A/N: Hey guys! It's been a long time since I've put anything up on here, but I binge watched all of RWBY about a month ago and I've had the idea of this character and the plot line stuck in my head since I started watching it. I don't own anything RWBY, everything belongs to Rooster Teeth. I also just want you to know that this will for the most part probably follow the main anime (it definetly will for volume 3, since that is where it's starting off) but it might diverge a little once it gets to the end of volume 3/the time jump of 4. But we'll see when we get there. Anyway, enjoy! Rates and reviews are welcome!

Volume 1, Chapter 1: Welcome to Vale

"What're we doing here? Shouldn't we be out, I don't know? Hunting Grim or something?" I muttered as we trudged down the sidewalk. I drug my feet against the almost pristine, perfect looking sidewalk. This entire city looked perfect, and it disgusted me.

"It's the Vytal Festival, Chess. Geez, take a break."

"Says the one who trains me from dawn to dusk every single day." I muttered, running my hands through my deep purple hair. My tail flicked in agitation as I looked at the man next to me.

The man chuckled, his bright red eyes flashing mischievously. He had dark, graying hair that didn't come pass his ears except for his bangs, which brushed his eyebrows. He wore a gray dress shirt with a long tail, a tattered red cloak, black pants, and worn black shoes. A sword was strapped to his back.

I followed after him without any more questions, though I seriously detested this city. Vale. Just thinking about the name disgusted me. However, it was honestly any of the major cities that made me sick. I followed him down some alleys, which were, for alleys, surprisingly clean.

"Jesus Christ does this city even have dirt in it?" I grumbled. A quick scoff was issued from in front of me, before we walked out back on to another street. It wasn't one of the city's major streets, but it still looked pristine. He led me across the street to a small (but of course clean) bar called 'Crow Bar'.

"Should have known you were just going to get drunk." I sighed from across the street, before quickly jogging to catch up as we walked inside.

"Welcome to Crow Bar, can I get you two anything?" The bartender asked as he picked up a glass and a rag and began shining the glass even though there was nobody else in the bar and by all appearances it seemed we were the first customers of the day, unsurprisingly since it was barely past noon.

"I'll take a glass of rum and coke." As we sat down at the bar I noticed that there was a stadium style fight that was about to happen on the tv behind the bar.

"Oh, now I know why we're here. You just had to watch those two, huh?" As the bartender began pouring him his drink I sighed and dropped my bag on the ground next to my chair. "Just water for me, please."

"And the next fight will be between Team JNPR and Team BRNZ!"

"You're here to watch the Vytal fights? They're going to be great this year, there's a lot of great talent coming from the academies!" The bartender seemed far more interested in these fights than I ever would be, so as he placed our drinks on the counter in front of us I stood up.

"I'm going to the bathroom." I muttered before slinking to the back of the bar in to the bathroom which was, of course, clean. Annoyingly so.

I walked over to the sink and turned it on, cupping my hands underneath the running water. I splashed the ice cold water in my face, before looking up at my reflection in the mirror.

My bright yellow eyes flashed back at me as I reached up and pushed my dark purple bangs out of my face. My hair ran to my jaw, always unruly no matter what I tried to do with it. I reached up and rolled the sleeves of my pale purple, almost white, button-up shirt up to my elbows, and unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. I adjusted my vest, which was the same color as my hair, and brushed some of the dirt off of my black pants. I looked at my shoes and grumbled and my dark and light purple striped tail flicked in agitation. They were, along with my master's shoes, probably the dirtiest thing in this whole city. Hell, let's face it. My master and I were the dirtiest things in this city, even though we were perpetually dressed as if we were preparing to go to some fancy event. I picked up my clothing style from him, no matter how annoying it was.

I dried my face and hands with a paper towel before walking back in to the bar. I sat in my seat just in time to see that Team JNPR had won the fight, which didn't mean anything to me except that a woman with long red hair was on the team.

"Is that Pyrrha Nikos?" I asked as I took a sip of water.

"Oh yeah, she's probably the most promising student at Beacon right now!"

I glanced sideways at my master, who just grunted and drained his glass of the remaining liquid in it. A few announcers came on the tv to announce the next fight, which looked like it was happening between a boy band and an all-girls group. I scoffed. What a joke.

