RWBY: Remnant's Blond Bard

Chapter 23

There was always a beach episode.

That was an old saying he remembered hearing online, but he had a feeling his beach episode wasn't what anyone had in mind. Oh, there were athletic girls and buff guys all in swimsuits, but most of them were running up and down the beach or struggling to drag heavy objects through choppy waters.

Others were howling either in pain or just an attempt to warm themselves up as they climbed out of frozen pools. Meanwhile, he and Penny sat on a picnic mat on the sand watching the soldiers suffer and Buddie taunt them by running alongside them without ever losing energy.

The military swimsuits weren't quite bikinis and shorts, either. They were tight spandex-like wetsuits covering men and women both from thigh to neck, and Winter wore the exact same as she stood on a raised wooden platform organising the suffering of everyone.

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New Quest: Proving Grounds

Prove that you have what it takes and complete each task in turn, from sprints to water exercises and ice-cold water rescue.

Success: +EXP. +Rep Atlas. +Rep Winter Schnee. +Rep Penny.

Failure: Nothing.

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Yeah, he was all right with not doing that, thank you very much. His Semblance liked to chip in with quest ideas that were downright impossible for him, to the point where he wondered if it just didn't know what scaling was or – more worryingly – if it wasn't scaling itself to his highest stat.

Penny was busy building a sandcastle for the first time in her life and being much too serious about it. If a bully had come along and kicked it, he got the feeling she'd call for their arrest. Her eyes were focused, her breathing non-existent, and she was working on battlements of all things. The castle was looking like one from real life.

The robot had come out with a full-body swimsuit of her own that Jaune suspected was to hide seams in her body or maybe a lack of certain parts of her body. It felt rude to consider it, but he also had to assume Pietro wouldn't have bothered with building her things like nipples, a belly button, or genitalia. Like a doll, Penny would probably be perfectly smooth all over with the assumption that clothing would hide most areas.

At least she was water resistant because they'd been for a swim. The water was cold, but not ice cold. That was reserved for the frozen pools. Luckily, the sun was warm enough even this far north, creating an odd climate of warm air and sun, but frozen pools and snow in the distance where the land rolled up toward the mountains. It was odd, but Atlas had to have some warmth or there wouldn't have been people who settled here in the first place.

"That castle is coming along well."

"Yes." Penny didn't look up from it. "I am going to take a photo once it is done and show it to my father later."

"I'm sure he'll be impressed."

"Hm. I should thank you for teaching me about sandcastles. This is a fun hobby!"

He wasn't sure if most people classed building a sandcastle as a "hobby". It was just a thing you did when you were at the beach and didn't have anything else to hand other than vast tracts of sand. Then again, there was no reason it couldn't become a hobby. Maybe there were some people who took it more seriously and entered competitions. Come to think of it, couldn't that just be called art and sculpting? Maybe he should introduce her to art as a hobby she could play at in the lab.