"My ears!" Max shouted/cried as he clasped both hands on his ears in a desperate attempt to tone down the assaulting noise, to no avail. He had dropped his scroll in the process, which was now lying on the ground. Skoll's ears had perked up too while he was as still as a statue. Liam had somehow disappeared (again) after hearing the shout. Selene, whose attention had been elsewhere, immediately recognized her and slowly, almost menacingly, turned around. She now faced the heiress with a glare that caused a shudder to run up Max's spine. Said heiress was looking at the spot that Liam used to occupy before she shouted, but the bat faunus was nowhere to be seen.
"Wait, where did he go?" She asked, baffled by her target's sudden disappearance, and looked around. She failed to notice Skoll shivering uncontrollably. Yang, Blake and Ruby were wondering what was happening between their teammate and the transfer students, Blake especially paid attention to Selene, who seemed very likely to attack Weiss for whatever reason, before her attention moved to Skoll. Her eyes widened as she watched him turn his head to check on his bat friend who was still shaking in fear.
'No way. It can't be…'
"Looks like Weiss is making friends." Said Yang, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"Should we do something?" Asked Ruby, who looked slightly confused at the scene before her.
"You do something, I'm placing bets!" Yang replied causing Blake to sigh. Yang just never ceased to amaze her sometimes. Finally, Selene was about to move when a hand grabbed her shoulder.
"Keep it down will you White? Shouting in people's ears isn't exactly the best way to make a good impression." Max was still rubbing his temples trying to tone down the fact that his brain was buzzing. Weiss decided to let that comment slide (for the time being) as she was for too busy searching for the timid bat faunus.
"He was the one who bumped into me!" Weiss said as she kept looking for him. "Where is he anyway? He was there a second ago."
"Short, scrawny, red eyes, got two leathery bat wings sticking outta his back?" Asked Skoll. Weiss nodded and he shrugged in response. "Haven't seen em." Weiss growled and her eye twitched in frustration. She was about to reach out and wrap her fingers around his neck when she suddenly noticed a pair of black, leathery bat wings sticking out from behind Skoll back. She felt her eye twitch before asking,
"Oh really? Care to explain those wings you've suddenly grown then?" Skoll blinked in confusion before he noticed the only flaw in his plan. He turned his attention back to the white haired heiress.
"Oh these? Well, I've been trying out this new ointment and "
"Move it fleabag!" She exclaimed, shoving him out of the way and coming face to face (well, sorta) with a still hiding bat faunus. "You!" The poor faunus screamed in fright and made a break for it. He probably would've made it out of the conference room if Max hadn't been holding onto his collar. To any innocent bystanders, it looked as if he was running in one spot.
"Sorry Liam but you are NOT getting lost again." Muttered Max as he blocked with his arm the path, before letting go causing Liam to run right back to the angry looking snow princess. He swore that the air around them got a few degrees colder as she stared him with those icy blue eyes.
"You owe me an apology for knocking me down earlier!" She exclaimed.
"B- But d- didn't I a- already "
"WITHOUT the stuttering. It's incredibly annoying." Selene growled in anger. She was about to step in but was held back by Max who simply shook his head. She decided to listen for now though she still glared at the Schnee princess with anger in her eyes. Max sighed at his younger sister's behavior. It seemed that no matter where they went, no matter how many schools they've been kicked out of, her overprotective nature always seemed to get the better of her. Normally he was cool with it but they had just arrived at beacon and he wanted to at least check out the sites before getting kicked out. Besides, he doubted that Ozpin guy (who kinda gave him the creeps by the way) would be happy to hear that one of his students mysteriously disappeared. That'd be one hell of an awkward conversation.
"Easy there Snowy." He said, hoping to sort everything out so he could go to his dorm and take a nap. "We just got him back up and we're fresh out of smelling salts so if you would just "
"Snowy?!" Oh how he wished he had chosen his words more carefully. "Do you have any idea who I am?!" She asked, now directing her anger at him. Well at least she wasn't scaring Liam anymore.