The match was extremely close, but somehow the boy band team won.

"Phew! That was a match!" The bartender exclaimed. I glanced at my master and was surprised to find that he was now on his fifth drink.

"That was a mess." He slurred as he placed his empty glass on the bar.

"Come on man, you didn't like them, the Vale kids, or any of the rounds before that? What fight are you here for?" I smirked and looked at him with a mischievous smile spread across my face.

"Yeah, what fight are we here for?" I asked him, turning sideways in my seat.

Then, I heard a large ship from outside. I glanced out of the bar and saw that it was, in fact, a large, expensive looking ship coming in to land. It was bright, pristine white. The man glanced over his shoulder, saw the ship, and smirked.

"That one." He said as he placed money on the bar to cover the tab, and stood up. "C'mon, Chess."

"Thanks for the drinks." I nodded to the tender, before chasing after my master, throwing my dusty bag over my shoulders. He led me down some streets, before we reached a main street that dumped in to a big landing pad, the very one the ship we'd seen had landed on.

"Whose ship was that?" I didn't get a response, just a few low chuckles. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, but kept following him anyway as he walked down the street towards the ship, which was almost an entire football field away. I'd have to be the one to make sure his drunk ass got in to a bed somewhere at some point tonight.

As we neared the ship I noticed a very formal, important looking woman talking to two girls who looked about my age surrounded by multiple soldiers. We were too far away for details, but one of the girls and the woman both had snow white hair and the other girl wore a black dress and had dark hair. I blinked my eyes as my master stopped moving and I stared at the woman and the girl with white hair.

"Wait, is that the Schnee family ship?" I looked at my master as I stepped up to be shoulder to shoulder with him. I didn't get an answer as he stared at the group, before the two with white hair and the group of soldiers began walking down another street, towards what I realized was Beacon Academy. My master followed after them, but at a far enough distance to keep them from realizing we were following them. If these were the Schnee women, what did my master want with them?

Suddenly, my master began walking with a purpose towards the group, and quickly drew away from me as he reached the two furthest soldiers. In a matter of seconds he'd destroyed them both, decapitating one and throwing it towards the group as they realized something had happened, and turned to look towards us.

"Hey! Yeah, I'm talking to you, Ice Queen." His words were still slurred, but I knew that there was a sudden serious tone in his voice.

"Halt!" The woman commanded as the remaining soldiers moved to confront him. The soldiers, robots programmed to listen to whoever was in charge of them, stopped moving instantly. I jogged quickly to catch up, but stood about five feet back from him, throwing my bag on the ground to the side. Now that I was closer, I knew that these two were the Schnee girls. The daughter of the head Schnee himself.

"Excuse me, but do you have any idea who you're talking to?" The girl asked snottily as she pranced up and stood in front my master.

I scoffed audibly, which caused her to turn and look at me.

"What do you want?" She asked after a pause, in which she took in my tail, and looked at me with disgust. My tail twitched, and I snarled. She was a racist. Of course.

"He wasn't talking to you, little girl." I growled. My master shoved her aside, towards me, and walked forward towards the woman.

"Little girl?" The girl suddenly took an interest in me. "I'll have you know-"

"Shut up. I snarled as I reached in my back pocket and pulled out my claws, attaching them to my hands.

My claws were my weapon of choice. They were similar in design to brass knuckles. They were silver and attached almost like a metal glove that extended almost to my elbow, with straps around the wrist and halfway to my forearm to keep them on. They had individual long, sharp blades on each finger that could retract back in to the metal. The bottom of the glove ran the length of my forearm and had a barrel that acted like a gun. I normally wore them all the time, except I'd taken them off when we'd entered the city. I hadn't expected a fight.

"Chess!" I was suddenly scolded, even though my master hadn't turned around. "Behave yourself." I sighed and retracted my claws, still glaring at the girl, who smirked at me.

"Look who's the little kid now." I picked my bag up, shoved pass her, and moved to the side of the road to watch the rest of the events unfold.

"You realized you just destroyed Atlas property?" The woman asked angrily.

He looked around at the destroyed soldiers on the ground, and feigned surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry. I took this for, sentient garbage."

"I don't have time for your immature games, Qrow."

"Wait, you two know each other?" The girl behind me asked as she moved to join sides with her sister again.

