A/N: Hello, the chapter's short and sweet this time.
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
"You!" The girl with the hair dyed white yelled.
"Me." Jaune groaned.
laugh track
insert 90's sitcom music
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
A/N: Thank you for reading the chapter! Stay tuned for chapter 5 next decade!
I'm kidding. Sorry, I wanted to get a joke out before we get to the next… difficult scene. This real life Weiss is a little on edge, in comparison to the 'game' Weiss who will be portrayed as just a little prissy (like the show). Please excuse her behavior.
Beta: Path of a Writer
/-A Requiem for a Gamer-/
Jaune waited for the laughter of the imaginary audience in his head to end. Some part of him was starting to believe that the cosmos was out to get him. In fact, some part of him knew it was out to get him, and that part of the cosmos was named the God of Light!
"Is it possible for you to totally forget everything that has happened in the last twenty four hours?"
"Forget? Impossible. I, however, am a magnanimous woman." Her glare did not soften one bit. "I'm willing to put aside personal feelings during business transactions."
She sat down in front of him and put down her backpack on the floor beside the table leg.
Jaune yelped. "You stepped on my foot!"
She smiled back sweetly. "Nevermind little accidents, my name is Weiss."
"You..." Jaune sighed. He did whip her across the face, maybe he should let it go. "I'm Jaune Arc." He took out his homework. "Here is the work I would like you to review."
She took a quick scan of the work, flipping through the pages, before flatly looking back at him. "Does this university use racial quotas for acceptance?"
"What?"
"It's nothing. I'm just wondering about how you got into this university. Maybe you faked your transcripts?"
Jaune sat there, shocked.
"Or perhaps, the university's standards have fallen over the years. What are you, freshman from a sub-tier secondary school?" She took out a red pen from her belongings. "Do you mind if I write over this draft?"
"Er…"
"Then, I will."
"Wait- no!" Jaune reached out to stop her, but she paused the moment the words were out of his mouth. "I will be submitting it in two hours, I think it might be a good idea to keep this copy clean just in case."
"This? You'll be submitting this in two hours?!" She asked incredulously. "This isn't something I would want to have attributed to me even back in seventh grade! It reads like the first draft of first drafts!"
Jaune opened his mouth, a bit ticked off.
"Let's move to a computer then." She stood up. "A draft like this, two hours before the deadline? Are you asking for a terrible mark? I wouldn't be surprised if you are barely passing your courses."
"I have a laptop." He said annoyedly. It was the most aggressive 'I have a laptop' he'd ever said.
"What are you waiting for? Take it out, I don't have all day, and neither do you."
Jaune was seriously debating if he should just walk out of there. He didn't come to get verbally abused by some random person. This wasn't League. However, he wasn't sure if he would be able to get somebody else, be it a tutor or friend, to look it over in what short amount of time was left. Ren was also busy till noon and Nora… nothing good comes from asking for writing help from Nora.
He could also just not get someone else to look it over, but he had found that this way was the fastest and most effective way to improve his work.
A few seconds of contemplation later, he ended giving in and placed his laptop on the table and opened up the document. Weiss moved her chair next to him so that she could see too.
"Move over, let me edit." Just like that, she commandeered the laptop and went to town on it.
Spelling and grammar mistakes went away like grime getting power washed. Adjectives and fancy words entered the flow of the story as if they were always there. Descriptions were reworded into what he could only call art.
He couldn't believe his eyes. No, actually, he could, but if she was average or terrible then it would have been easier for him to stay angrier at her.
"What's the metaphorical part about gods and parents?" She suddenly asked.
Oh, that's inspired by Light and Dark. I guess they don't really have to do with the rest of the story.
She stared intently at the screen. "I suggest rewriting this so that it can be part of your motif with the unheard prayers."
That wasn't what I planned… but… "That's actually a good idea." He finally answered when she turned to him expectantly.
"Good. You make the changes, I'll take a look afterwards."
At the end of the hour, his draft was looking substantially better than even his copy with Pyrrha - and yes, he felt stupid for screwing up the redhead's name. Scrolling through his story, rereading it, he could honestly not see the difference between his own and professionally written work.
