Not by choice Jaune found himself once again in the private realm as the new information continued to process and spark riots in his brain, despite his internal turmoil he forced an expression of calmness as he made his way to the table where Dio sat. Once he was calm enough he took his spot at the table electing to ask Dio for help or advice regarding his stand despite what he described as a lack of proper headway with it.
"Good evening Dio." he began.
"It appears as though you had made it to your destination Jaune." Dio simply stated, either bored or disappointed somehow.
"I have, tomorrow is initiation and if I pass that I will finally be accepted here at Beacon." Jaune said clutching his cup of tea.
"That is not why you are here." Dio pointed out before taking a drink from his tea cup.
Jaune smiled, perhaps he was too obvious with his intentions. "No, initiation doesn't concern me at the moment. What concerns me is the appearance of my stand."
Dio paused before placing his tea cup back down "Explain."
"It appeared recently and has only shown itself in combat. While that on it's own would not be concerning, what is concerning is that with it seems to have came with vivid hallucinations." A little voice in the back of Jaune's head reminding him about the voices he would occasionally hear as well and his apparent murderous tendencies, but that seemed unrelated at this time.
Dio's face shifted into a more serious one "You believe these hallucinations are caused by your stand? What do you see? Do you have any other bizarre symptoms?"
"No, but the visions come far too quickly for me to get a proper understanding of it." He lied "The first one appeared days after it partially materialized and since then I have had several more. If the two are truly related then I must quickly assert control over my stand. I don't want to constantly get into fights just to experiment with my ability to control it." left unsaid was the question 'do you have any ideas?'
"Jaune. What have I, Dio, taught you about stands that applies to all stands universally?" Dio asked.
"Every stand is different. A master's control is almost instinctive but needs refining." he stated, annoyed that Dio was forcing him to repeat that almost useless lesson from yesteryear.
Dio gave him a coy smile "Are you not in a combat school where you will be expected to battle others? Do you not have ample opportunity to learn control in a stable and regulated environment?"
Jaune smiled "Yes. You're right." although the idea did not appeal to him especially if the fights carried the same risks as his encounter with Yang.
"Tell me about your stand Jaune. What features have you seen of it?" Dio asked placing his fist under his cheekbone.
"I am not quite so sure." left unsaid was the implication that Jaune shouldn't tell him more about the stand. Dio's philosophy about keeping your powers a secret applied even here.
Dio smiled. "Jaune. How can I, Dio, possibly hope to help you if you do not tell me about your stand?"
Jaune smiled as Dio saw though him "I have only seen it's arms thus far, and only for relatively short instances even with slowed time. They appear to be very muscular human arms with knobs on the knuckles."
"It appears that your stand is a human-type. How did it act?" Dio smiled.
"When it appeared it would help me in combat, adding it's own power to my strikes and blocks. It has not appeared to me outside of combat however and does not seem to react to anything other than my reflexes and instincts." Jaune continued hopping again that his instincts weren't driven by an innate blood lust and taste for murder.
"Your stand acts as if it were Semi-automatic. From your description it seems to be well-suited to close combat as well." Dio mentioned, sipping his tea.
Jaune paused to think for a moment "Do you think it can develop to have long or mid-range capabilities?"
"It is possible." Dio mused before fixing him a stern look. "However stands that exhibit tendencies and preferences towards close combat do not evolve to have long range capabilities despite what the user, you Jaune, may wish."
It was disheartening to hear of course, but not entirely surprising. He had never displayed any sort of affinity towards any kind of ranged weaponry with the less said about his attempts the better. Even so he was hopping that his stand may have some kind of ranged ability to help balance out his melee and close ranged skills.
"So is no chance at all then?" Jaune asked, silently hopping to hear anything other than 'no'.
"Perhaps, perhaps not. As you have said it is just emerging and has yet to fully materialize. Your stand may come to surprise you one night." Dio responded with an almost knowing smile.