""Weiss Schnee." Stated Skoll who had been surprisingly quiet.
"Gazuntite." Said Selene.
"No I'm mean her name is Weiss Schnee! That's where I remember her from! She's heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world. It's also pretty infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." Stated Skoll causing his team to look at him like he had just grown a second head.
"Why is that the first thing everyone knows about me?" Muttered the Schnee but the rest of team LUX were too busy staring at Skoll to take any notice.
"Um, Skoll...how do you know that?" Asked Max.
"I read it in this month's dust magazine." He replied.
"You read dust magazine?" Asked Selene.
Skoll simply shrugged before replying. "I read it for the articles. I also learned how to make some sick dust jewelry." To prove his point, he reached in his collar and pulled out a sparking red amulet. "See? Pretty cool right?"
"Ooh, think you could make something for me? Momma needs a new pair of earrings." Said Selene, her eyes sparkling at the thought of free jewelry.
"Solid dust material huh? I could craft a pretty sweet dagger with this…" Max muttered as he inspected the amulet like an expert jeweler.
"C Can you make anything in black?" Asked Liam.
"Sure. All I need is some dust, a really big tub of butter and "
"Hey, stop ignoring me!" Yelled Weiss. Her voice fell on deaf ears as they continued to eye Skoll's jewelry. Meanwhile, the rest of team RWBY was just enjoying the show. Ruby was looking Weiss with a worried look on her face while Yang was eating some popcorn while laughing at Weiss' angered expression. She almost choked three times. Neither of them noticed Blake glaring holes into the wolf faunus' head.
"How much longer do you think it'll be before she explodes?" Asked Ruby as she watched Weiss trying to get their attention.
"I'd give it five minutes, give or take two. What do you think Bla hey! Where ya going?!" Asked Yang as she watched Blake make her way towards team LUX. "Damn, just when it was getting good too…" She muttered before following her teammate with her sister close behind.
"You know Weiss, if ya want, I could give ya a more private lesson on dust jewels. I'm sure we could we could discuss lesson plans my dor "
"Not even in your dreams mutt!" Exclaimed Weiss.
"Welcoming as ever aren't ya snow queen?" Joked Yang as she threw an arm around Weiss, who just grumbled and shook it off. "So, are you gonna introduce us to your new friends?" She asked, gesturing to team LUX. Weiss folded her arms and scoffed in annoyance before replying.
"They are NOT my friends. They're a group of troublesome riff raffs."
"Riff raffs? What is that, some kind of snack?" Asked Max.
"Th- That's a bit harsh…" Liam muttered. He had taken the time when Weiss was angry at Max as an opportunity to hide behind Selene. It wasn't easy since she was a few inches shorter than him but nothing worth doing ever is. He sighed in relief when his comment went unnoticed by the snow heiress before the sound of someone gasping caused one of his ears to suddenly twitch. He gulped and slowly turned his head in the direction of the sound, expecting to see some hulking figure looming over him. He wasn't expecting to come face to face with the most adorable little red riding hood he had ever seen. They stood there for a moment and just stared at each other. He blinked in confusion while she stared at him with wide eyes. She slowly raised her hand and pointed at him, causing him to blush in embarrassment.
"H- Hello…" He said. When he got no response, his blushed deepened. He started feeling around his face "W- What? I Is there s- something on my face?" He asked. He was expecting a 'yes' or 'no'. What he wasn't expecting was for her to scream and run to the blonde haired girl. 'Was it my breath?' He wondered.
"V- V- Vampire!" She yelled, pointing right at him. They all looked at him for a moment before looking back at her.
"Uh...what?" Asked Max.
"Vampire! He's a vampire! He's going to suck our blood!" There was an awkward silence as Liam tried to comprehend what was going on. This girl had just showed up, stared at him, screamed then called him a vampire. He wasn't sure if that was rude or flattering.
