Velvet Scarlatina's life had taken a turn.
She was a first year-almost second year- at the esteemed Beacon Academy, a place where legends were born… but things could have been better. Despite the blood, sweat, and tears she had shed to get where she was, she couldn't find a weapon that she was good at using!
It was so frustrating the normally timid rabbit faunus was ready to kill the next thing that pissed her off. Of course she was rather adept at hand to hand fighting, modesty aside she was actually quite a prodigy when it came to her fists. Of course years of self deprecation had given her the inability to acknowledge it when she was actually good at something.
Then their was the fact she felt more at home using her teammates weapons then her own. Not that she told that to them. She felt a chill go down her spine as she could imagine them looking at her with disgust.
It wasn't just paranoia either, she told herself, imagine how you would feel if a person walked up and just did what you had worked tirelessly on with little to no trouble.
So here she was hiding in her dorm, stuck on the computer, talking to people she didn't even know through an online chat room. Honestly it was nice to talk to other people about the one skill she was absolutely sure was her own. No strange semblance involved.
Coco-her friend of four years- had been the one to introduce her to it, as they despite some of their differences they shared a love for mechanics. It was on this chat room she had shined. She had gained a name after helping some aspiring weapon smiths how to get nano mecha shift technology to function in extremely cold temperatures.
After that she had helped dozens more people with simple problems, to spending week helping people with advanced mechanics. She didn't think much of the praise she was given, after all that was the point of the chat-room, to help novices, and experts alike.
Her chat name Scarlet was known far and wide, almost anyone who had even dabbled in engineering knew her name. Hell people had started calling the chat room she used the scarlet room. But this was unknown to the lonely teen, as she had her own problem.
At the moment she was dabbling in portable hard light mechanics. In all honesty it was one of the hardest things she had ever done. To the point it had taken her roughly six months to even come up with a basic design. Even then their was something off with it.
Most people would have been happy it worked for the very short thirty seconds it did. However that only frustrated her more. The design was flawless, she knew that she had checked several thousand times before she had even started making the parts. That meant their was something wrong with the standard hard light programs that made them incompatible with her design… Right?
She gave a mournful sigh. If all her work ended up being based on a flaw, she would probably end up crying. The rabbit faunus shook her head, pushing herself away from her computer. She had posted her project on the forum, if anyone could solve her problem, they likely wouldn't do so any time soon.
No need to stress about it.
She could just go for a walk through vale or something and clear her head. Yes that was a great idea. Velvet gave a somewhat mournful sigh as she stood up to leave her dorm. Only to be dragged back when a chirp on the computer told her 'You Have Mail!'
Velvet sighed… that was becoming a bit of a habit wasn't it? Sitting back down she opened her email account, only to find an unnamed piece of mail.
Raising her eyebrow she opened it, the email only to find a large seal that she could of sworn she'd seen somewhere before.
Below the seal were the words
"Hello Scarlet, otherwise known as Velvet Scarlatina." Her breath hitched, they knew who she was! "It seems you've impressed the right people, and this email was sent with an offer" She felt her ears drop, when someone usually had an offer for a faunus it usually meant blackmail.
"Now How would like a job? If you accept then show up at the Borden street Cafe, at 11:43 am tomorrow, if you don't accept well then don't show up!"
She could feel the world cave in around her, she was about to be blackmailed into the dust mines or something wasn't she? But then she saw the signature.
"Signed Ebisu Hiruko, CEO of Lavender .corp"
All hesitance was erased and instead replaced with a sense of confusion. Just what the hell had she done to catch the attention of the top pro faunus company in vale?
Shikamaru sighed as he lounged on the couch, "Yeah thanks Ebisu, Tell Akeno I said hi. Yeah I'll see you later." Pulling the scroll away from his ear, the young deer let his hand drop lazily beside him scroll still open as he closed his eyes.
A sliding sound invaded that Nara ears as he gave a peak at his, scroll. "Your late." Shikamaru yawned, as he heard a sheepish chuckle from his blonde companion. He could practically hear the blond rubbing his neck out of habit.
"I'm not that late am I?" Naruto asked, Shikamaru just gave him a look, as he raised a hand to point at the purple blob, that was resting on his shoulder. "Ino fell asleep, out boredom…" The blond drooped as he too plopped on the other side of the Deer lover. "So I'm really late." Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he shoved Ino off his shoulder, waking her up in the process.
The delirious platinum blond gave a blank look, as she scanned the room for the source of her disturbance. Only to find her fellow blonde avoiding her gaze. "Your lucky they haven't called yet, you know that." Naruto nodded, after all he would be an idiot no to.
