Chapter 41 - Study Partners
Study Partners
Pyrrha stepped into the Team YRDN – Team YRBN now, she supposed – dorm room. "How are you finding your new accommodations?" she asked politely.
Blake was already seated at the desk. "It's nice to have a bed that I can sleep in without feeling guilty about it," she said dryly. "How are you?"
Pyrrha chuckled softly. "You ask me that as though it's been a while since we last saw each other," she declared.
Blake smiled, at least for a moment. "Please, take a seat."
"Thank you," Pyrrha said quietly as she pulled out the chair and sat down along the same bank of desks as Blake, the two of them facing the wall, although they both turned their chairs so that they were halfway to facing each other too. "Are the rest of the team alright with us driving them out of the room like this?"
"It's fine," Blake assured her. "They all have somewhere else to be."
"It's just that Jaune and Dove are using the dorm room across the hall," Pyrrha explained.
"It's fine," Blake repeated. "It's nice to spend some time in my own room." She sighed. "I need to get used to it, for as long as I'm here."
"Hmm," Pyrrha murmured. "Sunset mentioned that you were thinking of transferring to Atlas."
"'Mentioned' seems a kind word for what I can imagine her saying," Blake observed.
Pyrrha let out a nervous laugh. "Well," she said, "I think we'd all… if you were to stay here, we would all be very glad of your company," she added, "but if Atlas is what you want, then, well… who am I to tell you not to cross an ocean in pursuit of your dreams?"
Blake's smile returned to her face, a little broader this time. "Can I ask why you did it?" she asked. "Chose Beacon over Haven?"
"Beacon's reputation stands higher than that of Haven Academy," Pyrrha replied. "Everyone knows that there are no better huntsmen than those trained at Beacon Academy."
"On average," Blake pointed out.
"True, but you cannot have been blind to the allure of Beacon's reputation when you chose it for yourself," Pyrrha murmured.
"Of course not, but I don't have the power to single-handedly reverse the fortunes of Haven," Blake said.
Pyrrha snorted. "You make too much of me."
"You don't make enough of yourself."
"A fact that is… not entirely accidental, I assure you," Pyrrha murmured. Her green eyes locked into Blake's golden gaze. "At the risk of indulging in a great amount of self-pity, can you imagine what it would have been like for me at Haven? Not only the Invincible Girl but the Princess Without a Crown too? The Champion of Mistral, her pride and glory reborn. There is no doubt in my mind that I could have spent the Initiation dithering hopelessly, and Professor Lionheart would have made me team leader for no other reason than it was expected of him. I would have been indulged in everything I wanted, allowed to break whatever rules I felt like, fawned on and flattered without regard for whether I deserved flattery, let alone for whether I wanted it or not." She shook her head. "No, that was… that was not what I desired out of my training."
Blake nodded. "When I was a little younger, before I came to Vale with… before I came to Vale, I was close to Sienna Khan, the leader of the White Fang. After my parents left for Menagerie, my name no longer carried any weight, but the fact that I was sat at Sienna's feet meant that there was still no shortage of people who sought her favour through me. I have some idea of what you're talking about. I don't blame you for wanting to get away."
Pyrrha was quiet for a moment. "Flattery is never pleasant, or I have not found it so, but do you think that it is worse when one knows oneself to be without true friends, or does having real friendship – or more than that – to contrast it against makes it worse when people are obviously insincere when they pretend to care?"
Blake looked thoughtful. "I don't think it matters," she admitted. "It doesn't make it any less or more insincere than it was before. Why?"
"Oh, nothing really," Pyrrha said. "I was just thinking… my mother wished me to return to Mistral and transfer to Haven for the beginning of this semester, because of the danger posed by the White Fang. I was just wondering if everything I just described would have been even worse for me if I had carried my members of Team Sapphire with me when I went there."
"I couldn't say," Blake replied. "And you'll never have to find out."
Pyrrha smiled. "No," she said gladly. "No, I won't."
"Is that why you're not speaking to your mother?" Blake asked. "Because she wanted you to come home?"
Pyrrha licked her lips. "No," she said, quietly but firmly. "No, that is because… she tried to come between me and Jaune," she said, after a moment. "And she did so in a way that… it isn't easy for me to forgive."
Blake might not have fully understood, but she was courteous enough to not ask for any further details. Instead, she said, "I… I can't say for certain how bad it was, the thing she did to you, and I'm not going to tell you that your anger with her isn't merited; we have the right to be treated well by those who claim to love us, and we can't… we can't let ourselves forget that. But... speaking as someone who hasn't spoken to either of her parents for too long, eventually the anger burns out, and all you're left with is their absence from your life… but by then, it can often be too late."
Pyrrha pursed her lips together. She reached out and took Blake's hand. "How long has it been?"
"Five years," Blake said. "Since my father stepped down as High Leader and retired to Menagerie."
"They were angry at you for staying?"
Blake shook her head. "I was angry at them for leaving. I… said things that… at first, I didn't want to unsay them, and then, by the time I changed my mind… assuming that I could have taken them back… it had been too long by far."
"I'm sure that isn't true."
"You don't know what I said."
"No," Pyrrha allowed, "but if your parents love you, then-"
"Then they'll forgive me, as you've forgiven your mother?" Blake asked.
Pyrrha's mouth tightened. "You make a very good point. Two very good points, one of which is that I have no right to lecture you."
"I didn't mean to be harsh or rude or unkind," Blake said quickly. "Please, forgive me."
"There's nothing to forgive," Pyrrha insisted. "You were quite right." She paused, a little hesitant, wondering if she was once again about to pry into Blake's private affairs, and yet, the glint of the silver armband around Blake's left arm, the light reflecting off it even as it glimmered off the band of gold and bronze that Pyrrha wore, called silently out to her.
"That's a very pretty armband," Pyrrha observed, somewhat disingenuously.
Blake glanced at the silver band, where it rested upon the black silk bound around her arm. "It's not as fancy as yours," she replied.
"No," Pyrrha murmured. "I suppose it isn't. May I ask, is it an honour band?"
Blake blinked. "Of course you know what that is," she whispered. "You're the first person to ask, but-"
"I am a Mistralian, after all," Pyrrha reminded her.
"So are Ren and Nora," Blake pointed.
"Yes, but I think Ren and Nora have had an… unconventional upbringing," Pyrrha replied. The honour band was an important part of Mistralian culture – there was a reason why the Haven uniform featured a white band around the left arm – but it was specifically the culture of the elite, the warrior aristocrats of old, and neither Ren nor Nora could be said to be that, for all their splendid virtues. "I suppose I'm a little surprised; I never thought of you as being Mistralian."
"I'm not," Blake admitted, "but my parents were, and so was my mentor, and I spent some time in Mistral." Her hand pulled free from Pyrrha's grip and went to the band around her arm; whether it was purposeful or reflexive, Pyrrha couldn't have said. "Did your mother give that to you?" One did not simply choose their own band; it was a gift, and through wearing, it you honoured in deed them who had bestowed it on you.
"Actually, no," Pyrrha replied. "My teacher, Chiron, gave this to me when I was sixteen years old and he had nothing left to teach me."
A smile played across Blake's lips. "What words did you choose?" she asked, referring to the inscription that she guessed would be on the inside of the band, invisible but pressing against Pyrrha's skin.
Pyrrha traced a circle on the wood of the desk with one gloved fingertip. "With Good Fortune."
