And now I'm trying my hand at RWBY. This particular story started out as a conversation between my friends and I about what weapons and Semblances we'd have if we went to Beacon, and I just kind of thought, I can work with this, so here I am! Or should I say we are? 'Cause I can't do this without giving my boys some credit. I'm more than a tad nervous about this seeing as RWBY is such a great series and all, and I want to do it the proper justice.

There I go saying "I" again. I mean "we." I may be the main writer here, but my two friends also have a lot of input in terms of what goes on in this story.

This story will centre around the OC team, Team XSTN (XySToN), all of whom are created by my friends and I based on our conversation.

Xavier Devereux, the leader of Team XSTN, is my OC. He's got something of a Jekyll and Hyde complex, and he gets irritated if he doesn't get enough sleep at night. The voice in his head, Damien, is another creation of mine, and he'll become more significant as the story goes on.

Sage Carlsen is Xavier's murder-happy monkey Faunus partner with a soft side. He has the sweet-tooth from hell, and God help ANYONE who gets between him and his sweets. He's not just the comic relief, though, as you'll learn as you find out more about him. He was created by Themadman59.

Timothy Lincoln is the smart guy of the group. He's kind of like Nami in One Piece in that he loves money without ever actually being greedy about it. He may come across as kind of an asshole, but believe me, there's a reason for it. He is the brainchild of GreenDo.

Nathaniel Hasek is the group pervert, because you know there's got to be one. He has an oddly specific thing for blondes with big breasts and is almost demonically persistent, no matter what he's doing. The character has gone through a redesign since the first version of this.

While this story will have very serious moments later on, it's primarily just supposed to be fun, so try and enjoy yourselves, won't you? And please try to appreciate the effort I went to in order to make sure these OCs weren't OP as FUCK – it was exhausting trying to convince my friends to nerf their characters for the sake of good storytelling …

RIP, Monty Oum. Your creative genius was truly a unique one.

Let's begin.


X, S, T, and N Arrive at Beacon

There are certainly some interesting characters going to this school, Xavier thought as he stood staring out the window of the airship. He quite enjoyed the view. There was a strange feeling of peace encompassing him as he stared down at the landscape through the gaps in the snow-white clouds, his battle-axe, which he had aptly named the Boom Stick, resting on his back.

Xavier Devereux was a seventeen-year-old boy on his way to Beacon Academy, where he hopes to learn to kill shit – or, at least, more dangerous shit than that which he's already killed in the past. That's the most basic description one can give about Beacon Academy, where students learn to fight monsters in order to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, protectors of the world of Remnant. Xavier had black hair that he kept in a buzz-cut and ocean blue eyes – there was also a slight dusting of scales on his cheeks. He was well-built and of average height. He wore a dark blue, hooded trench coat with patterns of a light blue on the front, over a simply grey chest-plate. On his legs were a pair of tight black trousers, and on his feet a pair of basic brown shoes over dark blue socks. He had his hood up for the moment.

There was a news report on about someone named Roman Torchwick robbing a Dust shop. Apparently he was some kind of big-name criminal mastermind, but Xavier never really paid attention to news of that sort. Then another report came on about a Faunus civil rights protest gone bad after the White Fang, a Faunus extremist group, crashed the party in quite an eye-catching manner.

Xavier thought that the situation with the White Fang was actually rather sad. Not many people knew, but the White Fang were once a peaceful organisation pushing for equal rights for the Faunus, but now they had become nothing more than a radical bunch of terrorists. It was such a shame that a group fighting for so noble a cause would fall and succumb to the hatred and violence they had spent so long trying to put an end to …

"You're a big fuckin' softie, ya know that, arsehole?" asked Damien, a rough voice that occupied a place in Xavier's mind. Xavier glanced at the window he was stood next to and saw Damien reflected at him. Damien looked just like Xavier but without the scales, and his hair was silver and mid-length and his eyes were red. "'Boo-hoo, what a sad story.' What the fuck are ya tryin' to pull? You tellin' me you feel sorry for a bunch o' rabid animals?"

Xavier wasn't quite sure where Damien came from, or why they had such drastically different personalities. Xavier could only assume Damien was the result of psychological damage Xavier had gone through during the incident. But that still didn't explain why Damien was such a maniacally racist bastard, as Xavier, as a Faunus, hoped that equality would be achieved between the two races someday. There were good and bad Faunus, just as there were good and bad humans. As far as Xavier was concerned, the two races had many more similarities than they had differences. But then again, he himself was a Faunus, and he thought the only reason Damien's racism didn't piss him off immensely was because he was used to it by now.

Xavier couldn't help but notice the similarities between his situation with Damien and a book he had read a few years before …

The news stopped playing entirely in an instant, and the holographic image of a woman appeared. She looked to be in her late twenties, maybe early thirties, and was admittedly beautiful. She had her bright blonde hair tied up in a bun. Her eyes were bright green, and over them she wore a pair of rectangular glasses. She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt that exposed a tiny portion of her chest, with sleeves that puffed out and were tightened as they reached her wrists. On her bottom half she wore a long black business skirt that had buttons running down the front of it. She also wore a cape which looked like it had been through the ringer a few times – it was black on the outside, purple on the inside, and looked to have been ripped to shreds near the bottom.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon," said the woman. Her voice and entire demeanour warned Xavier and everyone else present not to fuck with her. "My name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among a privileged few who have received the honour of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! 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 that powerful, totally not rehearsed speech, her hologram vanished, leaving the new students of Beacon Academy to talk amongst themselves once more. That also happened to be the moment when the airship lowered through the layer of clouds it had been flying above, giving everyone in the airship a full view of Vale and, even closer, Beacon Academy, their home for the next four years. Xavier thought it was a hell of a view, but it would seem not everyone appreciated it. An armour-clad blond guy seemed to be having some trouble holding in the contents of his stomach.