What Ino was scary when she got mad!
Watching the seen the Nara grumbled to himself, "Troublesome blond's" however it appeared he had said it a little too loud, as he was knocked back into the couch. Two matching shoe prints displayed valiantly on the Deer lovers face, groaning in an undecipherable gurgle as he sunk further into the couch.
The room descended into silence, as the two blondes put their shoes back on. But soon they were sinking back into the comfy couch. "So…" Ino drawled, "Do you have yours?" Naruto nodded, his breath hitching slightly as he parted his usual get up to reveal a chain link necklace.
A circular pendant spinning like a gyroscope, on one side the swirl of the Uzumaki clan, and on the other the several tribal marks that made up the namikaze clan symbol. The entire pendant made from black crystal, as he slipped back into his shirt. Looking closer you could see similar Piece of jewelry on both of the Uzumaki's companions.
The Symbol of the Nara clan, hanging limply around Shikamaru's neck, made from the same crystal.
A choker around Ino's neck, prominently displaying the well polished Yamanaka clan symbol.
In all reality they were more than just, sentimental pieces. A deal had been struck with the kingdoms, so that pillar was still considered a country. The necklaces functioned as a sort of passport, their birthdays names and other essentials had been installed in the crystals of the necklace. It along with the knowledge protection act gave them the right to refuse to give any information to any of the kingdoms, and all other rights granted to a citizen of remnant.
But they were still technically Citizens of Pillar, meaning they had a bunch of small bonuses, however it also made life for those of them who chose to stay in touch with society, slightly -sometimes epicly- harder.
It was the main reason they were having so much trouble enroll in beacon.
The reason they needed it at the moment however was to gain access to a certain blocked off area in the vale graveyard. Today was the day the leviathan had struck, killing millions. Despite this they were going to have to hurry, they had meeting scheduled with the headmaster for beacon in a little over three hours after all.
Slowly they each stood, up and straightened their clothes.
They had to look nice, if they were going to be talking to their old friends after all. Each step down the hall felt like they were walking to their graves, even as the door slid shut hissing as the locks activated.
Two hours later they stumbled back into the Cave house, none of them in good condition. Ino's mascara, had run down the side of her face, Her platinum hair frazzled and unkempt. Shikamaru looked like he hadn't slept for days, baggy eyes and twitchy fingers made him look like he had just escaped the mental asylum.
Naruto was by far the best, no stranger to loss he only had a few tear marks trailing down his face, and a glazed look in his eye's that made you think he hadn't had a very good nights sleep. Each of them drifted off into different area's of the cave home.
Naruto went and laid down in the hammock he had set up in the cave, simply staring up at the star like ceiling. Ino Had retreated to the living room, diving into several medical books as she studied for her field medic license.
Shikamaru, had climbed his way down into the large cave clearing, simply sitting amongst the white deer, basking in their presence, as he laid down in the blue trees forgetting the world around him. At this rate no one could blame them as they wallowed momentarily in their grief handling it in their own ways.
None of them were concerned when their scrolls notified them that the Headmaster had moved the meeting to the next day, something having apparently come up in the busy man's schedule. If anything they were relieved.
No one in the trio, was in good enough shape, or in possession of enough energy to make an appearance as the grimm hunters that day.
Roman Torchwick knew his plan was risky, heck it was plain suicidal!
One slip and he would be A) in prison Or B) Dieing slowly on a cold floor… But he-they wanted out. Cinder fall was messing with things far beyond her own understanding, and he would be damned if he let her drag Her drag both Himself and Neo down with her.
By himself Roman wasn't much of problem, even with his amazing skill as a thief was but a fly for that woman to swat at. Annoying for a while but eventually ignored for more important problems. But if Neo left along side him... Well things got much more... Messy.
And it was for that specific reason that he crushed the small amount of anxiety the was bubbling in his chest as he did his best to ignore the, constant chime the gears beneath his feet made constantly.
The beep of the elevator, alerted him to his company as he twirled melodic cudgel, turning around he was met with the wide eyes of Beacons academy's headmaster. Ozpin readied his cane only for it to be swiped out of hand. Oh how roman loved his semblance! "Now now Ozzy we wouldn't want to end the game before it's started now would we?" Roman remarked as he played with Ozpin's favored weapon. Gesturing for the man to sit down the thief continued to play with the headmaster's cane. A mock innocent smile on his face, "Come now Ozzy boy I don't bite."
For some strange reason Ozpin couldn't help but mumble the age old quote under his breath. "Said the spider to the fly."