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Scrublord Yoda
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Somehow, Friday came both all too quickly, and so slowly as to be a painful, foreboding mark at the end of a long week of studies and exercises. He fought in the training arena, wrote papers on how the Kingdoms applied tanks versus legged, mechanized units along with a handful of similar topics, practiced his survivalism techniques in the survival course, and more all through the week. All as normal, written out weeks ago in the lesson planners that most of the faculty had handed out to them all.
And always, Friday was marching forward, putting as much anxiety in him as any great Grimm he'd marched out to hunt down.
"Why?" He growled at no one in particular that morning while he showered, running his fingers through his short beard to get the soap in. "Why am I so damn anxious?"
"Do you want an answer, or are you talking to the wall…?"
"If you have an answer…"
"I think you're afraid to be proven wrong about Weiss. Or to be an absolutely incredible ass, which is something I'm a bit of an expert on myself, and put everyone off." Jaune rolled his eyes at his partner's words, washing the soap out of his short beard and reaching for his razor to trim it into a finer goatee and Mort sighed. "I'm serious, Jaune."
"Are you, Mort? Are you really?" He laughed, trimming it close around his lips and shaping the goatee idly. "Because right now, the most serious thing I can come up with is whether or not I should just shave this off."
"Okay one, yes, you should shave it off." The Spirit answered simply, "At least until your hair darkens a bit. Blonde beards are hideous until they get long enough to braid, if you ask me."
"Well alright then." He huffed, combing the beard and trimming it into a neater shape. It was a half-inch long, now, but trimmed into a goatee like it was he liked it. And frankly, it was his face to grow something on. "And the other thing?"
"I am being serious, yes." Mort answered, "You're just a man, Jaune. Don't try and say you aren't a prideful little shit. Humans always are."
"Because you're so much better?"
"Not really, no, but I'm more than old enough to know that what I'm saying is true." Jaune scowled and opened his mouth to answer him, but Mort cut him off before he could, "If I'm wrong, then you ought to be able to counter my points, Jaune. So…?"
"Sometimes, I hate you…" Jaune sighed, "But no. I can't."
"There you go. See? Admitting to being wrong isn't that hard." The sword laughed their sinister, echoing laugh again. If not for the hot water, it would have sent a shiver up Jaune's spine. As it was, it certainly tried its best to, his shoulders breaking out in goosebumps. He ignored them and Mort went on, "You want my advice-"
"Not really, no, but that's never stopped you before…"
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, asshole." They sighed wearily, "Anyway, you want my advice, just go and… Try and have a good time. Ignore everything except for what you're doing and try to relax."
"What I'm doing is why I'm so tense, though…"
"No." Mort answered, "Who you are doing it with is what has you tense."
"Yeah." Jaune sighed wearily, "I guess so."
"Mhm. Also," Mort snickered, "make sure you wear protection while you do it!"
"Oh for the love of all that is holy…" jaune sighed, slamming the razor down on the shelf in his shower and sighing. "Can you not be a lech for, I don't know, a couple hours?"
"Oh, but I do that every night when the girls come out in their racy pajamas, Jaune." The Spirit answered with an echoing, breathy laugh. How shorts were racy, Jaune didn't know, but Mort had always been one for watching the ladies. "You get eight hours of me bein' nice and quiet, and not saying anything-"
"Pretty sure you spent ten minutes talking about Nora's legs the first night we were here…"
"Starting after that, obviously!" Mort sighed, "So you don't get more."
"Fine, fine, whatever." He sighed as he stepped out and started drying off. "I guess I'll do what you say, though, and… Try to relax and see what happens."
"Good!" The spirit answered with a bright and rattling laugh, "Just relax, be yourself, and hey, maybe the Schnee really is different from how you assumed she'd be?
"Yeah, maybe she will be." He had his doubts, honestly, but he'd said that he would try. And when an Arc gave their word…
He was dressed inside a couple more minutes, his comfortable Beacon uniform more than enough for something as simple as a game night. Slipping out he was pushed aside as Nora took her turn, rushing in for a hot shower. A look at the clock on the wall told him why and he grimaced.
