Shroud burst into the tower, spinning her way around the first guards surprised face to land solid kick into the stomach of the second guard. He let a grunt of surprise, dropping to his knees leaving Shroud free to engage the first guards who had drawn his sword. The small enclosed tower room made it unwieldy and with her daggers in hand, Shroud easily dispatched him with barest the clash of metal. The kneeling guard tries to rise, and Shroud almost casually knocked him out with the hilt of her dagger. Not pausing for a breath, she ran up the stairs towards the prince, only hoping she hasn't arrived at the battle too late.

Despite her quick pace, Shroud moved near silently and easily heard the second set of clanking guards ascending in front of her. These two wore heavy mail, a boon on the battlefield outside but dead weight and noisy inside. She caught them unawares with ease pulling one by the belt and tossing him behind. His own weight knocking him off balance, he toppled backwards with a cry and crashed down the stairs.

The other guard, this one a woman turned and Shroud, pushed past using her own light frame to her advantage. Towers were built with defence in mind and spiralled clockwise to give advantage to the defender's sword arms. Shroud didn't doubt she could best this grunt even with that disadvantage, but she didn't have time.

The guard glared at her, hefting a heavy battle-axe above her head. Shroud just rolled her eyes. The heir to the empire could be dying and she was being delayed by amateurs. As expected, the axe clanged against the low ceiling much to the woman's shock. Left wide open, Shroud kicked hard on the woman's armour and turned back to her run. The crash of the woman's armour on stone as she fell, followed Shroud up the long climb.

By the time she reaches the top she was panting lightly from the exertion. The door to the prince's tower was open a jar, a lock splintered on the floor where it had been rammed open. From inside, Shroud heard nothing.

Slowing her breath, she edged forward, trying to stay quiet as she reached out for the door, slowly pushed it open and ...

And...

And found herself facing a beautiful blue and very female genie which granted her three wishes. She wished for the downfall of evil, a loving partner and that someone with actual talent was writing her instead of this hack staring at her laptop screen on their millionth attempt at writing this stupid dumb scene!

Letting out a sigh, Blake deleted her last few lines and pulled her screen over. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, letting out a groan, more from her own exasperation than much stiffness. Leaning back, she stared down at the laptop dejected.

She'd been on this scene for a month and a half now. Writing, rewriting, scrapping it and starting it all over again. She'd never had trouble like before. Writers 's block happened now and then but normally she was able to step away, write something else and come back to it, fresh and rejuvenated.

The same could not be said for this scene. The problem was, that it was too important. She had delayed and wrote as much of other chapters as she could, but that has reached its limit. She needed this scene, it set the tone for her entire story. The first meeting between Shroud and Prince Celica.

Shroud was easy. The character had been in her head for so long that by the time Blake out her to paper, Shroud just flowed out of her. Her faults, her fears, her weaknesses. Maybe because there was just a lot of Blake in Shroud, but she never struggled to write her main character.

That was the problem with Prince Celica. Every scene he was in was a struggle for Blake to write. She had thought perhaps it was just this scene and had tried to write one from slightly further ahead with no success. Only after that had she realised the problem. Prince Celica was smart, heroic, charming...

And so utterly boring.

She hated to admit it, but it was true. The second most important character in the series and he was as dull as a brick. There just nothing to him. She could replace him with a flag named prince and the story would barely change. Well Shroud might have an issue with the romance scenes...

He was just a prince like from a fairy tale. He didn't fit at all and Blake didn't know how to fix him without changing everything. She defined Shroud by her faults and Celica by his virtues. Even when she tried to add flaws to him, they just felt tacked on, which she supposed they were.

Falling back on what was fast becoming a routine excuse, Blake decided she would write better if she came back to it after a break. Saving her efforts, she switched reconnected to the cafes Wi-Fi and began to check her email. Almost immediately she winced as she remembered the other task she had been avoiding. The email from her publisher.

Dear Ms Belladonna

Please find attached our comments and suggestions regarding your most recent revision. I hope you find them helpful however considering this is the third time you have revised this particular section, I feel I must remind you that, although I admire your thoroughness, it is possible to over work something.

