger with a story based off said prompt, then issues a challenge of their own. This counter-challenge operates the same way as the original. The challenge and counter-challenge can go on for as long as the two users are willing to go.Cunning
Posted May 6, 2020, 12:05 AM UTC
I'll take one
Our heroes learn of the existence of time travel in Remnant need to make sure that Salem and her cronies don't get access to it. Letting his overexcitement get the better of him, Jaune attempts to use it to go back and change Pyrrha's fate much to his friends dismay. Whether he succeeds or not is your choice.
Note: Feel free to be creative in terms of having time travel fit in with the show's lore. I was inspired by the World Between Words from Star Wars: Rebels to make this post, but you don't have to copy that show's approach if you don't want to.
Cinder closed in on her helpless prey. This girl had gotten too close to live. Cinder wasn’t really hoping for anyone to survive, but this girl should have been strong enough to get out. It was tragic when the strong died to save the weak. Even worse when they died failing to do it.
“Do you believe in…” Then Pyrrha looked over Cinder’s shoulder. “...Jaune?”
That was a very weird attempt at distracting her. Cinder wouldn’t fall for it tho-
The swords center of percussion hit Cinder just above the level of her jaw and continued in an arc past that. Cinder went spiralling through the air, and landed flat four feet away from the rest of her body. Cinder knew that she was supposed to think something in these situations. Sadly, certain pieces of grey matter had failed to make the trip with the rest of her head, which left her physically incapable of thinking what she needed to.
“Jaune, what happened to you?” Pyrrha asked. She’d left him behind not half an hour ago, but now he was here, looking completely different and exuding an air of quiet strength. He scooped her up in his arms, and a warm glow spread through her as her aura came back.
“Time travel. I insisted on coming back to save you. We don’t think this will blow up the universe but it might.” Jaune finished his explanation just as Ruby reached the top of the tower.
The huntress looked at Cinders body, the clearly different Jaune, and the injured Pyrrha. “I won’t ask now. We need to get out of here!”
Her statement was punctuated with the tower shaking. The Dragon had landed, and moments later a breath of Grimm Fire incinerated the tower and everyone on it.
Far distant from the tower, a different Ruby Rose stripped a dead Atlas soldier of his uniform and watched the tower fall. She began the long walk back to Atlas, knowing she’d failed at much more than just saving her friend.
“And that, Jaune, is why you can’t go back to save her.”
Ruby, the Old Ruby, was scarred and cynical. Her eyepatch whirred, a sign that it hid a cybernetic implant. Ironwood had introduced her before showing them the device.
“How about saving Yang’s arm?” Blake asked.
“Tried that second. You didn’t trust humans after your ‘pure’ leader bisected your ex. You ran off with Sun and Yang died at Haven. Yang also wasn’t there to save Weiss from the bandits. Not that she needed saving. Ironwood was considering a military intervention against the Bandit Queen of Mistral before I went back for a third time.”
The group absorbed the information. Finally, Oscar spoke up.
“Could we…” He began.
“We can’t go that far back.” Old Ruby interrupted.
“Can we warn Haven?” Qrow asked.
“It’s either too late or they don’t believe us.”
“What if I go back with you?” Was Yang’s question.
“Then you end up as Yang Belladonna, primary consort in the harem of Blake the first, Queen of the White Fang Empire. No Blake, we can’t do that.” Old Ruby added the last part as Blake opened her mouth to talk. The Faunus blushed and didn’t finish her question.
“I’ve gone back fifteen times.” Old Ruby said. “Every change turns out for the worse. Everything we try to fix backfires. It hurts to hear, but you actually have been doing your ‘best’. Without my intervention we might actually win without having to sacrifice everyone.”
Old Ruby readied her scythe. Crescent Rose was her only constant companion through all the time loops, and it was only right it would end the loops permanently. She put the blade against the time travel device and smiled at her younger self.
“It’s about moving forward, not going back.” Old Ruby said before pulling the trigger. The blade cut through the time machine, and Old Ruby vanished in a cloud of impossible mathematics.
They stared at the space where Old Ruby used to be. Nobody was sure if they just watched a woman die, or if she could never have been said to exist. It was a while before Yang decided to break the tension.
“So Blake, what was she saying about that harem?”