Beacon()
Prok
Go play Star Fetchers
- Location
- Scotland
Airships, despite the attempts of some aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses with more Aura and Dust than sense, is as close to flying like a bird as humans have come.
In the distance far below you, the cliffs drop into the Elden, forming little platforms and waterfalls from the feeding rivers far above, framing Beacon on either side. The mountains of eastern Vale obscure the horizon, even from this high up, framing Forever Fall to the north and cutting short the plains and plateaus that dominate most of the area outside of the academy, bar the Emerald Forest far beyond your destination, painting the land behind Beacon a deep, vivid green.
It is, without a doubt, a breathtaking sight, and you will be happy to appreciate it via Blue's video feed when you are back on solid ground.
You're currently leaning against the inner wall of the airship, away from the windows, and as your stomach lurches again, the contents seemingly curdling for the fiftieth time, you consider a rapid dash for the bathroom, only to see it's still occupied.
Fuck oooo-ho-hoooff it's been occupied since you got airborne how fucking bad can one person possibly need the toilet-
Focus, focus, this doesn't bother you, this is fine, you are fine-
{Seriously, just ride sidesaddle. We can compensate for the airship's sway if it's bothering you that much.}
You still have your pride dammit.
Never mind the fact that you feel like you'll vomit just from the effort of getting onto it in the first place. No, no, you're quite happy staying right where you are.
"Why is the sysadmin unwell?"
{It's called airsickness. His inner ear can feel the sway of the airship, but his eyes can't perceive it, because everything is in a static environment. Because there's no visual reference for the swaying, his brain receives conflicting signals and doesn't know how to process them, which makes him nauseous as all hell.}
01 considers this for a moment or two, but before anything can come of it, Creme appears from another part of the airship, spotting you and seems to find you, leaning against a wall, trying your best not to puke, something worth worrying about.
"Jaune? You ok?" She asks you, concern plain in her question.
"Airsickness. The bathroom's occupied." You grind out, keeping your jaw firmly clenched shut for fear slackening it will, ah, open the floodgates.
"Ohh, poor thing," she says, patting you on the back as gently as she can. "No motion sickness tablets, boiled sweets, anything like that?"
You shake your head and immediately regret the action, but it gets your answer across.
"Oh dear. I'll go see if anyone has any to spare, ok?"
Bless this girl.
Creme leaves, and you're left to your meditative exercises of swallowing back bile and people-watching.
Your other teammates are off doing their own thing, Lumen chatting to some guy with blue hair and more than slightly flirting with him, while Ada is all but glued to the windows, staring out at the sights you will be more than happy to look at, later, on solid ground.
This is probably the only time she's been on an airship.
{Helluva first ride, that's for sure.}
True.
Who else do you recognise here? You see Sini off in one corner, staring out at the view, on the Scroll to someone, probably his new girlfriend going off the sheer lovey-doveyness of his conversation, as if you didn't have enough things to be sick about, fucking gag me with a spoon- Haru and Naia are here, chatting to Leathers of all people, apparently regaling them with a story about him, and you quote, 'krumpin' sum git who thought 'e wuz flash,' and apparently doing a good enough job of it to keep their attention, though you do notice that Haru's eyes seem to be wandering to…
Ada?
A literal line of sight appears, tracking the movement of his eyeballs, and he does seem to be focusing on Ada when he isn't focused on the storyteller.
{Weird. Want us to keep an eye on him, in case he tries anything?}
Ada can take care of herself. Leave it for now.
Who else? Anyone you recognise?
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!"
"Please stop."
You hear someone very happy with a sibling and said sibling acting mortified with their treatment, and you almost smirk in sympathy before a flash of something through the forefront of your mind wipes it off your face before it even appears.
A sound much like a shotgun going off next to your ear plays in your mind, and with horrifying clarity, the vague blurs of noise and motion from a few days ago finally resolve into the blasts of shotguns and flying mooks, and the face of rage itself, red-eyed and white-hot gold-haired, moving through the club and leaving a wartorn battleground behind her-
oh no
NOT AGAIN
{Seven o'clock, bulkhead's obscuring you. Move right on my mark, you should avoid them.}
Ok, ok, ok, you can do this-
Turbulence hits. Your stomach curdles, roils, twists around itself and leaps up your throat all at the same time. Without thinking, you Process a chunk of the bulkhead and form it into a barf bag, preparing yourself for the inevitable. All thoughts of evading the blonde hellion leave your mind, more preoccupied with the sensation of breakfast leaving your mouth.
Once that affair is… dealt with, you seal the bag and Process its contents, marvelling at how much… better you feel.
Like, seriously, maybe it's because just about anything short of being kneecapped is better than feeling your entire digestive tract crush itself into a one-dimensional point and forcing out your breakfast and lunch, but you feel great right now!
"Guess airships aren't for everyone," you hear the blonde girl say, slowly getting closer to you. Before you can move, she rounds the corner, just managing to stop before she bumps into you.
She stops in the middle of saying something else to her sister and you can almost feel her eyes burrowing into the back of your head.
"Do... do I know you?"
uh oh
You Process and vaporise whatever, ugh, residue is left in and around your mouth, before turning and trying to look as casual as possible, no, no sir, you have not met this woman before, not at all-
You just showed her your face, you clod-
She squints at you for a second, then her eyes widen as she recognises you, and for the first time, you realise her eyes are pale violet, not bright red.
You didn't think you got that drunk.
"You were at Junior's club!"
"What, uh, me? No, no, clubs aren't, my, thing..." you scramble to explain, before trailing off, realising that the number of guys in Vale with giant (, blue, floating) swords…
That's, that's a demographic of one right there.
"Mhm," she hums, raising an eyebrow at you. Some unerringly optimistic part of you points out that it is not an angry look on her face, and you consider an honest explanation.
It also notes the small black/red gradienthaired girl just behind your interrogator, and are those stars in her eyes- focus, focus, one thing at a time, you can deal with that when you're sure you're not about to get beat up on your first day of school.
"... Look I'll be honest, I was very drunk, I have… no idea what I did to you, or to, anyone else. It's, much clearer now, you, do leave an impression, but… some bits are still pretty fuzzy. So, if I did something to you back at Junior's, I'm sorry, but I don't remember it, or you."
She blinks, staring at you in what you think is disbelief for a few seconds.
"... So… you… don't remember pretty much wiping out half of Junior's goons with your girlfriend and saving me about 20 minutes of work?"
Wait, girlfriend?
Oh, Weiss.
Wait, girlfriend?!
{It's not an unfair assumption to make, considering how… cuddly you can get.}
God, you didn't need to be reminded of that. Mortification rises in your chest until you realise it's another round of bile and that your suffering not only hasn't ended but will never end, it is a Sisyphean task, an Ouroboros of vomit that shall both consume and be expelled by you for all eternity-
You burp into your clenched fist and immediately feel better.
"Ooh. Airsickness?" The blonde girl asks.
"Yeah, it's, it's pretty bad." You admit.
Despite your words, it does seem to be passing somewhat.
Is the ship getting steadier?
{Turbulence has stopped and we're descending. Ride's almost over.}
Thank God.
"Hey, not everyone can stomach an airship ride. But, uh, unless you actually are High King Byzant of Vacuo, I don't think I caught your name last time we met."
You didn't.
{Jaune, you helped her beat up half the men of a known crime boss. I think claiming to be royalty is the last thing you should worry about.}
That's...
As soon as you're alone, you are going to pick apart everything you think you should worry about in that sentence.
"I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc." You tell her, before sticking your hand out just in time for the rest of your brain to catch up and scream in horror at your awkwardness.
The girl grins and shakes your hand anyway, her grip firm but not crushing.
"Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you sober."
"S-same."
