Chapter 3 – An Upcoming Outing

"Well done again Carmine," Jonathan and Argent rose their hands in applause. Magic's pajamas were a variety of colors. Carmine's pink, Argents grey, Jonathan's green and Melancton's ebony black. Carmine stupidly stood up from her bed and bowed like someone gaining a medal. She looked much different from lesson earlier that day. With her makeup off Argent noticed that her eyes seemed slightly smaller and twinkled less and she seemed less energetic. We clapped and laughed whilst Melancton sat cross-legged on his bed, apparently meditating, eyes closed.

Carmine clapped her hands gaining everyone's attention. Even Mr Zen opened his eyes to observe her weird display.
"We should play truth or dare! Victor's choice!" Argent laughed.
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying a victory allows the victor one request the following evening." Argent thought over it… not a bad choice.
"I'll bite, who else is playing?" Jonathan nodded before pinching his nose.
"My God what it's that?" A look of disgust on his face emerged as he pointed at his desk. Argent looked to find his half eaten breakfast growing purple and green mold. Quickly he scooped it up and threw it out the window. Since they were on the fourth floor it sailed a significant distance before landing.
"Dealt with."

"Okay…" Began Carmine, "I'll go first." She pointed at Jonathan before inquiring. "Truth or Dare?" Jonathan looked over his options, thinking each one though through his head.
"Truth." Carmine smiled with evil ferocity.
"Do you have a lover or someone you love?" Without second guessing he relied,
"Nope. No one on my mind or returns." Argent swallowed, a pit forming in his stomach as Jonathan turned to look at him. "Argent, truth or dar…"
"Dare!" Argent bit back on his lip, now it was obvious he hated truth. Jonathan however didn't seem to notice.
"I dare you to run down the corridor, to the fountain and back in one of Carmine's dresses." Argent smiled, this was nothing. Ten minute later, he emerged out of the bathroom wearing a pink and red gradient dress that rested just below the neckline, above the midway point to the ankles and draped over one shoulder. For extra effect, he'd put on a bit of foundation to cover some zits and brushed his hair down and flat. Jonathan and Melancton started bursting out in laughter. Jonathan was full out braying whilst Melancton, smudged his behind a hand clamped over his mouth. Carmine however seemed unaffected, she smiled but responded under her breath.
"This is nothing…" She opened the door and watched Argent bolt down the corridor the dress flapping in the wind behind him, his hands over his face to not let anyone notice.


Sylvia had returned from talking to Professor Goodwitch regarding the class's homework. In the last moment, as she walked down the corridor, a person, whom she believe to be a girl from the gossamer dress she wore, ran past hands covering her face as if crying. Instead of following she kept walking towards her room. Just as she arrived back at her team's door, the girl zoomed past again and noticed her brown hair. As far as she was aware the only girls at Beacon was she and Carmine. Looking down the corridor she made note of the door she ran into. With that she stepped into her room.

Azure sat on his bed a book on his lap and on top rested a sheet of parchment with lines upon lines of combat theory and application practice. She noticed he'd flattened his dark blue hair for sleep and as such it covered his eyes. His pajamas were a mix of blue and black long pants and sleeveless tee. He looked up at her,
"You find what you were looking for?" She nodded before moving over to her bed and placing her books on her bedside table. Tod and Rot were already asleep in bed. Tod was slightly tossing in his sleep, clearly slight uneased. The bed sheets were grasped tightly in his hands. Sylvia watched as Azure stood up and gently placed a hand on his head. Immediately he body relaxed and went limp. She watched in amazement as his hands unlocked and his breathing started to steady. "I don't know but he seems to have nightmares every night. I can't prove that only knowing him for three days and two nights but I haven't seen the pattern breaking."
"It must be difficult if you are correct." She watched as his hands began twitching again hinting the return of his nervous sleeping disposition. Reaching into her bedside she pulled out her pajamas comprised of a red singlet tank top combo and short silver pants. Clothes in hand, she walked into the bathroom to change.