I feel that your best course of action would be to finish a first draft and focus on the polish later. Getting trapped in small detail, frustrates some writer I've found. I have faith that you know what you are doing as our previous conversations regarding your story, leaves eager to read it. However, if you would like some advice, I would be happy to help.

Kind Regards,

Professor Ozpin

Blake sighed, her mouse hovering on the reply button as though she had any reply to make. Finally, she just accepted she wasn't going to yet and instead shut down her email. She had an hour before work and if she was lucky, the cafe wouldn't kick her out for abusing their free Wi-Fi policy. She was a customer technically, she had just bought her last coffee a couple of hours ago...

A glance in the direction of the kiosk saw she was getting glared at again. She couldn't really blame them. Since her budget had shrunk to no longer include Wi-Fi, she had spent a lot of time here. If she had been smarter, she would have tried to at least make friends with them, but she had been too focused on her writing.

Also, she didn't like talking to people if it could be avoided. That didn't help.

Clunk

Blake was startled from her important literary research, reading twitter, by the clatter of a plate and mugs. Jumping slightly, Blake tried to recover as she looked up into Ruby's grinning face, clearly amused by her ability to sneak up on her friend. Despite the shock, Blake smiled back.

"Hey Blake," Ruby said. "How's the writing going?"

"Hi Ruby and the usual."

"Ooft that bad."

Ruby smile was sympathetic as she plonked herself back in her chair opposite Blake. She yawned, her face showing her tiredness, but it was the fatigue of one who had pushed themselves because they wanted to. It had been the same in college.

They had met as part of a play Blake had been helping with. She had been punching up the scripts for a friend and Ruby had been working behind the scenes as a set designer, before eventually becoming a full producer with how much she took on for herself. She hadn't meant to; the girl has just wanted to get it right.

But they had bonded over their equal horror of anyone ever wanting to be onstage in the spotlight and had been friends ever since. They had a done a few more shows together, Blake writing at her laptop while Ruby painted or built something nearby and while they didn't have a lot of time for each other now, what with work and Ruby's boyfriend, they still tried to meet up once a week, though Blake suspected a lot of it was Ruby trying to take care of her, like now.

The smell of the toastie Ruby had placed down between wafted up to make Blake's mouth water. Tuna melt, her favourite and something Ruby knew all too well. She hadn't eaten all day and was gambling on being fed at work. Another fact Ruby likely knew but pride stopped her accepting Ruby's charity.

"You shouldn't have gotten me that."

Ruby smiled, pretending to misunderstand.

"The coffee? Nah I filled my loyalty card and got it for free anyway. No big deal."

Strange how often she filled loyalty cards.

"I meant the tuna melt."

"What that? No that's for me." For a moment Blake was unsure then Ruby said innocently. " But I did get a muffin as well so I guess you can have half if you want..."

Blake sighed again, useless trying to talk Ruby when she was in this sort of mood and her tired puppyish energy would infect Blake until she felt guilty about not taking Ruby's food. Better to try and cut her off at the pass by changing the subject. It was an easy one, but one Ruby enjoyed so she didn't feel guilty about it.

"How was work?"

"Pretty great. We had a pitch meeting for game ideas again. They shot down my launch pad idea again, but I think I'm wearing them down. We'll be playing 'Landing Strategy!' next season, and it will be awesome."

As usual, Ruby's enthusiasm was infectious, and Blake found herself smiling despite her own problems. At some of her more productive writing sessions she had found herself with similar levels of enthusiasm. One time, Ruby had come to visit her only to find Blake had stayed up all night writing, having not even realised she had drunk about seven coffees, and talked Ruby's ears off all morning about it.

Her stomach gave quiet protest as the smell of the toastie finally became too much for her and she gave up on her pride. With a few words of thanks, she took a bite and then finished the first slice within a minute. Restraining herself for the second half, Blake ignored the triumphant grin on Ruby's face before her friend spoke again.

"So, you working tonight?"

The words felt oddly pointed for some reason and Blake almost frowned before ignoring it. Blake herself might hate her job but she knew Ruby wasn't the type of person to judge someone for the job they did.

"Yeah I should probably head in the next hour or so," she replied instead. "I hope it's quite but considering how my day has been going there will probably be six kids' parties or something equally hellish."