Before you can drop yourself into an even deeper hole of embarrassment, a sound much like a boiling teakettle goes off right in your fucking ear WHY-
Before the ringing in your ears can stop, Yang is replaced by the much smaller girl that was kind of hiding behind her this entire time and is now in your face, talking at you far too fast to read her lips, her silver-grey eyes shining with excitement.
It's really quite an achievement that, even after deafening you, she can still be this overstimulating by talking.
Subtitles: ohmygodyourswordisamazingI'veneverseenanythinglikeithowdoesitfloathowdoesitglowhowmuchætherdustdidyouusehowdoesitmoveindependentlyofyouwhatcontrolsystemareyouusingwhatmaterialisthatitdoesn'tlooklikemetaldoesittransformwhatdoesittransforminto and it all just kind of devolved into excited gibberish after that.
Eventually, she stops, just grinning her little heart out, before grabbing your hand and shaking it herself.
'I'm Ruby,' you see her say. Possibly Rupee.
You glance at her choices in the fashion department, and figure Ruby's the safer bet.
"JAUNE, BUT YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY."
… Ah, you shouted that, didn't you?
{Oh for the love of-}
You see twin flashes of light from either side of your head, feel your inner ear crackle, and the ringing finally stops.
{Honestly, it wasn't even that bad. Would have only lasted another minute.}
Really now.
"Sorry. You're, uh, rather loud." You say at a more normal volume, immediately regretting your words.
Sliiiiick.
Despite your rudeness, your sword's new admirer has those stars in her eyes again, though they seem to have upgraded to an open cluster localised entirely within her irises.
"What was that?" She asks, the same kind of excitement in her eyes that you would expect from a child being shown a magic trick.
"That was my sword getting sick of me yelling and fixing my ears." You tell her, somewhat hoping that an answer that vague would dissuade her from further questioning.
"Ok but how?" She continues, completely bulldozing past your attempt to fend her off, and you realise that not only does she have no idea what just happened, but she's also so genuinely excited about not understanding it that it overshadows her confusion.
You don't... think you've ever seen that happen before.
"Direct manipulation of matter to restore the sound-sensitive cells in my cochlea." You say, testing your hypothesis.
"I don't understand a word you just said but tell me more." She says, a genuine intensity in her voice that borders on hunger more than anything else.
Well.
It occurs to you in the middle of trying to force yourself not to feel frustrated about having a new person force themselves upon you, that you don't mind Ruby's endless excited curiosity. It also occurs to you that most people who ask anything about the Transistor expect a simple answer you just can't give them- not the same in-depth craving for answers that the girl in front of you seems to have.
It's… refreshing, you suppose.
Before you can completely nerd out on her, though, you watch as the screens around you switch off from a news broadcast as a hologram appears, bringing a pre-recorded message from one of Beacon's staff.
You don't recognise her, and you would, because this is a woman who is not easily forgotten. Pale blonde hair, pleated top with a, ahem, generous neckline, pencil skirt, and a half-cape with a deep purple lining that seems to end in...
Devil tails?
{Reign it in, Casanova, that's Glynda Goodwitch. Even if she wasn't so hilariously out of your and everyone else on this ship's league, she's twice your age and change.}
Wh- you didn't mean it like that! You were just pointing out her bigge- most noticeable… feature…s...
You're, going to stop thinking coherent thoughts now.
{Probably for the best. You keep shooting them like that, I don't think you're gonna have feet left.}
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" Holo-Goodwitch says, managing to sound genuinely enthusiastic about all the newcomers.
"Who's that?" Yang asks nobody in particular.
"Gly-" You start to answer anyway.
"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."
"Oh."
Ok fine sure that works too.
The speech that follows is short and sweet- you're one of the privileged few to be here, we live in a time of peace, duty as future huntsmen and huntresses to uphold it, demonstrated courage needed, their turn to provide you with knowledge, it's not a bad speech, but you already feel like you've heard it five years in a row with only minor variations.
At least Professor Goodwitch can do it without stumbling over her words like Teal used to.
Once the hologram winks out, you sigh in relief at the barely-decipherable announcement that the airship will be landing in a few minutes, please retrieve all carry-ons, luggage will be moved to the school to blah blah blah just get to the solid ground part already-
|||
With a final lurch that makes you sway with nausea, the airship lands and you are finally free of the sky's cruel embrace. Filing out with everyone else, you're afforded a certain generosity in your personal space, thanks to the floating surfboard behind you.
When you finally reach the open air, and more importantly, stable ground, you breathe a sigh of relief, your stomach finally starting to settle down for good. Walking along, you wait for your nausea to pass completely, and try to ignore the stares directed at you and your sword.
Being gawked at doesn't quite set your heart fluttering like it used to, but it's still... a little unnerving.
Which is why, despite really not feeling up to answering any of her questions right now, you're glad to have Ruby chattering away with theories about how your sword works. The tiny girl not only has absolutely no mental filter, she has no mental brakes.
"I mean my first guess would be that you used an Æther/Gravity Dust mix to amp up the power to lift something that large for so long but the mix must be mostly Æther going by the colour so really I'm surprised it hasn't blown up in your face yet and that doesn't explain how you make it move independently of you, or how it actually healed your ears, or if it healed your ears-"
"Ruby."
"-and wait you said that it did it by directly manipulating the matter in your ear? How much energy does it have access to if it can pull that off, can it manipulate energy as welloh my God is it an energy-based weapon I've never met someone who uses one of those-"
"Ruby."
Yang has the decency to shoot you an apologetic glance, shrugging her shoulders as if to say she has no way to stop this either.
"-I mean Dust-based weapons are cool and all and you can't beat them for reliability honestly but energy-based weapons are just so bleeding edge you know I read this paper by a Vacuoni Huntsman who claimed that by using Æther Dust you could create enough energy to form a sphere of plasma that contained enough energy that it could kill Grimm just by being near its travel path, let alone at the site of impact-"
"Ruby!"
Ruby's train of thought crashes and burns as she finally registers the sound of her name.
"Huh?"
"I, appreciate your enthusiasm, really, but I'm still feeling a bit ill, so could we maybe... leave this ten minutes, until my stomach settles down?"
She blinks once, before giving you a look of pure, unfiltered mortification.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to babble, it's just... so cool! I've never seen anything like it before!" She continues gushing over your sword, all but bouncing on the spot with excitement.
God, you can hear Blue and Bracket preening themselves already.
{Hey, the little lady can appreciate art when she sees it. Ain't a crime.}
"Weird as it is, it's still just a weapon, Rubes."
{Wh- we're not just a weapon!}
"Wh-they're not just weapons! They're an extension of ourselves!"
{Exactly!}
You try and suppress a snort at Ruby's chosen turn of phrase and Blue's indignation, and fail miserably.
The tiny girl turns on you, giving you a frankly adorable look of betrayal.
"Sorry, nothing, just, personal joke."
"Jaune? Jaune!"
You hear Creme call your name from somewhere behind you. Turning, you see her jogging to catch up with you and the others.
"Oh God Jaune I'm so sorry, I tried to find someone with airsickness tablets or even just like, boiled sweets, but it seems like you and the guy hogging the toilet were the only people who were suffering-"
She stops for a moment, finally registering the two people next to you, then letting her eyes settle on Yang.
For a moment, looking at your friend and your, er, new friend, and the intensity in their eyes, you almost wonder if they're about to come to blows and they're hugging.
You... need a second to digest this, hold on-
Creme and Yang are currently hugging and yelling about it being great to see the other again, it's been so long, how've you been oh they know each other, of course.
You do vaguely remember Creme having more friends than you back at Signal.
{That's not a high bar you're setting there, Jaune.}
It's not.
It... is not.
"Uh... you three know each other?" Ruby ventures, directing the question towards you.
"Separately of each other, but apparently yes, we do."