"I hate you guys…" Muttered Argent, running for the bathroom to change, whilst his team laughed in chorus.
"You accepted! You chose to accept." The sound of running water indicated that Argent was cleaning his face so Jonathan called out again, "Whom do you pick?" The gushing sounds ceased and the sound of Argent calling out their daily champion, was emitted from underneath the crack of the door.
"Carmine! Truth or Dare?" She looked at the door before glancing back at the group, a wide grin on her face.
"Let's do truth, I have nothing to hide."
"What was that?" Called Argent from behind the closed door, apparently the sound was muffled.
"Truth!" The door opened to reveal Argent back in his pajamas, his long sleeved shirt and pants were combine with slippers. What stood out was his blue scarf, it was not one built to his size but rather small, like a child's. It also appeared hand knitted.
"What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever done," Carmine looked away to think before coming to a solid conclusion.
"I got rejected at my previous academy by a friend I'd confessed my love to. They told me, they didn't like me in that way." She looked back at the group, her smiled had faded slightly but it was still there just not in it's full glory. "Okay… Melancton. Truth or Dare?"

The boy in black didn't even wait. As soon as she had finished he muttered, "Truth."
"What is your semblance? Describe to us in detail." The boy sighed.
"I don't have one. Jonatha…" Before he could finished, Carmine interrupted him.
"You don't know your semblance?"
"No. I don't have one." Before Carmine could interfere again he asked, "Jonathan. Truth or Dare?"
"I'll go with dare, please."
"I dare you to kiss Argent." Immediately Argent's demeanor changed, from fun to immediate discomfort, grasping his right arm with immediate concern. Carmine noticed this, her eyes widening in shock.
"Maybe that's not a good…" Jonathan grabbed Argent's head and kissed him on the lips. Argent could feel the moist lips press against his. In someway his body dropped another five degrees and his right arm skyrocketed. The peck was over as soon as it started. Jonathan sat back down on his buttock and smiled evilly, "Done, you've got to get better at dares Melancton."
Carmine jumped to her feet. "I almost forgot, I left a book in the library. Argent would you mind giving me a hand finding it." With silence relief, he stood up and followed Carmine to the door.
"Were are you going? It's Argent's turn to ask next!" Complained Jonathan, him and Melancton still sitting on the floor.
"We'll be back soon!" Replied Carmine, closing the door and walking down the corridor, Argent by her side.

The night air was the same as it had been the first night they'd arrived noticed Argent. The stabbing pain in his right arm was starting to burn again. It was mellow right now, hopefully they'd find her book and get back soon so he could rinse it again, as he had after running with the dress.
"Argent is there anything you'd like to tell me?" She'd stopped and leaned against a wall. The painting of some famous woman resided next to her. He swallowed, slightly unnerved by the situation.
"Like what?"
"Like what happened back there," Argent grasped the inside of his right arm. "Yeah, I noticed. We're partners now and honestly nothing you can say will scare me." Argent looked up at his teammate for the next four years. She was right. If she was to trust him, he had to trust her. Breathing to steady his heart rate he confessed.
"Carmine, I'm dying." Carmine looked confused, she'd been waiting for some sexual orientation reveal but instead got this.
"What?" Argent rolled back his right sleeve and Carmine gasped, in the middle of his forearm, the skin was turning black and bruised. The center slightly purple.

"Carmine. Before I applied for Beacon, I lived in Mistral. It's one of the newer kingdoms and doesn't have the same natural borders as Vale. Grimm attacks and populations of large magnitude were constantly near the city." One day, our academy traveled outside the borders for a sampling mission. We needed to find a plant used by herbalists for a virus that was going around. I got separated and lost in the forest. That's when the Grimm appeared. I was severely outmatched by ten to one." Carmine watched as Argent poked at the discoloration, the look of discomfort on his face was enough to send shivers down her spine. "I went on the offence because they surrounded me. I was getting injured left, right and center. I wasn't going to last much longer if I kept getting beaten like this. So I activated my semblance. I grasped onto one of the collapsed Grimm with my right hand and absorbed it's energy." Carmine's eyes widened in horror, "Since Grimm don't have Aura I absorbed it's life energy. The Grimm collapsed and I felt invigorated, like I'd had a double espresso. I knocked them down with ease. I felt all-powerful but when I'd finished my arm was on fire. I thought it was just a side effect of using my semblance on a Grimm. The next day this started forming. That was two weeks ago. A doctor told me if the infection keep going at this rate I probably won't make it to the end of the year plus we have no idea what will happen if it reaches any vital organs if it enters the bloodstream." Carmine looked at the wound. How something so simple could cause so much problems was beyond her mind.
"Did the doctor tell you what it was?" Argent shook his head.