Nearby, a group of three was watching the view with almost the same amount of appreciation that Xavier was.

"Looks like someone's getting a little airsick," said the only male out of the three, grinning. He had some bulk to him, with light brown skin and a slightly taller frame. His hair was long, curly, and crimson red. His eyes were round and green, and slightly larger than average. He was wearing a white zip-up hoodie with thin black armour beneath, and a pair of sheaths on his back that held his two hatchets. On his legs, he wore a pair of jeans and on his feet a pair of basic black shoes.

"Oh, Yang, gross!" said one of the two girls in a high-pitched, almost childish voice. She was noticeably younger than everyone else on the airship, by about two years or so. She had smooth, flawlessly pale skin, and a slender body. Her hair was black with a strange red tint to it, and her eyes were a silver that shined almost like a reflection of the sun. She wore a black blouse, a black waist cincher with red lacing, and a black combat skirt with red trimmings. Around her waist was a belt with a pin that looked like a silver rose, and large cartridges and a magazine pouch. The look was completed by a red cloak. "You have puke on your shoe!"

The other girl, Yang, was a bombshell in every sense of the word. She was pale, and she had a body that a lot of other girls would kill for, and a lot of men would kill to be inside (if you catch my meaning). Her eyes were a beautiful shade of lilac, and her hair was long, flowing, and blonde. She wore a tan vest with gold piping over a yellow, low-cut crop top with a black crest on the left side that appeared to be a burning heart. The vest had puffy cap sleeves with black cuffs. Around her neck was an orange infinity scarf. On her bottom half, she wore a brown belt with a buckle, a pouch, and a small banner-like object – the same burning heart crest from her top was on this banner, except its colour was golden. She wore a pair of black shorts beneath the belt, and they barely came down to her thighs, which were toned and muscular. On her feet were a pair of knee-length brown platform boots.

"Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross!" Yang said as she tried to shake the puke from her foot.

"Get-Get away!" the younger girl cried, attempting to move away from Yang. "Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away from me!"

"Pull yourselves together, girls, it's only a bit of puke," said their male companion, the grin still in place on his face.

"Do you want some of this nasty shit, Nath?" Yang asked/threatened.

"And like that, I'm outta here!" "Nath" exclaimed as he made a hasty retreat.

"Well, I think we've found the spastics who won't last ten minutes," said Damien.

Don't be a dick, Xavier said to him, not for the first time. (He had actually lost count of how many times he'd said this and similar things to Damien.) Everyone here is an aspiring Hunter. We're all in this together now.

"That might be the most hippy fuckin' thing ever to pass through your reptilian brain!"


God damn, when do I get to kill something? wondered Sage Carlsen as he waited near the exit to the airship as it landed. He wasn't a sociopath or a psycho or anything, but he was way too hyperactive for all this standing around and waiting bollocks. Killing Grimm just so happened to be one of the most effective ways he knew to keep active; that didn't make him some kind of sadist, did it?

Sage was a skinny guy with short, curly brown hair and heterochromatic eyes – his left eye red, his right eye green. He wore a black chest-plate and knee-guards, and he had black, spiked shoulder pads and shin-guards – all of this was accentuated with red hieroglyph-like runes whose purpose was unknown. Beneath, his clothes were thick and black, and they contained a little surprise in case anyone managed to get past his "outer shell," as it were. A monkey tail – more specifically, a spider monkey tail – protruded from the back of his trousers. The pistol sheath on the left side of his hip contained a red and blue colt 1911. The sheath on the right side of his hip, this one meant for a sai, was empty, as Sage was twirling said sai around in his left hand. The sai was also red and blue in colour. He called this unconventional pair of weapons My Little Friends.

He couldn't wait to let My Little Friends loose on something. He wondered what he'd fight first, how he'd kill it, what he'd do for fun afterwards … and now he wanted cake. Unfortunately, it didn't look like there was any cake in the immediate vicinity, so … And then he lost his appetite. Some blond guy just started the ancient struggle of trying to hold his breakfast in. Ew.

Sage had an unnaturally wide grin on his face as the airship landed, but to be fair, that grin was normally present on his face, anyway. That was just how Sage was: a constant bundle of overwhelming energy and hyperactive joy. If he thought there was even the slightest chance of something being fun, he'd do it, regardless of any potential threat to his own safety. Other people's safety … well, that was another matter entirely. He started wondering what kind of food they'd have at Beacon, and hoped they'd have cake.

The airship landed and the doors opened, and unsurprisingly it was Vomit Boy who was the first out. He left in a very large hurry and buried his head into the first bin he saw, unleashing the contents of his stomach into it like a disgusting waterfall. As disgusting as he found puke, Sage wasn't an unsympathetic man, so he gave Vomit Boy a healthy pat on the back as he walked past. Before he went any further, though, Sage checked to make sure he had everything. Toothbrush: check. Pyjamas: check. My Little Friends: check, obviously. Porn: check. Well, it was manga, but considering Sage's taste in manga, there really wasn't much of a difference.

Sage happened to notice the girl in red from the airship being heartlessly abandoned by her sister, Yang, and that "Nath" guy. Do try not to judge him too harshly, won't you? When one is on an airship and bored out of their mind, one does tend to listen in on conversations. Sage hadn't really been looking as he'd done so, though, as that would have made it rather obvious what he was doing. As such, he was seeing this girl in red for the first time, and he found her wide-eyed, innocent demeanour absolutely adorable! There was even cuteness to the way she fell into that luggage!