"Sorry!" He called through the door to the bathroom, "Didn't know I was taking so long…"
"You're fine!" She called back as the shower cut on, "As long as I have hot water and my favorite soap!"
"Should be where you left it, Nora, I didn't touch it!" He called out, just in case someone else had or she'd run out and forgotten about it. When she didn't shout, or bust down to the door, naked or not, to start demanding to know who had stolen her favorite shampoo, he nodded and turned to the rest of the room with a smile. "Well, I think we're safe."
"As do I." Pyrrha nodded, sitting on her bed and brushing her hair with a faint, comfortable smile. Gesturing at the little shelf they'd put in beside the door, she asked, "Would you hand me my braid, please? The one with the little gem?"
It was easy to spot, made of long and thin silk with a little emerald half the size of the tip of his little finger set on a bronze piece that would sit at the bottom of her braid. He picked it up and pitched it to her and she caught it easily, running the brush through her hair a last time and then starting to tie her hair back like she always wore it. She smiled and nodded her thanks and he waved it off, dropping onto the edge of his bed and staring at the door nervously.
And, through it, at team RWBY's door.
"It is as if you seek to set it aflame." His partner chuckled quietly, "Is something the matter?"
"Oh, plenty." Mort chuckled wryly, "But nothing you can help with unless you have a few dozen degrees in psychology."
"I'm just thinking." He said to both of them, "About tonight."
"It's just a night of games, is it not?" He nodded and she huffed, her voice confused as it approached him. Standing at his shoulder, she asked, "Then why are you so tense? All will be well, in the end, I am certain."
"This just isn't my thing, Pyr. That's all." He gave her a look but she seemed confused so he explained, "I'm not good with people. I'm better at taking a job to kill something, or maybe transport something, and then doing it. And normally if I don't like someone, I cut 'em off. Just leave and refuse to work for, or with, them. But that's… Not something I can do, here."
"She's a fellow student." Pyrrha nodded, "You can't escape her. And besides, she is friends with young Ruby, who you are on good terms with."
"Mhm." He nodded, "So, not as easy here. Even just in that regard."
"Being unfamiliar with something is quite uncomfortable, yes." Pyrrha nodded, prodding his shoulder with the side of her hip to ask him to scoot over. When he did, she sat beside him and smiled warmly. "Everything in Vale is so strange to me. Your food, your customs, your ideas… It is daunting, simply going to eat."
"I bet." He could only imagine how different Mistral was, when you lived there. But Pyrrha had come from the Arena, not just Mistral. And that had to make it worse… He laughed at that and, when Pyrrha gave him a look, explained, "You have to go through so much every day just to get by, and I'm freaking out about game night."
"Do not be troubled about your feelings, my friend and oh so fearless leader." She assured him, wrapping a muscle-bound arm around him in a friendly hug. Letting him go, she said, "We are, each of us, entitled to our own pains and fears and shames. And facing them together is the way of my people. You spoke of them to me, so, do you wish to know what my suggestion is?"
"Sure."
"Just take a breath, and play some games." She answered simply, "Whatever comes will come. But being anxious will do little."
"Yeah, someone else said something similar to me…"
"I swear on my life, if you listen to her, I will never believe it's because of anything except for her having tits, Arc." Mort threatened jokingly, asking in the same raspy and sinister, but obviously playing tone, "What, am I not woman enough for you, Jaune? Is my edge too straight? I'll be a scimitar if you want!"
Quietly, he flicked the sword's gem and rolled his eyes.
"Your friend sounds wise. Though…" Her brows furrowed and Pyrrha asked, quietly, "Who is this friend? Someone I have not met?"
"Uh, well…"
"Oh I feel so much better!" Nora cheered as she threw the door open and bounced across the room in her skirt and a towel she'd wrapped around her chest. Jaune coughed awkwardly and turned away and Nor chuckled, shuffling through a drawer, "Sorry, Fearless Leader, forgot my shirt is all. Just a sec and the girls'll be safely out of sight."