"They had no idea. Professor Ozpin has an idea of what… I have three options here." Carmine looked at him.
"You can be cured?" Argent shook his head again.
"Here they are; One, go and have my limb amputated and hope the infection hasn't spread."
"That doesn't sound so bad…" replied Carmine.
"I won't be able to fight. I need two hands to wield my quarter staff and I'm right handed It would take forever to learn how to use my left efficiently if I needed another weapon."
"What are the other two then?" Asked Carmine quietly.
"Two, keep going until the infection spreads too far and I collapse. The final is to end my life when and if the pain becomes too strong." Carmine looked at him with tears in her eyes.
"And here I thought you'd confess you were gay or something."
Argent looked startled, before laughing at her statement.
"HOW CAN YOU LAUGH?" She shouted and slammed a fist into the wall next to her, the portrait of the woman bounced in the frame. Argent hushed for the fist had collided into the wall next to his head. "Your aren't trying hard enough! We will find a cure! God, you're one of the first people I can actually talk to, because I'm a lesbian and I feel like you actually understand me. I wanted to thank you for helping me in the caves. A boy completely deserted me because of the monster and didn't once regret or apologise."
Argent's eyes widened in realisation.
"Ohh…"
"Yeah."
"So that's why you pulled me out. I thought we were actually getting a book." She half laughed, half cried.
"You idiot." Returning to the dorm, they called the game quits and went to bed.


Back again in Glynda's classroom, Team MAJC watched as another two battled it out in the arena. Argent watched in amazement as the boy with the blue ski cap stood like a posh gentleman, slightly leaning on a cane, his grey hood and black cargo pants made him look like some Atlas executive. His opponent was only slightly out of breath, sweat starting to flatten the sweep of violet hair that was raised slightly to accent its volume. The violet haired boy grasped his bow and the string retracted into the limb and they split, blades protruding from the dual half limbs. Walking back to his opponent, Argent watched as they began their deadly tango. They both moved with grace. The posh executive was holding well against his dual wielding opponent. With a quick movement the sword wielder attempted a moved to collide with the boy's neck. Instead the boy bent over as if doing limbo and kicked upwards with his legs and continued the momentum into a back flip retreating a few meters. Whilst in mid air the sword converted again, this time into a bladed staff.

"Will, Fulger…" Glynda called respectively looking at the cane wielder first followed by the boy with the bladed staff. "You have another few minutes before class ends. You seem evenly match so you will need to try a new tactic. You have to adapt on the battlefield don't just rely on one form or method to attack."

Will smiled at Fulger. Argent watched in fascination as Will twisted the head of his cane. Immediately the head disconnected and on the end of the handle rested a thin blade like a rapier. He twirled the sheath until the open side resided away from his body. With a flick, a chain erupted from the edge. He flicked the chain and arcs of electricity bolted down the spiked chain.
"Lightning dust…" whispered Carmine, her face was a look of awe and amazement.
"You're trying to use it as a new round?" Argent inquired looking at the rifle sitting on the chair between them next to a small metallic tube with an orb on the end that would elongate into his quarterstaff.
"Nah, I had an option by the military to infuse it with my body. My parents were high ranking officers in the past. I declined."