Blake's eyebrows rose. "Not what I would have expected," she confessed.
"Why not?" Pyrrha asked. "I have been exceedingly lucky throughout my life, from the circumstances in which I was born to… if I had not been born Pyrrha Nikos, I doubt that I would be where I am today."
"You might be happier if you had been born someone else," Blake suggested.
"Perhaps," Pyrrha allowed, "but I would not be in such a position to assist the world and I must be thankful for that. I have been lucky in my semblance, too, that has helped me to a few of my victories. Lucky in my teammates, my friends, lucky…" She felt a faint flush of colour rise to her cheeks. "Lucky in Jaune." She chuckled. "I have been very blessed throughout my life, and I am not unmindful of it."
"Well, when you put it like that," Blake murmured. "Just so long…"
"Blake?" Pyrrha prompted.
"Don't let your thankfulness for good luck make you forget that you… don't let it convince you that you don't deserve these things; luck isn't the only reason you are where you are."
"Are you sure I'm the one who needs that advice?"
Blake snorted. "I'm better at giving advice than taking it."
Pyrrha did her the decency of not agreeing with that. "What of you? Who gave you your band?"
Blake was quiet for a moment, and Pyrrha feared that she would say it was Adam, that brute who seemed to leave such a cruel mark upon all who crossed his path, but she said in the end, "Sienna Khan, after my first battle." She pressed her fingers against it. "It probably seems perverse of me to keep wearing it, to honour her even after leaving her cause, but-"
"But she was your mentor," Pyrrha declared, "and you cannot forget it."
"No," Blake agreed quietly. "I can't."
"And your words?" Pyrrha asked.
Blake paused for a moment. "M-molon labe," she said, with a slight tremor of hesitation in her voice.
Now, it was Pyrrha's turn to raise her eyebrows. "'Come and take them'?"
"I was a kid at the time," Blake said defensively. "And besides, it was-"
"The response of the first faunus rebels when they were ordered to lay down their arms at the very beginning of the revolution," Pyrrha murmured. "I know." She smiled. "To be perfectly honest, I think it suits you."
Blake looked away. "I… I think we should probably get started on our project, or we will have kicked everyone else out of the room only to waste our time."
"I don't regard this time as wasted," Pyrrha said quietly. "We don't seem to have spent much time together alone, and I… I regret that."
Blake nodded. "I regret that too," she said, "but I think we still ought to get to work."
"Probably," Pyrrha conceded. "Do you have any idea what story you want to work on for Doctor Oobleck?"
Blake frowned. "I… I'm not sure," she said. "I don't want to impose my tastes upon you."
"Well," Pyrrha said, feeling a little guilty now that she had given some to which tale she would like to tackle. "I was wondering if we might look at The Shallow Sea."
Blake blinked. "Did you think that would be a good idea because I'm a faunus?"
"No," Pyrrha said quietly. "Because it's one of my favourites."
Blake was silent a moment. "I'm sorry," she said. "That wasn't called for. It's just… well, it's just that I'm very defensive, as you've probably noticed already; it's something that I need to work on."
Pyrrha didn't say anything; she didn't want to make Blake feel bad about herself, after all.
"But it's also because… The Shallow Sea is a story passed down amongst faunus, orally," Blake said. "The version in the textbook is the first time that it's been written down," she added, with a touch of rancour in her voice.
"You don't approve," Pyrrha said.
"No," Blake replied flatly. "Professor Ozpin-"
"Had good intentions, I'm sure," Pyrrha said.
"He explains his intentions perfectly well, but that's not the point," Blake declared. "He can't just decide to appropriate a culture not his own – our culture – because he's worried that the story will die out otherwise."
"And if it does die out?" Pyrrha asked.
"Then so be it," Blake said sharply. "That is our choice, to let it die and fade from memory. The story of the men who jumped from the ship into the water because they had faith in the promise of the God of Faunus belongs to those whose people…" She stumbled, momentarily at least, and when she continued, her voice was quieter. "Those whose people jumped from the ships because they knew that death was better than slavery." Her brow furrowed. "My mother told me that story in the cradle," she confessed. "As her mother told her and so on. If my mother had decided not to pass it on to me then that would have been her choice, if I choose not to pass it on to my daughter then that's my choice."
"And it was my trainer's choice to tell me that story when I was a girl," Pyrrha said, "or was that choice not allowed, because the tale does not belong to me?"
"Your trainer was a faunus?"
"A horse faunus, yes," Pyrrha explained. "He never taught at Haven – he was strictly a private tutor – but nevertheless, he was reputed to be the greatest trainer of warriors in all of Mistral."
"'Was'?" Blake repeated. "Is he-"
"No," Pyrrha said. "At least… to be honest, I don't know. He could be, although I hope not. After he declared that he had nothing left to teach me, after he gave me this band," – it was Pyrrha's turn to reach up and touch the band of gold and bronze that sat so snugly around her arm – "he left the city. He did not tell me where he was going, or my mother, or… anyone. He simply left. I wish that he had kept in touch, I was very fond of him."
"He must have been fond of you too, to tell you that story," Blake said gently. "The Shallow Sea is… you came by it honestly, and I think that your love for it is honest too."
"Whereas if I had first found it in Professor Ozpin's book, it would have been dishonest?"
Blake shuffled uncomfortably. "Well… I have to admit that I didn't get mad at Penny for liking it."
"I suspect that if you had, you might not still have all your own teeth," Pyrrha muttered.
Blake laughed. "Team Rosepetal are very protective," she admitted. "Although when I did upset Penny, all I got was a stern talking-to from Ciel."
"How did you manage to upset someone so kind and cheerful as Penny?"
A guilty look settled upon Blake's face like an airship on the docking pad. "Who do you think gave her the idea that you and Ruby would hate her for being a robot?"
"Ah," Pyrrha said. "I see. You were lucky to get away with a stern talking-to."
"Perhaps," Blake acknowledged. "Or perhaps they accepted that I didn't mean it; I was just… letting my own feelings get in the way. Again. She likes The Shallow Sea too, you know?"
"Really?"
"It's not surprising," Blake said. "Now that you tell me about it, it doesn't surprise me that it's a favourite of yours either. Transformation into something more than people think you can be, being seen for what you really are."
Pyrrha laughed self-deprecatingly. "You have no idea how many nights I lay awake wishing that some god would transform me into my true self, so that I could be seen – really seen – by everyone."
"Being seen," Blake said, "isn't always all that it's cracked up to be."
"No," Pyrrha murmured. "I suppose… I can see that it isn't for everyone." Blake had, after all, spent several weeks hiding who and what she was.
"But then again," Blake continued, "I had the chance to hide what I was, and although a part of me hoped that if I hid what I was, then I might be seen for who I was… another part of me kept on picking fights with Rainbow Dash until my secret came out, so how much did I really want to hide, and how much… how much did I really want to be seen, too?"
"I… I understand why you wanted to hide," Pyrrha murmured. "Or rather, I don't understand, I can never understand because – as we've established – I was born blessed with good fortune, or, as we might say, unutterable privilege in every single respect. Anyway, my point is, I don't blame you for wanting to hide a part of yourself, but I'm not sure that we can ever be seen for who we are…"
"If we are hiding what we are?" Blake suggested.
Pyrrha looked away. "I'm talking about things I have no right to speak of."
"It's fine," Blake said. "You might even be right. Since I… I've made more friends since I started being honest with people."