"You're fine- It's fine, Nora." He sighed, "Next time, maybe just ask for one to be handed in, Nora..."
"Or don't!" Mort added excitedly Jaune turned the sword away so none of it could see the half-dressed Valkyrie. "Please don't!"
Jaune ignored the sword and, less than twenty minutes later, Nora was ready to go, too. So, with a sigh to gather more courage than he should have, Jaune stood and waved for the grinning girl to lead the way. Which she did with a bright, eager grin, holding up a hand almost like a child leading their class in the halls might. Which was… Not incorrect, for the most part, and made him smile for it.
Nora really was kind of ridiculous in all of the best ways.
"Oh. My. Trees." Nora shouted as soon as they knocked and Ren opened the door for them, and the young Valkyrie got a good look at the dorm. Leaping across the room she waved her hands at the beds and squawked, "You have bunk beds?!"
"More like death traps, if you ask me, but yes." Weiss sighed, putting the finishing touches on a line of pizza, soda and all sorts of other trashy snacks for the night that they'd lined up on the two desks pushed against the inside wall. Waving a hand at a large bookshelf that dominated one of the walls, Weiss explained, "Blake had to have a shelf for all her books, and that threw the space off for the whole room."
"So you…" He chuckled, "You decided to hang your bed?"
"That's mine!" Ruby rushed out as she slipped into the room, carefully balancing a dozen board games. After a few more steps she dumped them on her bed while Weiss sighed sufferingly, she explained, "I called dibs on the top bunk!"
"Oh, like I called dibs on Pyrrha?"
"Um, I guess?" The young Lady scratched her head while Jaune found a chair to fall onto and a can of Mountain Lightning to sip from. "But, uh, I don't think that you can call dibs on a person though?"
"That is what I said as well!" Pyrrha laughed, sitting on the floor at his side and gesturing with a hand for him to hand her a can, too. When he did, she smiled and said, confusedly, "But Nora threatened to lick me to claim me if 'the international law of dibs' didn't apply?"
"Oh my Dust, you did not threaten to lick her, Nora." Yang laughed, snorting when Nora just grinned toothily and grabbed a slice of pizza. Shaking her head, the blonde made space on her bed for her Faunus partner to sit with her and laughed. "Of course you did, you… Absolute perv."
"Hey now, I resent that!" Nora pointed a finger, plopping down on the floor beside the door to eat her pizza. Taking a bite, she raised her eyebrows and grunted, "I am a connoisseur of flirtation, not a perv, Xiao Long."
"That's… Fair enough, I guess."
"Wait," Pyrrha blinked, flushing and stammering, "w-was that flirting?"
"Probably, Nora flirts a lot if someone is even mildly attractive and not a royal ass." Ren commented smoothly, smirking and adding, "And I'm sorry, Pyrrha, but you are incredibly fun to tease.
"Mhm!" Nora nodded, pointing a long finger at the man and adding in a grunt, "Plus you're super pretty!"
"O-Oh my gods… Y-You… Oh god..." The Mistralian flushed brightly, hiding her face in her hands and whining quietly. She turned to hide her face behind him and Jaune leaned forward to let her, smiling warmly while she whined, "I-I did not have to deal with this in Mistral!"
"Nope!" Nora grinned absolutely viciously, too, taking way too much fun from this, "You just had to kill monsters."
"I think that I prefer that!"
"I think you'll live with getting teased." Jaune laughed, taking a plate of pizza and chicken wings that was offered to him and grunting a quiet, "Thanks, Weiss."
"Not a problem, Jaune." The Schnee smiled warmly, leaning around him to ask, "Pyrrha, would you like a plate, too, or are you content to hide behind your team leader like there's a monster in the room?"
"There is a monster!" She protested quietly, face still beet red even if she was smiling widely, now. She pointed a finger across the room at the 'offending' woman and added, "There's a rabid Nora right there!"