"What are you doing!?" yelled another girl, presumably the owner of the luggage. She had a remarkably pale complexion, almost to the point of pure whiteness. She had icy blue eyes, the left of which had a crooked scar running down it, and long white hair that she tied in an off-centre ponytail. She wore a pale blue bolero jacket over a thigh-high dress of a similar colour that had a piece of black lace for a neckline. Sage thought her demeanour positively screamed "bitch."

"Uh, sorry!" Red Girl exclaimed, probably worried about offending Ice Girl. But she needn't have worried. It looked like Ice Girl was just predisposed to be angry.

"Sorry!?" Ice Girl yelled angrily. "Do you have any idea the damage you could have caused?"

Red Girls picked up one of the cases and looked rather confused. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the look of it. Sage supposed it was a good thing he wasn't in that situation right now – he would have shaken it to make sure it wasn't dangerous.

"Give me that!" Ice Girl snatched the case away from Red Girl. She opened it to reveal small crystals – Dust crystals, Sage recognised – that sparkled and made a slight twinkling noise. "This is Dust – mined and purified in the Schnee Dust Quarry." Red Girl just looked confused. "What are you, brain-dead?" She shut the case, but one of the Dust crystals was still in her hand, and she shook it as she continued verbally assaulting Red Girl. "Dust! Fire! Water! Lightning! Energy!"

Red Girl's breathing was starting to sound weird, and if that twitch in her nose was anything to go by, then Sage thought he knew what was about to happen. It was then that he finally decided not to interfere. His curiosity over what exactly would happen if someone sneezed into Dust far outweighed the urge he'd had to get involved and end the argument.

"I-I know …" Red Girl struggled to say, as she was clearly trying very hard not to sneeze.

"Are you even listening to me?" Ice Girl asked as she continued to shake the Dust crystal, releasing even more of the stuff into the air. Sage was honestly surprised that she apparently hadn't noticed it. "Is any of this sinking in? What have you got to say for yourself?"

And Red Girl finally sneezed.

The effect was instant and magnificent. The explosion was loud, and it was certainly quite a spectacle to look at. There was fire, ice, and lightning all mixed into one explosion, and Sage found the chaos of such a thing to be more beautiful than any explosion he had ever seen. He wanted to see it again!

Ice Girl walked over to Red Girl, covered in soot after the explosion, and somehow she looked even angrier. "Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

Sage started to walk over. He'd had his fun, but now it was time to get involved.

"I'm really, really sorry!" Red Girl apologised profusely.

"Urgh, you complete dolt!" Ice Girl growled at her. "What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

"Well, I-I …" Red Girl seemed to be struggling to find words.

"Y'know, if she is here earlier in life than she's meant to be, she's gotta be pretty damn impressive," Sage said as he reached them. He used his tail to pat Red Girl on the head; she looked embarrassed, but didn't say anything. "She could be better than you, for all you know."

Ice Girl scoffed. "You really think someone this immature and stupid could be better than me?" She was eyeing Sage's tail with disdain, and he suddenly disliked her even more.

"Immature? Who's the one being a crabby bitch over one tiny little accident, again?"

"Yeah, I said I was sorry, princess!" Red Girl snapped. She looked at Sage gratefully.

"It's heiress, actually," said another girl's voice from nearby. This newcomer was a girl with a light skin complexion, long, wavy black hair, and amber eyes accentuated by purple eye shadow that flared backwards. She wore a black bow on her head, a black buttoned vest with coattails, and a white sleeveless under-shirt. She was carrying the Dust crystal, which had apparently been blasted away by the explosion. "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellent in the world."

"Finally! Some recognition!" Weiss said smugly.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labour force and questionable business partners," the Black Girl added on.

"Ooh, shots fired," said Sage, trying to hold in his laughter. So was Red Girl.

"Wha— How dare you— The nerve of … Ugh!" Weiss' anger had apparently rendered her speechless. Instead of trying to continue on with the massive rant she had doubtlessly been working up, she just went up to Black Girl, snatched the Dust crystal from her hands, and stormed off. In Sage's opinion, the bitch really needed to lighten up.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" Red Girl called after Weiss. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day … So, what's …?" She turned to face Black Girl, who was walking away from the scene as if it had never taken place. Red Girl then simply fell to the ground, looking like she'd just had all hope drained out of her. "Welcome to Beacon." She sighed.

"The ground is rather comfortable, I'll admit, but if you stay there all day, you'll be late for the orientation," said Sage. He wasn't being sarcastic, either – over the years, he had come to find the ground strangely comfortable. He was just about to help Red Girl up when a familiar face walked over and did exactly that.

It was the blond guy who vomited on the ship. Now that Sage got a better look at him, he could see that his hair was messed up and that his eyes were bright blue. He wore very basic silver armour over a hoodie. "Hey … I'm Jaune," he said.

"Ruby," said Ruby, grateful, as she was helped to her feet.

"I'm Sage, and I'm a psychotic bastard!" Sage introduced himself cheerily.

"… Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?" Ruby asked.

Sage practically busted his guy laughing. Eventually he had to put his tail over his mouth to stop the laughter from getting out.

By the time the three of them had gotten things back to a place where conversation could be calm, there was nobody else in the area, and they had to just aimlessly wander in a direction and hope they were going the right way. Beacon Academy was built like a fortress, and Sage found the whole place overly big and confusing, so he was glad to have Ruby and Jaune there with him. He just followed along, thinking that one of those two must know where they're going. He found himself rather surprised by how Beacon looked inside those walls: there were trees everywhere (which strangely didn't seem to have been polluted in any way), arching architecture, and a winding road that led alongside a river. They walked down said road, and there was still nobody in sight.