Eventually, the girls separate, and you see other people approaching them, drawn by the display like bees to a flower dance.
Creme looks at you, mild guilt in her face which you make disappear with a smile and a gentle shooing motion.
"Hey, well, uh, my friends are here so I'll leave you to your weapons nerd talk ok cool bye!" Yang tells Ruby while moving away from her, dragging the horde of hangers-on, and Creme, with her.
"Wh-I-" Ruby manages to stammer before a sea of bodies wash over you both, and the other girls are gone.
Catching the hilt of your sword to steady yourself, you instinctively grab the small girl's shoulder to help her regain her footing.
"W-wait, where are you going!?" She yells after them, the rest of her questions dying in her throat as she realises they're going away, and also that you have your hand on her shoulder. She looks at you, the slightest hint of a blush in her cheeks, and your hand flinches off her shoulder like you were about to get it caught in a beartrap.
"You ok?" You ask her when you see her sway after you let go.
"I'm fine, just... not great with sudden crowds."
You don't need it pointed out to you that she's a little put out at being left by herself, and trying to cover it up. Well, not by herself, but you know better than to assume you're part of the problem by default.
"Well, on the bright side, I'm feeling a lot better now. Anything you wanna ask me about my sword?"
You watch in wonder as Ruby blinks once, then all but teleports to your side, the stars in her eyes encompassing most of a galaxy at this point, and giving out the tiniest squeal you've ever heard a human being make.
"I have so many questions you don't even knoooooow-"
|||
The two of you walk for a while, taking in Beacon's gardens while Ruby grills you for details. Marble paths curve and twist through the school's... front garden, you suppose, splitting the greenery into manageable chunks of land that grow shrubbery, trees, flowers, you even saw some peapods growing along the borders of one patch, though considering the haphazard planting and vining scheme and the angry sign threatening the next groundskeeper to touch it with an amateur colonoscopy using the sign itself, you don't think that one was planned by the school administration.
{Hey, you gotta have a hobby.}
A hobby like maintaining and defending a guerilla garden.
{They're Huntsmen and Huntresses, Jaune. I think knitting would be weirder at this point.}
Fair enough.
Ruby looks down as she walks, mouth pressed against her fist as she tries to digest what you've told her over the past ten minutes.
"So... let me see if I have this straight. The Transistor is, a computer."
"Mmhm."
"A computer advanced enough to, er, compute mathematical formulas complex enough that it can use what it's learned to directly manipulate an infinite well of energy that is, itself, the product of a formula the Transistor has solved."
"So far so good."
"And all the things it can do are based around using this energy and other solved equations to directly manipulate matter, other forms of energy, basic universal constants, and sustain its body, which is a semi-physical crystalline lattice that is, again, the result of application of the science behind one of those formulas, and manages all of this with enough processing capacity left over to rival an entire CCTS tower. And it entirely functions without Dust or any other external power source."
"Yeah, you nailed it."
Ruby breathes out, puffing her cheeks for a moment.
"I... said all that, but I don't think I get it. At all."
"Hey, you did well. There's only one other person who understood half of what you do now, and I'm pretty sure that's because she used to work for Vacuoni deep R&D."
You never did pry much into Rosa's old job. Granted, for once, it was a matter ofthinly veiled death threats a pointed suggestion that you don't pry out of concern for your safety, rather than principle. There's only so many times you can find a note that says shit like 'we know where your loved ones live' in the bottom of a bag of entirely unrelated shopping before you just have to recognise the sunk cost fallacy for what it is.
Hell, just saying that much out loud makes you feel like you're gonna wake up with a horse head on your pillow.
"Er, either way, we've talked a fair bit about my weapon, but you haven't said anything about yours. What have you got?"
Ruby shifts from confusion to pure elation, and fuckmethat'sabigscythe-
Reaching under her cloak, the girl pulls out a flat, bright red box, and it immediately begins to shift, a hundred thousand mechanisms shifting in perfect harmony over the course of a second to turn that flat metal box into a scythe taller than the girl herself, which, admittedly, puts it anywhere above 5'2, finishing its transformation with its owner slamming the segmented blade into the masonwork, cracking through the tiling with almost no effort, and highlighting that the blade itself comes up to Ruby's waist.
"This is Crescent Rose, and she's my daughter."
Even without Blue giving you a blowout view of every single mechanism in its glory, you can tell that this thing is art. A genuine passion project made by a single girl for who knows how long, for a single purpose.
Without entirely meaning to, you gently gasp, something between but not quite either shock or awe running down your spine at the sight.
"A formshift scythe." You breathe out. "I've… only seen two or three before, some friends of my parents, but this is…"
Art, you don't say.
"... Impressive. That's a high-impact sniper rifle at the back, right?"
"Yup! Fires custom hand-loaded .50 calibre rounds, loaded with my personal mix of gunpowder and whatever Dust I need. I have rounds with everything except Earth, Water, and Æther Dust!"
You watch her reach behind her back again and pull out three different cartridges, each easily as long as your hand from fingertip to wrist, with standardised Dust round symbols printed into the dark red metal.
"Nice."
{If I didn't know better, I'd say you liked it.}
Well, just because you bullshat your way through Basic Forging doesn't mean you can't appreciate the efforts of others.
{WELL IF YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU MARRY IT-}
Really? This shit again?
{I'M SURE YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE BEAUTIFUL-}
THE JEALOUS ACT IS ONLY FUNNY THE FIRST COUPLE TIMES ASSHOLE-
|||
Eventually, Ruby and yourself realise you have no idea where you were, you admit to just kind of following her, she admits to just kind of following you, and after some token attempts to find the way yourselves, grab a map from Blue to get out of this endless maze of paths and greenery.
Place is built like a goddamn magic circle, you swear to God-
Well, no matter. You're here now. Walking into the auditorium, it finally sinks in exactly how many people you're going to school with this year. A quick headcount puts the auditorium population at over 300 people, with you and Ruby being among the last to appear, thankfully.
"Ruby!" You hear Yang call out and wave to her sister. "Over here, I saved you a seat!"
"Oh! Uh, I-I gotta go-" Ruby starts to apologise for having to leave, but you wave her off with a smile.
"Go, yell at her for leaving you behind. I'll see you after the ceremony."
"It's a plan!"
With that, she dashes off, a gust of wind messing up your hair following her in her wake.
{Lumen and the girls are over there. Third block, fifth row. Looks like they saved you a seat.}
Nice.
You shuffle through the seats, Blue helpfully sitting near the door with all the other weapons so you don't have to figure out the logistics of the Transistor hovering nearby like a giant neon 'pay attention to me' sign.
"Hey, Jaune. What kept you?" Lumen asks, shifting up a little so you can get past him.
"I, er, got lost. Those gardens are like a maze if you don't cross the grass."
He blinks.
"... So... why... didn't you?"
"Do you know what it takes to get grass stains out of white hems?"
He glances down at your new trousers, then up at you again.
"... Yeah, fair enough. Also hey, nice suit. Whose funeral are you attending?"
"Wh- hey! It's not that bad!" You manage to defend yourself somewhere between all that only somewhat joking indignant sputtering.
"You look fine, now quiet down, it's starting." Creme hushes you both as Professor Goodwitch adjusts a microphone, an old man in green waiting patiently on the sidelines for her to finish her ministrations.
Well, old might be a little much. Despite the shock of pure silver hair on his head, he lacks any obvious wrinkles or sagging of skin that plagues the aged. Indeed, the only things that seem to hint at his age are his hair, his tiny glasses, and the cane he's putting quite a bit of his weight on.
You know who he is, of course, but you just didn't expect him to be 20 and 70 at the same time.
Headmaster Ozpin. The Wizard of Beacon. The man who founded the Huntsman Academies, discovered a new secondary Dust, and broke the mask of a Night's Wing.