Ruby smiled sympathetically before hesitating.

"Raven and Yang were arguing again."

"Oh."

"Yeah Yang accidently booked herself a promotional gig on a day we were meant to be filming. It caused Aunt Raven a headache to fix apparently."

Ruby shrugged in the manner of someone who knew precisely what had been said as it had been shouted through a wall. Blake had never met Ruby's sister or her aunt, but ruby talked about her family often enough to know that Yang and her aunt were often at odds. Still Blake knew herself that family could be complicated and while her own conflicts with her parents was a thing of the past, she wouldn't judge either Yang or Raven for it.

But she could wonder why Ruby was bringing it up. Normally, Ruby when talking of her work, she would focus on the positives, as was her way, and she always praised her sister. Her normal way of dealing things she didn't like was simply to not deal with it at all and just not talk about it. Why was she talking about this now?

"Raven wants to hire a PA for Yang again..."

Oh, that's why.

"Ruby..." Blake sighed. "I'm not being your sister's assistant."

"Why not?" Ruby said, dropping all pretence. "You don't like your job, it would leave you more time to write, it would be better paid, better hours, we could work together and-"

"It's not that I don't appreciate the offer," Blake said cutting her off. "It's just-"

Her moment's hesitation was all Ruby needed to jump back in.

"You want to do it all on your own."

"It's not like that."

It was.

"Besides I don't hate my job."

She did.

"And I have enough time to write."

That actually was true. Time wasn't her issue right now, just her own literary incompetence. Having more time to stew in her own failure, did not sound appealing. A part of her, heard the whisper of a man's mocking voice in her head. The voice of her past that told her Ruby knew her writing was a lost cause and was offering this out of pity.

She pushed that voice away and tries to focus on what her friend what was saying not what Blake feared she meant. Ruby didn't think like that. Even her parents didn't think like that, they had just offered to let her stay at home while she tried.

"Blake, I know you don't want charity, and this isn't that. It would still be a job. I'm offering it because Yang wants Raven off her back. She wouldn't want a lot done but Aunt Raven probably would make sure you actually organized things for her. Just while we were filming you would have more free time. It helps both of you."

Ruby's phone buzzed, mercifully letting Blake escape without having to make a comment. Ruby's face softened into a girlish grin at her phone and started to gather her things. She hadn't even pretended to touch the toastie and Blake's resolve broke and she began to eat again

"I've got to head. Jaunes got dinner on," Ruby said, standing up and sighing. "Promise me that you will think about it at least?"

Blake nodded, despite herself. It was hard to say no to Ruby and Blake found the best way was to hope something came along and distracted her good nature. That's why her boyfriend was useful. Jaune was a nice guy but also labelled his shoes with a L and a R.

"I promise," Blake said. " I should go too. Don't want to be late for work again."

Ruby snorted.

"Oh yeah you love that place. Why on earth would you want to work with me when you could work with the Malachite twins. You clearly adore them with how much you complain about them."

Blake huffed, putting her laptop in her bag and taking a final drink of coffee. Ruby had never been very good at sarcasm. Her wit was about as dry as a thunder storm, and about as subtle.

"I said I'll think about it," she grumbled, but accepted Ruby's hug goodbye without protest. "And I do appreciate it."

With an exasperated but amused sigh, Ruby broke the hug, gave her one final smile and turned to leave. Like always she walked at a pace that was almost a run. That was Ruby, always in a rush to do the next thing, normally something selfless or something that would help someone else. It was just the way she was.

Letting out a sigh of her own, Blake packed away the rest of her things and quickly made to leave before the staff came to kick her out. She'd rather not get barred from a cafe. That was too depressing for even her terrible social life. Some people for banned from pubs and clubs. She'd seen it happen during her turbulent transition from high school to college. Only she could get banned from a cafe for abusing their Wi-Fi.

Blake groaned as she fumbled her keys against the lock of her flat. It was jamming again and needed her to slightly push up and against the door for it to open. She had tried to get her landlord to fix it but that had gone nowhere. She could add it to the list of the things she needed to sort out in her life but right now she was too tired.