"Um Ruby, I don't think he's a vampire." Stated the blonde haired girl. The girl now known as 'Ruby' shook her head in defiance.
"He's a vampire! Look at him! Red eyes, fangs, bat wings, quiet nature, how does that not scream 'vampire'?!"
"Vampire….?" Liam whined, hanging his head low in embarrassed. Skoll gave the depressed faunus a pat on the back. "Hey, it's not the worst thing you've been called."
"Alright, everyone just calm down." Said Max. "Look, clearly we all got off on the wrong foot here. How about we just start over? I'll start. My name is Max and this is my little sister, Selene." He said while placing his hand on Selene's shoulder. "She's "
"Oh my glob!" She yelled, quickly clearing the gap between her and Ruby. "You are so adorable! Just look at these plump little cheeks!" She exclaimed as she pinched the poor girl's cheeks. "They're so soft and squishy! I just wanna put them in my pocket an "
"Easy there Squishy Queen." Max said as he pulled his sister away from the little ridinghood, much to her displeasure. "What did I tell you about pinching people's cheeks withouttheir permission?" He asked causing Selene to bout at him. He sighed at her immaturity.
"Right. Now where was I? Oh yeah, the bat faunus is Liam." Liam blushed when they turned their attention to him. He raised his shaky hand and nervously waved.
"HH- Hello…."
"And the wolf faunus is "
"The name's Skoll Crimson!" He yelled while pushing Max out of the way. "The toughest, coolest and all round best member of the group! Now if you ladies would kindly make your way to my dorm in a single file we ca "
"Hello." Skoll froze in mid sentence. His eyes widened and the hairs on his tail stood on end. He slowly turned in the direction of the voice. There stood a stoic looking female sending him a polite smile.
'Oh you have got to be kidding me!' He thought as she moved closer and stuck her hand out. Her smile said polite but her eyes were another story. He didn't have to be a solve faunus to see it.
"My name's Blake. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Uh...it's… A pleasure to meet you too." He said as he shakily shook her hand. His team watched the interaction with dumbfounded expressions.
"Did Skoll just shake her hand…?" Asked Selene.
"He didn't even try to flirt…" Muttered Max.
"Well I'm Yang Xiao Long but you can just call me Yang." Announced the blonde who apparently oblivious to what was going on. "And this is my sister, Ruby. You've already met Ice Queen here." She said, gesturing to the heiress who scoffed in annoyance. Skoll wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying. All of his attention was on what he knew was a cat faunus. The tight grip she still had on his hand meant that he was either in deep trouble or she seriously needed the bathroom. Either way he didn't want to be around to see what happens next.
"Well it was nice meeting all of you but I gotta…" He trailed off as he tried to think of something. Unable to come up with anything, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind "groom my tail!" That was probably the dumbest excuse in history if the looks he was getting were anything to go by. Max and Selene were sending him deadpanned looks while Liam just cocked his head to the side in confusion.
"You...have to what now?" Asked Selene.
"Uuuh...I have to groom my tail…"
"Since when do you "
"Look, you got your weird thing and I have mine! Deal with it!" He yelled before suddenly making a break for it, leaving the two teams standing there trying to figure out what just happened.
"Well...that just happened." Yang commented before turning to Max. "He always like that?"
"I want to say no just for formality's sake but the truth is that I stopped caring a long time ago." He deadpanned. He let out an over dramatic sigh. "He does have a point though. We do have things to do. See ya around ladies." And with that, he followed after his wolf faunus partner with his sister following close behind. Team RWBY watch them leave with expressions of confusion, annoyance and suspicion on their faces. I'm sure you can guess which expression belonged to who.
"Wow, shady much?" Commented Yang.
