Prologue 2: Perdix
In the dark, cold shed, flashes of blue light and buzzing sounds filled the air as a young woman worked in the darkness, her face covered in a black welding mask wrapped tight by black straps around her head. She was wearing leather gloves, and a tank top covered with a smock to stop the sparks from burning her clothes. In her right hand a torch, and in her left a tungsten electrode to fuse the metals together. The girl was humming quietly to herself a song she heard earlier in the day as she continued to weld the metal frame set on the table.
It appeared to be a chassis to some kind of robot, as she was welding together parts in accordance to a dimly lit blueprint set on her table. She finished welding the leg joints, before leaning up to weld on a shoulder, between the loud noises of the welding, and torches, and fire, a voice began to grow louder and louder muffled by the shed she was in. "Phoebe? Phoebe! What are you doing, Phoebe!?" A male voice shouted, knocking on the door louder and louder to try and get her attention. She sighed, putting down the welding tool and turning off the torch with a hissing sound as she slowly took off her smock, setting it on a chair and opening the door to see an older man in a black and white suit with a bow tie, his black slicked back hair framing his stern, goateed face.
Phoebe stared up at him through her welding mask, not saying anything in response to him calling her. "Ms. Pheobe… Your father's dinner with Mr. Schnee is in fifteen minutes, are you sure you want to be late for this?" He asked, leaning down and grabbing her welding mask to pull it up and reveal her face. Her soft blue eyes staring up at him, her face stained with dirt and sweat and framed by her matted black hair, currently tied up into two pigtails to stop her hair from getting lit on fire. Suddenly, she closed her eyes, covering them with a forearm to block the light. "Briiiiight! Bright! bright! Bright! Why did you do that, Xander!?" She complained, glaring at him through her closed eyes.
"Are you working on robots again?" Xander asked with his very deep voice, she opened one eye. "Whatever I'm welding is a personal project, you wouldn't get it." She complained with a frown on her face. Reaching into her pant pocket, she pulled out a pair of black framed glasses and put them on. "You know, since you're part of Perdix Robotics, you would think you would actually make these robots for your engineering class instead of spending your teenage years inside a shed." He scolded, but she took her welding mask off fully and tossed it back inside the shed. "Don't. Insult. The workshed. Magic happens in there, and neither my dad or the Schnee Dust Company will ever know what wonders will be made there." She proclaimed, pumping her fist.
"...Robots aren't magic, Phoebe." Xander bluntly pointed out, before she spun back around to point a finger at him accusingly. "Oh put a pipe in it, what did you say about dinner with Jacques a bit ago?" she asked, Xander sighing and shaking his head. "Jacques wanted to speak to him and the family because he told me he was going to propose a… unique opportunity for him." He explained, Phoebe nodding a bit. "Well… I sorta forgot about that, okay?" She mentioned, tilting her head to the side. Xander quietly shook his head, turning his back to her and gesturing to Phoebe to follow him to the car, which was pulled out front with it's engine quietly humming on next to the berm on a snow plowed road.
He opened the back door of the luxury sedan, gesturing inside for her to get in the car. She complied, climbing into the car and putting on her seatbelt before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her Scroll. Pressing a few buttons on the interface and playing a puzzle game on it as she was escorted to Schnee manor. Eventually, after a needlessly long road, they pulled up to the back entrance of the mansion, a glorious white fascia mixed with gold and several stories high, with more windows than one can count. Butlers dressed in white, contrary to the black Xander was wearing were waiting near the back entrance of the mansion, one holding the door open and the other standing with their hands behind their back.
Phoebe and Xander both exited the car, the older man approaching a rather short, rotund man with balding hair and a rather nice moustache. "Ah, Mr. Xander." He said with a smile hidden beneath his moustache, holding out a gloved hand for the taller butler to shake. Xander shook the hand, giving a small bow of his head as they spoke. "Mr. Sieben, it's been a long time since you've taught me how to be an excellent butler." He replied, the shorter man breaking the handshake and walking up to Phoebe, doing the same gesture to shake his hand. "And Ms. Perdix, you're even more beautiful than when I last saw you, you're growing to become a splitting image of your mother." He said softly, though Phoebe didn't shake his hand right away since it was still covered in grease.
