Author's Note: First fan fiction in a long time, first one in third person, and hopefully the first one that's not absolute shit. In any case, thank you very much for even considering reading this, and if at all possible, please give me guidance. Third person is very difficult for me, as is trying to write this character in general. I'm not sure how I'm going to update, hopefully I can work out a bi-weekly or (if I'm on a roll) weekly update schedule. Any help you can give me will be appreciated. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy this.
Tantalizing smells of roasting fish and delicious vegetables fill the small room as an aged mother and her adolescent son take a seat around a worn, splintering table. Strewn haphazardly across said table is a large amount of papers, which the pair look down at with concern. "Your scores are good in the individual tests, but why are the team scores so bad? Your father will be so disappointed, especially after you promised him to do better last semester. Are you not listening to Maud again?"
"I hate her." The son doesn't look up, his head lowered as he stares at the sheets in front of him.
"Sejanus Aquila! We do NOT-"
"SAGE, Mom."
"I will use your full name; I'm the one who gave it to you. We do NOT hate in this household, the Mauve family is a very respected family. They single-handedly saved this town, and both of our lives."
"..."
"The least you can do is show their daughter some respect as both your leader and out of gratitude to her parents."
"She got the position because of her parents."
"Sejanus, go to your room. Don't come out until dinner's ready."
The white foam of an ocean wave's aftermath provided a stark contrast to the dark rock of the shoreline. Clouds blanketed the sky, leaving it a dull gray with an occasional hole to let the sun through. A figure sat on the damp stone a short distance away, watching the spectacle.
It could at least be nice while I'm leaving.
"I was wondering where you had run off to. Are you trying to miss the airship out of here?" A female voice came from behind him, startling the boy.
"Maud?" Maud, clothed entirely in varying shades of pink and purple, stood behind him.
"We might not get along, but I figured I'd try to be nice seeing as we've been working together for four years now. I might as well finish my job as team lead. Airship's leaving in thirty; they're getting everything and everyone on board." Worst four years of my life.
"Thanks, but go away. I don't need my last few minutes of home tarnished by you." He spat, turning back to the sea for a few more minutes of solitude.
"I'm not even going to argue with that. Goodbye Sage." She began to walk away before turning back. "Oh, by the way? Don't bother trying to find me at Beacon. It's a miracle you got in anyway."
"... Like I'd want to find you." Sejanus, or 'Sage' as he preferred to be called, wasn't the most social of people. Attending the Lighthouse Battle School (little more than a barracks and a mess hall in a small bastion of humanity, where many of the students came from), Sage was a tall but lean adolescent. A cocky swagger in his step betrayed his attitude despite his brown leather boots forcing a more rigid gait. The cocky swagger didn't match his stony face, much like how his green cloth and brown leather color scheme didn't match the dark rock surrounding him. The cool wind blew off of the ocean, but had little effect on the teen. The assorted leather garb he wore kept him insulated from the cold: gauntlets, knee pads, a skirt made of leather strips and metal studs attached to his cloth chest piece, and shoulder pads.
"As vain as it sounds, it's not me. It never was. It's you and it always has been."
Thanks, I needed my day ruined. Sage thought, and then snorted as he made a move to get his clothing and gear together. Like THAT would ruin my day. He chuckled under his breath as he did so, focusing in on that last bit. "Because I must be the problem when I gave so much to that team and you throw it away."
"You never answered my question earlier."
"I don't have an answer." The family had gathered around the table for a meal.
"Don't lie to your mother. You're being stubborn and going off on your own like you always do." Sage's father spoke up, from the head of the table.
"I do better on my own."
"No, you just want everything to yourself. The thought of being in a team is disgusting to you and you know it." His brother chimed in.
"And?"
"And, that's not who I want my son to be. Neither of us. And I'm sure Han here doesn't want to have a brother who's a selfish ass-"
"Language." The mother interrupts.