"That might be a coincidence," Pyrrha pointed out.
"Or it might not," Blake replied. She hesitated. "If you don't mind, I'd rather not do our essay on The Shallow Sea. It isn't one of my favourites."
"No?" Pyrrha asked. "I thought you said your mother told it to you?"
"That doesn't mean I have to have a continued fondness for it," Blake said.
"No," Pyrrha conceded. "I'm sorry."
Blake waved her apology away with one hand. "It doesn't matter, it's just… like I said, my feelings on being seen for your true self are a little more ambivalent than a fairytale princess."
"Did you just call me a fairytale princess?"
Blake shrugged. "They may call you the Princess Without a Crown, but we both know a storybook princess doesn't need one."
"They need virtues-"
"Which you have, in abundance," Blake declared, "but if you don't like it, then I won't bring it up again."
"I, um," Pyrrha hesitated. "It's… very kind of you, I'm sure, I just… I suppose I just don't think of myself that way."
"Fine," Blake said quickly. "Another argument against the The Shallow Sea is that there's not much to it; there's the central metaphor, and you could possibly talk about courage and faith, but other than that… what is there to say?"
"What about the religious elements?" Pyrrha asked. "I mean… isn't he…?" She found, a little suddenly, that asking 'isn't he your god?' made the act of enjoying this story on a metaphorical level seem a little, well, as culturally appropriative as Blake had accused it of being.
"Very few people worship the god spoken of in that particular story nowadays," Blake replied, "and most of those who do live on Menagerie."
"I can see why," Pyrrha replied. "The island promised to your people."
"That's one of the reasons I don't like that story all that much," Blake muttered. "It's all very well to speak of Menagerie as our birthright, but the truth is that it wasn't bestowed upon us by any god, but by men who wanted to get rid of us. The whole world should be our birthright; we have as much right to all of Remnant as any man." Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. "Sorry, I… didn't mean to get on the stump like that."
"It's fine," Pyrrha assured her. "Your passion is admirable, and a little enviable, to be perfectly honest."
"You wouldn't think so if you had to live with it," Blake informed her. "The point is, in all my life, I've only met one person who took The Shallow Sea for the truth of how we came to be. There is a… a cult around the God of Animals, and in the White Fang, it is quite popular, but it's the god of the The Judgement of Faunus whom they worship."
"May I ask," Pyrrha said, "why it is that faunus stories have no endings? They don't conclude so much as they… just stop."
The corners of Blake's lips twitched. "Has your life ended now that you're with Jaune?"
"No," Pyrrha said. "Of course not."
"And that's why our stories don't end," Blake explained. "Because life doesn't work like that. Our stories don't end; even at the end of our lives, we're lucky to have accomplished everything that we set out to do, if we even find out what it is that we were meant to do. Mostly we… just stop."
"I can't help but feel that's rather bleak."
"If we're lucky, we pass on our work to the new generation to carry it forward," Blake continued. "Our story stops, but the story of our people carries on, and it hasn't ended yet. We haven't even found our destiny, as they would put it in Mistral. And neither have I."
"Atlas or Beacon," Pyrrha whispered.
"Atlas or Beacon," Blake agreed. "Are there any other stories that you like that we could take as our subject instead?"
"Well," Pyrrha said, "The Girl in the Tower is another favourite of mine."
"Are you sure you're not a fairytale princess?" Blake asked.
"Please stop," Pyrrha begged, but warmly and with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"I'm sorry, but… it's quite adorable, really. The story of a lonely girl imprisoned by her cruel father, longing for a hero to appear and rescue her from the drudgery of her existence."
"I'm sure that every young girl feels that way, about her parents and her lot in life," Pyrrha murmured. "The difference is that most of them grow out of waiting for a beautiful boy to ride in on a white horse and sweep them off their feet."
"There's no need to reproach yourself," Blake informed her. "Just because you can fight ten men single-handed-"
"I've never actually done that."
"I wouldn't bet against you," Blake said. "Although, I must confess, when I was young, I always wondered why the princess didn't rescue herself."
"Some prisons, you can't fight your way out of," Pyrrha replied. "Certainly not alone."
"No," Blake whispered. "I… understand that a little better."
"I don't want to bring up any bad memories," Pyrrha told her. "If you would rather write about something else then-"
"No," Blake said. "The Girl in the Tower is fine. It's a pretty story, and there's space to talk about different aspects of it."
"You think so?" Pyrrha asked. "I was a little worried you would find the metaphors quite blunt; the husband literally killing the father, the heroine writing the story, that sort of thing."
"I didn't say that all the aspects were subtle, but there are a few of them," Blake said. "An essay's worth, at least."
Pyrrha nodded. "I just hope…" she chuckled. "I just hope that we don't end up writing all the wonder out of it."
XxXxX
Across the hall, in the Team SAPR dorm room, Dove took a seat next to Jaune. "Thank you for having me," he said stiffly, but then, Dove Bronzewing could be stiff about things in Jaune's experience.
Which was… a little limited, Jaune had to admit. Considering that they had eaten opposite Team YRDN for a whole semester, Jaune knew very little about their recently departed teammate. Which wasn't entirely his fault; Dove wasn't loud enough to make himself heard over Yang and Nora, but with Ren around, he couldn't be 'the quiet one' either.
But all the same, it made Jaune a little nervous having to work with the guy and even more nervous that he would soon be having training sessions with him.
That nervousness, or getting over it, was probably the point of Doctor Oobleck setting them this exercise. If they were going to be huntsmen, they were going to have to be able to work with all kinds of people and not be prissy about it.
"Don't mention it," Jaune said, trying to sound at ease. "We have to work somewhere, right? Besides, I should be thanking you for agreeing to become my sparring partner."
Dove laughed. "You don't need to be dating Pyrrha to know that Lyra's getting much more out of this deal than you are."
"To a point," Jaune said, "but Pyrrha thinks it will be good for me, and I trust her."
"She thinks it will be good for you to beat me," Dove said. "I hope you don't mind if I don't make it easy for you."
"Of course not," Jaune replied rapidly. "I'm not… I don't want victories to stroke my ego. I want to get better so I can stand alongside Pyrrha and Ruby and Sunset. It's just-"
"Hard to see how you're making progress sometimes," Dove finished for him. "Lyra complains about the same thing. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that sparring with Pyrrha will help her very much in that."
Jaune winced. "Probably not." He hesitated. "I… maybe I could-"
"I'm not sure that's a good idea either," Dove told him. "It's generous to offer, but…"
Jaune frowned. "What? I'm not good enough?"
"That's not what worries me," Dove admitted. "You've been training with Pyrrha, and I've watched you in sparring class; you're getting better. Considering that you started off worse than Lyra, I'm worried that if you were spar with her – and I admit I'm sort of dreading sparring class for this reason – and win, then… she'll get discouraged."
"I can get that," Jaune murmured. When your dream seemed out of reach, when it seemed as though the mountain to climb was more of a sheer wall with no handholds, then it was very easy to give up hope and give up trying too. If it hadn't been for the support of Pyrrha – and Sunset giving him a bit of a kick up the ass when he needed it the most – then he would never have made it this far. "I got… really lucky, with my teammates. I got the most talented girl in the school to help me."
"Mhmm," Dove murmured. One eyebrow rose. "And not just to help you, right?"
Jaune laughed nervously. "Right. I got lucky there, too."