Jaune sipped his tea and glanced at Dio's features, the man knew something, something important and was not telling him what it was, as usual. Again he wished his observational and analysis skills were better so that he might finally be able to properly read Dio's expressions and by extension his mind, perhaps then he might finally figure out the man's true agenda and how he seemed to play into it. The shock that rendered him dumb and deaf to expressions did not help in the slightest, Dio clearly noticed this however and bid him to leave.
Jaune sighed, bid Dio farewell and willed himself into the real world, wondering if Ruby had felt him lying on the floor or stuffed him into his sleeping bag like she did Yang. He sincerely hopped it was the latter as it would be embarrassing to wake up lying in the side of the ballroom like some drunkard who failed to get back to his home.
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To his pleasant surprise he found himself in his sleeping bag like all the other students just as the morning sunlight poked through the glass windows. He was both sore and cold from sleeping on an improperly prepared bedroll, but that was nothing a good shower and warm food couldn't fix. Rolling over he noticed Ruby had taken the liberty of placing his pillow under his head and turning him to his side so that he would not choke on his tongue while he slept and left his shoes, armor and gear by his head for simple and quick access. As the light stabbed at his eyes he knew he had to get up to start his day if nothing else than to thank Ruby for her diligence, however his body wasn't quite so willing.
"Wake up sleepy head!" he heard a voice yell.
"I'm up." he groaned and pushed himself up then to the bathroom, trying to distance himself from the girl singing 'It's morning' over and over much to his and no doubt everyone else's annoyance.
He made it to the bathroom and turned the tap, smiling after splashing boiling hot water on his face. The pleasant sensation welcomed him back to reality as his smiling face reflected in the mirror, it died a moment later as the girl from earlier announced herself by blathering about how she and her life-long friend were finally at Beacon. He sighed as he brushed his teeth, maybe breakfast would help his mood after he got his hot shower.
His mood only worsened after the shower as the voice practically followed him to the cafeteria and sat itself down several seats down the table. Only then did he finally notice that the voice belonged to a short, orange haired girl with turquoise eyes and what he could only guess was a mix of various other styles used to create her own unique style that bizarrely enough seemed to complement and contrast with the rest of her appearance. Beside her was her 'friend' who had long black hair with a pink lock, equally pink eyes and a green jacket in a style he wasn't familiar with. He smiled almost in sympathy as he scrapped the last of his oatmeal from the bowl, the poor guy looked just as miserable as he felt right now and he couldn't help but wonder how he might help him.
"We should come up with som-OW!" the girl gasped and brought her left hand to her temple "WHO DID THAT!?" she yelled as she started looking around.
The guy smiled as the girl got up to ruin someone else's day leaving him to enjoy his breakfast in relative peace. Satisfied with his good deed for the day and even more pleased to note that his ability to properly analyse expressions seemed to be returning to him, Jaune bit into another orange slice and watched a humorous display unfold as the short, angry ginger girl found a reason to harass someone else several seats away from him. He smiled, spat out another large seed as the girl started what he could only assume was a crude attempt at a police interrogation as seen in the popular television shows he and 3 of his sisters enjoyed with a laughable efficiency and level of skill.
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After breakfast he made his way to the locker hopping to meet Ruby and Weiss, initiation would be starting soon and all around him were potential team-mates. He had no idea which, if any of them would join his team and instead focused his vision on each person he saw and began his analysis. While there were dozens of options currently available to him he first looked for the people who came with him on the airship, his dynamic entrance had definitely left an impression on them and their expressions would tell him if it was good or bad. To his relief it appeared that most of the people he remembered from the airship had shown several positive reactions to him either because they were glad to see a familiar face or because they genuinely thought he was a bad ass who could help them out. That had thankfully freed him to pursue those who did not know him or showed a less favorable inclination, namely Weiss Schnee.
All teams would have 4 members and unless that policy changed within the last few months he would need to find at least 1 other person willing to work with him. Ruby was practically guaranteed at this point since he was her best friend. With her came the good chance that Yang would try to be on his team as well, which he hopped to avoid at all costs. That left a single spot for his idol, if he could get Weiss to join him then he was fairly confident that he would be able win her over eventually. Even if he failed to get Weiss to join his team he figured that he might at least change her current attitude towards him to something more positive, something a quiet part of his mind told him would only help him later on, the 'how' was something he didn't quite figure out yet but the voice him told him to risk it anyway. As he rounded the next corner and saw her, his idol and current dream girl, a princess in all but name talking to a tall red headed girl.
