Jaune protests loudly to the two walking with him.
"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem than people let on!" Then laughing, Ruby quips back.
"Look, I'm sorry! Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind." Smirking and crossing his arms, Y/N gave a second opinion.
"Honestly I think vomit comet is better." Ruby laughs even harder and Jaune looks at her, a little ticked off.
"Oh, yeah? What if I called you Crater Face?" Protesting against that name while Y/N silently looks on with a straight face, Ruby speaks out.
"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" Trying to change the subject, Jaune speaks up.
"Well, the name's Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue - ladies love it!" Both Y/N and Ruby look at Jaune skeptically and Ruby is the first to speak up.
"Do they?" Following her lead like they've practiced it, Y/N added to the doubt.
"Do they really?" Embarrassed and stuttering a bit, Jaune responds with a dent clearly visible in his pride
"They will! Well, I-I hope they will. My mom always says that... Never mind." Ruby giggles and Y/N puts his poker face back on unsuccessfully, cracking a smirk. Then to end the awkward silence, Ruby speaks up
"So... I got this thing!" She pulls out Crescent Rose and stabs it into the ground. Both Jaune and Y/N look at it with wonder. Jaune beats Y/N to the punch and exclaims excitedly.
"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Proudly Ruby replies.
"It's also a customizable high-impact sniper rifle!" Now Jaune is confused.
"A-wha...?" Holding his face in his right hand, Y/N sighs and replies to Jaune.
"It's also a gun buddy." Jaune looks a little put out and replies.
"Oh. That's cool!" Then immediately, with a smile and a look of anticipation, Ruby asks Jaune a question.
"So what've you got?"
"Oh! I, uh..." He reaches down and unsheathes a blade.
"I got this sword!" He waves it around a bit for her to see. The stars appear in Ruby's eyes as the conversation has turned to her favorite thing to do, meet new weapons. She squeals and says excitedly.
"Ooooohh!" Seeing her response, Jaune continues.
"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!" He gets his scabbard, raises his arm and expands the metal into his defense. Ruby comes closer and touches the shield, eager to learn it's secrets.
"So, what do they do?" Jaune fumbles with the shield as it retracts off his arm, expands, and retracts again before putting it back in place and finally shrinking it down for good, placing it on his belt.
"The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just... put it away..." Y/N snorts quietly at the lack of logic. Confused, Ruby cocks her head and asks Jaune a question.
"But... wouldn't it weigh the same?" Jaune dejectedly hangs his head and responds.
"Yeah, it does..." Ruby giggles and shrugs, pointing at her weapon.
"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, sooo... I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it." Surprised, Jaune, looks at Ruby in awe.
"Wait - you made that?!" Ruby is a bit confused by the question, but still responds.
"Of course! All students at Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?" Y/N smiles to himself. Realizing something about her scythe and cape. Jaune then replies to Ruby.
"It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."
"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me!" Ruby laughs and points at his sword.
"Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days." Jaune sheaths his sword and sighs.
"Yeah, the classics..." Not wanting the conversation to turn bad, Y/N speaks up. He pulls out Quake, easily stabs it into the ground, and unholsters Storm.
"This massive beauty is Quake…" He points at the massive sword.
"...and this little cutie is Storm." Ruby has not only stars in her eyes, but drool coming from her bottom lip. Y/N laughs and explains his weapons to the overly excited Ruby.
"Like your Crescent Rose there squirt, my Quake has a built in rifle, mine just fires a much bigger round. Storm though stays in it's Deagle form mostly, but can switch to a multipurpose Saxe knife in a pinch. Also like you squirt, I graduated from Signal." Confused, Ruby looks at Y/N again, trying to resolve the familiar feeling about him. Had she seen him before? Did she know him from Signal? Did Yang?
"Really? I don't think I ever saw you there Y/N." This prompted a laugh from Y/N that was deep and hearty.
"Oh no you wouldn't have squirt. I graduated from Signal Academy two years ago, a full two years early." Eager to hear about someone else who had graduated from Signal Academy early, Ruby pressed him for more details.
"So why only come to Beacon now?"With a pained smile, and empty eyes, Y/N replied in a monotone.
"Some stuff happened. But I'm here now." Picking up on the hint to move to a different topic, Ruby asks a different question.
"So why'd you two help me out back there? In the courtyard?" Jaune was the first to answer.
"Eh, why not? My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'" Y/N nodded then answered as well.
"Well leaving a little squirt all by herself just didn't sit right with me. Besides, you had a face that needed cheering up." Satisfied with the answers, Ruby smiles, then looks around and asks her companions a question.
"Hmm. Hey, where are we going?" Jaune, ever the first to answer, piped up.
"Oh, I don't know! I was following you." Ruby looks at Jaune in terror.
