Poker Night at Beacon Academy
Darknessxxx
Author's Notes: this is just my thoughts on what some of the night life of Beacon Academy would be like. I don't own RWBY.
The moon shone its pale light over the quiet campus of Beacon Academy. In the freshman dorms, in the room belonging to Team RWBY, a particular blonde haired girl was moving around while her roommates were quietly sleeping.
"Perfect" Yang smiled to herself as she put the finishing touches on her little project. "No one will suspect a thing." She was standing at the side of her bed, where she had placed a dummy figure vaguely resembling herself. The dummy itself consisted of a hollow clay, rather accurate, model of her own head and for the torso she decided to use a spare pillow, covered by her blanket.
Yang realized that these items themselves weren't enough to make a convincing sleeping dummy, which is why she added special touch to really add to the illusion of her still being there. Using a certain technique she had learned not to long ago, she fused Dust to some threads for the hair. She figured that it would make the dummy more lifelike in appearance.
Convinced that Ruby, Weiss, or Blake wouldn't be able to tell that that wasn't her a mere glance, she turned to leave the room. As soon as she turned the doorknob Zwei's head shot up. He saw Yang at the door, and got up from his doggy bed grabbed his leash in his mouth, and walked over to her, looking up expectantly.
"Ooh, sorry Zwei" Yang whispered, careful not to wake anyone. She knelt down so she could scratch behind his ears "I can't take you for a walk tonight." She paused for a second as a thought formed in her head. "Oh, I know!" she picked Zwei up, leash and all, and placed him on Blake's bed. "Here, you can have Blake take you! The two of you can use the bonding experience!" smiling at her own cleverness, she left the room, leaving that particular problem to sort itself out.
She left their dorm and made her way to the junior's dorm. Like the freshman's, the junior dorms were three stories tall. The first floor was dedicated to recreational activities. There were tables which were occasionally used for doing and discussing homework, but often for playing games. There was even a TV that was supposed to be used for the students to keep up with world events, that was mostly used to watch sports games.
Yang quickly made passed through towards the stairs at the back that led to the second floor and third floors. The second floor housed the students' lockers, as well as the showers. Apart from a few empty spaces between the lockers, that Yang assumed belonged to student on away missions, there wasn't anything of interest, so she continued up to the third floor.
It was here, where the students resided, that Yang wanted to be. She walked over to the door of a certain room, and knocked on it.
Yang stood silently in front of the door, waiting for a voice in inside to call out "Who's there? Do you have any idea what time it is?"
Yang could feel herself smiling. She took a deep breath to clear her emotions. Once she was calm again she answered. "It's not too late to start having fun!" a few seconds later she was walking into the room, a smile back on her face.
Insider were eight other students, five guys and three girls. Apart from the guy who opened the door for Yang, and a girl sitting on one of the beds pushed against the walls, reading a book, they were all sitting around a circular table. In front of each of them were a pair of cards, and small piles of cash.
"How did you hear about us?" the guy who opened the door asked Yang.
"Oh, a friend of a friend" Yang told him. Her answer clearly wasn't one he wanted to hear. His clothes had a green camouflage pattern to them. Over his right eye was some sort of monocle with a crosshair on it. At his waist was holstered a large handgun which he was caressing with his thumb while
He was examining her.
"A friend of a friend huh?" he echoed Yang. "Whatever, you may as well come in."
"Thanks!" Yang said. "My name's Yang by the way."
"The name's Pines" he told her. "Fern pines!"
"Nice to meet you Fern" Yang smiled at him. "Well then, shall we?" she then made her way to the table everyone else was seated and sat down in the only open seat.
"So, what are we playing?" she asked. On the table in front of her two cards were already dealt face down. She picked them up and said "And follow up question, are two aces good to have?"
"Let's see" one of the girls sitting at the table said, as she threw her own cards to the center of the table. Her face was obscured by a red fedora, and hanging over the back of her seat was a matching jacket. She had on a black turtle neck and black gloves. "Blonde hair, quick to the point, we haven't met before so you're likely in your first year…" she said. "I am going to guess you must be Yang Xiao Long!"
"Ooh" Yang was impressed. "I see my reputation precedes me."
"Don't get too proud of yourself" Fern told her. "Cerise prides herself on knowing everything about everyone."
"To be fair, she could also be Sun Wukong" Cerise said. "But, based on your, shall we say, endowment, I figured it a safe bet you weren't."
"Okay…" Yang wasn't entirely sure how to feel about Cerise's comment. Instead she decided to change the subject. "…So now you all know who I am, but, silly me, I don't know anything about any of you."
"If it's introductions you're after, you can leave that to me" one of the other guys there said. "You can call me Coal-Flynt Coal of Team COLE."