"It's… good." He blinked.
"No, it's not." Weiss interjected like the asshat that Jaune was pretty sure she was. "This is merely quality that I would usually expect for a second draft."
Jaune stared at her.
Weiss wiped away some tears with her hands, then blew her nose in a tissue from a box that Jaune had provided.
"It's allergies."
"What set off - "
"No."
Jaune was honestly not getting these reactions. Pyrrha, Ren, now even this rude woman? He felt that this had come out a lot better than the just passable he was aiming for, but surely it was not that good!
"I'm sorry, it's just whenever I get to the part where the daughter was desperately pleading as she was strangled by expectation, her delicate heart crushed by people she loved, I can't help but feel for her."
Someone else already took that line!
Jaune could only shrug in response on the outside. "Thanks for your help. I think it's about time I go print this out. Let me pay you…"
He patted his wallet pocket.
"Shit."
His wallet was at home, with the bag of two hundred and ninety eight dollars.
"Do you take e-transfer?"
"No."
There goes that idea… "I don't think I have time to go home. The streets must be packed at this hour." Jaune pointedly made sure not to look up from the floor. Instead, he tried hard to think up a solution lest the woman beside him tear him a new one.
"How inconvenient." He did not like how even her voice was.
"I could go ask to borrow some money from Ren, but he usually just brings a single twenty dollar bill for him and Nora…"
"How cute."
His hands shook. "W-Well, if it wasn't the lunch hour, then I could have gone back easy." He repeated himself due to nervousness. Or fear.
Weiss' stomach grumbled.
Jaune suddenly had a dumb idea.
"How about I treat you to lunch at one of my sisters' places instead?" It was a throwaway line, a line that he already regretted the moment it came out of his mouth, but his father's genes were strong. Even while internally dying, he had the look of a confident man on the outside.
She grabbed his arm, making him flinch. It was so sudden that it gave him a jumpscare, and he couldn't help but notice a strange glint in her eyes. "Deal." She said instantly. "We can also print out your prose at any campus printers on the way."
So fast?!
/-/
What's up with this chick?
This Weiss was an asshole. There were a thousand better ways to say his work was shit without questioning his university admission! Hadn't she ever heard of bad slip ups? She must have been one of the tryhards who did nothing with their days except slave on their school work. Sheesh, keep your sky-high standards to yourself! Jaune felt like he may have chosen the worst possible tutor for this one time thing.
And now he was buying this woman lunch.
Jaune mentally groaned, what was he doing with his time? More like, why did he have to forget his wallet on this day?
It wasn't like it was every day that he had gods screwing with him, cut him some slack. If there wasn't that distraction, he could have finished his homework on time. Technically, he could have finished his homework earlier, but he was busy, so he had no choice. Jaune was a busy person.
He walked through the clean open door and walked into the waiting room, his freshly printed story safely stored inside a binder.
His sister wasn't there at the host stand. That was lucky, who knows what kind of ideas would reach his mother if his sister had seen him invite a woman for lunch.
"Your sister works at a nice place."
Surprised, Jaune turned around. Weiss stood behind him, eyes wandering over the decor. It was the first time since his meeting with the woman that she had said one nice thing that wasn't sarcastic. What an extraordinary event, historical even!
"Very funny." She rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
Did he say it out loud? He coughed awkwardly, then walked up to the black haired hostess. Since it was lunch hour and the place was nearby the university, there were many other customers sitting in the chairs of the waiting area. It looked like they might have to wait a while.
"Jaune!" The prim-and-proper woman was a co-worker of his sister and knew him quite well. He quickly communicated to her his situation. A minute later, he walked back to Weiss.
"All's set?"
"Yeah. She also said she'll keep it from my sisters, so we should be safe from future... annoyances." He sighed.
"Hmph, older sisters are always worrying. Especially if their younger sibling is…" She glanced at him without much subtlety.
"That's just rude for someone who's buying you lunch."
"Do I need to remind you who made the mistake that caused this to be the alternative?"
He winced. "That still doesn't - "
She looked away. "No, you are correct. I do apologize."