The man is a walking legend, and he's about to talk to you all as students of his academy.
You won't lie, you're just a tiny bit excited.
He steps up to the microphone, and you feel a shock run down your spine as the Transistor's memory usage sees an uptick like a vertical wall.
"I'll… keep this brief."
There is something severely wrong with that man's soul.
What?
{I have no idea either. Just, give us a couple of minutes, we're trying to figure it out ourselves.}
The speech continues, but you can barely pay attention to it, for the whole 36 seconds it takes, and frankly, by the looks of it, neither can Ozpin. He does his best to hide it, but now and then you do see an annoyed expression cross his face, which he quickly sch- wipes from his face.
You're above that even for an accidental pun.
Ozpin finishes up, and walks off, actually allowing some measure of confusion to show on his face.
"... That was it?!" Lumen says, throwing his palms up at the stage. "That wasn't even a full minute!"
"Don't you think it was a bit… blunt? What was all that 'wasted energy' stuff about?" Creme chimes in. "Also, was it just me, or did he look like he was annoyed by something?"
"He was trying to hide it, but yeah, something was pissing him off," Ada says.
{Agh, DAMMIT! Fuck this sensor range bullshit!}
You actively have to suppress the Transistor's movement before it makes to fly after Ozpin, keeping it right where it is.
Whoa, what got into Blue?
We were trying to figure out what we were looking at, but he was constantly hovering in and out of our sensor range. Even when we could get a decent read on him, it was like…
Like looking at a piece of paper someone had written on, over and over and over again, until it's nothing but a wall of ink and indentations.
… What?
{We don't know. We really, really don't.}
|||
What you missed while dealing with Blue and Bracket going into paranoid fits, Lumen and Ada trying to puzzle some hidden meaning from Ozpin's brusque speech, and generally being an inattentive twat, is that you and the rest of the new students were to have a tour of the grounds after the speech, and also that you were going to be sleeping in the ballroom tonight.
All of you. A bunch of hormonal teenagers, having spent years exercising your bodies to as close to perfection as possible, in constant close quarters, in nothing but whatever they're wearing to bed.
{Hush, you prude. Nothing's even happened, and it probably won't anyway. Besides, Beacon's co-ed. You might well have to do this for the next four years.}
True.
In all honesty, you are just complaining because it keeps your mind off of other things. Like the fact that Ozpin's soul is...
How do you even quantify what's happened to him? Is his soul corrupted? Suffering from metaphysical elephantiasis? Is that just something that happens to Huntsmen who live as long as he has? Because he's been doing this for longer than you, your parents or your grandparents have been alive, and frankly, you don't think you get to that age in this business without becoming just a little off.
And if what Blue's saying is right, Ozpin's a lot more off than your average hunting vet.
{Ok, we've looked over what we got. So, I have good news and I have bad news.}
"Bad news first," you murmur, trying to keep this conversation away from prying ears.
{Well, we're not wrong. His soul is wholly different from what we've seen in… literally anyone else. It's an unknown, entirely unlike anything we've ever seen before.}
None of that does anything to comfort you. You suppose that's why it was the bad news.
"And the good news?"
{It's not a complete unknown. We didn't get much out of it, because he was mostly out of our sensor range, but, we did get some stuff. For one thing, his soul resisted being scanned. It was too… thick, for lack of a better word. Like diving into a pool of cold honey.}
You shudder a little at the thought of cold honey covering your body, but soldier on, trying to divine where Blue's going with this.
"You couldn't scan it? Are you trying to tell me that Ozpin's soul is encrypted?" You hiss into the air, moving elsewhere when you realise people are looking at you.
{More compressed, really. We'd just need some time to pick its layers apart, then we could scan it, but it would take a long time.}
"How long would-"
{4 days before the first pass would finish, if Bracket's estimates are right.}
Fuck.
{Teal's first pass took 20 minutes, for comparison. I'll be honest, even if we could get past whatever it is that makes it so hard to scan, I'm pretty sure both you and he would be dead and buried by the time we finished with it. We just don't have the capabilities to do it in a reasonable timeframe without, well, metaphysically tearing the man to pieces.}
And that's not an option, for obvious reasons.
The death of an Academy Headmaster would be a severe blow to a Kingdom's resolve and national firepower?
Also that murder is bad.
That too.
01 hops into your lap, trying to get your attention.
We also have developments to report!
"Hey, can't be any worse news than what I've had so far."
While technically tempting fate, the Process literally has no opportunities to create bad news for you-
In order of importance as long-term hurdles:
That's... a lot to take in, but you stand by your hubris-infused statement.
First thing's first- 400km² isn't anything to sniff at. That's a few towns of real estate there.
{Shame you own none of it.}
Yeah... can't, really help that. You're not sure you'd have the money to buy up all the Processed land in the city if you worked yourself half to death from now to the end of the world, let alone when that land is in the Port District.
Second- subterranean Grimm, unknown variety, 'concerning' numbers, if they could actually sense humans from that deep. Overall...
{Not really something to worry about unless someone starts digging.}
Like you're going to be.
{... Yes. like you're going to be- wait, what?}
You can't just have Dust ore magically appear out of thin air. Even if it's just a ten-foot hole in the ground surrounded by a mile of very heavily protected land, you're still gonna need to do something to make finding that kind of thing believable. Speaking of, if you refined that ore, how much Dust would you end up with, anyway?
The Process gives you the number.
"Fuck me, really?" You ask, the curse slipping out in a breath of pure shock.
{Congratulations, Jaune, you're sitting on a stockpile that could crash the world Dust trade three times over and make you the richest person on the planet for about five seconds before the economy tanks.}
... And... you can't touch it.
{Yet. Until you own some land. And a method of selling it in bulk, 'mining' it, a company to actually facilitate all of this oh hey look it's that thing I've been telling you to start for about three days now.}
You're pretty sure you don't have the money to start a-
{120 Lien.}
What?
{It costs 120 Lien to register a private company with Companies House. You can act as the sole shareholder and director, we've had the legal documents waiting in the backburners for a while now- all we really need you to do is come up with a name, figure out what to register the company as, and then sign a- well, not a piece of paper, but you get the gist. Setting up shop in Vale is easy. You just have to actually read the website and have a business plan to work with. It's not rocket science.}
... Huh.
Well... good to know, you suppose.
You do have to admit that Blue has a point- you can't really do anything with the Process in any great measure without setting up a company. Well, nothing that won't get you executed or be so inefficient that you'll be old and grey before it actually pays back the effort you put in.
It's time to bite the bullet.
This is a long time coming, but you knew you had to do it eventually.
[] What do you want to name this company? (Write-In) (Nothing silly, please. Give the boy some dignity.)
What are you going to register your company as doing for its main line of business? (Companies can do more than one thing, obviously, but this is what you'll start out doing- you can expand into other things later.)
[] Manufacture of Consumer Electronics (Personal Assistants)
[] Construction of Commercial Buildings (Real Estate)
[] Artistic Creation (Artsy Statues)
[] Write-in (Give a quick description and I'll give it a w/x/y/z score when I aggregate options.)
... What are you gonna do about those Grimm?
[] DED- They're Grimm. Get rid of them before something bad happens, it's just common sense.
[] On the other hand... they're not, actually doing anything to anyone. Their deaths, right now, are entirely unnecessary. Shit, maybe they'll come in handy for a demonstration. The point is, killing them right now doesn't actually benefit you in any way aside from guaranteeing your peace of mind.
In the distance far below you, the cliffs drop into the Elden, forming little platforms and waterfalls from the feeding rivers far above, framing Beacon on either side. The mountains of eastern Vale obscure the horizon, even from this high up, framing Forever Fall to the north and cutting short the plains and plateaus that dominate most of the area outside of the academy, bar the Emerald Forest far beyond your destination, painting the land behind Beacon a deep, vivid green.