Coal was somewhat mysterious. He was smiling at Yang yet she could tell he is a more of a serious person. He had combed back black hair and was wearing an open black trench-coat, revealing a
Shirt that was just a slightly lighter shade of black.
"And this guy here" Coal motioned to one of the other guys amongst them. "Is my good personal friend and fellow teammate, Edgar Enderman."
"Hi" Yang said.
"Mm" Edgar replied.
Like Coal Edgar was dressed mostly all in black. He was wearing leather gloves, black, that had small vials of dust around the wrists. His ripped-sleeve shirt had a design of a face with vivid purple eyes.
"Of course we owe this room to Fern and his team" Coal continued, now pointing to Fern who Yang already met.
"…Elmo Fawn Khaki" who had short curly red hair, and an eager grin on his face. In his hands was a deck of cards that he was anxiously shuffling.
"…Robin Redwing" She was the girl who was sitting on her bed with a book in her hands. She had ginger red hair that fell just past her shoulders she was so preoccupied with her book that she didn't seem to realize the people in the room, let alone Yang.
"And rounding out Team FERN is none other than Navy M. Rocksalt…"
"Dammit Coal, how many times do I have to tell you?" Navy angrily said. "My name is Navi! Nah-Vee!" He had short buzz cut hair, and piercing blue eyes.
"Right, right sorry about that" Coal apologized. "My tongue must've slipped.
"Yeah, yeah" Navi said, clearly bitter. "Go ahead and act like you didn't do that on purpose.
Coal gave a small laugh before finishing with the introductions. "Let's see… You already know Cerise Sandstone here…" Cerise tipped her hat to Yang and Yang responded with a nod. "…So that just leaves Barbariccia Barley, or just Barb for short."
Barb had long golden blonde hair that hung over the back of her seat on was just a few inches *-away from the floor. Its lustre made even Yang was just tad bit envious. She was wearing a golden yellow tank top with designs of wheat over the shoulders, which showed off her dark skin.
"Oi!" Barb said to Coal just after he introduced her. "'How ya going to go an' leave I as the last one you say?
"Well someone had to be" Coal shrugged. "Surely you don't mind do you?"
It was at this point that Yang decided to say something. "So Barb" she said "If you don't mind me saying, I absolutely love your name!"
"You trying to suck up to I!?" Barb accused her.
"No really!" Yang held her hands up in defence. "I honestly believe that in another world or something, Barbra would be my name!"
"Hmm, well thanks I guess" Barb said.
"Also" Yang continued. "I love, love your hair!"
"Dese locks?" Barb ran a hand through her hair.
"You have to tell me your secrets!" Yang insisted.
"Ahem!" Fern, very audibly, cleared his throat. "If you ladies don't mind, some of us are trying to partake in a little illicit gambling."
"Yes!" Elmo, who had been quiet up until that point said. He then started dealing the cards in his hands to everyone else. "The name of the game is Texas Hold 'em. The blinds are starting off at three and five, and absolutely no wild cards tonight!
The first round of betting started with Edgar and Coal as the small and big blinds respectively; Cerise took one look at her cards and instantly folded; after complaining about being dealt a 'garbage' hand Barb also folded; next was Navi, who called; after Navi, Yang raised to ten lien; after a second of consideration, Fern called, as did Edgar, Coal and Navi; ultimately Yang won the forty five lien hand, having gotten a full house during the river.
"You know, this is nice" Coal said as Yang raked in her winnings. "There's nothing quite like playing harmless games amongst friends after a long day of killing creatures of grim."
"Are you sure you should be enjoying this harmless game?" Cerise asked him while Elmo dealt everyone their next hand. "Aren't you, Edgar, Lucy, and Orca supposed to be doing night drills?"
"Yeah well" Coal said. "That was before grim got into the city. After something like that, I think its okay to change your schedule a bit."
"Where d'em grim even come from anyway?" Barb asked as she checked her cards. "I'm in front de mirror when I hear this damn air siren going off! Next, I'm trying to lead some woman to safety, who don't realize those nevermore in the sky wanna kill her!" she then angrily threw her cards back on the table. "Now I here, having to put up with dese trash cards!"
"Mm yes…" Navi said, clearly only understanding half of what Barb said. "How'd they even get into the city anyway? –I call."
"Word is, it was part of a plan from The White Fang" Cerise answered. "And as luck would have it, our new friend here was there."
Yang quickly realized that she was the center of attention. "Oh that…" she said. She wasn't sure how much of what she knew, she should tell. "Well, members of The White Fang, being led by known fugitive Roman Torchwick, used the abandoned subway from Mountain Glen to simultaneously lure the grim and open a hole into the city." The answer she gave was akin to early access to tomorrow's newscast. Having hardly looked at her cards, she called.