"I told you they were riff raffs."Weiss scoffed. "Can you believe the audacity of that wolf faunus? And don't even get me started on the girl. I swear it's that kind of attitude that gets you killed in a fig "
"Um…"
They froze. Slowly, they turned around only find Liam standing behind them, still trying to look as small as he could. They all stared at him without saying a word except for Ruby who made a 'squeak' sound and hid behind her older sister.
"How long was he standing there?" Yang whispered to Blake who only shrugged in response. He blushed and fiddled with his fingers in an attempt to ignore the fact that he was now the center of attention. There was an awkward silence as they waited for someone to say something, anything. Eventually (and surprisingly), Liam took a deep breath and gathered what little courage he had before speaking.
"Um...I- I...uh…" Well that didn't last long. He felt so retarded under their staring. At this point, he decided to just cut his losses and get the heck outta there with what little dignity he had left. He had already forgotten what he was going to say anyway. "I- It was nn- nice meeting you." He muttered. He hastily made his way past them, keeping his head down to avoid contact. Just as he was walking past Weiss, he stopped and faced her. There was another awkward silence before he nervously muttered "S-S- Sorry again for bumping into you." and left to join his team.
"So who wants to get cookies ?" Ruby asked excitedly, causing the fuming Weiss to sigh at her leader's antics, Yang smirked, but Blake still looked in the direction where Team LUX went, her eyes focused. She was suspicious of one person in particular, a certain redheaded wolf to be precise.
They had gone back to their room, with Max immediately on Skoll's case regarding his apparent stiffness and lack of… well Skoll during his introduction to Blake. The wolf Faunus ignored Max at first, but it quickly escalated. Liam walked into the room as Max, who was sitting on Skoll's back, was using tweezers to pull Skoll's hair from his tail. Skoll was cry yelling in pain and slamming his hand repeatedly on the ground.
"Come on, speak up already! Don't make this any more painful for you!" Max said as he started pulling on the tail. The wolf faunus tried to move his arms but Max's legs prevented him from moving. Selene watched this but didn't interfere as she herself wanted some answers to Skoll's behavior. Liam watched the scene and after a while, joined his female teammate who was sitting on the bed.
"Ow, this is animal abuse ya know " Skoll tried to say but the words died in it's mouth when Max kept grabbing his tail but pulled one of Skoll's legs, making it stretch further than what you would normally expect and eliciting yet another cry of pain from the wolf Faunus.
"Sorry, but I'll only hear the answer to my question." Max said as he was now sitting on Skoll's knees while said wolf faunus' stomach was still on the ground. Skoll while hurting, a lot, didn't concede. Max waited for a few more seconds before gaining a new spark in his eyes, one that promised new levels of pai excitement. But before he could partake in his new idea, Selene and Liam interrupted them.
"Liam and I were wondering, does it have something to do with you being a former member " But Skoll was the one to interrupt her this time.
"Yeah, it's about that." His voice was completely still, even though Max was still tortur- interrogating him. Selene asked another question but this time to her brother.
"Why did you do all that when you knew the answer?" Although it sounded more like an accusation than anything, Max adopted a thinking pose while Skoll looked revolted. Liam thought it made sense, Max was perceptive and they all knew each other so Max was probably aware from the beginning as to why Skoll was so evasive. And knowing him he probably already had the answer. Liam's train of thoughts was interrupted by a shrug from Max.
"Cuz I wanted to, don't really need another reason." Skoll scowled, he felt as if someone slapped him across the face for no reason. Max dropped from his spot and stretched "That was a good workout though." He finished as he looked around the room. Skoll got up and started caressing his tail.
"You didn't have to take it out on my tail you know…."
"Hey it was the easy approach, I could have tried bending your legs the other way." He said nonchalantly. "Anyway, onto more serious matters." He said with a grave tone. Skoll gained a focused look, both Selene and Liam standing up and sharing the same look as their wolf teammate. They knew from Max's tone that it was very important, he only used that kind of tone when Lien, or food was involved. A tense silence filled the room, the only sound that could be heard was their breathing. Taking in a deep breath, Max exclaimed "We need to remodel the room." His three teammates blinked, then Selene smashed her fist in her palm while Skoll made an 'oh' expression, Liam took on a more pensive pose.