Upon seeing them he felt his heart constricted and his lungs freeze, he slumped on the side of a locker hopefully out of sight of the duo as something wracked his mind and body. Despite his best efforts his mind failed to function properly as feelings of despair, hope, anguish, happiness, sadness, unchecked rage, unbelievable joy and more rushed through him. In his vision swam images fluctuating far to fast for him to register anything other than the color 'red' in his current state. Red lines, red eyes, red hair, red clothing, red flames, and more was all he could manage to gleam of what his mind was 'seeing'. They were all important somehow, he knew that and tried to will himself to focus on the visions and against his better judgement the feelings coursing though him. Anything he could use to figure out what was going on, and how to resolve the issue as he forced himself away from the locker room.
It finally subsided as he entered the men's public bathroom. Color slowly filtered into his vision as he straightened himself up and walked to the sink, hopping nobody saw whatever it was that had happened to him. After splashing hot water on his face he stopped to stare at his reflection in the mirror, any trace of anything abnormal didn't appear to be showing on his face either fading away or sinking under his controlled expression. The only thing that might betray him would be his eyes, he sighed closed his eyes and breathed in hopping to pass whatever was happening to him as pre-initiation stress.
'Hurry up Jaune we have class starting soon.' an ever so familiar but still unrecognizable voice spoke.
He opened his eyes and saw that he was no longer in the public bathroom, instead he appeared to be in one of the bathrooms in Beacon's dormitories, similar to those he saw online. In the mirror was his reflection behind him he could also see a figure, unrecognizable save that it wore what seemed like Beacon's trade marked uniform and had similar shade of hair to that of the girl he saw earlier. Before he could do anything it pushed itself off the bed it sat on and vanished behind the door frame of the reflection. He twisted to try and see more but let out a squeal as his foot slipped on something and he slammed cheek first onto the edge of the sink.
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When the hallucination faded he came back to the lockers and noticed that -thankfully- nobody seemed to suspect or see him as he had what he could only guess was a mental breakdown. He in turn focused his vision on spotting anything bizarre, unnatural or malefic, unless he knew more he could only assume that what happened was akin to an attack from a stand or someone's semblance. If he was truly being targeted so early than he needed to figure out; who was attacking him? Why they were attacking him? Where they were attacking him from? And most importantly how to defeat them?
As he walked around and gazed at the people who shared the room with him, taking an extra few seconds to analyse each person he saw while avoiding the red head and Weiss out of fear of another 'attack' that might potentially do physical damage to him. To his displeasure he found that everyone else currently in the locker room had none of the signs he was looking for, meaning that his 'attacker' had left the room, was one of the two girls or his stand. Moving to within a foot of the spot where he suffered his first 'attack' he hopped that if it was a semblance or a stand then he was hopefully be just beyond the edge of its range, of course assuming that it was one of the two girls that 'attacked' him.
He glanced at them and performed a quick analysis while pretending to lean against a locker and check his nails. The red head was tall and gorgeous, she wore a light brown strapless shirt with dark brown split shirt on top of it that exposed enough of her chest and shoulders without being scandalous, a long red sash tied over her black skirt. A set of bronze greaves and cuisses that ended several inches below the skirt and extended to her high heel boots. Her accessories consisted of a bronze plate with her emblem on it, a bronze neck piece, and a brown circlet with emeralds on the end of tiny chains, likely more for decoration than protection. Oh her back was a circular shield and what he could safely assume was a sword that probably expanded into something complex like a whip or a some kind of sniper rifle similar to Ruby's weapon.
She kept a polite expression while Weiss was either trying to make small talk or sell her something. The details were hard to tell at this distance and sadly he would need to get closer to determine if she was his attacker or another neutral party. If she was his 'attacker' then he would likely engage in another life threatening encounter, if she wasn't then he could safely go up to the pair and try to sweet talk Weiss into joining his team.