Will began spinning the chain to increase it's velocity, bolts of energy arced off the metal. He ran at Fugel, attempting to scare him off. Instead Fugel reached out with his left hand and winced in pain as the chain wrapped around his arm. Seemily unfazed by the electricity, he jabbed forward with his spear. The tip now electrified, unlike before the chain had wrapped around his arm. Will was unable to stop the first strike, a jab to the stomach immediately the air sizzled and a small hole hurt in the shirt he wore. The area felt numb and began spreading. They began another tango, the chain seeming to help his opponent more than him. What ever it was Argent was sure the electricity from Will's chain was being redirected to Fugel's staff. Either by semblance or weapon design. Before Will could attack the numbness had spread to his right leg and he collapsed onto the floor. Fugel refused to attack, claiming it to be unfair.
"What would the infusion have done?" Inquired Argent as a voice called up to the stands.
"Students!" Called Glynda, "Please remain quiet until the demonstration is finished!" She approached the combatants and talked to them quietly before addressing the class. "As you have seen variety is one of the best gifts on the battlefield. Staying on one tactic is not the best as your enemies will catch onto patterns and use them against you. Please remember this. Combatants I will need your five hundred word report by the end of the week as well, your worksheet I handed out last lesson are also due at the end of the week. For now…" The sound of the bell pierced through her speech before she could continue. "You'll have the rest of the week off due to the teacher's needing to attend various functions and events that require our attention. Please be aware, we are preparing something for you on Monday. Class dismissed."


"Sylvia!" The leader of Team STAR turned to see her childhood friend walking fast to catch up, the entirety of his team being left behind in the dust.
"What?" She snapped, her demeanor going from peaceful to ice cold in a second.
"Sylvia, where is this coming from? I was wondering whether or not you wanted to go to that new ice cream parlor in Vale. You know the one with the new experimental flavor you can have for free?" She softened slightly but still kept her guard up.
"Sounds nice but why the change in attitude?" Krimson furrowed his brow.
"Sorry but have you checked yourself out recently?" She felt the anger boil in her stomach.
"I've done nothing wrong!" Krimson didn't tear his eyes off her but replied back.
"You're making a scene. Lets go talk somewhere else."

"Sylvia, I don't know what I've done to offend you…" She watched Krimson pace underneath a tree next to the gardener's tool shed. She, herself, sat on the bench next to the corrugated metal walls… probably steel. The afternoon's bright sun reflecting heat off the surface, making the air seem thick and humid. "Ever since the first night you've been avoiding me and I get it we are on different teams but that still doesn't mean we can't talk and be friends." He stopped pacing and sat down next to her. "Please tell me if I've done something wrong. I don't want to loose you." She felt her heart flutter in her chest.
"I'm sorry if you think I've done something wrong. I've had a boat load to deal with being a team leader," Krimson laughed unaware that she was lying, her teammates were carrying the team more than she was.
"I'm so glad I'm not a lead leader. Can you imagine me on the front lines? Leading an army?" Honestly she could. She imagined him, his hair flapping in the wind as he stood on a cliff, raising him weapon in the air as troops marched down from the snow covered hill.
"Nah," she replied, allowing him his own belief. "I can see you having the qualities but maybe it isn't your forte." He extended his hand out, the glove covering his hand except his fingertips. Graciously, she reached out to accept.

"See you tomorrow at 10 o'clock? I'll prepare a limo." He teased.
"Sure, as long as I get the complimentary bottle of wine."
"Women and their drinks..."
"HEY!" He laughed and narrowly dodged a fist aimed for his shoulder. They both giggled down the student dormitory hallway. He led her to her room before bowing and walking off. Sylvia smiled as she opened the door to see her teammates glancing at the doorway.

"Sorry what were you waiting for?" Rot was busy polishing a modified trombone. Extra brass tubing and levers resided along side the device. It looked more like some messed up plumbing then an instrument.
"Nothing, we just wondered whether you wanted to spend time with us at a sushi bar tomorrow for lunch but if you have commitments that's alright with me." Tod just watched, his eyes showing sleep lines revealing his lack of sleep or at least helpful sleep.
"I've got a meeting to attend in the city, I'll be late for lunch. Don't wait." With that he reached under his pillow for his pajamas before walking to the en suite and locking the door behind him.
"I wonder what he's doing," inquired Rot and Azure raised his voice above his.
"So what is your plan tomorrow then Leader?" Sylvia looked over to him, her partner and faithful reliable companion. She nervously grinded her right foot on the floor.
"Krimson and I are going to go for ice cream at the new parlor." Immediately Rot wolf whistled and began mimicking kissing motions with his lips. Before she could complain, a pillow collided with Rot's face. Azure had chucked his own pillow from home across the room with deadly accuracy. The force pushed Rot onto his bed back first.
"Why can't people stop mocking people for being in relationships?" He enquired as he walked over to retrieve his pillow back.