Dove nodded. "Don't waste it."
"Huh?"
Dove's face became sad, the corners of his mouth descending, his brow furrowing, his head falling forwards a little bit. "Don't… you're serious about her, right?"
Jaune thought about it for a moment. "I… I can't imagine what I'd do without her."
Dove's smile was melancholy, touched by frost. "Then hold tight to her," he said, "and don't let her go. If you do, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."
Jaune didn't know what to say to that; Dove certainly seemed to be speaking from personal experience here, but that didn't help Jaune decide what to do about it; he didn't know Dove well enough to know how he was supposed to react.
Does it matter? If he needs help, then he needs help, no matter who he is. "Do you… want to talk about it?"
Dove shook his head. "No, I'd rather… we should get to work; that's what we're here to do."
"Sure," Jaune said. "But you know, if… but yeah. So… any ideas?"
Dove half rose out of his seat so that he could get a better look at the bookshelves. "I can't see The Song of Olivia anywhere around here," he said, sounding a little disappointed.
"Ruby took it with her," Jaune explained.
"Ah."
"Were you thinking of doing our report on it?" Jaune asked, slightly nervously.
"Why not?" Dove replied. "I have read it about fifteen times. I remember most of the important bits."
"I haven't read it at all," Jaune said, "so I'm a little worried that there's not much I'd be able to contribute."
"That's a fair point," Dove muttered. "I suppose I'm just one of those people who tries to do all the work themselves. Ruby enjoys it, then?"
"Oh, yeah, she loves it," Jaune assured him. "That was a great gift you gave her. Especially when you didn't have to."
"Hmm?"
"Come on," Jaune said. "Everyone knows that it was Lyra and Bon Bon who spilled everything about Sunset and Pyrrha having it out, and you covered for them when you didn't have to."
"Were they angry?"
"Sunset was… a little annoyed," Jaune conceded.
"Then I had every reason to cover for them," Dove declared. "Huntsmen are supposed to stand between danger and-"
"And those who can't protect themselves, believe me, I get it," Jaune interrupted, "but Lyra and Bon Bon are training to be huntresses as well; they don't need your protection. I want to stand alongside Pyrrha and Ruby and Sunset, but I would never say that I want to stand in front of them."
"My grandfather taught me to protect women."
"I grew up with seven sisters; if I'd suggested that they needed protection, they would have killed me," Jaune replied.
"Fair enough," Dove muttered. "I mean, obviously I know that girls like Yang and Nora don't need someone like me to keep them safe, but not every girl is Yang or Nora."
"And not every guy is you or Ren or even me," Jaune said. "I'm not sure the grimm care about chivalry. I want to become a huntsman so I can protect everyone."
"So do I. I just…" Dove trailed off, groaning as he ran his hands through his golden-brown birds nest atop his head. "I just… something about Lyra – and Bon Bon too – it… I want to keep them safe."
"Is that why you transferred onto their team?"
"They needed a fourth man," Dove insisted. "Some teams can manage with three; other teams… Lyra is a natural support, if only she could admit it, but that leaves them with only two people on the front line, and Bon Bon and Sky… I know that I'm not the greatest student in the year, but I'm the best on offer for them, and I want to be there for them, if I can."
"You don't need to explain yourself to me," Jaune told him.
"You're friends with Blake," Dove reminded him. "I know that they haven't exactly treated Blake well, and I didn't want her to think that I… it's nothing to do with her."
"I know," Jaune said. "And so does Blake."
"Good," Dove said. "Good, because I… I wouldn't want her to think that I… I know that Sunset thought that I… how did you do it?"
Jaune frowned. "Do what?"
"You came from a small town, right? The same as me?"
Jaune nodded. "Yeah."
"So how were you not weirded out by the faunus?" Dove asked. "When I arrived here, I'd never seen anything like them; it was… weird. Sure, I stared, and it probably didn't make them feel good, but come on, I was seeing something strange; I'm not Cardin! So how did you… not do that?"
"I…" Jaune shrugged. "I don't know. I can't say I'd ever seen any faunus before I left home either, but… I don't know."
"Thanks, that's a big help."
"Sorry."
"One more question and then we can get down to work," Dove promised. "How do you… your semblance, it boosts other people's aura."
"Right."
"So you support your teammates?"
"Right again."
"How do you deal with it?" Dove asked. "Don't you want to be the hero?"
Jaune leaned on the desk. "Why do you ask?"
"Lyra's semblance is similar, in some ways," Dove explained. "She can use her music to boost the abilities of those around her. I tell her that she ought to focus on that, on using her semblance to strengthen the team, Bon Bon tells her the same thing, but she doesn't want to hear it. She wants to be out in front, striking down monsters. She'd rather use the sword she struggles with than the harp she excels with. I don't know how to open up her eyes, and I was hoping that you might… I was hoping you could tell me how you got over it."
"Gradually, by degrees," Jaune told him. "Sure, I wanted to be the hero when I first came to Beacon. Is there anyone who comes to Beacon who doesn't want to be the hero?"
"Nora," Dove told him. "She'd happily stand in Ren's shadow for the rest of her life, I think, as long as she could watch him shine." He paused. "Of course, the irony is that she's a lot more talented than he is."
"You think so?" Jaune asked. "Ren always struck me as really determined."
"He is, but that doesn't mean that he can do much with it," Dove replied. "I'm not saying he's bad, but Nora has him beat by just about any measure, and I say that with the admission that she has me beat too. But anyway, how did you do it?"
Jaune shrugged. "I… saw some stuff," he said. "I realised that this wasn't a game, that there were lives at stake – the lives of my friends, the lives we fight to protect – and I realised that I needed to stop worrying about glory and what people thought of me and focus on doing the best I could, however I could. But saying it like that makes it seem like I'm all over it; there are times when… when I still get a little jealous that the thing I'm best at it is making other people stronger."
"It takes sun and rain to get a harvest," Dove reminded him.
"I know, I grew up on a farm too," Jaune told him, "but nobody wants to be the raincloud. I… don't know how to help with Lyra."
"It's not your job to help me with my problems," Dove said. "But thanks for trying." He clasped his hands together. "Now, if you don't want to study The Song of Olivia, then what do you want to write about?"
XxXxX
"The Song of Olivia, huh?" Rainbow inquired, as she looked down at the antique volume on the table in front of her. "What's that about?"
"It's so disappointing that more people haven't heard of this," Ruby said softly. She and Rainbow Dash were sat in the library, and she guessed that it wasn't a coincidence that they were sat in a position that let them – that let Rainbow Dash – keep an eye on both Penny where she was working with Cardin and Twilight where she was working with Neptune.
Ruby didn't blame Rainbow for setting things up that way – and it wasn't just Rainbow either; on the balcony above, Ruby could see Ciel and Yang with a good view of everything and everyone beneath them – because to be honest, she was a little worried about Penny and Cardin herself. Not just, or not even, because Penny was a robot, but because Penny was a sweet, kind, innocent girl with a good heart, and Cardin was, well, Cardin.
Ruby didn't want to see Penny get hurt even more than Rainbow did.
She wondered if Cardin realised how many people he would have to answer to if he did upset Penny in any way.
On the other hand, there didn't seem to be much to worry about when it came to Twilight and Neptune. They were too far away for Ruby to hear what Neptune had just said, but it had put Twilight in stitches; she was covering her mouth demurely as he giggled, her eyes closed and her body shaking.