"Geez, you're real keen aren't you?" I asked as I moved to stand next to Qrow.

"You Atlas specialist think you're so special, don't you?" Qrow asked, kicking an arm of one of the soldiers next to his foot.

"It's in the title." The woman retorted quickly.

"Well you know what you really are?" I twitched my tail in anticipation. This was going to get very good, very fast. "A bunch of sell outs." I smirked as the girl looked surprised. How dare anyone challenge their precious family? "Just like your boss."

"I'm not sure what you think you're implying, but I've heard enough." The woman was getting obviously angrier as this confrontation went on.

"Oh I've heard too. I've heard old Ironwood turned his back on Ozpin." I blinked and stopped, and looked at Qrow. Ironwood turned on Ozpin? And I was just now hearing about this?

"Ozpin?" The girl next to the woman asked.

"What're you talking about, Qrow?"

"Weiss, it's time for you to go." The woman said as she shoved the girl behind her.

"Listen to big sister, Weiss." Qrow laughed. "She'll protect you just like Atlas is going to protect all of us, huh?"

"We'll see about that one." I said as I grinned toothily at Weiss, my sharp fangs showing.

"Chess, stay out of this."

"But, Qrow-"

"No!" I flinched at how loud and authoritative Qrow suddenly got. He never got that firm with me.

"Fine." I sheathed my claws and backed to the side as the woman took another step towards Qrow.

"If you won't hold your tongue, or your little kitten's tongue, then I will gladly remove it for you." The woman threatened as she pulled out a sword.

"Kitten?" I shouted as Qrow pushed his bangs back out of his eyes, as he always did before a fight, and smirked.

"All right then, come take it!" In the blink of an eye the woman had crossed the ten yards between them and was attempting to stab Qrow with her sword, but he was easily dodging them with simple moves to the side. Finally, he pulled his sword off his back, brandishing it in all of its glory.

It had a red handle with a silver hand guard on the right side, and nothing on the left. The blade was moderately long, with what looked like multiple cuts in it at different lengths. Connecting the handle and blade was a portion of metal and a ball of glass that showcased a few gears.

Qrow went on the offensive, and the two began trading strikes back and forth, each blocking the other's attack.

"What's going on?" A shrill voice came from behind us as Weiss had moved to join me. I glanced back to see that the girl who had been with Weiss and her sister earlier was there. She had dark hair with red tips, and pale gray eyes. She wore a black dress, a long red cape, black leggings, and black boots. I blinked at her.

"Ruby?" I had expected to see her at some point, but was still shocked. It'd been almost five years since I'd last seen her. She looked at me in confusion, before realization dawned in her eyes.

"Chess? What're you doing here?"

"Wait, you two know each other?" Weiss asked in shock.

"Of course, he trains under my uncle!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Wait, that crazy guy who attacked my sister is your uncle?" Weiss asked. Ruby looked confused, but suddenly seemed to remember the fight going on, turned to look, and jumped in the air.

"Yeah, that's my uncle! Kick her butt, Uncle Qrow!" The entire time Ruby did nothing but shout, just like I remembered. Weiss growled and clenched her fists in agitation, turning back to the fight herself.

"Teach him some respect, Winter!"

The fight grew more intense as blows begun to actually land and be traded, before the two started destroying parts of the city around them (mainly the concrete and a lamp post). Then they took off and started using the large architectural landscape of Beacon as their battleground.

Winter's large sword broke down in to two smaller ones, and she used some sort of ice magic to summon a flock of ice birds, which flew right at Qrow. He destroyed the ones he needed to with his sword, before throwing one of them back at Winter, causing her to stop her magic.

She jumped back, before a large sigil appeared in the air behind her, as if she was charging up for something. Qrow held his sword out slightly further away from him, and the gears began turning. His sword broke apart at the cracks, and began transforming in to a scythe, before he stopped the transformation, sheathed his sword on his back, and smiled at Winter. He motioned for her to come to him.

This seemed to piss Winter off way more than she already was.

The sigil shot Winter towards Qrow, her sword pointed in front of her at Qrow's neck level. I knew there was no way Qrow would just let her win, but I still jumped before a loud, authoritative voice echoed across the grounds.