"Hey, I'm not rabid yet." She defended herself, winking saucily, "Just wait until we all go swimming one of these days. Then you can call me rabid, P-Money."
"I've never been more afraid of water than I am right now, in this moment…"
"I thought cats hated water…?"
"Was that a joke or accidental racism, Weiss?" Blake countered with a smirk, watching the red creep across Weiss' face like she was feverish. Laughing, the Faunus shook her head and turned, picking up a little cowbell of all things and ringing it later. "Bad, Weiss! It's not been ten minutes and I had to ring the racism bell!"
"I'm sorry my father taught me weird things!" She defended, slapping some sardine laden pizza on a plate and offering it to her. "Your fish, my lady. And that is a joke, before you ring the damn-"
Yang cut the Schnee off with a hug, hoisting the squawking women up and squeezing her tightly. "Oh, you're trying so hard Weissy! And it's so cute!"
"I am not cute, Yang, and I will stab you!" The Schnee threatened, pounding ineffectual fists against the brawler's side. After a moment of being forcibly snuggled and ignored, the Schnee gave up, flopping against the blonde's shoulder and calling, "Ruby! Your partner needs help!"
"My what?"
"Y-Your… Bestie b-better than the restie needs help."
"Oki dokey!" The girl bounced around, thumping one of her sister's thick biceps and raising her eyebrows. "Yang, drop it!"
"But-"
"Drop it, girl." She scolded, "Drop it!"
After a second, and a long roll of her eyes, Yang dropped the Schnee on the bed beside Blake and laughed, "Hey, I just wanted a hug!"
"And I wanted freedom!" Blake opened her mouth and Weiss turned on her, leaning against her and hissing in her face, "Make the joke and all the sardines go in the bin and I light them on fire, Blake."
"I have nothing to add." The Faunus wisely nodded, taking a bite of her pizza and smiling pleasantly. Before she took another bite, she asked, "Ruby, what game are we playing first?"
"Well, since we're all good friends, I chose Monopoly!" Ruby crowed, setting the box on the floor and waving for Yang to set the black table they'd brought up while everyone groaned. "I know what you're all thinking, but my dad always said 'if you can play Monopoly together nothing will come between you'."
"Probably because Monopoly is borne of the Grimm." Blake murmured, shaking her head and sighing, "Well, as long as I get second pick. And get to play as the race car."
As the room descended into the predictable fight over the racecar, and Jaune grabbed the thimble, he couldn't help but smile. He'd been worried but everything seemed fine. At least for now. Who knew how long it would actually last, though...
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Gogo Bananas :
Ah, Mistral prefers indentured persons.
Hirshja :
Trench warfare was a part of what brought about the 'collapse' of nobility, even if nobility didn't entirely collapse - hi, Queen of England - but not all of it. According to some historians, it wasn't even the largest part. The nobility had been sending the masses to die en mass for centuries, after all. Some interpretations, and I agree with this, say that the reasons for the war were what caused it in so many countries, though I won't get super duper detailed into it here.
Whereas in the Color War, it was just Mantle declaring war on culture. Mistral, later, decided to be opportunistic, sure, but beyond that it wasn't really a war about wealth and status. This is what I would argue is the difference in the two conflicts.
Also, and I will do this later, I haven't actually shown or stated how the nation's governments work yet. For now, all I will state is that it isn't 'nobility rule, peasants drool, all hail the King' kind of law. You'll see later, though.
Glad you enjoyed regardless!
Zenith Tempest :
Here, Cardin is being a dick because of a familial rivalry. The Arcs and Winchesters hate each other for reasons barely covered thus far.
As for Weiss and Jaune… Well, they don't hate each other. That's been the point, so far, in the story. Arcs hate the Schnees for what they have done. But Weiss, as argued thus far, hasn't actually done any of that. And both in-canon and here, when shown evidence and reason, she eventually comes around on an issue.
THAT is what she is doing here. Trying to set aside family, which is also in line with why in-canon she went to Beacon at all, to be her own person.
I hope that explanation helps!