"I work at a restaurant that serves mostly fishermen before they go out; don't expect me to be clean all the time. Sage, this is unacceptable! Your scores in individual testing exceed expectations, but your team evaluations all have incredibly low scores. It's almost like you're TRYING to fail! Beacon might have accepted you, but they won't keep you if you pull things like this. I don't know what you think they're teaching you at Lighthouse, but Beacon will assume you've already learned it. If you haven't, you're setting yourself up for failure."
"Hi, I'm Ace." The words caught Sage's attention as a boy in black and white took the seat to the left of him. "You know, like, the ace of spades. What's your name?" An unfriendly glare sent 'Ace' away to find another seat, far away from from Sage. He glanced around the airship, enjoying the space that the now empty seat gave him. At least the seats are comfortable. Though, I'm not sure how long the trip is anyway. Could always sleep, given my situation. He snorted. My family and Maud can think I'm selfish all they want. I might be selfish, sure, but I'm going to live my life in the best way I can. Besides, most everyone's standing anyway. There are more than enough seats here for everyone, it IS a small town. That and most of us didn't even make it into Beacon. I think I'll just sleep for the ride- at least then I won't be expected to get all buddy-buddy with anyone.
"I'm going to miss Reed so much." Someone moaned from the front of the ship. Or maybe I won't get to sleep. "He was so nice! He was always so helpful and friendly and now I might never see him again!" Reed was afraid of his own shadow and better at basket weaving than anything we ever learned at Lighthouse. How do you miss a guy like that?
"Hey, it's okay. You can visit him and your family when we get leave from school!" We haven't even left yet and someone is already homesick. Pathetic. Sage glanced up to see if it was anyone he knew, but laid back down when he didn't recognize the homesick teen.
"Mind if I take this seat?" What is with these people and talking to me? I don't know most of them. Should I even bother opening my eyes or responding? "I know you're awake, don't try to hide it." Ugh.
"I do mind, because there are plenty of other seats."
"... I guess. Hope that extra space keeps you warm." I am pretty warm, thank you Mr. Cynic. The speaker crackled for a moment before the pilot spoke.
"We ask that everyone takes a seat, as we are about to depart for Beacon Academy." A few of the rowdier individuals in the ship whooped and cheered, much to the olive-clad Sage's annoyance. The transport ship's engines whirred as many adolescents scurried to their seats, a few glaring at Sage. The Bullhead lifted off, and flew towards Beacon and away from the initiates' pasts.
The sounds of amazement woke Sage from his rest, but it wasn't until the ship decelerated and turned sharply that Sage opened his eyes; this was largely due to the fact he was launched from his seats.
"DUST DAMN IT WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE IN ONE OF THE HUGE ASS AIRSHIPS DOESN'T MEAN THAT YOU CAN RULE THE FUCKING SKY!" The intercom crackled after the shouting; everything was dead silent with the hunter-hopefuls. It crackled again before a much calmer female voice was heard.
"Sir… The intercom was on when you said that."
"Oh." There was a long pause that was only filled by the whirring of the engines.
"You should probably say something to the students."
"Ms. Washington, they went to a battle school and will soon be attending another one, as long as they survive initiation. I'm sure they've heard their fair share of swearing and more." The students began to murmur and look around at each other nervously. Sage got back in his seat and listened to what he could hear from the crowd of children.
"Is he implying we're going to die?" Just that you could.
"I like a challenge." Overachiever.
"... I'm so screwed…" Pathetic.
"Look on the bright side, at least we'll die together!" Not this kid again. A familiar figure clad in black and white had popped up in the middle, visible only because he was standing on a seat.
"Who are you?" Someone from the crowd asked, obviously not acquainted with the energetic boy.
"Ace, like, the Ace of Spades. Nice to meet you." That kid will be the first to die. Guarantee it.
"Uh… okay then." The teen gave a confused look at Ace, who had a quickly failing smile on his face as he realized that the other wasn't going to make conversation with him.
"The mic is still open, isn't it Ms. Washington?"
"Yes. Yes it is."