"I was following Y/N since he looks like he knows what he's doing." Raising an eyebrow in amusement, Y/N responded.
"I was following our 'fearless leader' over here who was walking in front of us." Now it was Jaune who had the look of terror.
"Y-You think there might be a directory? Maybe a food court? Some kind of recognizable landmark? Is, uh... Is that a 'no'?" Ruby's terror turned to laughter as she responded to the loveable idiot.
"That's a 'no'."
Later
Somehow, the trio found their way to the auditorium with Y/N leading the way. As they arrived upon a sea of faces, Ruby turned to the sound of her sister's voice.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Ruby sees her sister and then turns to Jaune and Y/N.
"Oh! Hey, I-I gotta go! I'll see you after the ceremony!" Y/N nods happily and then sees the girl Ruby is going to. Unintentionally, he started to rub his 5 o'clock shadow and smile while his eyebrow shoots up. It's the golden blonde again. He resolved to ask Ruby about her later. Jaune however was a little disheartened by her leaving.
"Hey, wait!" He sighs as Y/N pats his shoulder sympathetically.
"Ah, great. Where am I supposed to find another nice, quirky girl to talk to?!" He moves on to reveal a redhead in Greek armor standing behind him, hand on her hips as she watches him walk away. Y/N notices and smirks, muttering to himself as he follows the hopeless scruffy blonde.
"Apparently she may be closer than you think, idiot." Y/N waves politely at the redhead before completely following Jaune.
Once Ruby joins her, the golden blonde girl crosses her arms and looks at Ruby.
"How's your first day going, little sister?" Ruby huffed and asked her sister pointedly.
"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded?" Yang took in a breath and responded.
"Yikes! Meltdown already?" Ruby answers frustratedly.
"No, I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And there was some fire, and I think some ice...?" Ruby's sister grinned broadly and pressed on.
"Are you being sarcastic?" Ruby scoffs and then behind her Weiss is seen walking up.
"I wish! I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage, and then she yelled at me, and then I sneezed, and then I exploded, and then she yelled at me again, and I felt really, really bad, and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me!" Call it the worst timing, or call it fate, Wiess spoke up right then.
"You!" Hearing the voice, Ruby jumps behind her sister's arms.
"Oh, God, it's happening again Yang!" Indignantly Weiss speaks to Ruby.
"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" In a deadpan tone, Ruby's sister Yang spoke up.
"Oh my God, you really exploded." Ruby protested to Yang.
"It was an accident." Then she turned back to Weiss.
"It was an accident!" Weiss holds up a pamphlet titled "DUST for dummies and other Inadequate Individuals" to Ruby
"What's this?" Weiss then begins listing off policies to a clueless and horrified Ruby, going faster and higher pitched with each word.
"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field." Ruby looks like she caught about the first two words as she responds in utter confusion as to what Weiss just said.
"Uuhhh...?" Weiss huffed and then looked Ruby in the eyes.
"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Excitedly, Ruby answers as quick as she can.
"Absolutely?" Weiss hands the pamphlet to Ruby.
"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again." Off to the side Y/N has finally found Jaune again and then heard Yang try to mend bridges between Ruby and Wiess.
"Look, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?" Y/N grimaces at (what he sees as) the Angel's mistake. Cluelessly, as she puts the pamphlet away, Ruby agrees with her sister.
"Yeah! Great idea, sis!" She holds out her hand as she clears her throat.
"Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!" Weiss seems enthusiastic in her response, but Y/N knew better.
"Yeah! And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!" She points at Jaune and Y/N knows this spells trouble for his new clueless friend. Jaune just looks back at Weiss and asks.
"Hm?" While Jaune is confused, Ruby gets excited.
"Wow, really?!" Y/N winces at the harsh words he knows are coming. With a glare and after a moment of dead silence, Weiss delivers on those harsh words. Well a harsh word anyway.
"No."
The girls' attention is drawn to the stage, where Professor Ozpin is readying the microphone, with Glynda beside him. Y/N looks up to see Glynda and Ozpin, the loveable forest stalker. Ozpin looks out on the students and starts to talk.
"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." With his pause the students start to whisper among themselves.
"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." Then he turns and leaves. As he does, Glynda steps up to talk to the students.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed." Yang then frowned and said out loud.
"He seemed kind of... off." Ruby replied to her immediately.
"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Then to Y/N's dismay, Jaune leaves him again to saunter towards Weiss, the undoubted queen of mean.
"I'm a natural blond, you know!" Weiss puts her hand to her face in exasperation. And Y/N just laughs at Jaune's unflappable determination and cluelessness.
Later
The first night at Beacon, students are splayed out in sleeping bags. Ruby, in her pajamas and with a sleeping mask around her head, is writing in a journal when Yang crashes next to her, similarly dressed. Yang looks around before speaking to Ruby.