For a moment, Jaune could only stare at her as her neatly brushed white hair swayed due to her head's movement.
"I know I shouldn't take it out on you."
Jaune's curiosity was piqued. However, she was someone he had just met. He wasn't sure if it was a good idea to pry. If it was him, he wouldn't say a thing, and would probably even feel awkward to reject sharing with the other person, even if it was completely acceptable to do so. Plus, this person was clearly of ill manners. Letting sleeping dragons lie would be the better choice.
"What kind of circumstances?" His mouth said.
Fuck me!
He received an extremely predictable icy glare.
"That is," He amended, "if you want to talk about it."
"To a complete stranger."
"Hey, I'm not a complete stranger! Don't you remember?"
"Remember?"
"You know my name!"
She didn't respond, setting the stage for an awkward silence for the rest of their wait.
I'm hilarious...
/-/
"Take a seat here please, I will be right with you." The waitress said with the thinnest nervous smile Jaune had ever seen. What's up with that?
He and Weiss sat down at the two person table the waitress had shown them to, putting their bags aside. Weiss hung her backpack at the back of her chair, while he kind of just dropped his at his feet.
Jaune wanted to go back in time and kick himself. Just when this prickly woman was seemingly losing some of her thorns, he just had to open his big mouth. He picked up the menu, flipping through the common items found at grills. There was no need to do so, since he almost knew the menu by heart, but he felt like it'd be more awkward with nothing to do. The next few moments passed in silence, interrupted solely by the turning of pages.
"Hello, have you decided on what you would like to order?"
Jaune looked up.
The woman's voice was strained. She had frazzled shoulder length black hair and her uniform was the regular, composed of a baby blue jacket, shirt, and a skirt with yellow accents. Compared to the others, however, it looked like she had put it on in a hurry. There were extra wrinkles on her skirt and her collar, and even one of her buttons was unbuttoned.
Now that Jaune thought about it, he didn't remember seeing her here before. Perhaps she was a new hire? She might be nervous on her first day on the job, which explained her attitude. Jaune had been in her spot quite a few times in his many part time jobs and could very well empathize with her.
"Yes, I would like bolognese spaghetti with squash and a lemon iced tea, please," he replied.
"And for you, Miss?"
Weiss tilted the menu so that the waitress could see it and pointed at one of the items. "How large is the portion?"
The waitress hesitated.
"Why?"
Jaune twitched.
"Is it too much of a bother?"
The contents of Weiss' reply were polite, but somehow, they still sounded abrasive to Jaune.
"No. It is not." The waitress glanced aside, looking in the distance somewhere behind them. "It's about 225 grams."
Jaune followed her gaze. There was nothing there, except the opposite wall.
"How about this one?" Weiss pointed to another.
The waitress looked aside in another direction. "The vegetables are about 150 grams, the meat, 75 grams."
Jaune followed her gaze again. Nothing, though there were other customers eating in that direction. Was she approximating it off existing meals?
Over the next few minutes, he watched with incredulity as Weiss asked about the portion size of nearly every single item on the menu, even including appetizers and desserts. The supposedly inexperienced new waitress, just as incredibly, kept up with her demanding customer, but was clearly out of her depth in terms of how she should treat this situation. That waitress has the memory of an elephant!
He knew that this kind of demand, though not for every item of the menu, wasn't exactly uncommon, especially in areas with more tourists who couldn't bring home extra food. Still, for someone starting out, an unexpected situation could really knock them off their feet, especially towards the end of a long, exhausting work day dealing with crazy people. Hang in there, unknown person who forgot to introduce herself! Still… answering it all in grams? That's crazy!
"Thank you. Then I'll have ten kid sized artisan ham sandwiches and a single bottle of water, please." Weiss finally ordered.
The waitress made another strained smile and left.
"Did you really have to do that?"
Her sharp eyes met his. "There is no rule against it."
Jaune grimaced. He would say social norms, but technically there weren't any governing this either? Even then, it felt like making a scene to him, even if there was no shouting, calling for the manager, or other standard Karin-type moves.
"I am merely making the most out of the money I have earned from you. Therefore, it is completely under my control how I spend it."