"Ugh," grunted Rainbow.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.
"Nothing," Rainbow said quickly. "I just… you can keep a secret, right?"
"I'm keeping a few already, so you'd better hope so," Ruby said with a slight smile.
Rainbow snorted. "Yeah, I guess that's about the sum of it, isn't it? The truth is… now, you can't tell Twilight this, but the truth is…" She leaned down and sideways so that her head was almost touching that of Ruby's sat beside her. "The truth is that I've never liked any of Twilight's boyfriends. Every time she goes out with a guy, I have to pretend to like him, and it's really hard sometimes."
Ruby frowned. "But Twilight and Neptune aren't going out; they're just-"
"Give it a minute; he'll ask her out by the time this coursework is done," Rainbow assured her.
"What makes you so sure?"
"Everyone asks Twilight out," Rainbow replied. "Everybody's into her, and she always gives them a chance, even though none of them deserve her-"
"What about Flash?" Ruby asked.
"Flash… okay, she didn't give Flash a chance," Rainbow allowed. "But to be honest, I think she might have if it hadn't been so obvious that he was just latching onto the first girl to be nice to him after he broke up with Sunset."
"You make it sound like breaking up with Sunset hurt him," Ruby said, "but it was him who broke up with her, wasn't it?"
Rainbow's brow furrowed. "What's Sunset told you about that?"
"Nothing," Ruby confessed. "She doesn't talk about it at all; that's how I know it really hurt."
"Because Sunset likes to talk, huh?"
Ruby grinned. "Kind of, in a nice way."
Rainbow snorted. "That's… well, you're not wrong, but… look, just because Flash was the one who ended it doesn't mean that he got away without any scars. Dude was a mess, Twilight helped put him back together – we all helped, but Twilight did most of it because, well, she's Twilight – and he… well he thought that… anyway, my point is that if he'd waited a year and then asked her out, she might have gone on a date with him because she gives these guys a chance more often than not, and I just don't get it."
Ruby shrugged. "What's there to get?"
"The fact that they're all losers," Rainbow said. "Just like that guy over there, the only thing they have going on is that they're cute; none of them deserve Twilight."
"A lot of people would say that Jaune doesn't deserve Pyrrha," Ruby pointed out.
"And a lot of people would be right, what's he got going on?" Rainbow asked.
"Don't you dare say that again!" Ruby snapped, so loudly that she caught Yang looking down on her out of the corner of her eye. "Jaune may not be cool or confident; he isn't charming like a storybook prince or suave like some movie star, but he's sweet and kind, and he's got a good heart and a big one too. He's never mean, and he never sets out to hurt anyone, and he's always there for his friends, and-"
"And you like him, don't you?"
"No," Ruby said quickly. "Why would you say something like that?"
Rainbow sniggered. "Don't worry," she said. "Your secret's safe with me."
"I don't have a secret like that," Ruby muttered petulantly.
"And if it helps, I won't say another word against him," Rainbow said. "He's not a bad guy, I get it. I just… you're right, it takes all kinds, and the heart wants what the heart wants and all that stuff. I guess that's why Rarity and Applejack and the others never had a problem with any of Twilight's guys." She ran one hand through her multi-coloured hair. "Anyway, we should get back to it." Rather than get back to it, however, she instead looked across the library to the backs of Cardin and Penny. "How do you think they're doing?"
Ruby stared at the pair of them. It was hard to tell what was happening, but it seemed to be going okay. Penny was being quiet, which was a bit unusual, but that might be because Ciel had impressed on her that libraries were supposed to be quiet.
That seemed like the sort of thing Ciel Soleil would do.
"They seem fine," she ventured.
"Hmm," Rainbow murmured. "So," she added, tapping one finger upon Ruby's treasured copy of The Song of Olivia, "what's this about, and why should I let you choose a book I've never read for our essay topic?"
"Because it's great!" Ruby cried. "It's got so much going on in it! And you don't need to read it. I've read it, and I can give you all the details. I can tell you what happens, and then you can tell me what you think, okay?"
Rainbow hesitated a moment before she nodded her head. "Okay."
"Right," Ruby said. "So, there's this shepherdess named Olivia, right? And she watches sheep for her father hundreds of years ago, when Vale was still being founded and there were little kingdoms up and down the coast. Anyway, Olivia watches sheep for her father, but she dreams of becoming something way more than that, a knight in the service of the King, battling the creatures of grimm on behalf of all mankind."
"Like a huntress?"
"Exactly like a huntress, only they didn't call them huntresses then," Ruby explained. "Anyway, when one of her sheep goes missing, Olivia follows its trail into the grimm infested forest, where she is attacked by a beowolf-"
"Does she kill it?" Rainbow asked.
"No," Ruby admitted. "She's saved by the wizard Osfred and his apprentice Nimue. They kill the beowolf, but the wizard sees that Olivia has a good and valiant heart, and so Nimue unlocks her aura while Osfred arms her with a magic sword, Durandal, and an enchanted shield, Svalinn, which she uses to slay the ursa major she finds menacing her lost lamb. When Olivia comes out of the woods with the lamb, she tells her father she will be a shepherdess no longer and leaves home to pursue her dream of-"
"Of becoming a shepherdess." Rainbow interrupted.
Ruby stifled a chuckle. "I've sometimes thought that too."
"You were the one who said that she wanted to be basically a huntress," Rainbow pointed out. "That's what we are, we're-"
"Shepherds of the people?" Ruby ventured.
"I've never heard that one before."
"It's something Pyrrha says."
"I was going to say sheepdogs, but what you said works too," Rainbow allowed. "Except that a shepherd won't bite your face off if you look at the flock funny."
"To be fair, neither will huntsmen," Ruby replied.
"True, we'll blow their faces off instead," Rainbow said. "It does seem like a pretty cool story so far, except why does she need to get a magic shield and an enchanted sword to strike out and follow her dreams?"
Ruby grinned. "Sunset asked that when Pyrrha was reading it out to us."
"Good for her," Rainbow muttered. "What's the answer?"
"Pyrrha said it was a metaphor," Ruby explained. "She said it's symbolic of her being found worthy by… by higher powers, by fate, or just by the world. Although, to be honest, I think she proved herself worthy when she went into the forest to rescue that lamb even though she knew there were grimm around."
Rainbow nodded. "So what do you think?"
"I think… I think it's just about the fact that sometimes we need a little help to get us started," Ruby said. "I always wanted to be a huntress, but for a while, it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. I wasn't coordinated; I couldn't use any weapon they tried to set me up with at Combat School; I was a total mess. Then my Uncle Qrow took me under his wing, and suddenly, I was top of the class and stopping robberies and getting invited to Beacon early and… and I owe it all to him."
"Like I owe everything to Twilight," Rainbow agreed. "Without her… I mean, I could sit here and talk myself up, but the truth is that Twilight built my wings, and General Ironwood gave me the chance to fly, so… so I guess they're my wizard and his apprentice, huh?"
"I guess," Ruby agreed. "I had a feeling you'd like this story."
"You did?" Rainbow asked. "Why?"
"Because it's not only about dreams, but about duty too," Ruby said. "Once Olivia arrives at the court, she becomes a knight in the service of the king, and from then on… well, she doesn't really get to set the rules for herself. Ever. She falls in love with the prince, but they can't be together."
"Why not?"