"What's up?" She said, giving him a peace sign. He chuckled to hide a sigh, since it seemed her etiquette training didn't change her attitude since he last saw her. "Your father is waiting inside for you, you'd best get dressed into something less… robust and go meet him in the dining room." Mr Sieben requested, Phoebe crossing her arms and walking past him, the other butlers in white walking just in front of her to escort her and her own butler into the mansion. The halls were just the same shade of ivory as the outside of the house, but the marble floors, wide hallways and dozens of hand painted pieces of art along the walls made Phoebe feel like she was in a home that doesn't belong to anybody, the heating system making the air slightly too cold to be comfortable.
Eventually, after what felt like walking for half a mile or so without actually finding the place to go, they escorted Phoebe to the dressing room. Leaving her at the door to figure out her own outfit from a massive walk in closet of formal clothing, all of it being the same color as nearly everything in the Schnee home, white. She sighed a bit, grabbing her clothes and getting dressed into an outfit that doesn't annoy her. A white suit, with a black undershirt with a red ruffled cravat, and matching white pants and shoes. After leaving the dressing room, she entered the dining room, which was absolutely massive even for her. She was standing in front of two double doors and there was a balcony, along with a staircase leading down an entire story to the table, which looked like it seated about twenty.
She quickly went down the stairs, skipping a few steps at a time for efficiency's sake, before she approached an older man with black, slicked hair that was greying at the temples, the only facial hair on him was a soul patch underneath his bottom lip, his green eyes looking over to Phoebe with a stone faced expression. "Phoebe… You're late." He said, his voice was slurred slightly thanks to his accent that made him speak rather slow and deliberately. Phoebe sighed, pulling out her chair and scooting herself into the seat beside him, looking somewhat annoyed. "What's different than every other dinner you've had with Jacques that you would have to invite me to it? I don't like formal wear." She complained, adjusting her coat since it was slightly too tight around her arms.
"Well if you actually read the emails I send to you, this very dinner could have an effect on the Perdix name for generations, now please, don't say anything stupid and only answer questions people ask you." He demanded, she sighed, crossing her arms and leaning forward until he grabbed one and lightly gestured to keep her elbows off the table. The double doors opened again as the Schnee family slowly descended the stairs. The was the elder, Jacques wearing a white suit like the rest of his family. His almost white hair except for some small lines of black hair showing his age. Next to him was his elder daughter, Winter, the teen gently holding the hand of her little sister, Weiss who only stood about as tall as Winter's stomach.
Holding Jacques' hand, was the youngest brother Whitley, but oddly the mother seemed to be missing out of the group. A butler pulled out everybody's chairs, Jacques, Winter and Whitley all climbed into their chairs, but Weiss did a little hop up to hers. "I'm glad the Patriarch and his daughter could both spend time out of the weekend to attend official business." He said, as the butlers began to wheel in food for the entire group. The butlers began to fill Phoebe's glass with ice and water, along with tea for her father. Phoebe looked across the table, to see the younger sister of Winter staring up at her with her bright blue eyes.
Food began to slide onto the table, each butler giving a different meal on every plate. Weiss got a piece of fried fish with garnish, and Phoebe got some chowder. Reaching down to the plate, Phoebe grabbed the second spoon on the right. "Oh, oh!" Weiss said, leaning forward onto the table a bit. "That's the tea spoon, lady. Daddy tells me you need to use the soup spoon. It's the bigger one." She said, pointing to the spoon on the left of the one she just grabbed. Phoebe paused for a bit, gently setting it back on the table and grabbing the other one so dip into the chowder. "Yay~" Weiss exclaimed in Phoebe's correct use of spoons.