It is, without a doubt, a breathtaking sight, and you will be happy to appreciate it via Blue's video feed when you are back on solid ground.
You're currently leaning against the inner wall of the airship, away from the windows, and as your stomach lurches again, the contents seemingly curdling for the fiftieth time, you consider a rapid dash for the bathroom, only to see it's still occupied.
Fuck oooo-ho-hoooff it's been occupied since you got airborne how fucking bad can one person possibly need the toilet-
Focus, focus, this doesn't bother you, this is fine, you are fine-
{Seriously, just ride sidesaddle. We can compensate for the airship's sway if it's bothering you that much.}
You still have your pride dammit.
Never mind the fact that you feel like you'll vomit just from the effort of getting onto it in the first place. No, no, you're quite happy staying right where you are.
"Why is the sysadmin unwell?"
{It's called airsickness. His inner ear can feel the sway of the airship, but his eyes can't perceive it, because everything is in a static environment. Because there's no visual reference for the swaying, his brain receives conflicting signals and doesn't know how to process them, which makes him nauseous as all hell.}
01 considers this for a moment or two, but before anything can come of it, Creme appears from another part of the airship, spotting you and seems to find you, leaning against a wall, trying your best not to puke, something worth worrying about.
"Jaune? You ok?" She asks you, concern plain in her question.
"Airsickness. The bathroom's occupied." You grind out, keeping your jaw firmly clenched shut for fear slackening it will, ah, open the floodgates.
"Ohh, poor thing," she says, patting you on the back as gently as she can. "No motion sickness tablets, boiled sweets, anything like that?"
You shake your head and immediately regret the action, but it gets your answer across.
"Oh dear. I'll go see if anyone has any to spare, ok?"
Bless this girl.
Creme leaves, and you're left to your meditative exercises of swallowing back bile and people-watching.
Your other teammates are off doing their own thing, Lumen chatting to some guy with blue hair and more than slightly flirting with him, while Ada is all but glued to the windows, staring out at the sights you will be more than happy to look at, later, on solid ground.
This is probably the only time she's been on an airship.
{Helluva first ride, that's for sure.}
True.
Who else do you recognise here? You see Sini off in one corner, staring out at the view, on the Scroll to someone, probably his new girlfriend going off the sheer lovey-doveyness of his conversation, as if you didn't have enough things to be sick about, fucking gag me with a spoon- Haru and Naia are here, chatting to Leathers of all people, apparently regaling them with a story about him, and you quote, 'krumpin' sum git who thought 'e wuz flash,' and apparently doing a good enough job of it to keep their attention, though you do notice that Haru's eyes seem to be wandering to…
Ada?
A literal line of sight appears, tracking the movement of his eyeballs, and he does seem to be focusing on Ada when he isn't focused on the storyteller.
{Weird. Want us to keep an eye on him, in case he tries anything?}
Ada can take care of herself. Leave it for now.
Who else? Anyone you recognise?
"Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!"
"Please stop."
You hear someone very happy with a sibling and said sibling acting mortified with their treatment, and you almost smirk in sympathy before a flash of something through the forefront of your mind wipes it off your face before it even appears.
A sound much like a shotgun going off next to your ear plays in your mind, and with horrifying clarity, the vague blurs of noise and motion from a few days ago finally resolve into the blasts of shotguns and flying mooks, and the face of rage itself, red-eyed and white-hot gold-haired, moving through the club and leaving a wartorn battleground behind her-
oh no
NOT AGAIN
{Seven o'clock, bulkhead's obscuring you. Move right on my mark, you should avoid them.}
Ok, ok, ok, you can do this-
Turbulence hits. Your stomach curdles, roils, twists around itself and leaps up your throat all at the same time. Without thinking, you Process a chunk of the bulkhead and form it into a barf bag, preparing yourself for the inevitable. All thoughts of evading the blonde hellion leave your mind, more preoccupied with the sensation of breakfast leaving your mouth.
Once that affair is… dealt with, you seal the bag and Process its contents, marvelling at how much… better you feel.
Like, seriously, maybe it's because just about anything short of being kneecapped is better than feeling your entire digestive tract crush itself into a one-dimensional point and forcing out your breakfast and lunch, but you feel great right now!
"Guess airships aren't for everyone," you hear the blonde girl say, slowly getting closer to you. Before you can move, she rounds the corner, just managing to stop before she bumps into you.
She stops in the middle of saying something else to her sister and you can almost feel her eyes burrowing into the back of your head.
"Do... do I know you?"
uh oh
You Process and vaporise whatever, ugh, residue is left in and around your mouth, before turning and trying to look as casual as possible, no, no sir, you have not met this woman before, not at all-
You just showed her your face, you clod-
She squints at you for a second, then her eyes widen as she recognises you, and for the first time, you realise her eyes are pale violet, not bright red.
You didn't think you got that drunk.
"You were at Junior's club!"
"What, uh, me? No, no, clubs aren't, my, thing..." you scramble to explain, before trailing off, realising that the number of guys in Vale with giant (, blue, floating) swords…
That's, that's a demographic of one right there.
"Mhm," she hums, raising an eyebrow at you. Some unerringly optimistic part of you points out that it is not an angry look on her face, and you consider an honest explanation.
It also notes the small black/red gradienthaired girl just behind your interrogator, and are those stars in her eyes- focus, focus, one thing at a time, you can deal with that when you're sure you're not about to get beat up on your first day of school.
"... Look I'll be honest, I was very drunk, I have… no idea what I did to you, or to, anyone else. It's, much clearer now, you, do leave an impression, but… some bits are still pretty fuzzy. So, if I did something to you back at Junior's, I'm sorry, but I don't remember it, or you."
She blinks, staring at you in what you think is disbelief for a few seconds.
"... So… you… don't remember pretty much wiping out half of Junior's goons with your girlfriend and saving me about 20 minutes of work?"
Wait, girlfriend?
Oh, Weiss.
Wait, girlfriend?!
{It's not an unfair assumption to make, considering how… cuddly you can get.}
God, you didn't need to be reminded of that. Mortification rises in your chest until you realise it's another round of bile and that your suffering not only hasn't ended but will never end, it is a Sisyphean task, an Ouroboros of vomit that shall both consume and be expelled by you for all eternity-
You burp into your clenched fist and immediately feel better.
"Ooh. Airsickness?" The blonde girl asks.
"Yeah, it's, it's pretty bad." You admit.
Despite your words, it does seem to be passing somewhat.
Is the ship getting steadier?
{Turbulence has stopped and we're descending. Ride's almost over.}
Thank God.
"Hey, not everyone can stomach an airship ride. But, uh, unless you actually are High King Byzant of Vacuo, I don't think I caught your name last time we met."
You didn't.
{Jaune, you helped her beat up half the men of a known crime boss. I think claiming to be royalty is the last thing you should worry about.}
That's...
As soon as you're alone, you are going to pick apart everything you think you should worry about in that sentence.
"I'm Jaune, Jaune Arc." You tell her, before sticking your hand out just in time for the rest of your brain to catch up and scream in horror at your awkwardness.
The girl grins and shakes your hand anyway, her grip firm but not crushing.
"Yang Xiao Long. Nice to meet you sober."
"S-same."
Before you can drop yourself into an even deeper hole of embarrassment, a sound much like a boiling teakettle goes off right in your fucking ear WHY-
Before the ringing in your ears can stop, Yang is replaced by the much smaller girl that was kind of hiding behind her this entire time and is now in your face, talking at you far too fast to read her lips, her silver-grey eyes shining with excitement.
It's really quite an achievement that, even after deafening you, she can still be this overstimulating by talking.