"Because he's the prince, and she's a shepherd."
"But she's also a knight by then, right?"
"She becomes a knight, sure, but a knight who used to be a shepherd," Ruby explained. "And I guess that meant a lot back in the old days. Anyway, even though they're in love, the king orders his son to marry a princess to join their two kingdoms together without a war, and… and he does, because even though it's not what they're hearts desire, it is the right thing to do, and because if he breaks his betrothal, they'll be at war, and people will die, and… and it's not worth it just so they can be happy."
"So what does she do?" Rainbow asked. "When the man she loves marries someone else?"
"Her duty," Ruby replied. "She goes where she is ordered to go and fights grimm and robber knights and any evildoer she comes across. She goes where her king sends her and fights his battles and leads his armies."
"That doesn't sound much like a huntress," Rainbow said. "That sounds more like an Atlesian specialist to me."
"Really?"
"Yes, really, you didn't notice that?" Rainbow asked. "She doesn't decide her own jobs; she gets given them by her boss. She serves in his army, at the forefront of the battle. That's what we do; that's what I'm training to be; the only difference is that it's a general instead of a king." She paused. "A general who is kingly, but he doesn't have a crown."
Ruby frowned. She couldn't help but think that the Atlesians – not only Rainbow Dash but Ciel too – put rather too much faith in General Ironwood. She hadn't met the man, so she couldn't really say, but she found it hard to believe that he could possibly be as noble and wise and all other things as they seemed to think. She didn't really understand where Sunset was coming from with her distrust of Professor Ozpin, but she thought it might be healthier than the unabashed worship that General Ironwood enjoyed from those who served him. She wondered if he encouraged it, if it made him feel big to have everyone look up to him.
She kept these thoughts to herself; she sensed that they would not be welcome.
"Are you okay with that?" she asked. "Giving up what you want, your dreams and your desires, to become an instrument of someone else's will?"
Rainbow's answer was a short sharp nod. "Someone has to look at the big picture," she said. "Someone has to see the whole board and see how to get everybody moving in the same direction for the greater good. A pawn can't see that; we don't have the height for it. We might think that we're doing the right thing rushing to fight a fire in one place, only to find out that that fire was a distraction from the inferno that was about to start behind us. That's why we need the General to look at everything that's going on, decide what needs to be done, and then have us do it."
"But what if he gets it wrong?" Ruby replied. "What if… what if he turned evil?"
Rainbow's eyebrows rose. "General Ironwood isn't going to turn evil, and why would you even ask something like that?"
"Because he's just a man; just because he can see the big picture doesn't mean that he can't make mistakes."
"So can I," Rainbow replied. "So can any of us. We trust the General to make the right call, just like he trusts us to pull it out of the bag when the jaws slam shut. It doesn't mean he'll always get it right, and it doesn't mean we'll always win; it just means he'll always do what he thinks is right, and we'll always give it our best shot and come out swinging."
"But what if you don't agree with him?" Ruby demanded. "What if you think he's wrong about something?"
Rainbow nodded towards the book. "Does Olivia ever think that the king is wrong about something?"
"A couple of times, yeah."
"And what does she do about it?"
"When she's young, she rides off and does what she believes is best," Ruby explained. "The next time, when she's a little older, she meets with the king – who was the prince she was in love with – and persuades him to change his mind."
"And that's what we do," Rainbow told her. "We ask him to change his mind; maybe we even beg if that doesn't work. I wasn't supposed to bring Penny to Vale – she decided to do that all by herself – but when I decided that her being here was the right thing to do, I didn't break my scroll and write General Ironwood a 'screw you' letter. I persuaded him to let Penny stay."
"And if he'd still said no?" Ruby demanded.
Rainbow's jaw tightened. "Then I would have hoped that he knew what he was doing."
"Why should he know what he's doing more than you?"
"Because he's older than I am and because a lot of good, important people trust him to know what he's doing," Rainbow replied. "Because I've seen him make the right call. Because sticking together and following orders is how we win."
"We win by doing what's right and saving everyone we can," Ruby insisted. "The fact that Olivia never gets to choose her own missions is one of the things that disappointed me about this story once I got to read it. She saves so many innocents and slays so many monsters, but the summaries all made it sound like she was much more… that she got to decide much more where she went and who she fought."
"You won't be transferring to Atlas any time soon then?" Rainbow asked cheekily.
Ruby shook her head. "You know Sunset would actually kill you if she heard you suggest that."
"I'm not scared of Sunset Shimmer," Rainbow said lightly. "She can give it her best shot if she likes."
"But seriously… I could never give up that much the way you have to to become Specialists in Atlas. I could never let someone else dictate what battles I fought or whether I fought at all."
"You couldn't trust anyone that much?"
"It's not about trust; it's about…" Ruby trailed off. Maybe it was about trust, or maybe she just didn't know how to say it. "It's about what we're fighting for. It's about who we're fighting for. I'm fighting for all of humanity-"
"I'm not just fighting for General Ironwood," Rainbow replied. "I fight for my friends, for my-"
"If General Ironwood ordered you to abandon your friends to die, would you?" Ruby asked.
Rainbow fell silent. She clenched her jaw. "I… you know that I'm repeating First Year, right?"
Ruby nodded. "I know you're eighteen, yeah."
Rainbow glanced away from her. "I… my old team, Team Raspberry, we were on a field mission. Not all first-year students get those in Atlas, but the General trusted me, so off we went. Me, Applejack, Pinkie's sister Maud, and Spearhead. The mission was to clear out a nest of sabyrs, search and destroy. Only, there turned out to be more sabyrs than we'd been expecting. A lot more. Spearhead's aura broke, one of the grimm took his arm off, so I left Applejack and Maud holding a defensive position while I carried him back to the Skyray. The professor remotely supervising the mission told me to bug out, abandon Applejack and Maud and get Spearhead to medical."
"But you didn't."
"No," Rainbow admitted. "I patched Spearhead up to stop the bleeding, and then I left him a gun and went back for my teammates." She hesitated. "But that guy was an ass, and he got fired. General Ironwood would never order me to do something like that."
"But what if he did?"
"He wouldn't!"
"But what if he did?" Ruby repeated.
Rainbow Dash did not reply. Not for a moment at least. Her brow furrowed. At last, she spoke, "When Olivia gets given the orders she doesn't like the second time, why doesn't she just ride off the way she did the first time?"
Ruby shrugged. "Because she's older?"
Rainbow shook her head. "That's not it. Well, it might not be part of it, but it's not the main thing. The main thing is that she's served her king for years by that point, right?"
Ruby nodded. "Most of her life."
"And she's eaten in his hall and all that old-time stuff?" Rainbow asked. "She doesn't just love him anymore, she knows him, and because she knows him so well, she can trust him, even if he isn't making the same decision she would have made. And it's the same way with me and General Ironwood. I've known him since I was a kid, he's who taught me most of what I know, I've been to his house. I… I know his heart, the same way that Olivia knew her king. And I know it's a good heart, the kind of heart that wouldn't… I know him, and because I know him, I can trust him, without any reservations."
"I guess I'm just not willing to risk it," Ruby said softly. "That's just… that's just not how I see my duty lying."
XxXxX
Yang, only somewhat reluctantly, turned her gaze away from looking down on her little sister from the upper gallery and focussed her attention upon her partner for this project.