He stepped past the perceived safety line into what was potentially the optimum range of her ability if she was indeed his enemy.
'So far so good.' he thought as nothing happened.
After taking a few more steps he could make out that Weiss was asking the girl to partner up with her and caught a glimpse of her shining green eyes as they turned to look at him. He made a show of placing his foot on a bench to stretch while he wondered why she looked so familiar to him, again he felt that strange feeling he had after he returned to his room from his first encounter with Yang at the bar and bizarrely enough he had also felt something similar with Ruby as well on the airship. Speculating about it could wait till later since the chance to get Weiss to join his team was right now a rapidly fading opportunity.
"Jaune are you ready?" a voice asked.
"Huh?" the voice startled him. He turned to see Ruby's eager face as she watched and waited for him.
"I am just thinking how to get Weiss to join the team." he said.
"Uhh. Why?" she asked, her face changing to one of caution.
"Well, she may be a good ally to us." he tried.
"I don't know." she said as she turned to look at the girl in question as she continued to speak to the red-head. "She seems kinda pushy to me."
'Yeah, she does.' Jaune internally agreed as a thought that recruiting Weiss may be a bad idea passed though his mind. 'Wait. NO! I want this.' he reminded himself and turned to face Ruby.
"She, uh. May be able to help you get Crescent Rose modified the way you wanted." he remarked, silently hopping that was true.
"Really?" Ruby asked her face brightening up.
"I think so." he paused to take a quick glance at Weiss. "She's wearing expensive clothing and everything about that rapier screams 'fancy'. So if we play our cards right she might be able to help us get what we want." left unsaid was assumption that she might be willing to pay for what would no doubt be a series of very expensive upgrades.
"Lets do this." she remarked, her face and tone suddenly changing from cautious to determined in an instant.
"Great, just follow my lead." he commanded before walking up to the duo.
He maneuvered himself between the two girls just as Weiss curled into a rather undignified pose that almost resembled an evil creep scheming in some dark corner. He caught her attention with a small 'ahem' as he struck a masculine pose. He straightened his back more, pushed out his chest, and flexed his muscles without bending his arms and turned his head to face Weiss while he kept his feet parallel to his hips.
Summoning all his confidence he spoke "Miss Schnee, how pleasant to see you again."
She in turn glared at him "You again?"
"Are you upset with me somehow?" He asked shifting his pose by turning a to face her at a 75 degree angle, bringing his heels and ankles together while crossing his arms over his chest while raising an eyebrow.
She scoffed and placed a hand to her forehead "You ignorant buffoon."
After what sounded much like a mechanical device activating in the background "I do not care who you are, if you insult my friend again I shall strike you down without mercy." Ruby said striking a dramatic pose with an intense facial expression.
She stood straight holding her left arm up as far as it could go while her right extended at an almost 90 degree angle from her side as she held her beloved weapon, the back of the handle held with her index, middle fingers and thumb of her left hand while the ring and pinkie fingers stretched allowing the weight of the weapon to fall onto the tip of the blade as it rested on the floor. It was balanced by the palm of her right hand that rested on the shaft between the blades and what he safely guessed were the actual gun parts of her gun-scythe while the rest of her fingers stretched out like she was holding back an angry child.
"Oh gods." Weiss practically deflated in a manner that instantly told Jaune what she was thinking. 'The stupidity is spreading.'
'Ruby you idiot! What are you doing? You'll ruin everything!' Jaune thought as his lower eye lid twitched once.
"Oh wow, that is quite the interesting pose." The red-head said turning to face Ruby.
"Really, you think so?" Ruby asked as she relaxed, took a more normal stance and focused her attention on the other girl.
'Ruby you genius!' Jaune thought as he realized that he would not be interrupted speaking to Weiss now that the possibly hostile red-head was distracted.
"Miss Schnee I, Jaune, merely wish to extend to you an invitation to join my team." he said with a winning smile, trying to give the impression that she would need and want him on her team.