Subtitles: ohmygodyourswordisamazingI'veneverseenanythinglikeithowdoesitfloathowdoesitglowhowmuchætherdustdidyouusehowdoesitmoveindependentlyofyouwhatcontrolsystemareyouusingwhatmaterialisthatitdoesn'tlooklikemetaldoesittransformwhatdoesittransforminto and it all just kind of devolved into excited gibberish after that.
Eventually, she stops, just grinning her little heart out, before grabbing your hand and shaking it herself.
'I'm Ruby,' you see her say. Possibly Rupee.
You glance at her choices in the fashion department, and figure Ruby's the safer bet.
"JAUNE, BUT YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY."
… Ah, you shouted that, didn't you?
{Oh for the love of-}
You see twin flashes of light from either side of your head, feel your inner ear crackle, and the ringing finally stops.
{Honestly, it wasn't even that bad. Would have only lasted another minute.}
Really now.
"Sorry. You're, uh, rather loud." You say at a more normal volume, immediately regretting your words.
Sliiiiick.
Despite your rudeness, your sword's new admirer has those stars in her eyes again, though they seem to have upgraded to an open cluster localised entirely within her irises.
"What was that?" She asks, the same kind of excitement in her eyes that you would expect from a child being shown a magic trick.
"That was my sword getting sick of me yelling and fixing my ears." You tell her, somewhat hoping that an answer that vague would dissuade her from further questioning.
"Ok but how?" She continues, completely bulldozing past your attempt to fend her off, and you realise that not only does she have no idea what just happened, but she's also so genuinely excited about not understanding it that it overshadows her confusion.
You don't... think you've ever seen that happen before.
"Direct manipulation of matter to restore the sound-sensitive cells in my cochlea." You say, testing your hypothesis.
"I don't understand a word you just said but tell me more." She says, a genuine intensity in her voice that borders on hunger more than anything else.
Well.
It occurs to you in the middle of trying to force yourself not to feel frustrated about having a new person force themselves upon you, that you don't mind Ruby's endless excited curiosity. It also occurs to you that most people who ask anything about the Transistor expect a simple answer you just can't give them- not the same in-depth craving for answers that the girl in front of you seems to have.
It's… refreshing, you suppose.
Before you can completely nerd out on her, though, you watch as the screens around you switch off from a news broadcast as a hologram appears, bringing a pre-recorded message from one of Beacon's staff.
You don't recognise her, and you would, because this is a woman who is not easily forgotten. Pale blonde hair, pleated top with a, ahem, generous neckline, pencil skirt, and a half-cape with a deep purple lining that seems to end in...
Devil tails?
{Reign it in, Casanova, that's Glynda Goodwitch. Even if she wasn't so hilariously out of your and everyone else on this ship's league, she's twice your age and change.}
Wh- you didn't mean it like that! You were just pointing out her bigge- most noticeable… feature…s...
You're, going to stop thinking coherent thoughts now.
{Probably for the best. You keep shooting them like that, I don't think you're gonna have feet left.}
"Hello, and welcome to Beacon!" Holo-Goodwitch says, managing to sound genuinely enthusiastic about all the newcomers.
"Who's that?" Yang asks nobody in particular.
"Gly-" You start to answer anyway.
"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."
"Oh."
Ok fine sure that works too.
The speech that follows is short and sweet- you're one of the privileged few to be here, we live in a time of peace, duty as future huntsmen and huntresses to uphold it, demonstrated courage needed, their turn to provide you with knowledge, it's not a bad speech, but you already feel like you've heard it five years in a row with only minor variations.
At least Professor Goodwitch can do it without stumbling over her words like Teal used to.
Once the hologram winks out, you sigh in relief at the barely-decipherable announcement that the airship will be landing in a few minutes, please retrieve all carry-ons, luggage will be moved to the school to blah blah blah just get to the solid ground part already-
|||
With a final lurch that makes you sway with nausea, the airship lands and you are finally free of the sky's cruel embrace. Filing out with everyone else, you're afforded a certain generosity in your personal space, thanks to the floating surfboard behind you.
When you finally reach the open air, and more importantly, stable ground, you breathe a sigh of relief, your stomach finally starting to settle down for good. Walking along, you wait for your nausea to pass completely, and try to ignore the stares directed at you and your sword.
Being gawked at doesn't quite set your heart fluttering like it used to, but it's still... a little unnerving.
Which is why, despite really not feeling up to answering any of her questions right now, you're glad to have Ruby chattering away with theories about how your sword works. The tiny girl not only has absolutely no mental filter, she has no mental brakes.
"I mean my first guess would be that you used an Æther/Gravity Dust mix to amp up the power to lift something that large for so long but the mix must be mostly Æther going by the colour so really I'm surprised it hasn't blown up in your face yet and that doesn't explain how you make it move independently of you, or how it actually healed your ears, or if it healed your ears-"
"Ruby."
"-and wait you said that it did it by directly manipulating the matter in your ear? How much energy does it have access to if it can pull that off, can it manipulate energy as welloh my God is it an energy-based weapon I've never met someone who uses one of those-"
"Ruby."
Yang has the decency to shoot you an apologetic glance, shrugging her shoulders as if to say she has no way to stop this either.
"-I mean Dust-based weapons are cool and all and you can't beat them for reliability honestly but energy-based weapons are just so bleeding edge you know I read this paper by a Vacuoni Huntsman who claimed that by using Æther Dust you could create enough energy to form a sphere of plasma that contained enough energy that it could kill Grimm just by being near its travel path, let alone at the site of impact-"
"Ruby!"
Ruby's train of thought crashes and burns as she finally registers the sound of her name.
"Huh?"
"I, appreciate your enthusiasm, really, but I'm still feeling a bit ill, so could we maybe... leave this ten minutes, until my stomach settles down?"
She blinks once, before giving you a look of pure, unfiltered mortification.
"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to babble, it's just... so cool! I've never seen anything like it before!" She continues gushing over your sword, all but bouncing on the spot with excitement.
God, you can hear Blue and Bracket preening themselves already.
{Hey, the little lady can appreciate art when she sees it. Ain't a crime.}
"Weird as it is, it's still just a weapon, Rubes."
{Wh- we're not just a weapon!}
"Wh-they're not just weapons! They're an extension of ourselves!"
{Exactly!}
You try and suppress a snort at Ruby's chosen turn of phrase and Blue's indignation, and fail miserably.
The tiny girl turns on you, giving you a frankly adorable look of betrayal.
"Sorry, nothing, just, personal joke."
"Jaune? Jaune!"
You hear Creme call your name from somewhere behind you. Turning, you see her jogging to catch up with you and the others.
"Oh God Jaune I'm so sorry, I tried to find someone with airsickness tablets or even just like, boiled sweets, but it seems like you and the guy hogging the toilet were the only people who were suffering-"
She stops for a moment, finally registering the two people next to you, then letting her eyes settle on Yang.
For a moment, looking at your friend and your, er, new friend, and the intensity in their eyes, you almost wonder if they're about to come to blows and they're hugging.
You... need a second to digest this, hold on-
Creme and Yang are currently hugging and yelling about it being great to see the other again, it's been so long, how've you been oh they know each other, of course.
You do vaguely remember Creme having more friends than you back at Signal.
{That's not a high bar you're setting there, Jaune.}
It's not.
It... is not.
"Uh... you three know each other?" Ruby ventures, directing the question towards you.
"Separately of each other, but apparently yes, we do."
Eventually, the girls separate, and you see other people approaching them, drawn by the display like bees to a flower dance.
Creme looks at you, mild guilt in her face which you make disappear with a smile and a gentle shooing motion.
"Hey, well, uh, my friends are here so I'll leave you to your weapons nerd talk ok cool bye!" Yang tells Ruby while moving away from her, dragging the horde of hangers-on, and Creme, with her.