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem then people let on!" Jaune complained as the three of them walked.

Ruby laughed awkwardly. "Look, I'm sorry!" she said. "Vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind."

"You threw up on an airship," said Sage. "In a school environment, people will come up with much worse names than Vomit Boy for doing something like that, Vomit Boy."

"Stop calling me that!" Jaune practically begged. Sage had no intention of doing so. "What if I called your, er … I'm sorry, there's nothing I can think of to call you without sounding racist." Sage laughed. Jaune looked at Ruby. "But what if I called you Crater Face?"

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" Ruby defended.

"Yeah, and it left, like, no damage," Sage pointed out. "At all. Even the soot all over that Schnee chick vanished immediately. God damn illogical physics!"

"Well, the name's Jaune Arc," Jaune said with much more confidence than he had previously displayed. "Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it."

"… Do they?" Sage and Ruby asked simultaneously. The two of them looked each other in the eyes and burst out laughing.

"They will!" Jaune said indignantly, his confidence wavering at their shared reaction. "I … I hope they will. My mom always says that … never mind."

Sage and Ruby laughed a little more, then an awkward silence befell them.

Sage suddenly felt rather uncomfortable. He wasn't a particularly big fan of silence in general, but awkward silences were worse. He could just feel words hanging in the air, but nobody said them, and it made the silence feel strangely loud. Pronounced, even. And that didn't do for Sage, because he didn't like the silence, not at all.

"So …" said Ruby after awhile, much to Sage's relief, "… I got this thing!"

She pulled a compressed, metal, rose red object out from behind her robe. But then it opened up, shifted, with gears turning this way and that way, and it became a massive scythe with a large, crescent moon-shaped blade. The mechanics and inner workings were clearly on display. There was only one thing Sage could say upon seeing this thing of beauty …

"AMAZING!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, his already unnaturally wide grin seemingly doubling in size. "Holy shit, that's awesome!" Sage wasn't a weapons geek or anything – his mind was too full of random shit on a daily basis to really get into one thing too much – but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate magnificence when he saw it. "Little Red, you have great taste!"

"Whoa! Is that a scythe?" Jaune asked in awe.

"It's also a customisable, high-impact sniper rifle," said Ruby proudly.

"Huh?"

"It's also a gun," Sage translated for him. "Well, I've got these." He pulled the red and blue sai and Colt 1911 from their holsters on his hips. "I call them My Little Friends. And, of course, they're not exactly as they seem at first glance." He pushed a button on each of the two, and in a series of mechanical movements and changes, the gun was now a sai and the sai was now a gun. "In gun form, they shoot both Dust-infused rounds and regular rounds, depending on what I load them up with. And that's not all. See how one's sai form has a red blade and one has a blue blade? That's 'cause one of the blades is infused with ice Dust and the other with fire Dust. Comes in hella handy in a fight."

Ruby looked at Sage's weapons in fascinated admiration, whereas Jaune looked confused and even a little envious. Sage didn't know why that might be. Jaune definitely had something of a confidence issue, but one didn't get accepted into Beacon without being at least relatively impressive.

"That's awesome!" Ruby said after admiring Sage's weapons awhile. She looked over at Jaune. "So, what've you got, Jaune?"

"Oh! I, uh …" Jaune pulled a sword from the sheath at his hip. "I got this sword!" He didn't sound anywhere near as confident as Ruby and Sage were when they showed off their weapons.

"Ooh." Ruby was eyeing the sword as if she was expecting it to do something spectacular.

"Yeah, and I've got a shield, too!" He sounded much more confident upon seeing Ruby's reaction. He grabbed a scabbard from near the sheath his sword went in, and then it expanded into a large, medieval-style shield. But then Ruby just had to touch the shield, and it compressed and expanded over and over again, giving Jaune a lot of trouble trying to keep hold of it … He failed in that regard, dropping it to the floor and having to pick it up.

"So, what do they do?" asked Ruby.

Jaune compressed the shield back into a scabbard and hung it off his belt. "The shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just … you know … put it away …"

"But it would just weigh the same," Sage pointed out.

"Yeah, it does," Jaune said dejectedly.

Sage felt bad for a moment. Then he decided he wanted pancakes.

"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, so I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it," said Ruby. She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly as she stared fondly at her scythe.

"Wait – you made that!?" Jaune asked in disbelief.

"I made mine, too," said Sage. Was it really that big of a shock? Most combat schools made you forge your own weapons, didn't they?

"Of course!" said Ruby. "All students and Signal forge their own weapons! Didn't you make yours?"

"It's a hand-me-down," said Jaune. "My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me." Ruby laughed awkwardly. Jaune started to look down. "Well, I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah, the classics …"

"Oh, don't worry, Vomit Boy," said Sage. "As long as you know how to use it, it doesn't matter what it can and can't do!"

"So, why'd you two help me out in the courtyard?" Ruby asked them.

"Eh, why not?" Jaune said with a shrug. "My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet.'"

"Is your mum aware of the growing paedophile problem?" Sage asked him with an eyebrow raised. "She might wanna take a look at her logic. I mean, if you just went around talking to strangers willy nilly, someone you don't like might try to tap that ass." He playfully whipped his tail against Jaune's butt to emphasise his point, causing Jaune to let out a small yelp. Sage looked back at Ruby. "I saw Ice Queen being a bitch and just thought, 'What the hell?' Plus, it's good to start getting to know people early, right?"

Ruby hummed in agreement, and the three of them kept on walking for a good few moments. "Hey, where are we going?" Ruby asked suddenly.

"Oh, I don't know!" Jaune said, suddenly panicked. "I was following you!"