"I understand that your daughter is planning on joining Atlas Academy as a student, Waylon." Jacques mentioned to Phoebe's father, he nodded, taking a bite out of the salad he had been given. "Indeed, I want her to represent the wonders of Perdix Robotics, especially since it's a subsidiary of the Schnee Dust Company." He said, Jacques nodding in response and taking a moment to pause as he slipped a glass of white wine. "Indeed, and I agree that this case of positive advertising would in fact benefit the public image of my company, we have not had a member of the company training in the academy before, typically we involve ourselves in either exports or bolstering our own military." He continued, as Phoebe ignored what he was talking about completely to focus on eating free chowder.
"But, my researchers have discovered something grand in the deserts of Vacuo." He said, snapping his fingers as his butlers wheeled in a board just behind him veiled in a small blanket to cover its details. Pulling it off was an aerial photo of a desert, in the center was a group of what appeared to be multicolored igneous rocks. "This is what could possibly be described as the largest amount of Dust geodes I've ever witnessed in my lifetime." Jacques explained, which raised Waylon's brow a bit as he listened carefully. "To use your technology to make a mine, we can turn the SDC to what could be perhaps a national power in Remnant." He said proudly, hand to his chest.
"I'm going to be giving you a loan to build an offshoot of the SDC in the capital city of Vacuo, you two will move there and I'll allow you to supervise and run it as you wish." He continued, Waylon giving a little smile in response. "And what of my daughter?" He asked, Jacques thinking for a second by stroking his chin before he came up with an idea. "We'll have your daughter at Shade to advertise the company and give it attention, the academy is one of their biggest sources of income for the city so having a presence there is an absolute must." Jacques replied, suddenly, the soup spoon that Phoebe was holding was dropped, slowly sinking into the bowl until it disappeared.
"What?" Phoebe asked, standing up from her table, hands smacking on each side of her bowl and nearly spilling her glass of water onto the lavish surface. "You heard him, you'll join Shade Academy instead of Atlas; this is a great opportunity for both of us." Waylon explained. "But, what about my workshop? I have years of work in there and I can't just abandon all of it…" She complained, but Jacques just sneered a bit as her father cleared his throat. "Maybe it's time for you to focus on what's best for your family, and not just your weird side projects. It's time for the hobbies to stop, Phoebe." He scolded, but Phoebe just growled, getting up from the table and storming up the stairs to the doors leading out of the dining room.
"You know what happened last time you did something 'for the business'? I lost my mom." She snapped at the group at the table, slamming the door shut with an echo. She stormed through the halls, before heading out the back exit and tucking her hands into her pocket as she walked up to a small hill on the property overlooking the town of Atlas as the sun slowly began to set. Snow blew in during the dinner, and was glistening against the setting sun in shades of red and gold. Suddenly, she felt a tug on her sleeve. "Dad, I can-" She stopped, when the person who tugged her collar appeared to be a young girl, not even ten years old.
"Oh, it's you, Weiss… Sorry." She said with a frown, Weiss looked up at her concerned, her big eyes framed by her white hair with a sad look on her face. "Uhm…" the little girl said, nervously as she looked at the ground for a second, before looking back up at her. "W-winter told me just because your dad thinks you have to be just like him.. Doesn't mean you have to run the company the same way he does." She said, trying to remember what her older sister said verbatim. Phoebe's face softened a bit, as she softly squatted down so their faces matched in height. "I heard from Winter you make lots of cool robots that you send to Atlas all the time." She said with a little smile on her face, Phoebe just nodded once in response.
"You could always just make more robots in Vacuo, right?" She asked again, but Phoebe just laughed once and gently ruffled her hair for a second. "Y'know… I guess you're right, lil lady." She said, standing back up as she watched her father storm out of the building planning on taking her home and quickly flying her to Vacuo before she could complain some more. "Hope to see you again, Weiss!" She said, as she was dragged by the sleeve into the car.