"Fortunately, your team was in Mountain Glenn" Cerise said. "On a SEARCH AND DESTROY mission, if my sources are correct."
"Yeah" Yang said. "My team went there with Professor Oobleck…"
"Doctor Oobleck" almost everyone there, including Robin, automatically corrected her.
"Right, we went there with Doctor Oobleck to clear out some grim, before we fell into them."
"Interesting" Cerise said. "Unless I'm mistaken, that wasn't the first time TEAM RWBY encountered those extremists was it?" without breaking eye contact with Yang, she placed a considerable amount of money in the pot.
Since she was the next to act, Yang once again picked up her cards and this time really looked at them. They weren't particularly good, and the smart thing to do would be to fold.
"I fo-" Yang was about to fold, but she remade eye contact with Cerise. Something about the way she was looking at her from the shadow of her fedora, really annoyed her. "I'm all in!" Yang declared. She was about to push all the money she had with her to the center of the table, but was stopped by a hand on her arm.
"Oi!" Barb, who had stopped her, said. "Look 'ere, I like ya, which is why I'm telling ya if ya don't think ya got a good hand, you ought a quit!"
"Thanks for the tip Barb" Yang smiled at her. She knew she was essentially throwing her money away yet she felt she needed to wipe the arrogant smile off of Cerise's face. "But I'm feeling lucky" she told her, and proceeded to make her bet.
Instantly: Navi, Fern, Edgar, and Coal threw their cards onto the table. Contrary to Yang's intent, Cerise's smile widened. Without words, she also pushed all the money she had brought, which may have actually been more than Yang had, to the center of the table. Almost beaming with confidence, she flipped over her cards, revealing two red aces.
With noticeably less enthusiasm than before, Yang also flipped her cards, which were a three of clubs and a five of diamonds.
"Looks like we have ourselves a showdown" Elmo said. "Well then…" he then drew the flop.
Ace of Spades, Three of Diamonds, and a Five of Hearts.
Yang felt a smile tugging at her face. Cerise still had the winning hand, with a three of a kind, but Yang did have two pairs and was chasing a full house. Since there were still thirty-seven cards still in the deck and, assuming the four cards she needed weren't already dealt, Yang had an approximately twenty-two percent chance of victory.*
"And the flop!" Elmo said dealing the flop- Queen of Hearts.
Yang's smile was tested, her chances of victory falling to about eleven percent. All eyes in the room were focused on her and Cerise.
"Finally, the R-!"
BANG!
Without warning the room's door flew off its hinges and slammed against the back wall. Standing in the empty doorway was a girl holding a staff, with a green dust crystal aimed where the door was. She had long blue hair, and was wearing a Beacon Academy uniform.
"Oh, hey there Lucy!" Coal greeted her. "How are …"
"Is this a game to you!" the girl, Lucy, snapped at him. "You tell us to gather at Field 7 once it got dark!" she started walking into the room towards Coal. "It got dark so Orca and I went to Field 7! But where's our team leader and final member? Playing cards!" Lucy now was only a few feet away from Coal, with her staff aimed at his throat.
"Come on Luce" Coal said, his hands raised in surrender. "It's been a long day! I don't think any of us wanted to…"
What happened next stated with the dust crystal in Lucy's staff beginning to glow, Coal disappearing in a cloud of black smoke, the chair he was sitting in exploding, and Coal reappearing behind Lucy.
"Okay, okay, I get the picture" Coal said. He gestured to Edgar and said "Alright let's go." Then he Edgar and Lucy left.
"Okay, that was random" Yang let out.
Without waiting for anyone else to fully adjust to the preceding event, Cerise reached across the table and picked the top card off of the deck in Elmo's hand and looked at it. "hmm" she smiled and Yang just knew she lost herself a lot of money.
Cerise shocked her by throwing the card in her hand face up onto the table- a Five of Hearts.
"looks like Yang wins with a Full House!" Fern said. "And since it's only a matter of time before Professor Goodwitch comes to investigate that commotion that Team COLE just made, I suggest the rest of you get out of here!"
A little startled that she had actually won, Yang quickly gathered her winnings, Cerise and Barbariccia already getting ready to leave. When Yang did get up, Cerise walked next to her and stopped.
"You should spend that money wisely" Cerise said to her. "If my sources are right, and my intuition is correct, a team like yours likely isn't out of the woods just yet." She walked a few steps and stopped again. "but then again, your team roster does include Weiss Schnee, so perhaps not." She then walked through the empty doorframe and disappeared.
A short while later, Yang was back in her dorm room. She pushed her dummy decoy aside and laid herself onto her bed. What was that supposed to mean? she thought, trying to decipher what Cerise had told her. We're not out of the woods yet? still pondering those words she drifted off to sleep.
*I am not 100% sure of that percentage. Also, it's assuming Elmo didn't burn a card