"It makes sense, if we have to stay here until the main tournament begins, we should make it so that we live comfortably for the duration of our stay." Selene nodded at her own logic, with Skoll following it.
"Plus, Goodwitch didn't say anything about not changing the room itself now did she?" He grinned as he thought what he could do, Liam in the same state as him. Lux was really lenient in that regard. As long as the students got good scores you would have some benefits others wouldn't. Especially if you were a top student, then you could pretty much get away with anything as long as you didn't get caught red handed doing it. That led to a lot of trouble for Liam who struggled in the beginning, but eventually he became good enough to be selected with his team as the representative for Lux. "Woohoo! Let's tear this place apart!" Cheered Skoll, interrupting his train of thought and causing their only female team member to face palm. As the they began making the dorm their own, Max walked over to one of the already neatly made beds. He gave it a quick onceover before making his decision.
"Mm….this bed is kinda cramping my style. I don't think I really need one anyway."
"M me too." Liam added. He had tried to sleep in a bed like a normal faunus, he really did, but the covers just felt so itchy against his wings. He much preferred sleeping upside-down instead. Skoll had laughed the first time he heard him say that, which led to Selene promptly glaring at him with killing intent. Needless to say, Skoll didn't find it so funny anymore. Max laughed when he learned what happened and jabbed Skoll every time he could with that fact.
"Then it's settled." He declared before turning to his redheaded friend. "Skoll, the window please."
"Ah, now this is the life." Sighed Jaune. He truly enjoyed days like these. He had no homework (or at least that's his excuse), no bullies were out to get him and it was a nice sunny day. It truly didn't get any better than this. "Nothing like good old fresh air to send a man to paradise." He exclaimed as he raised his head to get a better feeling of the Sun's rays on his face. His closed his eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling. When he opened his eyes, he couldn't help but notice how shady it suddenly was. He looked upward to find the source of this strange phenomenon only to see two rectangular objects in the sky that...were heading straight for him. "Oh no…"
"Huh?" Said Liam, causing Selene to stop what was doing.
"Something wrong?"
"No I just...I thought I heard someone yell "My leg"."
"Eh, it's probably nothing." Said Skoll as he dusted his hands. Meanwhile ,Max, Selene and Liam had already started unpacking their stuff. Max had started setting up two poles in front of the beds, after he did he took out a long sheet that had two ropes at each end. At the same time, Liam and Selene were drilling holes in the opposite walls high above everything else and proceeded to set up a metal pole that connected from a wall to the other. By the time they were nearly done, Skoll began lifting the second bed to mount it on the last. When they were finally finished, the room had been changed quite a bit. Now, a bunk bed was in the left corner of the room next to the window. In front of it a hammock was set up, the final touch was a long metal pole that was set up above them. Team Lux seemed please with their work.
"Now this is what I call a place you can spend your day in." Max nodded, eyes closed at as he spoke. "Next is either setting up the screen and whatnot or getting prepared for the afternoon classes. What do you guys think?" When he finished every other head in the room looked at him, Skoll wore a 'are you kiddin' me' expression, Selene had an eyebrow raised and Liam was wide eyed.
"Care to repeat?" Skoll asked, wanting to make sure he heard right. He didn't doubt what he heard, not when Max was involved. He really had knack for jinxing things way too often.
"Afternoon class, starting at 2 PM and finished at 6 PM." He repeated, Liam slumped.
"A already? I thought we wouldn't start until tomorrow." His voice sounded a bit wimp, clearly not motivated by the truth. After the day he had, he was really hoping to take a long nap on his new pole. Max shrugged, eliciting an aggravated sigh from Selene.
"The irony, we escaped one school only to end up in another."