"Actually I think the teams consist of 4 people." the red head said, turning her attention towards him.
"And I'm going to be on his team." Ruby commented, having failed to hold the red head's attention for more than 5 seconds.
"You don't say." Jaune replied accidentally dropping some of his confident attitude. "I currently have Ruby yes, and am looking for 2 more people to join me. Are you interested?" he asked in an almost challenging way, having decided to call her out on it for some strange reason he couldn't fathom or understand at that point.
"I uh, wouldn't mind." she said, shifting slightly away from him.
Jaune raised an eyebrow as he focused his vision on her again. Her cheeks were slightly darker now, not enough to be truly visible unless you were actively looking for it. Her hands were clasped together with her thumbs gently rubbing against each other and she didn't really meet his gaze. However her eyes were still focused on him and her face shifted to a slightly more wanting one rather than the almost plastic one she had before, like she was trying to subtly suggest to him that she wanted to join his team.
'She is either really shy or lacking social aptitude. More importantly she seems genuinely pleased by the idea and doesn't seem hostile to me.' he thought,
"Jaune, is it?" Wiess asked as she came between the two focusing all her attention on him. "Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"
"Does it matter?" he asked, left unsaid was that he had no idea who she was.
The red head smiled and waved politely as Weiss introduced her. Apparently she was supposedly a famous tournament fighter and set some new record in some place called Sanctum, which he had never heard of, not surprising considering that it was somewhere in Mistral. She had graduated at the top of her class probably like every 3rd person he would see attending Beacon academy which made the achievement seem less remarkable by comparison. Weiss also added that she apparently was the current face of Pumpkin Pete's cereal, one of the many brands of junk-food Dio forced him to stop eating as a child, claiming that it would be bad for both of them later on. In the end he had his doubts about the extent of her fame as he had never heard of her anywhere, if she was truly as famous as Weiss was claiming that she was then he would have likely heard the name Pyrrha Nikos somewhere already, even if it was in a passing conversation someone was having as he walked by.
Her feats apparently mattered to Ruby who was now silently begging him to let her join their team. He wasn't so sure however, from what Weiss told him she was little more than a show-girl adapted to fighting within a set and regulated environment where you could tap out if you were injured or decided to give up, a far cry from what the first few encounters during his trip to Vale were like. If those were an indicator of things to come then he may end up having to protect and baby-sit her while the next -probably female- psychopath he met shredded him to tiny bite sized chunks of meat. Her muscular frame did little to dissuade the feelings of dread born from the events of the first 4 days after he left Sino.
"Fine, I suppose their is room for you." Jaune said finally caving into Ruby's puppy eyes and the subtle pleading in Pyrrha's expressions despite her efforts to conceal it. Ruby's face brightened exponentially while Pyrrha gave him an actual smile rather than the plastic one she had before.
"That just leaves 1 spot left, will you fill it Weiss?" He asked, looking at the girl. By her facial expression and darting eyes she was baffled by this development and was actually considering joining him, if nothing else than to be close to Pyrrha.
'YES!' he thought 'Everything is going my way, just a few more seconds and I'll secure my dream girl, my best friend and an extra to fill Yang's spot.'
"I, uh. Need to think about this?" she said.
"Please do." He said resisting the urge to push the issue further.
"YAY! We have the best team ever!" Ruby yelled, throwing her arms up.
"I believe so." Pyrrha said, apparently unsure of what to say.
"Well then. I will take my time in thinking about your proposal Jaune." Weiss said, apparently trying to distant herself from Ruby and him, only pausing to take Pyrrha's hand in hers and look into the taller girl's eyes "It was nice to meet you Pyrrha and I hope we can become better friends in the future."
"Ok?" Pyrrha said, apparently unsure of what to make of the farewell.
'Oh that's not good.' he realized as his idol and perhaps the only opportunity to team up with her walked away from them as the call for all first year students to assemble by the cliffs for initiation rang out over the speakers.
AN: Hey all, due to personal events occurring in my life right now I will not be able to provide an update next week. Hopefully this is a one time thing and can get back to updating the story on a weekly basis without any further delays.