"I did it because I love you..."
— Various characters
RWBY Quest is an alternate universe webcomic/choose-your-own adventure game on Tumblr. It is based on the Rooster Teeth show RWBY, with existing characters and locations appearing throughout, and is influenced heavily by Ruby Quest. Now complete.
In RWBY Quest, Ruby is trying to escape from Beacon Academy. Something strange is happening at the Academy - students are going missing, strange noises and voices can be heard in the halls, and day by day, more people are gone. Ruby doesn't want to stay, and decides to round up as many of her friends as she can and escape from Beacon. In that time, she has to fight and befriend Entities, the monsters roaming the halls of Beacon, bid farewell to close friends, and try to understand what is happening to the staff and students.
The Quest can be read here.
A fan novelization was posted on Fanfiction.net under the title I Can't Hear Myself Think. The creator's personal blog is: Rontra.
RWBY Quest contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The IRC logs aren't required reading, but they give a lot of extra info about the entities.
- Alternate Reality Game: The IRC has let players talk to King and WQ and Monarch.
- Anyone Can Die: Part of the premise. As the quest is a game driven forward by reader commands, no one's safety is guaranteed, and readers have to think carefully about the actions they suggest.
- Arc Words: And how.
- I didn't mean to. I did it because I love you.
- Please don't turn me into someone else/erase me because you think it's better that way.
- X doesn't exist.
- Armed Legs: Velvet gets knives strapped to her feet for weapons.
- Art Evolution: Uses detailed art more frequently as time goes on.
- Artificial Limbs: Ruby gives 3D/Yang a new right hand made from Ember Celica after she lost hers. The epilogue reveals its perfectly fused with Yang's nerves because of 3D's Healing Factor.
- Art Shift: Frequently switches between simplistic Ruby Quest inspired art and detailed sketches in the artist's own style.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: And then Pyrrha and Ren were Entities.
- Blindfolded Vision: Weiss when she's wearing eye bandages and making use of her blood sensing ability.
- Bloody Murder: Some Entities spray their blood on their opponents when wounded. This is to bolster their ranks by turning the victims upon defeat.
- Bittersweet Ending: Yes, at the end of the day, the entity is defeated, but a lot of people died in the process. Though Ruby herself has managed to enjoy her life pushing forward with Weiss while Pyrrah and Velvet have connected and supported each other, but Yang and Blake are severely depressed due to the events that happened and have become melancholic, Cardin is a complete shut in and Ren, while adjusting to the situation, lives alone.
- Body Snatcher: Dead Draw Domination shares Yang Xiao Long's body.
- Catch a Falling Star: 3D catches Pyrrha after she turns back from her (flying) entity form and plummets from the sky.
- Character Blog:
- Chess Motif: Most of the Entities are named after chess pieces.
- Disability Superpower: Weiss loses the use of her eyes when she's turned back to normal. However, she's able to sense people and entities through their blood, distinguish them from each other, and tell what the origin form of an entity was.
- Eye Scream: WQ, when her mask breaks, is shown to have curling horns that pierce her eyes; 3D has her eye torn out by Back Rank Knight. Though she grows it back physically, Yang confirms it's dead and useless now.
- Weiss' eyes retain the damage done to them by WQ's horns once she turns back.
- Funny Background Event: After they find Cardin's entity, while Ruby speaks to Yang, Velvet can be seen introducing Pyrrha to the entity thusly:Velvet: This is Pyrrha, she was better than you at everything.
Pyrrha: Hello. - Gadgeteer Genius: Ruby's engineering is remarkable. She's able to build a prosthetic hand and strange foot mounted knives from scraps.
- Healing Factor: 3D has shown impressive healing abilities, even surviving an open chest wound, but can't regrow limbs or completely replace eyes.
- Hearing Voices: At one point Ruby treats the fan submissions as voices in her head.
- Heroic BSoD: Ren is all but permanently trapped in one after killing Nora.
- Heroic Sacrifice: 3D gives control back to Yang, erasing her own existence, to ensure the final blow to kill Monarch.
- Hive Queen: WQ can project her thoughts into the Entities and influence them. King has shown resistance while 3D welcomes her.
- Horned Humanoid: King starts growing a few horns, that become Monarch's crown of horns. Pyrrha keeps her horns after being cured as well.
- I Am a Humanitarian: WQ eats a person because she was curious about eating in general. Velvet and Ruby keep it between them when WQ turns back into Weiss.