Ciel Soleil. She was… to be honest, if uncharitable, she was kind of what you expected an Atlas student to be like: the manners of a robot and the personality of a brick wall.
Okay, that was more than a little unkind, and maybe it was just the fact that Yang didn't know her that well, and she was really a total hoot at parties… but she couldn't help but remember some of the things that Uncle Qrow had to say about the Atlesians and their commander when he got going. Stick up the butt didn't even begin to cover it. Sure, he'd probably been joking when he said that he'd disown either of his nieces who even thought about going to the northern academy… but he probably hadn't been completely joking.
And this assignment was going to be hard enough even with a partner she could get along with.
To say that Yang wasn't looking forward to this would be an understatement.
"So, hey," Yang said, discomfort borne of nerves seeping into her voice. "So… yeah. I guess the first thing that we should do is choose a story to work on, right?"
Ciel had taken off her beret, placing it on the table in front of her. Now, she smoothed out her hair with both hands. "Indeed."
Yang hesitated for a moment, waiting to see if – hoping that – more was forthcoming. It wasn't. "So… any ideas?"
Ciel was silent for a moment. "I… regret not," she said. "I am afraid I have never had any great fondness for fairy stories."
Yang sucked in the air between her teeth. "Me neither," she confessed. "It's not that I don't like them; it's just that… I used to read them to Ruby all the time when she was a kid, because she couldn't get enough of them. Almost every night, before she'd got to bed, I used to read her a story or two; it was like she couldn't sleep without one."
"Or she would not," Ciel suggested.
Yang snorted. "Yeah, maybe," she agreed. "Ruby… Ruby loved those stories, but I just found that reading the same stories over and over again until I could recite them from memory… it kind of killed my enthusiasm, you know?"
"Indeed," Ciel repeated. "It is much the same with me. Of my younger brothers, only Aurelien is truly devoted to such stories, but all of them were willing, at least, to listen to them. Like you, repetition and familiarity brought with them a degree of staleness."
Yang found a faint smile coming to her face. "You have younger brothers?"
"Six."
Yang's eyes widened. "'Six'? Your mom has seven kids? Was that planned?"
"We have not discussed it," Ciel replied, "but the Lady blessed her with so many children, and who is my mother to question such?"
Yang blinked. "'The Lady'?"
"The Lady of the North," Ciel explained. "A hero of our land from times long, long ago, whose deeds were so tremendous that she was granted immortality and divine status upon her death and whose spirit has continued to protect the northland and guide its people from that day down to this."
Yang leaned forward, her elbows resting upon the desk. "Sounds like a cool story; maybe we could-"
"No," Ciel said flatly. "My faith is not just a story; it is revealed truth, and it will not be subjected to critical analysis as if it were simply another piece of literature. At least, not by me."
Yang up one hand. "Sure thing, it was just an idea; I didn't mean to offend you or nothing. I've just never met anyone religious before; I didn't realise you'd take it so seriously."
"I take more things seriously than not," Ciel declared.
"Yeah, I guess that's true, but I'm glad you said it, not me," Yang said, a touch of amusement in her voice. "I really am sorry."
"It's fine," Ciel said. "I know that you spoke from ignorance rather than malice."
Yang was silent for a moment. "So… six little brothers, huh? And you the big sister of them all?"
"Indeed."
"I can't imagine what that must have been like," Yang said. She couldn't help but wonder, if Mom had stuck around, whether she and Dad would have had more. Her mind conjured the image of a host of little Rubies all running around and Yang herself desperately trying to keep hold of all of them. It might well have proven too much, even for her… but then, if Mom had stuck around, then she wouldn't have had to do it all by herself, would she?
"It was an arduous task, at times," Ciel admitted, "but by the time the younger children were born, the elder were old enough to provide me some assistance."
Yang chuckled. "Yeah, I guess they didn't all come at once, did they?" She paused. "How about your mom and dad, were they… I mean, are they-?"
"They are alive, thanks be to the Lady," Ciel said, "but my father has spent his whole career about cruisers and carriers, and my mother went from being a dropship pilot to a flight instructor; as you may realise, those careers did not leave them as much time to be active in the lives of their children as would be ideal."
"Meaning you were the one who had to walk them to and from school, make breakfast, make dinner, and put them to bed?" Yang guessed.
"From when I became old enough to do so," Ciel replied. "Fortunately, Combat School was very accommodating of my circumstances."
"But you still thanked God for after school clubs anyway, right?" Yang said, the fact that Ruby had somewhere she could hang around until Yang could come and pick her up at the end of her day had been a big boon in the couple of years until Ruby had gotten old enough to start at Combat School herself. "I mean, um-"
"I was grateful," Ciel agreed, without making an issue of what Yang had just said. "Without them, and the support of my teachers, I would have been placed in a very difficult position."
Yang nodded. "I'm really lucky with Ruby," she said. "As much as I get a little worried about how much trouble she's gotten into already, with her team – and yours – I'm really lucky that she got into Beacon early. It means I don't have to worry about her being at home all by herself."
"Your father?"
"Dad…" Yang trailed off. She didn't really know Ciel well enough to point out that Dad had enough trouble taking care of himself, let alone his children. "Dad's a teacher and a huntsman. Like you said, it doesn't always give him as much time with us as he'd like."
"Of course," Ciel murmured. "As you say, you are fortunate to have your sister here… even if aspects of her learning experience leave you anxious."
Yang chuckled. "You got that right. What about you, any of your brothers old enough to go to Combat School yet?"
"None of them wish to attend," Ciel replied. "None of them wish to become huntsmen. Tyson has a great deal of mechanical aptitude and is considering enlisting in that capacity, but none of them seek to follow in my footsteps."
"That's gotta hurt."
"Not particularly," Ciel replied. "Those that are old enough to have their own plans and ambitions have them, and the fact that they diverge from my own… they know what they want, and I am glad of that. The fact that it is not what I want… why should that upset me?"
"I guess it shouldn't, but you almost made it sound like they didn't want it because it was what you did."
"Then I misspoke and apologise for it," Ciel said.
"It's fine," Yang said. "And, I mean, if Ruby wanted something else out of her life, I'd totally support that too."
"My impression is that Ruby has never considered anything other than the path she is on," Ciel declared.
Yang grinned. "Your impression is right, Ruby's always been obsessed with this. Getting into Beacon, becoming a huntress, it's all she's ever wanted. I don't think she's ever wanted to be anything else, not even for a second."
"And you?"
Yang shook her head. "Nah, my family was always too cool for me not to want to be just like them. You ever want to become a pilot like your mom?"
"I… I want to become an officer, the first in my family to do so," Ciel declared.
"Oh, okay. Nothing wrong with ambition, I guess," Yang replied. She hesitated. "You miss your brothers?"
"I will see them again, before the Vytal Festival begins," Ciel said, "but, yes. I would need a much harder heart not to." Her lips twitched. "For good or ill, the composition of my team means that I still feel like someone's older sister."
Yang snorffled as she glanced down over the balcony to where Penny was sitting beneath them. "Well, now that you mention it… I guess, at least you've got experience."
"Indeed," Ciel agreed. "And if my comment seemed unhappy, that was not my intent. Penny is… wonderful," she said, after a moment. "It is my privilege to help and guide her, as best I can."
Yang couldn't help but wonder why it was that Penny needed to be helped and guided that way, but she didn't ask. It wasn't her place to ask, and if the answer turned out to be some kind of mental condition, then she'd feel like a jackass for bringing it up. Penny might be a little odd, but she was sweet and kind, and she was Ruby's friend, and that was good enough for Yang.