"Schnee!" Winter stopped in her tracks, her sword tip at Qrow's throat, and Qrow smirked. I blinked and looked over to find a man in a white, royal military uniform standing with his hands behind his back and looking extremely disappointed at Winter.

"General Ironwood, Sir." Winter turned and stood at attention, her swords in her hands and by her sides. Qrow smirked and took a step away from her, also looking at Ironwood.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?" I noticed a girl with bushy, orange hair and green eyes standing behind Ironwood at a distance, looking extremely nervous, but ignored her and turned my attention back to the squabbling adults.

"He started the altercation, sir." Winter began defending herself.

"That's actually not true, she attacked first." Qrow put his hands behind his head calmly, his words no longer slurred. A good fight always sobered Qrow up.

"Is that right?" Winter stood with her mouth open for a moment, seeming to search for some sort of excuse, before dropping her head in defeat.

Ironwood stood for a moment, looking at the rather large crowd of mostly Beacon students that had gathered. He stopped and looked at me for a moment, before turning to look at Qrow and stepping closer. I decided to move towards them, leaving Ruby and Weiss.

"And you, what're you and your student doing here?" He asked firmly, but his volume lowered ever so slightly.

"I could be asking you the same thing." Qrow answered with a smartass smile on his face as I joined him at his shoulder.

Ironwood opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted as a man with gray hair, black spectacles, and a green scarf entered the previous fighting ring with a blonde woman with a purple cloak. I smiled. Ozpin. I was almost as fond of Ozpin as I was of Qrow. If Qrow was my father figure Ozpin was easily my grandfather figure.

"There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the coliseum that I can assure you has better seats, and popcorn." Ozpin calmly addressed the crowd, swirling what I assumed was coffee in a mug and taking a long sip from it.

"Break it up everyone!" The blond woman next to him shouted. "We will take care of this mess." She faced the three squabbling adults as a mother might if she had caught her own children fighting.

"Let's go." Ironwood ordered the soldiers and Winter, and began walking towards Ozpin and the woman, who had turned and were walking towards Beacon. I looked at Qrow and waited for orders.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby screamed from behind us, before running forward and latching on to Qrow's arm. "Hi." She smiled up at him in excitement. "It's so good to see you!" He held his arm out parallel with the ground, which in turned raised Ruby up to eye level with him. "Did you miss me? Did you miss me?"

"Nope." He said as his face broke in to a smile and he rubbed her hair affectionately as he set her back on the ground.

"Qrow!" Ozpin suddenly called from where he stood next to the blond woman, who was fixing the damage done to the concrete and lamp post with her magic. "A word, please."

Qrow leaned towards Ruby and held a hand up to block Ozpin from seeing what he was saying.

"I think I'm in trouble."

"You did kind of tear up our courtyard." Ruby said, shrugging with a smile.

"Yeah, I did." Qrow winked at Ruby and bumped fists with her. "Catch ya later, kid." He turned and began walking towards Ozpin. "Come on, Chess. If I'm getting yelled at you are too."

I looked at Ruby and rolled my eyes, before jogging to catch up. "I didn't even do anything!" I defended myself, and Qrow just chuckled.

"Like that's stopped me from pinning blame on you before."

We caught up to Ozpin and the blond woman, and I looked around for Ironwood and Winter. "Where did Winter and Ironwood go?" I asked.

"They went on ahead to my office, where we're heading now." Ozpin calmly answered as he smiled at me.

"It's good to see you, Cheshmire." He smiled, and I smiled in return.

"It's good to see you too, Ozpin."

We were then led to his office in silence. It was actually pretty awkward, as Qrow was definitely in trouble. However it seemed I was on perfectly good terms with Ozpin, so there was no way Qrow would be able to pin blame on me. Perfect.

We were in an elevator in Beacon Academy before it finally pinged, and opened up in to Ozpin's office. We stepped inside to find Ironwood standing next to a desk calmly with Winter pacing back and forth in front of it.

"What were you thinking?" Winter shouted as soon as she saw Qrow, who was standing at the front of the group now.

"If you were one of my men, I would have you shot!" Ironwood added in.

"If I was one of your men I'd shoot myself." Qrow answered calmly as he pulled his flask out of his pocket. I chuckled as everyone moved to different positions in the room. Ozpin in his chair, Ironwood next to the desk like he was, Winter next to Ironwood, the blond woman next to Ozpin, Qrow at the other end of the desk from Ironwood, and me leaning against a pillar right next to Qrow.