"Does that mean that you have to min-max the cost efficiency of the food?"
"Yes, my share of the total with tax and tips included comes to a rounded value of 49.97$."
He took a moment to blink. This girl certainly could do some quick maths. "You don't need to be that exact." He said with a small smile. "If you go over a little I won't mind."
"You are willing to gift me extra money, with nothing in return?"
"It's just a few dollars…"
Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Don't think I'd do any extra services for you in return for your 'kindness'."
Jaune slapped his hands onto the table. "Of course not!" He saw at the edge of his eyes some people turn their heads towards their table. "Don't put it that way either!" He whispered with a spike in volume at the end. What the hell, woman?!
Looking like she didn't really care, she continued. "Do you come from a rich family, or something?"
"No, of course not." Jaune considered himself as part of a working middle class family. His parents paid for a portion of his tuition and sent him allowances sometimes, while he worked his butt off for the rest.
"Then why are you so careless with money?"
Jaune had no idea where that came from. Weiss was making everything difficult for no reason at all! "How am I careless?" Seriously, how? He worked at McDough's for the terrible gods out there's sake, what part of that screamed rich?
"I saw a whole bunch of paid games on your desktop. You really have that much time and funds for video games?" She accused him with an entirely infuriatingly questioning facial expression, as if she had any grounds to stand on at all.
She was pulling that?! "Well, everyone needs to relax at some point." He answered defensively. She was also assuming too much, what about all those poor blue-collar workers who owned a bunch of games and could never play them? "Not like I spent all my time playing games!"
"Such distractions are completely unnecessary. Building for your future is a vital - "
"They were games on sale! Just a few dollars, why does that matter?" He threw his hands up. "Why are we even having this conversation?"
"What are you doing after your degree?"
Jaune blinked a few times at the sudden topic change. "Uhh…" His mind blanked, the indignation he was feeling preventing him from dealing with the question. "Work?"
"I see."
Weiss took a sip of water and then their food came.
/-/
Jaune arrived in the room for his next lecture, the terrible lunch still being fresh in his memory. The experience had left a distinctly bad taste on his tongue and he was ready to leave it far behind in the past.
He walked to the front of the class where a messy pile of paper was stacked. It's the digital age, why are we still printing paper? He thought. Some professors were clearly still living back in the stone age. Placing his stapled story nicely in the pile, he went to sit at his usual seat.
"Ren, I had, just, the worst lunch ever." Jaune basically melted into his seat.
"Wow, it's gotta be something if it made Jaune sound like a Valley girl."
"Very funny, Nora."
Ren smiled. "She's in a good mood, looks like the construction and demolition place she worked at last summer agreed to hire her full time after she graduates."
Jaune's eyebrows rose. "Huh, that is good stuff. Congrats. We should have a celebratory dinner."
"Oh, I love celebratory dinners! Are we getting champaigne, or the hard stuff - "
Ren quickly interrupted her. "You are not getting drunk on my watch, Nora."
"Aw, poop."
"That hole in our wall is still very visible, especially with the amateur repairs I have done."
"Hey, Ren, how about you?" Jaune asked suddenly.
"Me what?"
"Those cold emails you were sending, got a reply?"
Ren opened his mouth only for Nora to squeeze herself in between his back and the chair and push over him. "I was just looking for a moment to say this, it's been a whole week! You won't believe this, Jauny, but he's actually being accepted to help out at this biiiiig boy psychology convention! Turns out he's been assigned by his committee to work under - get this - Professor Schmuck!"
Jaune blinked. "Isn't that the same guy who Ren rejected last summer for research, in favor of Professor Ozeh?"
"That's the one!" Nora chirped.
"Ooooh…" Jaune winced sympathetically. "I suddenly feel a lot better actually, my worries are clearly nothing in comparison to yours."
"Get off my back, Nora!"
Nora made sure to shift her weight so that it'll be less taxing on Ren by moving completely onto him and forcing him to give up. "What about you, finished dreaming about being a knight yet?"
"I was five!" Jaune rolled his eyes with a laugh. "I'll probably just, work in the service industry for the rest of my life, I guess."