"I was following both of you," said Sage, wanting to save time and avoid pointless questions.

"Y-You think there might be a directory?" Jaune asked with a stutter, the panic becoming clearer and clearer on his face. "Maybe a food court? Some recognisable landmark?" He was answered with complete silence. "Is, uh … is that a 'no?'"

"That's a 'no,'" Ruby said, giggling at him.

"Don't worry about it," Sage said casually. "If we keep wandering around aimlessly, I'm sure we'll stumble onto it at some point in the next week." Sage burst out laughing when that only seemed to make things worse.

I hope the rest of the year is this fun! he thought as he walked with his two new friends.


Well, this is boring, Timothy Lincoln thought as he stood in the large auditorium, amidst a mass of other teenagers, his trusty straight-sword (which he had named Solid Snake) sheathed at his side. The sword had a hook at the end. Timothy was a young man with dusty brown hair that came down in a fringe on his right side and hazel eyes. He wore a padded grey bomber jacket over a thin jumper, padded-down dress pants, and a pair of heavy boots.

And holy shit, was he bored.

He came to Beacon thinking this was going to be fun, and yet they had a wait like this for orientation? It was bullshit. Timothy was genuinely at a stage where he was going over the anatomical structure of different kinds of Grimm in his mind just to stave off boredom. And it wasn't working! Damn his brain for storing so much information! He just wanted to get the orientation over and done with, then get some sleep. The initiation was the next day, and he needed to get rested … even though those God forsaken Grimm didn't stand a chance against him, naturally.

Timothy was a genius. He'd claim that it wasn't something he bragged about, but he would be lying. The downside of being a genius was that his brain was constantly working, and so it made long waits like this one all the more agonising. He was egotistical as hell, but he wasn't quite as delusional as some of the other people in the auditorium. A lot of them seemed under the impression that they would be making team leader when the positions were decided, but Timothy had no such illusions, nor desires – he was far too lazy for to be good at giving orders.

"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Yang called out to her sister, who was just entering the room with Jaune and Sage.

Timothy got the strange feeling Ruby could've seen her without the announcement. Her blonde hair contrasted with all the fucking silhouettes so much that it was impossible not to see someone who actually had features. And then Timothy realised, with more dismay than he thought he'd ever be feeling on the first day, that in his quest to alleviate his boredom, he had lowered himself to listening in on other people's conversations. Well, I've started now, may as well listen to the whole thing, he thought with a mental shrug.

"How's your first day coming, little sister?" Yang asked Ruby.

"You mean since you ditched me and I exploded!?" asked Ruby.

"Yikes! Meltdown already?" Yang asked it as if Ruby exploded on a regular basis.

Did I sign up for a school full of lunatics? Timothy had to wonder.

"Oh no, she definitely exploded," said Sage. Timothy glanced from the corner of his eye and saw the unnaturally wide grin on this monkey Faunus' face … It unnerved him, to say the least. Sage recalled the moment of the explosion; he could practically see it again, it was so magnificent. "The name's Sage, by the way. Nice to meet you. Do you have any cake? Or pancakes? Either's good."

"… And there was some fire, and I think some ice …?" Ruby continued, ignoring Sage entirely.

"Are you being sarcastic?" Yang asked in a highly amused tone of voice.

Timothy had heard sarcasm before plenty of times, mostly from his own mouth, and Ruby was showing absolutely no signs of it. He still thought she must be joking, though – there was no way she'd actually exploded.

"I wish!" Ruby scoffed. "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!"

I thought I was the only one who could talk without ever stopping for breath, Sage thought, in awe of how Ruby had said all that without a single pause.

"You!" Weiss yelled, having come up behind Ruby during her little story.

"Oh God, it's happening again!" Ruby yelled, clinging to Yang for dear life.

Sage screamed in mock fright. "Ice bitch!" he yelled in a voice filled with terror … but the ever-present grin on his face went nowhere.

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" Weiss said to Ruby, making it a point to ignore Sage entirely.

"You mean to tell me she actually exploded?" Timothy turned around and asked. Any and all thoughts of making it look like he wasn't listening in went out the window, and now he just needed to understand how this had apparently occurred.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you!" said Weiss.

"Who are you, anyway?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hello, I'm Timothy Lincoln," Timothy introduced himself. "My friends call me Tim. Well, they don't, 'cause I don't let them, but fuck it, that's how introductions normally go. Anyway, I was listening in on your conversation because I was bored." He'd already jumped into the conversation, so screw it, what harm was there in admitting what he was doing?

"A man who does weird shit when he's bored. I like you already," said Sage, patting him on the back. Sage then started wondering when dinner was.

"It was an accident," Ruby said to Weiss, climbing down from Yang's arms. "It was an accident!" She was suddenly faced with a pamphlet that Weiss had shoved in her face: DUST for Dummies and Other Inadequate Individuals. "What's this?"

"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 customers to read and familiarise themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field." Weiss said all of this in the space of about ten seconds without once pausing for breath.

"That was quite impressive," Timothy said in awe. He wished he could do that so that he could minimise conversations with idiots. "How did you ever learn to speak that quickly?"

"One learns to speak quickly when dealing with people she doesn't care to spend time with," said Weiss smugly.

Timothy made a mental note that the best way to get on her good side would be to appeal to her clearly oversized ego.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Sage, though he was in no way sorry for interrupting anything Weiss was doing. "But I think you may have broken Ruby's brain, Weissicle."

Ruby was, indeed, making groaning noises that would indicate a loss of mental capacity.

"You really wanna start making things up to me?" Weiss asked her.

"Absolutely …?" Ruby said/asked, not really sure if Weiss was giving her the chance to or not.