"It's like a big slumber party!" Ruby doesn't look up from her journal, but still replies to her sister.
"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys, though." Y/N laughs quietly hearing that as he sits shirtless against the wall over by Jaune. Yang then says something he can't help but smile mischievously at.
"I know I do!" Yang then purrs as she watches several muscular, shirtless guys, her gaze drinks up the sight of a shirtless Y/N as well, then her gaze falls on...Jaune, dressed in feetie pajamas, waving to her, which makes her groan before she returns her attention to Ruby.
"What's that?" Ruby replied while still not looking up from it.
"A letter to the gang back at Signal. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going." Looking at her sister, Yang has an outburst.
"Aw, that's so cuuuute!" Yang is then knocked back as a pillow is launched at her face by Ruby.
"Shut up! I didn't get to take my friends with me to school! It's weird not knowing anyone here!" Yang then counts on her fingers, listing the friends Ruby had told her about.
"What about Jaune? He's... nice! And Y/N, the tall, mysterious hunk! There you go! Plus two friends! That's a two hundred percent increase!" Ruby turns onto her back and huffs.
"Pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend. Almost back to zero…" Yang then brightly and sarcastically replies.
"There's no such things as negative friends! You just made one friend and one enemy!" She is then hit with another pillow, this time looking like a dog, to her face. Ruby's aim is improving.
"Look, it's only been one day. Trust me; you've got friends all around you! You just haven't met them yet!" The two sisters notice a candle being lit nearby, and the black bow girl is seen leaning against a wall, reading her book. Ruby starts to talk to Yang then trails off.
"That girl…" Yang then asks Ruby.
"You know her?" Ruby replied with a shrug.
"Not really. She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything." The Y/N walks over quietly and speaks up.
"Yes it was quite rude of her. Maybe you might think of trying to ask for her name Ruby." Surprised Y/N was able to sneak up behind her, but grateful for his help. Yang mouths "Thank you!" To him and takes one look at his toned and scarred chest before turning to Ruby.
"Yes! Well, now's your chance! She then grabs Ruby's arm and lifts her up. Panicked, Ruby responds in a high voice.
"Wait! What are you doing?!" Annoyed by the sound, bow girl looks over her book to see Ruby unsuccessfully struggling against Yang's grip as she leads her sister over to Blake's spot before letting go. Y/N follows behind, having three reasons to help the little squirt, be near the angel, and learn more about bow girl. Yang greets the bow girl with a sing-songy tone.
"Hel-looooo! I believe you two may know each other?" Bow girl squinted at Ruby
"Aren't you... that girl that exploded?" Ruby looks at her and speaks awkwardly.
"Uh, yeah! My name's Ruby! But you can just call me Crater…" She just smiles, embarrassed at her wierd sentence.
"Actually, you can just call me Ruby." Blake takes one look at the pipsqueak, the golden blonde, and the silent giant before looking back at her book.
"Okay." Yang starts whispering to Ruby pointedly.
"What are you doing?" Ruby whispered back, clearly panicking.
"I don't know - help me!" She then puts a smile back on and looks back at bow girl. Yang then looks back at Y/N exasperatedly before going back to helping her sister. Y/N smiled and softly chuckled to himself watching Yang start the conversation again.
"So... What's your name?" Bow girl clearly is only interested in her book as she sighed about getting distracted again.
"Blake." Yang then smiles and tries to keep the conversation moving. Y/N finds the futility a little funny, but he does want to know more about Blake.
"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! And hulking guy behind me is Y/N, Ruby's new friend! I like your bow!" Blake is getting irritated by all the interruptions to her reading time. But responds nonetheless.
"Thanks!" Albeit a little bit irritated, her response doesn't phase Yang, who keeps going.
"It goes great with your... pajamas!" A little confused, Blake responds slowly.
"Right…" While Ruby laughs uncomfortably, Yang tries to save the conversation once again.
"Nice night, don't you think?" Blake finally gets huffy and answers with clear annoyance in her voice.
"Yes - it's lovely! Almost as lovely as this book!" The awkward trio continues to stand there looking at Blake.
"That I will continue to read." Ruby and Yang continue standing while Y/N squats down to get a look at the book Blake is reading.
"As soon as you leave!" Yang turns to Ruby and throws up her hands.
"Yeah, this girl's a lost cause." Ruby catches a glance of what Y/N is doing and changes gears.
"What's it about?" Blake looks surprised.
"Huh?" Ruby continues, encouraged by the lack of hostility from Blake. Y/N stands up and smiles, knowing he's given her the way in.
"Your book. Does it have a name?" Blake hesitantly answers Ruby.