Winter seemed to just realize that I was here. "Really, you brought the kid in here?" She looked from Qrow to Ozpin.

"Chess's just as important to this group as anyone else." Qrow answered calmly. "He may be the same age as your sister, but they're nowhere near on the same level." He took a long swig from his flask before looking at Winter, as if daring her to say more.

"Anyway, while I certainly wouldn't condone his behavior, retaliating like you did certainly wasn't the answer." The blond woman said, chastising Winter.

"He was drunk!"

"He's always drunk!" I piped in, laughing at her. As if she didn't know that. If you knew Qrow at all, you knew he was drunk.

As if to prove my point, Qrow was currently chugging multiple sips of whatever alcohol was in his flask, before realizing that everyone was looking at him and stopping.

Ozpin sighed in exhaustion. "Qrow, why are you here?" He asked, his head in his hand as he looked at the red-eyed drunk.

"You've been out of contact for weeks!" Ironwood stated, not giving Qrow the chance to answer.

I gulped and decided to stay silent. I knew Qrow hadn't been reporting back, but I didn't expect it to be a problem. We'd been in dangerous territory. Our lives had constantly been threatened.

"You can't just go dark like that in the field!"

"I'm not one of your special operatives, Jimmy."

"General!" Winter shouted, as if Qrow's disrespect was the most important topic right now.

"Whatever." Qrow snarled, turning to ignore Winter and to face the rest of the group. "You sent me to get intel on our enemy, and I'm telling you, our enemy's here."

"We know." Ironwood answered after a pause. I stopped breathing. I could have screamed. They knew? We were risking our lives, we could have died, and they knew?

"Oh! Oh, you know! Well thank goodness we're out there risking our lives to keep you all informed!" Qrow shouted, looking like the physical embodiment of my anger, looking as if he could punch Ironwood if he didn't expect to get in even more trouble for it.

"Qrow!" Ironwood shouted.

"Communication! It's a two way street, pal." Qrow retorted, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "You see this?" He pointed to the screen. "That's the send button."

"They had reason to assume you'd been compromised." Winter interjected, again.

"And I have reason to assume you don't need to be here." Qrow spat at her, his red eyes flashing dangerously. "Seriously, who invited her?"

"Who invited the kid?" Winter retorted, shoving her finger in my direction.

"Me." Qrow answered dangerously as he took a step towards her, daring her to say something.

There was a long moment of silence, which was awkward to me as I could feel everyone in the room thinking about the presence of an 18 year old in the room.

"Schnee, we'll discuss this incident back on my ship." Ironwood finally broke the silence. He spoke with authority, but the volume was barely above a whisper.

"But, sir-"

"Winter. Leave." Ironwood responded firmly, his volume raised ever so slightly.

Winter stared at him in shock for a moment, before standing straight and saluting him. "Yes, sir." She glared at both Qrow and myself as she left. Row winked at her and I smirked ever so slightly. We all watched as she crossed the room and entered the elevator and left.

Ironwood, the blonde woman, and Ozpin all looked at Qrow expectantly. "Go on." Ironwood ordered.

"Your little infiltrator isn't just another pawn. They're the ones responsible for Autumn's condition." Qrow answered as he pulled out his flask.

"What?" The woman gasped in shock.

"Despite what the world thinks, we're not just teachers, or generals, or headmasters, or little kids." Qrow motioned at everyone in the room. "The people in this room, the leaders of the other two academies, we're the ones that keep the world safe from evils no one even knows about. It's why we meet behind closed doors, why we meet in the shadows. So you tell me, James." Qrow turned and glared at Ironwood accusingly. "When you brought your army to Vale, did you think you were being discreet? Or did you just not give a damn?" Ironwood and Qrow glared at each other for what felt like eternity. I felt like I was on pins and needles with this conversation and I didn't know what to do.

"Discreet wasn't working." Ironwood finally broke eye contact with Qrow, turning to the desk as he pulled his phone out. He put it on the desk and I watched in awe as a digital map of Vale was uploaded in the center of the room with images of ships located around it. "I'm here because this is what's necessary."