"Oh boy." The loudspeaker croaked one last time and went silent. The students laughed and let their concern leave them if only for the time being. They were cut off once more by the entire Bullhead shaking and a large dent appearing in Sage's side of the airship. The students unlucky enough to be sitting where the indentation had been created were launched across the cabin, some had the good fortune to land on other students (and break their fall), others happened to have the misfortune of ramming into hard metal wall on the opposite side of the Bullhead. Shouts rose up from the students, but if one listened closely, he or she would also hear muffled shouting from the cockpit- including but not limited to extremely foul language and pleading a deity to curse the enormous airship that had rammed the smaller craft. Initiates that had not been crushed by their flying peers or catapulted into the air rushed to the window to see the airship responsible for the damage. The selfish teen was among those who experienced flight due to the other airship, but he had dusted himself off fairly quickly after hitting the wall and found a window.
The airship was absolutely massive. With four gargantuan moving wings that reminded him of a swimming sea turtle, the white and blue leviathan managed to have a calming effect on Sage. Despite the small windows, some of which being shattered from the collision, the view from the Bullhead was an amazing one. Beautiful blue water shone up and reflected off the wings of the airship, but the airship wasn't what drew the eye.
Beacon. Academy of legend. Trains boys and girls into heroes.
Majestically overlooking the massive lake, the Beacon sparkled in the sunlight from atop a sheer cliff face. Water cascaded down around the school; a few small rivers and creeks made rainbows with their spray. At the bottom of the cliff, directly below Beacon, a harbor that many ships were delivering their students to. A long squiggle of switchbacks connected the port to the academy itself. Dust obscured the switchbacks, due to the trucks driving up the road carved from stone.
At that moment, a small square tile of metal was pushed up out of the floor and a hologram of a woman appeared in the center of the cabin. It wasn't until the hologram spoke that the students were pulled from the windows and drew their attention to the source of the noise.
"Hello and welcome to Beacon! My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!" Says the academy with a thousand total trainees. Then again, there are a lot of battle schools around the world and for every school, possibly hundreds of trainees. "Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." After the short speech, the hologram disappeared and the machine was covered by the panel once again. The pilot came back on the microphone to address the students.
"Well, I was going to be the first to welcome you to Beacon, but she beat me to it. I suppose I'm second then; congratulations, you made it. Regrettably, all of the docks at the actual academy are currently occupied, so we'll have to land at the harbor below. When we land, hop on the nearest truck. It'll take you up to the school. Once you get up there, please head straight ahead to the assembly hall. You can't possibly miss it. With that said, good luck to all of you and enjoy your time here!"
It's just a beautiful lie. This is where children go to die.
One dusty truck ride later, Sage had arrived.
"How did someone blow a hole in the ground already? It's not even the first day!" he said as he snorted and scrunched his nose in confusion. "I wouldn't even be mad, that's almost impressive." Looking up, he saw a veritable horde of students working their way towards the doors, though off to his right there was a girl and a boy chatting and wandering aimlessly. Let's just go in. Not like I'm meeting anyone here. He snorted again, shaking his head at the thought. Who'd want to meet me? I'm an asshole, in their eyes at least, and proud of it! If they don't agree with me they get all pissy- they're not worth my time. The sounds of boots on concrete dissolved into the sounds of the crowd, as he entered the hall behind the lanky blonde boy and red clad girl. They moved further into the hall and left Sage behind. He was much more comfortable in the back. The roar of the crowd grew louder as students found themselves almost having to yell over the others. Meanwhile, a man clad in black and green formal wear made his way to center stage. Two taps on the mic; he had everyone's attention.
"I'll… keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge - to hone your craft and acquire new skills," Yes. "And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people." You could say that. "But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction." A few murmurs shot through the mob of students but died down quickly. Sage looked down at himself. Sounds about right. Not sure how much direction it'll take to fix that one though. "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." Ozpin effectively dropped the microphone and walked away- though, it's kind of hard to drop the microphone when it's on a stand. Either way, the effect was the same. Everyone stood in a stunned silence trying to comprehend what had just transpired. Goodwitch didn't give them any time to think about it.
"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."