Nora made an 'ouch' face. "I hate that stuff."
"Don't worry, I do too."
"Nora!"
/-/
When Jaune woke up in the game world that night, he found himself back at the locker room he was in before. No time had passed in this world since he had last left, it seemed.
He took a moment to stretch, feeling more invigorated than he had been in the real world. Strangely, he had been more tired than usual for the rest of the day, so getting to bed and waking up in the game world completely fresh had felt great.
Now, what the hell was he up to, again?
He opened up his objectives menu.
To his surprise, instead of being completely empty since he had completed the only objective there a day ago, an enormous popup taking up about 170 degrees of his vision popped into existence. He would have jumped if his body wasn't frozen while in the menus.
[Main Quest]: Objective Revealed
[Main Objective]: Pass Initiation
Success: 500$, 2000 XP
Failure: -6000$, expulsion
Well, at least it is straightforward. He really wants me bankrupt… The fuck, you stup - stupendous god.
Additionally, after closing the popup, on the bottom of the menu, he found the 'Legendary Reward Pack' he earned yesterday waiting for him. A familiar sense of excitement came over him and he quickly clicked on it without much thought. A similar slot system to the starter weapon loot box appeared before him, except this time, there were three different columns. They started spinning without further input from him, but started slowly enough that he saw some recognizable items like guns, swords, and… a box?
Now that Jaune had time to think as the wheels spun, he made sure to put a lid on his expectations. He could already expect a 2$ off McSoup coupon you'd usually find in your mail. Really, did the god think the trick would work more than once?
Still, he wished he could shift side to side, as no matter what he thought, he couldn't stop the conditioned response to the bright lights and flashy colors. It was a "Legendary" Reward Pack after all, the highest rarity, so it's got to be at least special if not good. On the other hand, God of Light.
The first wheel stopped.
Congrats!
[24h Luck Booster]
[Rare]
Description: Reduces chances at getting Common, Uncommon, and Rare, while boosting chances of Epic, Legendary, and good results from chance based events.
He tilted his head. It certainly didn't sound bad.
The second wheel stopped.
Congrats!
[3x Legendary Rarity Instant Booster Card]
[Legendary]
Description: Guarantees legendary quality roll on next three rolls of random chance.
Revealed: Inventory Menu.
Jaune whistled. Isn't that really good? Plus, another menu, and the inventory one at that! He couldn't wait till he could carry around 64 stacks of TNT.
The third wheel stopped.
Congrats!
[Legendary Equipment Loot Box]
[Legendary]
Description: Open to receive 3x different items, with one guaranteed to be Legendary and another guaranteed to be Epic.
[Accept] [Reroll for 10$, 20/20 remaining] [Drop Chances]
Oh man, oh man! These were insanely great rolls! Jaune quickly said 'click' on [Accept], receiving the items.
[System]: Luck Booster activated. 23h59m remaining.
"Inventory Menu."
The inventory menu opened up, showing a standard grid he had expected. Inside the first square, was a small icon of a stylized card that he assumed was the Instant Booster Card. The rest of the squares, however, all had a lock icon on them, as if they were all restricted. He also received a new system message.
[System]: Due to insufficient inventory space [Legendary Equipment Loot Box] was trashed.
"Oh, so that's where the fucking punchline was." Jaune sighed.
He selected the Instant Booster Card and activated it to make room, in case he got further items. Nothing on the menu indicated how to get more inventory slots, as expected. It was lucky that the starter weapon didn't work with this system, imagine if he started the game without a weapon...
Unpausing the world, Jaune then found his locker and equipped his gear. He double checked his stats before and after, but it seemed like nothing was changed. Guess this game didn't have that mechanic.
Then, he strolled on towards the designated meeting area for Initiation.
In some ways, Jaune thought this experience with the God of Light was kind of cool. It was like being able to play crazy far in the future VR technology, and even the drain on his money would be basically like buying a new console anyways. And the micro-transactions… well, they were blessed by Satan anyways, so they'll probably be around for a long time.