"You're here because Ozpin wanted you here. He made you a part of this inner circle, and opened your eyes to the real fight that's in front of us." Qrow answered in a no-your-answer-is-wrong-and-here's-the-right-one kind of way.

"And I'm grateful." Ironwood responded.

"Oh, well you've got a real funny way of showing it." Qrow turned away from him, grabbing his hair in frustration.

"The people of Vale needed someone to protect them. Someone who would act. When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe. And our enemies will feel our strength." Ironwood explained, his eyes lighting up with some sort of purpose. Qrow began laughing hysterically, and turned back to face him.

"You-you think they're scare of your little ships? I've been out there and I've seen the things she's made and let me tell you…. They are fear." Qrow ended his statement menacingly. My entire body shook with a sudden chill. I had seen what Qrow was talking about. The entirety of the past few weeks were some of the worst terrors I'd seen since being with Qrow. I knew it was our job to deal with them, but I didn't want to. At all.

"And fear will bring the grim." Ozpin interjected suddenly. "A guardian is a symbol of comfort. But an army, is a symbol of conflict. There's an energy, in the air now. A question in the back of everyone's minds. If this is the size of our defenses, what is it we're expecting to fight?"

Everyone turned their heads from looking at Ozpin to face Ironwood as if waiting for an answer.

"So then, what would you suggest we do?" Ironwood asked finally as he crossed the room and picked up his phone.

"I suggest we find our guardian." Ozpin finally answered.

Everyone stood in the room for a few more minutes, before the woman finally coughed. "I think this is enough for one night, maybe we should meet at a later time."

"I think you're right Ms. Goodwitch." Ozpin nodded and stood from his chair. Ironwood nodded and left the room without another word. Ms. Goodwitch nodded at Ozpin and looked at Qrow with an eyebrow raised, before leaving herself.

Qrow sighed in frustration and looked at me. "Let's go, kid."

"Qrow, I want you to stay in the city for the remainder of the festival." Ozpin said before we even had the chance to move.

"Is that an order?" Qrow asked without even looking at Ozpin. I tensed up. I knew how Qrow felt about being ordered around, but I also knew he respected Ozpin more than anyone and that he respected him enough to do whatever he said or asked, no matter how it came to him. But Ozpin had always just asked Qrow to do things, never ordered him.

"Of course not, Qrow. I would think you would know by now that I would never order you to do anything." Ozpin looked genuinely hurt by Qrow's accusation.

Qrow sighed and looked at the ground, letting his shoulders slump. "I know, I'm sorry. It's just-"

"I know." Ozpin moved and placed a hand on Qrow's shoulder. "General Ironwood informed me earlier today of what he knew. If I'd known sooner I would have tried to contact you." Qrow nodded.

"I'll stick around for the rest of the festival. I need to do some catching up with my nieces anyway." He smiled at Ozpin. "Thank you for everything, Ozpin."

"Of course." Ozpin smiled at Qrow and turned to me. "And if you need anything at all while you're here, Cheshmire, don't hesitate to ask. Treat Beacon like it's your academy because, well, it basically is."

I smiled and nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Qrow placed a hand on my shoulder, and with that we left and began walking towards whatever hotel we were planning on staying at.

"So…" I muttered as we were walking down a street, guided by the bright light from the street lamps. "I'm guessing they're going to send you on some super important mission soon, right? That's why we came to Vale, right? To drop me off at Beacon?" Qrow stopped and looked at me in confusion.

"Why wouldn't you come with me?"

"You heard Winter, and I know Ironwood and Ms. Goodwitch think the exact same thing as them. I'm a kid, they'd never agree to sending me on some dangerous mission."

"Chess, you've been on every mission, and I mean every mission I've been handed since you were eleven. That's seven years of missions. Guaranteed, these last three years have been the most dangerous missions I've gotten in a long time, but still. I don't care what any of them say, short of Ozpin himself, and he sees exactly what I see in you. There's no way I go on a mission without you, unless they need you to do a separate mission." Qrow said, keeping eye contact with me the whole time.

"What I said back there? About everyone in that room being the protectors of Remnant? I meant everyone in that room. That includes you, kid." He said the last sentence as he poked his finger in my chest, before turning and continuing down the street.

"Now come on, just because we're stuck here doesn't mean we're slacking on your training."