- In-Series Nickname: Dead Draw Domination is called 3D for short.
- Interrupted Suicide: Lie Ren attempts to shoot himself after reading Nora's second note.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Ruby invokes this trope (to check whether Yang is still human) by cutting Yang's hair. Yang doesn't react at all, proving that she's become an Entity.
- Official Couple: Two. Yang and Blake, along with Ruby and Weiss. Pyrrha and Velvet get together at the end. It's also more or less implied that Glynda and Ozpin were an item.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Monarch, an IRC Character talks about "tidying up" the world
- "Open!" Says Me: 3D declares her intention to, then promptly does, "fuck the door" when they encounter one that is locked.Pyrrha: Do not fuck the door!
- Painful Transformation: Becoming an Entity involves your body burning from the inside out, puking up orange bile as you burst into flames into your new form.
- Patient Zero: A Graduated student, Amber Saetta.
- Race Lift: Blake is depicted with her canon skin tone in an early update, but is depicted as dark skinned in the epilogue.
- Ship Tease: Weiss and Blake have a moment of this in 0106.Weiss: Of course you would come up with something like that, you sneaky ninja huntress ♡
Blake: Well y'know, it's only logical isn't it
Weiss: I like it.
Blake: Thanks ♡ - Shout-Out:
- Nora's first note is similar in content and appearance to the untitled book in the indie game OFF. In addition, Dead Draw Domination occasionally emulates The Batter from OFF as he appears on the roleplay blog Hey Batta Batta.
- In 0056, Dead Draw Domination accuses King of committing some sort of sin. Her wording is almost identical to a series of red truths in Umineko: When They Cry.
- In 0062, Yang quotes Puella Magi Madoka Magica near perfectly.Let's become monsters together, and lay waste to this world. We'll wipe out everything. Don't you think that sounds nice?
- In 0071, Dead Draw Domination is asked if she just made a Homestuck reference. She promptly asks what a Homestuck is while being drawn in the standard Homestuck style.
- In 0090, Dead Draw Domination quotes Jane Eyre:Ruby… crying doesn't mean you're weak. From birth, it has been a sign that you are alive.
- In 0090, Dead Draw Domination gives a shoutout to Ruby Quest.
- Nora's first note is similar in content and appearance to the untitled book in the indie game OFF. In addition, Dead Draw Domination occasionally emulates The Batter from OFF as he appears on the roleplay blog Hey Batta Batta
- Staking the Loved One: Lie Ren has to shoot lover Nora Valkyrie when she begins turning into an Entity.
- Tears of Blood: King's single eye occasionally bleeds.
- Totally Radical: Yang speaks like this when the others find her. In reality's it's 3D's vernacular.
- Tragic Monster: Forced Move King, Nora Valkyrie, Black Queen Sword, Prophylaxis Sacrifice Queen, Zugzwang Blunder Queen, and Back Rank Knight are all considered to be Tragic Monsters.
- The Virus: The Entities spreading throughout Beacon. The spread is caused by direct contact with infected blood.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: King and 3D have lashed out over being referred to as Ozpin and Yang when they have their own existence.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Ruby occasionally speaks out with things she doesn't want to say or shouldn't say. Most notable when she suggests putting Ren in chains and Glynda calls her out on it:Miss Rose. I cannot believe you would even dare suggest such a thing to me. You should be ashamed. He is your friend. I will never allow that to happen to anyone again.
- Velvet also lashes out at Ruby later when she askes her if they should try to cure Cardin or leave him to bleed out as an Entity.
- Ruby occasionally speaks out with things she doesn't want to say or shouldn't say. Most notable when she suggests putting Ren in chains and Glynda calls her out on it:
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Set six years after the main story.
- Ruby and Weiss live together now. Ruby makes vlogs to vent and sort things out. Weiss got a cybernetic implant to give her back relatively normal vision with the aid of some unique glasses.
- Ren lives alone though is coping. Lives with a pet cat named Jun.
- Yang and Blake live together. Blake sleeps most of the time to unhealthy levels. Yang lost the will to fight and took a quiet job at Junior's bar.
- Pyrrha identifies as faunus now because of her draconic horns and uses her former fame to bring attention to Faunus Rights movements. She and Velvet are in a romantic relationship.
- Cardin lives as a complete shut in, having groceries shipped to his apartment.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The whole story plays out like one.