Before he could exit the locker room, he noticed the game version Weiss again. She was talking to Pyrrha about something. Jaune, after the events of this morning, did not want to talk to any version of the white haired girl and attempted to sneak past them in a low hunched over position. Additionally, Pyrrha's reputation tiers were certainly strange and he wasn't here to romance anyone. He'd rather not talk to her at all, especially since he had that 2x Pyrrha reputation booster for some dumb reason.
Sadly, Pyrrha noticed him as his sword hilt banged against his chestplate.
Right, rip, disadvantage to stealth.
She gave him a friendly wave, forcing him to interact. A practiced, service-industry-approved smile on his face, he waved back.
"You again," the other Weiss noticed his presence and glared at him, though he noticed that compared to the real life Weiss, it certainly lacked as much heat. Even though he had tried to hit on her with all of his quality charms. "I can't believe you know this… character." She said to Pyrrha.
Jaune shrugged. "Sorry. It was a dare." Oh, I'm pretty smart, that's kind of a good excuse.
[Relationships]: +10 reputation with Weiss Schnee
[Echoes]: Weiss Schnee UNLOCKED
"How childish. We are here to be huntsmen, defenders of the kingdoms against the Grimm." She put her hands on her waist, admonishing him.
"Then what about you? Initiation is in twenty minutes and you are still in a dress." The girl was in fact wearing a strapless dress under a similarly white bolero.
"It's a combat dress."
"Right, and these are tactical shorts - oh!" Jaune put his hand in one of his pockets. "It even has little pockets on the inside!"
Pyrrha giggled, making Weiss turn to her annoyedly. "You have something to say, Miss Mini-skirt?"
Jaune nodded to himself. Welp, no other possibility, this was a video game for sure. Where else would you find such impractical female attire? The two girls, on top of whatever strange outfits they were wearing, were even in heels. That was asking for a broken ankle. Their outfits were nothing like Jaune's practical one, with his armor, hoodie… and shorts. Which is great… in a forest… where there's lots of branches and bushes to scratch up your shins.
Nevermind, everyone's stupid.
Something suddenly came to him. "Do you guys want to be a team, for initiation?" While the words that the Headmaster had spoken were a little hazy, since it had been even longer for him than for the others, seeing other people reminded him of the fact that they were going to be put on teams.
"You want us to be on your team?" The game-Weiss said incredulously.
Jaune blinked. He took a moment to consider what he said, then combined it with the information he had gotten during their conversation. "Are you perhaps bad at fighting?" Heels!
"No!" She cried indignantly. "Do you seriously not recognize me, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the SDC, largest producer of dust in all of Remnant?"
He planted his fist into his open palm, having finally figured out something important. So she's that type of character! No wonder she's short. "So that's why my friends dared it, makes more sense now." He sort-of lied, covering for his reaction. Light was the farthest from a friend you could get, and Dark... well, who knows.
"And her?" Weiss motioned towards Pyrrha. "Is it possible that from underneath the rock you've lived under, you've at least heard of her?"
"Hello!" The redhead waved at him again.
Only in a video game would you so conveniently meet so many important characters so fast...
'Pyrrha' was right at the tip of Jaune's tongue, but he stopped himself. Wasn't this actually a good moment to use to decrease Pyrrha's high reputation with him? It's gonna get awkward if it gets any higher, the implications of a virtual girlfriend with an actual physical body turning him quite away from wherever this led, even if he wasn't sure where it led. Something, something philosophy.
"I'm sorry, what was your name again?" There! Thought Jaune. No one likes a person who forgets their name. You'd have to be a pretty sick pervert.
[Relationships]: +50 reputation with Pyrrha Nikos (+50 bonus).
The fuck, woman?!
It took all his will power to not let it show on his face.
"Pyrrha Nikos? I can't believe this!" Weiss shook her head. "The pride of Mistral? She's thought to be one of the strongest of our year!"
[Relationships]: Secret bonus objective completed, +100% reputation gain with Pyrrha Nikos for 24h
[System]: Two existing effects have stacked, resulting in +100% reputation gain with Pyrrha Nikos for 36h
[Relationships]: Rank Up! Successfully reached: Romantic Subplot.