She didn't need to know any more than that.
"We should probably pick a story, shouldn't we?" she said.
"Yes," Ciel said. "We probably should."
They sat in silence for a few moments.
"You can't think of anything, can you?" Yang asked.
"No."
XxXxX
"Hello, Cardin Winchester!" Penny said brightly. "I'm excited to begin working with you."
"Hmm," Cardin murmured. This Penny girl was, not to put too fine a point on it, weird. It was Cardin Winchester's opinion that the Atlesians were an odd bunch in general; either they acted like robots, or else they didn't seem to have an 'off' switch anywhere, and that was without getting into all of their cultural issues, but even taking that into account, Penny Polendina was weird. She acted like more of a kid than Ruby Rose, who actually was a kid, and a particularly sickly sweet kid at that. Skystar's cousins, who were actual kids, acted more grown up than Penny did. It was strange, and he didn't know what to make of it.
To say that he wasn't looking forward to this was… about accurate, actually. He was aware that he could have gotten much worse partners – Sunset, Blake, Jaune – but at the same time, he could have gotten much better partners too. Like Penny's team leader, who might be a faunus – why she had been made team leader, he didn't know; he'd been given to understand that for all their faults, Atlas at least knew where faunus stood in the pecking order – but knew her place. Penny… how was he supposed to work with Penny?
He would have to find some way to work with her, because his grades were kind of below average at the moment, and while that wasn't his fault – the teachers showed favouritism to the likes of Sunset Shimmer and Blake Belladonna even though they were only faunus – knowing that didn't actually push his grades up at all.
His parents were already disappointed by his performance so far, and deaf to his excuses besides, which meant that he needed to take this chance to pull his grades up a little in order to at least show some potential for improvement.
Either that or find some way to distinguish himself in the field during training missions, but there was no guarantee that they would get the kind of mission that would let him show what he could do. In terms of field assignments too, Team WWSR was labouring under the cloud of noxious favouritism shown by the faculty: Team YRDN had gotten a mission in their first week at Beacon, while Team SAPR had been assigned a mission without even needing a professional huntsman to supervise them, in the course of which mission they had captured Roman Torchwick!
His parents didn't want to hear it, but to Cardin, it was undeniable that Team SAPR were Professor Ozpin's favourites, and while it was true that a team with Pyrrha Nikos on it was always going to attract attention, that didn't change the fact that it was a team led by a faunus and including a deadweight like Jaune Arc on it. Team WWSR had a Winchester and a Schnee on it, and they couldn't seem to get any attention at all!
What was the world coming to when money couldn't buy you success any more?
"Let's… let's just get on with it shall we?" he muttered.
Penny smiled. "I was hoping we could do our project on The Shallow Sea."
"The Shallow- no!" Cardin growled. "We are not writing our report on some faunus garbage."
Penny leaned back in her seat, leaning away from him. "What's wrong with the faunus?"
"Do you even have to ask?" Cardin demanded.
"Yes," Penny said. "That's why I asked."
Cardin's mouth hung open catching flies for a moment before he rallied to say, "Well… everyone knows that they're just a bunch of animals who-"
"I don't think everyone does know that," Penny replied. "Ruby doesn't seem to know that, and neither does Pyrrha, considering that they don't treat Sunset or Blake like an animal that I've noticed. And then there's Jaune, and Ciel, who obeys my team leader Rainbow Dash without-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you don't have to list everyone you know who-"
"Who proves you wrong when you say everyone knows that faunus are animals?" Penny suggested.
Cardin narrowed his eyes at her. "You've got kind of a smart mouth on you, you know that?"
"Really?" Penny replied. "Thank you, Cardin."
Cardin groaned. He rubbed the gap between his eyebrows as he felt a headache coming on. He wasn't blind to the fact that he was under observation by two out of three members of Penny's team – Twilight Sparkle seemed engrossed – and so there was nothing he could really do right now. "You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? Did Sunset Shimmer put you up to this?"
Penny blinked. "Put me up to what?"
"All of… all of this!" Cardin declared, gesturing up and down.
"You just gestured to all of me."
Cardin clenched his hands into fists. "You know what? Fine! We'll do The Shallow Sea if it'll get you off my back about this. What's so great about it anyway? Even the faunus don't believe this garbage."
"I think it's pretty," Penny said quietly.
Cardin frowned. "'Pretty'? Pretty how?"
"Blake says it's about being seen for who you really are," Penny said.
Cardin wasn't sure what to make of that. Was Penny not being herself? How much more herself could she possibly get? The funny thing was, though, that that wasn't the first time he had heard that explanation. He'd overheard Silverstream saying the same thing to Terramar once, when he'd come over when Skystar was babysitting her cousins.
So maybe there was something in it, even if he didn't get why that seemed to hold an attraction for Penny Polendina.
"Maybe it is," Cardin muttered. "But being seen for who you really are isn't always all that it's cracked up to be." He seemed to get along much better with people who didn't know who he really was – like Skystar – than he did with people who did. He often thought that he might have had a much better time here at Beacon if he had done what he did with Skystar and hidden away certain parts of himself that some people seemed to find… unappealing.
"You mean like those faunus children who don't know that you hate them?" Penny asked.
"How do you- oh, right, you were there," Cardin muttered. Of course she'd been there. They'd all been there. It was a miracle that his secret had held for so long. "I don't hate Silverstream and Terramar."
"But you said that faunus were-"
"I know what I said, and it doesn't… there are exceptions to every rule, okay?" Cardin declared. "Like grammar or something. Silverstream and Terramar are okay."
Penny blinked. "So you hate all faunus… except for the faunus whom you like?"
"Ye- no! I don't… it doesn't… some of them are alright, and some of them are ass."
"Isn't it the same with people?"
"They're terrorists!" Cardin snapped.
"Some of them are, and some of them aren't."
"Yeah, well, they… they look stupid," Cardin said. "With their little animal ears and tails and stuff, and they walk around like they own the place, and… you wouldn't understand."
"No," Penny said softly. "I don't understand." She was refreshingly silent for a moment before she had to open her mouth again. "Blake told me that people always hate the things that aren't like them; Rainbow and Twilight told me that wasn't true, but is that why you hate the faunus? Because they're not like you? Is that why you don't mind Silverstream and Terramar, because they are like you?"
"Why do you care?" Cardin demanded. "What does any of this matter to you?"
"Because I want to understand," Penny said.
"Well, I don't want to sit here explaining myself to you."
"Is that because you can't explain it?"
Cardin stared at her for a moment. A part of him very much wanted to pick her up and throw her across the library.
Another part of him thought that the reason he wanted this was because she was right.
Some of these faunus are real jackasses.
So is Jaune Arc.
I hate him too.
But not because he's a faunus.
So maybe I just hate assholes?
These faunus don't belong here. They don't have the right background.
But some of them do…
Cardin shook his head. What was he thinking? Why was he wasting time with this? This was giving him a headache.
Maybe the headache was trying to tell him something.
"Let's just work, okay," he grunted.
"Okay," Penny agreed. "But thank you for talking."
"Let's get on with it," Cardin growled.
He tried to get on with it, he tried to focus, he tried to get rid of everything that the odd Atlesian girl had said.
But try as he might, he just couldn't get it out of his head.