"Well... i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body." For some reason, Y/N has a deep chill run down his spine. He shakes it off and looks back to the three girls.Yang sarcastically remarks about the book.
"Oh, yeah... That's real lovely!" Ruby is undaunted now, on a roll. Y/N pumps his fist and thinks to himself. 'Way to go squirt!'
"I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monsters... They're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress!" Ruby's excited face makes Blake laugh a little.
"And why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?" Ruby answers with the most pure and honest face Y/N thinks he's ever seen
"Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!" Slowly answering, Blake thinks about her reply.
"That's... very ambitious for a child." Her smile turns into a frown as she continues.
"Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale." Ruby is once again clueless. She continues with her bright-eyed optimism. Y/N has to resist the urge to pet Ruby and protect her from the world, because 'SHE'S TOO INNOCENT FOR THIS WORLD!' Laughing to himself internally, Y/N thinks that maybe signing up for old Ozpin's war wasn't such a bad thing after all. Ruby's next words just kept up the ridiculously uplifting optimism.
"Well, that's why we're here! To make it better." Yang finally makes a comeback in the conversation.
"Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!" She hugs Ruby into the air, swinging her like some kind of giant teddy bear. Ruby kicks out into the air and exclaims.
"Cut it out!" The forced sisterly bonding evolves into a dust cloud of fighting limbs and flying stars. Blake looks at Y/N who shrugs.
"I've known them for a day now, I'm as lost as you are Blake." He laughs as Blake joins him. Blake shakes her head and looks back to the tussle between sisters.
"Well, Ruby, Yang, Y/N, it's a pleasure to ha-" She's interrupted as Weiss storms onto the scene in her own pajamas as Ruby traps Yang's leg.
"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?" Y/N can't help but bust out laughing at the rotten luck of what happened next, Weiss and Yang looked at each other and yelled out angrily.
"Oh, not you again!" Ruby turns on them and puts her finger up to her mouth.
"Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!" Weiss now indignantly looks at Ruby.
"Oh, now you're on my side!"
"I was always on your side!" Whispering to himself, Y/N answers too.
"I was never on your side Ice Queen" Blake couldn't help herself and laughed, then Y/N realized she heard him and he smirked, putting his finger over his mouth too, winking at Blake. Blake just shook her head as Yang launched off on Weiss again.
"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!" Weiss yells back.
"She's a hazard to my health!" Blake, who rolls her eyes at the fight, simply closes her book, reaches over to grab her candle, and blows it out. The group now gets the idea and splits up. Seeing pretty well in the dark, Y/N waves goodbye to Blake, who's already turned over. He stops mid wave and shrugs.
Unable to go back to sleep now, Y/N goes over to the balcony and steps through the large doors. He stares up at the shattered moon and sighs. From behind him a familiar voice speaks up. Y/N doesn't even bother to look behind him. He knows it's Ozpin.
"Did you not think you'd be enjoying yourself after signing up to go to war Mr. Lennox? Is this not what you pictured?" Scrunching up his face he turns back to the green-eyed Professor and shakes his head.
"Honestly I don't know what I expected, but it sure wasn't this. I see that the little squirt Ms. Goodwitch picked up in town last night was accepted. Isn't she a bit young for this? I'm not saying she doesn't have skills, because from what I saw of those goons last night, she kicks serious ass. But isn't she a bit too green for this Professor?" Ozpin lets out a chuckle.
"She, like you, is a bit of a special case. But I guess you already knew that. Glynda did mention you somehow were there last night. My guess would be your connection with Captain Crater?" Shaking his head at just how omniscient this man seemed to be, Y/N replied.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know that. Is there anything you don't know Professor?" Hearing that last question, Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and stared up at the shattered moon with Y/N. It took a few moments before she replied.
"Well Mr. Lennox, the future does elude me sometimes. So in lieu of knowing the future, I prepare for it, I assemble forces to combat those who would do humanity harm. This preparation lets me declare to the forces of Grimm. 'We will not go quietly into the night!' As pathetic as that sounds, it brings me comfort to know that even the smallest preparations can have massive impacts on the future. So while you undoubtedly will one day leave your mark upon Remnant's history in an exquisite way Mr. Lennox, this is not that time. Relax, take your initiation, make a team, make friends, and enjoy yourself. Allow a bit of your loneliness to recede; you deserve it. Don't worry about my...our war, until you are called. Always be prepared, but don't worry ceaselessly. I will call you when you are ready. For now though Y/N, take a breath and go get some sleep, for even you might consider the initiation tomorrow to be a tad... challenging." With a smirk and a sip of his coffee, Ozpin was off, disappearing before Y/N could look back at him. Y/N hung his head and then yawned. He really did need to head to bed. So he went back inside, walked over to his sleeping bag, and crashed next to Jaune.