Weiss shoved the pamphlet into Ruby's hands. "Read this, and don't ever speak to me again," she said.

"Look, uh, it just sounds like you two got off on the wrong foot," said Yang. "Why don't you guys start over and try to be friends, okay?"

"The bomb has been armed," said Sage, a feeling of dread falling over him. He got the strange feeling that whatever happened next was going to be highly entertaining, however. "And it's not a bomb that explodes rainbows, either."

"Are you completely insane?" Timothy asked him, incredulous.

"How could you tell?" Sage asked him with clearly faked innocence.

Great, Timothy thought, sighing. Beacon's full of nutters … Isn't that just grand?

"Yeah! Great idea, sis!" Ruby agreed with Yang enthusiastically. She held her hand out to Weiss for a shake, cleared her throat, and put a winning smile on her face (which Sage found adorable). "Hello, Weiss! I'm Ruby! Wanna hang out? We can go shopping for school supplies!"

Her enthusiasm was heart-warming (even for Timothy, just a little bit) to everyone except for Weiss.

"Yeah!" Weiss gave a fake cheer. Ruby didn't notice, but everyone else did. "And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there!" She pointed a finger over her shoulder toward Jaune.

"You're well in there, Vomit Boy!" Sage cheered humorously. He was both trying to lift Jaune's spirits and piss Weiss off. Killing two Nevermores with one bullet.

"Wow! Really!?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"… No," Weiss said coldly.

"The bitchiness is so thick in the air right now," said Sage, not caring who heard him. Truthfully, he had met Weiss half an hour ago at most, and he already didn't like her. And looking at her attitude, that opinion wasn't going to change anytime soon. So he'd do what he normally does to people who he doesn't like: piss them off however he can.

"You are just an annoying, foul-mouthed dolt!" Weiss snapped at him.

"Can't argue with you there," said Timothy. He looked at Sage, whom he already found to be irritating. "No offence, but you're just too immature, crazy, and all-around childish to be considered any form of intelligent."

"Why did you just list off my best qualities in the form of an insult?" Sage asked. He wasn't really confused, for he knew exactly what Timothy meant, but they didn't need to know that. They could find him annoying all they wanted, Sage didn't care. He would be himself even if it meant they would throw themselves from the rooftops to escape him.

"… Never mind," said Timothy. The hyperactivity I could take, but does he have to be so God damn STUPID?

Then a man came on stage. He wore a black suit with dark green trousers and some kind of green scarf around his neck. He had tussled grey hair and eyes that were covered by a pair of rounded shades. Everyone in the room knew who this was instantly. After all, how could they not? This was professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy. Beside him stood Glynda Goodwitch, the woman who had spoken to them all on the airship before it had landed.

"I'll … keep this brief," Ozpin said into a microphone. "You have all travelled 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."

A lot of murmurs sounded in the crowd. Most, if not all of them, thought he was insulting them.

"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." He stepped back, and Professor Goodwitch took the mic.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight; tomorrow, your initiation begins," she told them. "Be ready. You are dismissed."

"He seemed kind of … off," said Yang after a pause.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there," said Ruby.

"I'm a natural blond, you know," said Jaune, who had come up to them after hearing Weiss' comments (apparently not realising their sarcastic nature). Weiss' only reaction was to slap a palm to her face and groan.

"Yeah, Weiss, since you seem so fond of VB here, why don't you two go off together and … 'get close'?" Sage said, cackling to himself like a madman. The positively murderous look on Weiss' face only made his laughter increase in volume, but he couldn't help but feel slightly bad when seeing the hopeful look in Jaune's eyes. Then Weiss stormed off, and Sage was laughing again.

Well, it's good to know that school work won't be the only thing to keep me entertained, at the very least, Timothy thought, shrugging.


"Get the fuck outta here, lizard-boy!" the big guy said as he shoved Xavier, who was holding a sleeping bag under one arm, away from him. "Go sleep outside, where you animals belong."

Xavier stumbled over a few people on the floor as he was shoved, and he apologised profusely to most of them (the ones who were only annoyed that he stepped on them, not the ones who took one look at him and started being assholes). Pretentious dick, he thought to himself. I'd call him a cunt, but I doubt he has the depth or the capacity to give pleasure.

"Ooh, sick burn there," Damien cackled in his mind. "But don't be mean to 'im. I like that guy!"

Of course, you like him, Xavier thought in annoyance. You're both racist douchebags.

Xavier didn't normally take the abuse of racists, but considering how many people were being packed into this room, he thought it best not to pin the guy down and leave a permanent reminder of the moment using his fangs (his scales are a Faunus trait; his fangs, he did himself by sharpening his teeth years ago). Gaining a reputation for violence before he'd even gone through initiation wasn't something Xavier had in mind. At the moment, all that was on his mind was finding somewhere to sleep where he wasn't going to hear comments about belonging to a zoo.

"Hey, what's wrong with a zoo?" asked Damien, genuinely confused. "Free food, no responsibilities, and hey, if some retard falls in there with ya, you get to fuckin' maul 'em!" He let out another bout of deranged laughter. "Unless you're a gorilla, o' course, then they'll just shoot the shit outta ya."

Charming.

Xavier sighed to himself as he made his way carefully through the hall. He was remarkably fond of his sleep, but it was starting to look like he wasn't going to be getting much. He'd rather not sit with pre-established groups of friends, as just jumping into a group like that was a slightly terrifying thought to him, but he had just been booted away from the only secluded spot he could find, so this was looking to be rather problematic …

"You can set yourself down here, if you like."