"Wh-I-" Ruby manages to stammer before a sea of bodies wash over you both, and the other girls are gone.
Catching the hilt of your sword to steady yourself, you instinctively grab the small girl's shoulder to help her regain her footing.
"W-wait, where are you going!?" She yells after them, the rest of her questions dying in her throat as she realises they're going away, and also that you have your hand on her shoulder. She looks at you, the slightest hint of a blush in her cheeks, and your hand flinches off her shoulder like you were about to get it caught in a beartrap.
"You ok?" You ask her when you see her sway after you let go.
"I'm fine, just... not great with sudden crowds."
You don't need it pointed out to you that she's a little put out at being left by herself, and trying to cover it up. Well, not by herself, but you know better than to assume you're part of the problem by default.
"Well, on the bright side, I'm feeling a lot better now. Anything you wanna ask me about my sword?"
You watch in wonder as Ruby blinks once, then all but teleports to your side, the stars in her eyes encompassing most of a galaxy at this point, and giving out the tiniest squeal you've ever heard a human being make.
"I have so many questions you don't even knoooooow-"
|||
The two of you walk for a while, taking in Beacon's gardens while Ruby grills you for details. Marble paths curve and twist through the school's... front garden, you suppose, splitting the greenery into manageable chunks of land that grow shrubbery, trees, flowers, you even saw some peapods growing along the borders of one patch, though considering the haphazard planting and vining scheme and the angry sign threatening the next groundskeeper to touch it with an amateur colonoscopy using the sign itself, you don't think that one was planned by the school administration.
{Hey, you gotta have a hobby.}
A hobby like maintaining and defending a guerilla garden.
{They're Huntsmen and Huntresses, Jaune. I think knitting would be weirder at this point.}
Fair enough.
Ruby looks down as she walks, mouth pressed against her fist as she tries to digest what you've told her over the past ten minutes.
"So... let me see if I have this straight. The Transistor is, a computer."
"Mmhm."
"A computer advanced enough to, er, compute mathematical formulas complex enough that it can use what it's learned to directly manipulate an infinite well of energy that is, itself, the product of a formula the Transistor has solved."
"So far so good."
"And all the things it can do are based around using this energy and other solved equations to directly manipulate matter, other forms of energy, basic universal constants, and sustain its body, which is a semi-physical crystalline lattice that is, again, the result of application of the science behind one of those formulas, and manages all of this with enough processing capacity left over to rival an entire CCTS tower. And it entirely functions without Dust or any other external power source."
"Yeah, you nailed it."
Ruby breathes out, puffing her cheeks for a moment.
"I... said all that, but I don't think I get it. At all."
"Hey, you did well. There's only one other person who understood half of what you do now, and I'm pretty sure that's because she used to work for Vacuoni deep R&D."
You never did pry much into Rosa's old job. Granted, for once, it was a matter of
Hell, just saying that much out loud makes you feel like you're gonna wake up with a horse head on your pillow.
"Er, either way, we've talked a fair bit about my weapon, but you haven't said anything about yours. What have you got?"
Ruby shifts from confusion to pure elation, and fuckmethat'sabigscythe-
Reaching under her cloak, the girl pulls out a flat, bright red box, and it immediately begins to shift, a hundred thousand mechanisms shifting in perfect harmony over the course of a second to turn that flat metal box into a scythe taller than the girl herself, which, admittedly, puts it anywhere above 5'2, finishing its transformation with its owner slamming the segmented blade into the masonwork, cracking through the tiling with almost no effort, and highlighting that the blade itself comes up to Ruby's waist.
"This is Crescent Rose, and she's my daughter."
Even without Blue giving you a blowout view of every single mechanism in its glory, you can tell that this thing is art. A genuine passion project made by a single girl for who knows how long, for a single purpose.
Without entirely meaning to, you gently gasp, something between but not quite either shock or awe running down your spine at the sight.
"A formshift scythe." You breathe out. "I've… only seen two or three before, some friends of my parents, but this is…"
Art, you don't say.
"... Impressive. That's a high-impact sniper rifle at the back, right?"
"Yup! Fires custom hand-loaded .50 calibre rounds, loaded with my personal mix of gunpowder and whatever Dust I need. I have rounds with everything except Earth, Water, and Æther Dust!"
You watch her reach behind her back again and pull out three different cartridges, each easily as long as your hand from fingertip to wrist, with standardised Dust round symbols printed into the dark red metal.
"Nice."
{If I didn't know better, I'd say you liked it.}
Well, just because you bullshat your way through Basic Forging doesn't mean you can't appreciate the efforts of others.
{WELL IF YOU LIKE IT SO MUCH WHY DON'T YOU MARRY IT-}
Really? This shit again?
{I'M SURE YOUR CHILDREN WILL BE BEAUTIFUL-}
THE JEALOUS ACT IS ONLY FUNNY THE FIRST COUPLE TIMES ASSHOLE-
|||
Eventually, Ruby and yourself realise you have no idea where you were, you admit to just kind of following her, she admits to just kind of following you, and after some token attempts to find the way yourselves, grab a map from Blue to get out of this endless maze of paths and greenery.
Place is built like a goddamn magic circle, you swear to God-
Well, no matter. You're here now. Walking into the auditorium, it finally sinks in exactly how many people you're going to school with this year. A quick headcount puts the auditorium population at over 300 people, with you and Ruby being among the last to appear, thankfully.
"Ruby!" You hear Yang call out and wave to her sister. "Over here, I saved you a seat!"
"Oh! Uh, I-I gotta go-" Ruby starts to apologise for having to leave, but you wave her off with a smile.
"Go, yell at her for leaving you behind. I'll see you after the ceremony."
"It's a plan!"
With that, she dashes off, a gust of wind messing up your hair following her in her wake.
{Lumen and the girls are over there. Third block, fifth row. Looks like they saved you a seat.}
Nice.
You shuffle through the seats, Blue helpfully sitting near the door with all the other weapons so you don't have to figure out the logistics of the Transistor hovering nearby like a giant neon 'pay attention to me' sign.
"Hey, Jaune. What kept you?" Lumen asks, shifting up a little so you can get past him.
"I, er, got lost. Those gardens are like a maze if you don't cross the grass."
He blinks.
"... So... why... didn't you?"
"Do you know what it takes to get grass stains out of white hems?"
He glances down at your new trousers, then up at you again.
"... Yeah, fair enough. Also hey, nice suit. Whose funeral are you attending?"
"Wh- hey! It's not that bad!" You manage to defend yourself somewhere between all that only somewhat joking indignant sputtering.
"You look fine, now quiet down, it's starting." Creme hushes you both as Professor Goodwitch adjusts a microphone, an old man in green waiting patiently on the sidelines for her to finish her ministrations.
Well, old might be a little much. Despite the shock of pure silver hair on his head, he lacks any obvious wrinkles or sagging of skin that plagues the aged. Indeed, the only things that seem to hint at his age are his hair, his tiny glasses, and the cane he's putting quite a bit of his weight on.
You know who he is, of course, but you just didn't expect him to be 20 and 70 at the same time.
Headmaster Ozpin. The Wizard of Beacon. The man who founded the Huntsman Academies, discovered a new secondary Dust, and broke the mask of a Night's Wing.
The man is a walking legend, and he's about to talk to you all as students of his academy.
You won't lie, you're just a tiny bit excited.
He steps up to the microphone, and you feel a shock run down your spine as the Transistor's memory usage sees an uptick like a vertical wall.
"I'll… keep this brief."
There is something severely wrong with that man's soul.
What?
{I have no idea either. Just, give us a couple of minutes, we're trying to figure it out ourselves.}
The speech continues, but you can barely pay attention to it, for the whole 36 seconds it takes, and frankly, by the looks of it, neither can Ozpin. He does his best to hide it, but now and then you do see an annoyed expression cross his face, which he quickly sch- wipes from his face.