The lock gave in and she half entered half stumbled into her apartment. Her very small quiet empty apartment... Well that wasn't changing anytime soon. Stopping down she picked up her mail, not really expecting anything good and not being surprised by it. Just spam and takeaway menus she couldn't afford.

Still sometimes no surprise was better than a surprise. She had gone to work expecting a long shift waitressing for families with far too many kids for a week night. It would be too loud and too cramped as Junior tried to cram as many people as possible into his restaurant. Anything to make that extra buck.

Instead of that gruelling but fairly standard shift, Blake had instead arrived to find that the pot wash hadn't come in and Junior needed someone to take over. Considering Blake was on shift with Melanie and Militia, it hadn't even been a question who that would be. Blake doubted either of them had ever washed a dish in their life.

So now Blake was not only exhausted but sweaty and her front had been drenched with dishwasher that had quickly resembled gravy more than water. Worse than that, it had gotten cold on her way home and pulling the putrid shirt from herself as she headed to the shower was far more difficult than it should have been.

Later, as she sat on her lumpy couch wrapped in a dressing gown and hair drying in a towel to save on electricity, Blake comforted herself by imaging either one of the Malachite twins having to do even half a shift of pot wash. Their imagined discomfort made her feel a little better as she drank a mug of soup.

The warm soup made her feel a bit better but still as she lay on her couch she sighed. This couldn't go on. She couldn't do this anymore. Days of no progress and nights of horrible work for a terrible boss. Maybe her mom was right, and she would have been better off staying at home. Her life wouldn't feel quite so gruelling if she did that.

But if she did that, would she ever leave? Would she just stagnate and eventually give up on her dream and settle for some other job? It wouldn't be gruelling, it might even be comfortable, but it wouldn't be her dream. Her parents just wanted to support her but... It wouldn't be earned.

Which just left her with the inevitable. Either her writing would stall at home or her writing would stagnate here.

Clank

Her spoon hit the bottom of the mug with a dull thud snapping her out of her self-pitying stupor. Deciding to just go to bed and hope her writers block would be lifted by tomorrow, Blake made to stand up. And instead found herself staring at her scroll.

She had promised Ruby to think about it, though if she was honest, she hadn't intended to but now their conversation lingered in her mind and she chewed her lip, suddenly nervous. The same part of her reluctant to go back to Menagerie loathed the idea of taking the job.

She knew that with Ruby's recommending her, she would get it unless her sister absolutely hated her. And she doubted anyone related to Ruby could hate anyone. Still it felt like charity even as the rational part of her repeated all of Ruby's reasons why it wasn't. At the end of the day she would still be expected to work.

Maybe it would be fun working on a TV set. Blake had watched "What you Deserve" back when she was a kid, back when Ruby's mom and dad had been the hosts. She smiled, despite her fatigue, remembering when Ruby had admitted this fact at a college party over a game of two truths and a lie.

Back when she was a kid, Blake had even wanted to go on the show herself, a fact she had never and would never admit to Ruby lest she spoil her reputation of cool, calm and collected. Maidens she had mellowed out since then. All it had taken was an angsty emo phase and then an angsty rebel phase which she had thankfully gotten through before college. She had just been lucky there weren't many pictures of her undercut.

But the show had seemed fun. Flashy, energetic games and what kid didn't want the chance to get their own back on a parent? Despite the nostalgia and the fact Ruby herself was now in a production role, Blake hadn't had a chance to watch the reboot. Lacking a TV or internet of her own didn't help and although Blake felt bad not supporting her friends' career, she couldn't even say what Yang looked like. Something in the back of her mind said blonde but she couldn't be sure and the idea of a blonde Ruby but bigger didn't seem right.

Still any boss had to be better than Junior and maybe a change was what she needed. New people, new scenery and new ideas couldn't hurt. More stable hours and an above minimum wage pay check would be nice too and if all else failed she could go back to Menagerie, become a librarian and get nine cats.

With that cheerful thought, Blake opened her scroll and typed out a quick message to one of her few contacts. Ruby would be asleep by now, but she'd get it in the morning and if Blake waited, she would lose her nerve. In the end she kept it simple.

So, about that job