Xavier looked toward the feminine voice and saw somebody he didn't know. It was the girl who had angered Weiss Schnee earlier, saving Ruby from further torment in the process – but, of course, Xavier knew none of this. He looked at her for a moment, confused, and ever so slightly curious as to why she was wearing that bow to bed (but he shook that curiosity off quickly enough). He didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, but there was one thing that he said before he could think about it.

"You sure the scales won't make you uncomfortable? They seem to have made me slightly unpopular so far."

"Maybe mingling with your own kind would be a better option, dumbarse," said Damien. Xavier ignored him.

"Just ignore those racist idiots," said the girl. "I know I plan to. I've got no problem with you sitting here."

"… Thanks," Xavier said, genuinely grateful. He put his sleeping bag down near her, but not too near. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable in any other ways. "I'm Xavier," he introduced himself.

"Blake," she said, turning a page in the book she was reading.

"Nice to meet you." Not wanting to interrupt her reading any more, and tired from the long day he'd had, Xavier laid himself down in his sleeping bag and closed his eyes.

Across the hall …

"Nath" – full name: Nathaniel Hasek – sat on his sleeping bag wearing his pyjamas (which, like most of the males in the room, only really covered the chest and legs, leaving his muscular arms exposed). With a tired sigh, he laid his head back, placing both of his hands behind it. The first day hadn't been as eventful as he'd thought it would, but with that being said, running away from Yang in order to avoid a messy introduction to her vomit-painted shoe gave him more exercise than he probably would have gotten otherwise.

Speaking of Yang, she and Ruby were sitting not far away. So was Sage, but Nathaniel had no clue who he was.

"It's like a big slumber party!" said Yang.

"Not sure Dad would approve of all the boys, though," said Ruby.

"I know I do." Yang released a purring sound as she eyed up a few of the barely-clothed boys around the room.

"Yang, I'm hurt," said Nathaniel. His voice was filled with mock sadness. "I … I thought you only looked at me like that …" He wiped an imaginary tear away from his eye.

Yang smirked at him. "Sorry, Nath, gonna have to let you go," she said in false sorrow. "I think we both know that with this crowd, you're just not gonna cut it anymore."

The two of them chuckled together for a few moments.

"How're you doing?" Yang asked him. "We haven't really talked since the airship this morning."

"Eh, I've just been hanging around." Nathaniel shrugged. "Though I've been keeping right behind you the whole day. God knows I can never take my eyes off that beautiful ass of yours."

Most girls would have, quite rightfully, punched him for a comment like that. But it was sort of a routine between Nathaniel and Yang. They flirted, made perverted comments, and generally made every effort to make anyone who might hear the conversation uncomfortable. Why? It was fun, simple as that.

"Well, no one can blame you for admiring perfection," said Yang. "Don't be discouraged, though - you've got one fine ass yourself, my friend. Although I'm a little surprised you weren't looking at something a little higher." She squeezed her arms together in front of her to emphasise her cleavage, then, with a wink, turned to Ruby, who looked more than a bit uncomfortable by the whole conversation. "What's that?"

"J-Just a letter back to the gang at Signal," said Ruby, sounding thoroughly relieved at the change of topic. Her face was redder than her usual battle attire. "I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going."

"Aww, that's so cuuute," Yang cooed.

Ruby promptly threw a pillow at her face, which somehow knocked her over.

"Ha! Take that, physics!" said Sage.

"Who the hell are you?" Nathaniel asked him.

"Hi, I'm Sage," the monkey-Faunus introduced himself. "I'm clinically insane and like using my tail to touch myself inappropriately."

"… Good to know," said Nathaniel. He didn't want to let on that he suddenly thought Sage was a genius.

"Shut up!" Ruby said to Yang in embarrassment. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school! It's weird not knowing anyone here!"

"Excuse me, I strongly resent that implication," said Sage. "You've been hanging around me for the past four hours and haven't tried to kill me yet. By my standards, that makes us pretty friendly." He had a grin on his face that the others were genuinely terrified of - it was like it stretched his face out, which shouldn't be physically possible.

"Yeah, and Jaune seems … nice," Yang said, slightly tense. "There you go! Plus two friends! That's a two hundred percent increase!"

"I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend," Ruby said glumly, turning back to what she was doing. "Back to one …"

"There's no such things as negative friends," said Yang. "You just made two friends and one enemy."

Another pillow knocked Yang down again.

"Where do you even keep getting those?" Nathaniel asked, incredulous. "There is literally no way you have that many pillows on you." A pillow hit him in the face. "See my point?"

"Dude, put that thing away!" Sage scolded him.

"Wha …?" Nathaniel said in confusion. What the hell is he- Oh, it's a boner joke. "You are an embarrassment to boner jokes."

"Look, it's only been one day," Yang said to Ruby. "Trust me, you've got friends all around you! You just haven't met them yet!"

That's when a candle lit up across the hall. Over by the candle sat Blake and Xavier. She was trying to read her book while he tried to get some sleep without disturbing her.

"That girl …" Ruby said as she saw Blake.

"You know her?" Yang asked, a grin growing on her face.

"Not really. She saw what happened this morning but left before I could say anything."

"Well, now's your chance!" Yang grabbed Ruby's arm, stood up, dragging her poor little sister up with her, and started marching her over to the two by the candle.

Nathaniel glanced at Sage. "You wanna watch this?" he asked.

"Why not?" Sage shrugged. "Nothing better to do than sleep, otherwise."

The two of them got up and followed after Yang and Ruby. Blake lowered her book as they approached, an irritated look on her face. Xavier just stayed in his sleeping bag. One might have thought he was asleep.

"Hellooooo," Yang sang out as she dragged a struggling Ruby over to Blake. "I believe you two may know each other?"

