Ninjas of Love

I Don't Mean To Get All Political But What The Fuck Is Pyrrha?

Not too long, but a conveniently vague amount of time, later, seven-eighths of the cohort stepped onto the very same ship they had boarded the previous day, Maul Purphy's precious Parovstelar- in all its resplendent, dazzling, white glory. Once six of those seven had managed to strap themselves in, Billy reached down and, taking a page right out of a professional strongman's likely-torn-up playbook, brought Emily and her wheelchair onto his barrel-like chest before gently placing her down onto the floor of the ship; this was at Maul's behest, as he was terrified of damaging Isabella.

Emily carefully transferred herself from wheelchair to seat, arms trembling as she lifted up her stocky, manly frame. Billy then just looked at the mess of steel and leather until Charlie reached over and pulled a small, metal lever to fold up the mobility device. Billy then took his seat as Maul turned backwards and simply said "I don't care if you're ready. We're going."

The flight-heavy itinerary Charlie had endured the day before had clearly had some form of lessening effect on his motion sickness, as- despite still looking massively uncomfortable- he seemed rather less gaunt and much less likely to spontaneously spray everything he'd eaten since his trip to McDalton's all over the ship than he had previously. He was sat next to Kerian, but eschewed the opportunity to hold a conversation with him, in favour of the, probably vastly more intellectual, option of simply staring out the window at the city, looking more like an idyllic model village than it ever could from ground level. Meanwhile, Yang, Ruby, and Billy were deep in conversation about some immature bullshit that I don't care about enough to impart unto you, the reader, whilst Blake and Weiss found another way to rival each other by playing a game with the Hunters And Huntresses of the 1940s deck of Top Donalds that Blake owned, and Emily sat, nigh on motionless, in her seat, listening to an audiobook. Don't be fooled by how intelligent that sounds- it was actually an audiobook of the autobiography of Professor Clementine Small, host of ProSmall's Hunt Race. And yes, I'm as embarrassed about that as you are, and it's not even me listening to it through the finest Patch-made knockoff AirPods.

"Right! Headphones out, parapl-ejit. You may all leave, I'll be back to pick yous up at lunch." Maul gave a rather undiplomatic parting statement, as the eight left his 900 series Mác Domhnáill in a silent pall of utter confusion. Emily was again helped down by Billy, who carried her under his left arm and her wheelchair under his right. Almost as soon as he placed her into the chair, however, he walked away from it- leaving Charlie to do the honours, regardless of whether or not he actually wanted to, of pushing his half-sister to the dressing room like she was a wire trolley full of groceries.

In a move that seemed almost like a stroke of tactical genius on the part of the Amity Arena staff, the customary bowl of N 'n' Ns had not only been replenished- though oddly without any of the brown ones- but was now surrounded by a veritable smorgåsbord of crisps, chocolate, and- for some reason- packets of dried fruit. Again, Ruby sprayed dark red rose petals across the room as she grabbed the bowl of sweets for herself, and bumped straight into Naddie, who had joined her team in waiting for their eight newfound friends to arrive before stealing any of the plentiful snacks. "Salutations!" Penny greeted them all with her usual chipper demeanour. She seemed like the sort of person who could stay perversely happy in the face of any and all danger and sadness- i.e. somebody Charlie should find it incredibly easy to hate.

Yet somehow he didn't. There was just something, a certain je ne sais quoi to Penny's unwavering, childlike innocence that the de facto leader of BECK couldn't help but love. In a way, he saw his sister's own tendencies in Penny's borderline autistic worldview and mannerisms- and he knew for a fact he liked his sister, most of the time anyway. Despite all of the aspects of the robot's personality that should have made her, to Charlie at least, immensely punchable, Penny seemed like a genuinely lovely, if infinitely eccentric, person who just wanted to exude warmth and love.

Charlie sat himself down on a blue, folding chair and screamed "FUCK!" as his denim-shrouded glutes began to smart in response to the icey touch of the seat. "Language, Mr. Copson." Weiss warned him in a manner that could not have been more patronising had she tried, drawing a look of absolute, resolute what-the-fuck-did-you-just-say-ness from the Patchian cowboy himself. Weiss surveyed a label, before opening a packet of Brazzles, a worryingly vegan snack when one realises they were designed to taste like the decidedly un-vegan bacon.

"Are you lot up first?" Nadeshiko asked Team RWBY as a whole, struggling to get past the word lot as a result of her thick accent. Blake simply shook her head and answered, "JNPR are, they're facing OCEN." Nadeshiko gave a knowing nod and pulled a nondescript silver box out of the swathes of fabric that formed her kimono and encompassed her amorphous body so well. Ciel looked bemused. "Who are Team JNPR?" Her question wasn't aimed at any one of her friends or, primarily, acquaintances- but rather anyone who would listen. "You must know JNPR." Yang sighed defeatedly, a sign she had been woken up far earlier than she would have perhaps liked, considering she didn't even have to fight until JNPR had finished. Ciel shook her head. Yang continued, "You have to at least know Pyrrha Nikos is! She's on that team." Despite her seemingly helpful responses, Yang was, as evidenced by the snappiness of her voice, beginning to become rather agitated with the fashion guru of Team PINC. Ciel simply looked, confusedly, at her orange-haired team leader. Penny informed her teammate, "My Booble search tells me that Pyrrha Nikos is a Mistralian student huntress, perhaps best known for her advertising deals with Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Crunch and, from 2013 to 2016, Úisce Na Fear, a Patchian brand of energy drinks. She is also well known for her appearance in the 2019 mobile and console game Vytal Festival '19, featuring licensed likenesses of all participants in the tournament."
"Cool." Ciel said, eyes tracking back to a purple packet of convenience food. "Guess I'll sit back and watch then."