You're above that even for an accidental pun.
Ozpin finishes up, and walks off, actually allowing some measure of confusion to show on his face.
"... That was it?!" Lumen says, throwing his palms up at the stage. "That wasn't even a full minute!"
"Don't you think it was a bit… blunt? What was all that 'wasted energy' stuff about?" Creme chimes in. "Also, was it just me, or did he look like he was annoyed by something?"
"He was trying to hide it, but yeah, something was pissing him off," Ada says.
{Agh, DAMMIT! Fuck this sensor range bullshit!}
You actively have to suppress the Transistor's movement before it makes to fly after Ozpin, keeping it right where it is.
Whoa, what got into Blue?
We were trying to figure out what we were looking at, but he was constantly hovering in and out of our sensor range. Even when we could get a decent read on him, it was like…
Like looking at a piece of paper someone had written on, over and over and over again, until it's nothing but a wall of ink and indentations.
… What?
{We don't know. We really, really don't.}
|||
What you missed while dealing with Blue and Bracket going into paranoid fits, Lumen and Ada trying to puzzle some hidden meaning from Ozpin's brusque speech, and generally being an inattentive twat, is that you and the rest of the new students were to have a tour of the grounds after the speech, and also that you were going to be sleeping in the ballroom tonight.
All of you. A bunch of hormonal teenagers, having spent years exercising your bodies to as close to perfection as possible, in constant close quarters, in nothing but whatever they're wearing to bed.
{Hush, you prude. Nothing's even happened, and it probably won't anyway. Besides, Beacon's co-ed. You might well have to do this for the next four years.}
True.
In all honesty, you are just complaining because it keeps your mind off of other things. Like the fact that Ozpin's soul is...
How do you even quantify what's happened to him? Is his soul corrupted? Suffering from metaphysical elephantiasis? Is that just something that happens to Huntsmen who live as long as he has? Because he's been doing this for longer than you, your parents or your grandparents have been alive, and frankly, you don't think you get to that age in this business without becoming just a little off.
And if what Blue's saying is right, Ozpin's a lot more off than your average hunting vet.
{Ok, we've looked over what we got. So, I have good news and I have bad news.}
"Bad news first," you murmur, trying to keep this conversation away from prying ears.
{Well, we're not wrong. His soul is wholly different from what we've seen in… literally anyone else. It's an unknown, entirely unlike anything we've ever seen before.}
None of that does anything to comfort you. You suppose that's why it was the bad news.
"And the good news?"
{It's not a complete unknown. We didn't get much out of it, because he was mostly out of our sensor range, but, we did get some stuff. For one thing, his soul resisted being scanned. It was too… thick, for lack of a better word. Like diving into a pool of cold honey.}
You shudder a little at the thought of cold honey covering your body, but soldier on, trying to divine where Blue's going with this.
"You couldn't scan it? Are you trying to tell me that Ozpin's soul is encrypted?" You hiss into the air, moving elsewhere when you realise people are looking at you.
{More compressed, really. We'd just need some time to pick its layers apart, then we could scan it, but it would take a long time.}
"How long would-"
{4 days before the first pass would finish, if Bracket's estimates are right.}
Fuck.
{Teal's first pass took 20 minutes, for comparison. I'll be honest, even if we could get past whatever it is that makes it so hard to scan, I'm pretty sure both you and he would be dead and buried by the time we finished with it. We just don't have the capabilities to do it in a reasonable timeframe without, well, metaphysically tearing the man to pieces.}
And that's not an option, for obvious reasons.
The death of an Academy Headmaster would be a severe blow to a Kingdom's resolve and national firepower?
Also that murder is bad.
That too.
01 hops into your lap, trying to get your attention.
We also have developments to report!
"Hey, can't be any worse news than what I've had so far."
While technically tempting fate, the Process literally has no opportunities to create bad news for you-
In order of importance as long-term hurdles:
- Process presence in City of Vale bedrock has reached 400km² in area, covering the Port District and large parts of the Commercial and Industrial Districts.
- The bedrock under Vale is infested with large, subterranean Grimm that are unlike anything on record, in numbers that would be considered concerning if they could actually sense humans from that deep underground. Currently, we have not engaged with them out of concern that we may draw the ire of the horde- instead, we have simply replaced their nests and tunnels with Processed matter. Due to the higher priority of exterminating Grimm, expansion was halted until the full network was uncovered, and continued as scheduled roughly 18 hours ago. We have found the entirety of the nest network- though due to its relative size, we believe it is only one of several.
- We have discovered large pockets of Dust ore in the bedrock and have begun extracting and storing it near the surface for eventual retrieval.
- We are unable to interact with pure Dust on the same level as other molecular matter.
That's... a lot to take in, but you stand by your hubris-infused statement.
First thing's first- 400km² isn't anything to sniff at. That's a few towns of real estate there.
{Shame you own none of it.}
Yeah... can't, really help that. You're not sure you'd have the money to buy up all the Processed land in the city if you worked yourself half to death from now to the end of the world, let alone when that land is in the Port District.
Second- subterranean Grimm, unknown variety, 'concerning' numbers, if they could actually sense humans from that deep. Overall...
{Not really something to worry about unless someone starts digging.}
Like you're going to be.
{... Yes. like you're going to be- wait, what?}
You can't just have Dust ore magically appear out of thin air. Even if it's just a ten-foot hole in the ground surrounded by a mile of very heavily protected land, you're still gonna need to do something to make finding that kind of thing believable. Speaking of, if you refined that ore, how much Dust would you end up with, anyway?
The Process gives you the number.
"Fuck me, really?" You ask, the curse slipping out in a breath of pure shock.
{Congratulations, Jaune, you're sitting on a stockpile that could crash the world Dust trade three times over and make you the richest person on the planet for about five seconds before the economy tanks.}
... And... you can't touch it.
{Yet. Until you own some land. And a method of selling it in bulk, 'mining' it, a company to actually facilitate all of this oh hey look it's that thing I've been telling you to start for about three days now.}
You're pretty sure you don't have the money to start a-
{120 Lien.}
What?
{It costs 120 Lien to register a private company with Companies House. You can act as the sole shareholder and director, we've had the legal documents waiting in the backburners for a while now- all we really need you to do is come up with a name, figure out what to register the company as, and then sign a- well, not a piece of paper, but you get the gist. Setting up shop in Vale is easy. You just have to actually read the website and have a business plan to work with. It's not rocket science.}
... Huh.
Well... good to know, you suppose.
You do have to admit that Blue has a point- you can't really do anything with the Process in any great measure without setting up a company. Well, nothing that won't get you executed or be so inefficient that you'll be old and grey before it actually pays back the effort you put in.
It's time to bite the bullet.
This is a long time coming, but you knew you had to do it eventually.
[] What do you want to name this company? (Write-In) (Nothing silly, please. Give the boy some dignity.)
What are you going to register your company as doing for its main line of business? (Companies can do more than one thing, obviously, but this is what you'll start out doing- you can expand into other things later.)
[] Manufacture of Consumer Electronics (Personal Assistants)
[] Construction of Commercial Buildings (Real Estate)
[] Artistic Creation (Artsy Statues)
[] Write-in (Give a quick description and I'll give it a w/x/y/z score when I aggregate options.)
... What are you gonna do about those Grimm?
[] DED- They're Grimm. Get rid of them before something bad happens, it's just common sense.
[] On the other hand... they're not, actually doing anything to anyone. Their deaths, right now, are entirely unnecessary. Shit, maybe they'll come in handy for a demonstration. The point is, killing them right now doesn't actually benefit you in any way aside from guaranteeing your peace of mind.
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