"Aren't you … that girl that exploded?" Blake asked, barely mustering any actual interest.

"Uh, yeah!" said Ruby. Despite the embarrassing subject matter, she was glad that the conversation at least had a starting point to work off of. "My name's Ruby! But you can call me Crater- Actually, you can just call me Ruby."

Sage laughed a bit.

"Okay." Blake went back to her book.

"What are you doing?" Yang whispered to Ruby.

"I don't know, help me," Ruby whispered back.

"So … what's your name?" Yang asked awkwardly.

Blake sighed as she looked up at them again. "Blake," she said.

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister!" Yang seemed completely oblivious to Blake's irritation. "I like your bow!"

"Thanks." The word came out of Blake's mouth in what was almost a growl.

"It goes great with your … pyjamas!"

"Right …"

"Er, Yang," said Nathaniel. He wanted to stop Yang from continuing to pester the poor girl before she had some kind of violent outburst. He was ignored, however.

Sage thought this was very funny.

"Nice night, don't you think?" Yang asked.

"Yes, it's lovely," said Blake. "Almost as lovely as this book. That I will continue to read. As soon as you leave."

"I think she's telling us to fuck off," said Sage.

"Did you figure that out yourself?" Xavier asked sarcastically. His eyes snapped open. He looked just as annoyed as Blake - if not more so. "I'm starting to think I'm just not sleeping tonight."

"Not that you get that much of it, anyway, Xavy," Damien mocked in his head.

Yang sighed. "Yeah, this girl's a lost cause."

"What's it about?" asked Ruby. She nodded at Blake. "Your book. Does it have a name?"

"Well … i-it's about a man with two souls, each fighting for control over his body," Blake explained, taken aback by Ruby's sudden interest.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Damien cackled. "Ohohohoho, that's a hell of turn-about, ain't it, Xavy? Ooh, ooh, d'you reckon he's a Faunus? That'd just make my day, that would. D'you think she'd tell us how it ends? Aren't you just a wee bit curious about who'd win in a fight between us, little Xavy?"

Xavier really didn't want to know who would win.

"Oh, yeah, that's real lovely," Yang said sarcastically.

"I love books," said Ruby. "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."

Blake chuckled - a strange sound coming from her. "And why is that?" she asked. "Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"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."

"That's … very ambitious for a child."

"It's not that simple, though," Xavier spoke up suddenly. "It doesn't always matter how brave and heroic you are - not everyone gets a happy ending."

"Well, that's why we're here!" Ruby said, still upbeat in spite of Xavier's tone. "To make it better."

"… What was your name again? Ruby?" Ruby nodded. Xavier smiled. "I think I like you, Ruby. I'm Xavier. It's good to know that not everyone I'll be stuck with for the next four years is an asshole."

"Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!" Yang said as she wrapped Ruby in a tight hug.

"Cut it out!" Ruby growled … then punched Yang in the face.

The two sisters seemed to vanish in a dust cloud as the sounds of their brawling filled the room. The others could only look on in bafflement at this case of what could only be described as cartoon logic.

"… I am in for a really weird year," Xavier said resignedly.

"Come on, Yang, stop it," Nathaniel chastised playfully. "If you make too much of a scene, you won't need me to watch you anymore. I don't want my job to become obsolete - I love looking at you. It's occurring to me that this is starting to sound much creepier than I intended but at this point I feel like I'm past the point of no return, can someone please stop me now or else I think I won't be able to sto-"

Sage wrapped his tail around Nathaniel's head, covering his mouth.

"Phnnk phu."

Blake chuckled at the group's antics. "Well, Ruby, Yang, it's a pleasure to have me-"

"What in the world is going on over here!?" demanded a new arrival. Weiss did not look happy, but to those who had already met her that day, this didn't come as a surprise. "Don't you realise some of us are trying to sleep?"

"She says, shouting," Xavier muttered.

"I think he's trying to sleep," Sage said, pointing down at Xavier. He pointed at Nathaniel. "He's only being quiet because my tail's wrapped round his head. And … well, no one else really looks like they give a damn, to be honest. Do you have any cake?"

Weiss and Yang locked eyes.

"Oh, not you again!" they both shouted.

"What the heck are you all doing?" Now Timothy was here, looking sufficiently nettled.

"Hi, Bethany!" Sage greeted him.

"It's Timothy," Timothy corrected in annoyance.

"You sure?" Xavier asked. "You seem awfully defensive about that."

"Pot and kettle, Xavy," said Damien. "I'm pretty sure you've been used as the example of 'defensive' in a game of Pictionary."

"Guys, Weiss is right," Ruby said in a hushed voice. "People are trying to sleep."

"Oh, now you're on my side," said Weiss.

"I was always on your side!"

"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister?" Yang asked aggressively. "She's only trying to be nice."

"She's a hazard to my health!" snapped Weiss.

"Does anyone have any cake?" asked Sage.

"NO!" they all shouted at him.

Blake blew out her candle.

Welcome to Beacon, I suppose.


All right, I'm sure that's much better than the first version of this chapter, and now that it's in the third person, we don't have any of those awkward POV changes. Yay! I quite like how the characters are turning out, and you'll see a lot more of their progression and character in the future. I'm particularly excited about my plans for Damien. Hehehehe.

For those of you who want to know, Xavier's outfit is based on Corvo Attano's Dishonored gear, only without the mask. Sage's was created by Themadman59, along with the character himself. Timothy's was designed by his creator, GreenDo. Nathaniel's is based on Desmond Miles' attire from the Assassin's Creed games.

I'll do my best to edit up the second chapter in the same manner, then get on with the third. Hopefully, I'll actually add something new to this soon. Anyway, ta-ta for now.