Half of that almost didn't process for Jaune. Who the hell gets off other people forgetting them? His brain fumed. Calm down, Jaune, maybe you just misunderstood. Or maybe Light has no idea how people work, even though he supposedly created everything… And the world suddenly makes so much more sense now.
Jaune hurriedly backtracked, looking for a good excuse to remember her name. "Right, I'm sorry, I was just so focused on my writing. I do get a bit too into it, you can say it's my - " He cheesily winked with maximum confidence, " - heart and soul."
And now he regretted it. Weiss looked like she wanted to kill him.
Please do.
[Relationships]: +5 reputation with Pyrrha Nikos (+5 bonus).
[Relationships]: Gained opinion trait with Pyrrha Nikos: Passionate Artist. Passive 10% bonus to reputation gains from artistic methods.
Now he really regretted it.
"Anyways," He said with an overly blinding grin, "We shouldn't dally around too long." He said his goodbyes and took off swiftly, without even listening to whatever else the girls had to say.
/-/
Jaune smiled.
"For years, you have trained to become warriors." The headmaster stood in front of him and all the other students, who were all lined up in a row and each standing on a plate of metal. He was a gray haired middle aged man in a black suit with dark green highlights. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."
Jaune smiled harder.
A blond woman with glasses stepped in front of them. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumours about the assignment of teams..." As the two professors were talking and notifications were popping up in his vision about new objectives, he was entirely distracted. Distracted, by the precipice of painful eviscerating death in front of him.
Now, while he wouldn't say that he was a smart man, he wouldn't say he was a dumb one either. The moment he stepped on the platforms and felt it give a little underneath his feet, he knew they were some kind of spring-loaded system. Additionally, they were on a cliff with no guard rails. Chances were that they were about to be launched into the forest like a bunch of human cannonballs. That's where the problem lied.
Is there fall damage?
This game the gods had made felt more like a video game slapped onto real life than a realistic video game, with how ham-fisted the video game elements were. He had full freedom of movement both in combat and out and all his senses worked to create an experience that was difficult to separate from reality. Consequently, Jaune was now hyper aware of the threat coming at his poor, poor unsuspecting legs.
What can Jaune say, he liked his femur unsnapped and his femoral artery unpopped.
Suddenly, the farthest student on his left was launched into the air, proving his earlier hypothesis right. The speech the professors were making was finished and the time of truth had come, and boy, was it a terrible truth, like suddenly remembering that you forgot to save in the last three hours as you accidentally rolled off a cliff like an idiot. One by one, each student was launched, as if a timer ticking down to his eventual pancake status.
I don't want to be a pancake! Jaune panicked. I don't even go well with maple syrup, I'm not Canadian! Did I miss a powerup I was supposed to have or something?!
Ruby, who was beside him, had looked just as shell shocked as him at the beginning, but was now wearing a cool mask of professionalism that surprised him. She didn't even notice his glance towards her, so focused was she towards the forest before them. Then she was launched into the air.
That meant he was next.
His pad launched air into the sky.
Jaune stood beside it, having stepped off. The last two remaining people on the cliffside, the two professors, stared at him.
"Errrr, I'm scared of heights..."
"That is no excuse, young man." The headmaster sipped his coffee. "High altitude deployments are part of a huntsmen's toolbox."
"I - I need to go to the bathroom…?"
"You can go in the forest. Do be aware of your surroundings, though, or the Grimm might catch you with your pants down. Literally, in this case." The middle aged man chuckled at his very unfunny joke.
Wait, there's monsters in this forest?!
Jaune sweated. He racked his brain for an excuse. There had to be something that he could use from his ten plus years of experience in winging presentations and late homework excuses, but no, he realized that he was just too normal of a student to have done those things enough to have become a master in them! He was really regretting his good life choices right now.
"I'm…" He finally started, wiping his sweaty hands on his shorts. Beads of cold sweat streaked down his face. "...on my period?"
Silence reigned, accented by sounds of distant gunshots, explosions, and lasers from the forest.
Headmaster Ozpin watched him from behind his cup of coffee with an unreadable expression. The other professor looked very disappointed at him. Enough so that she had taken out her riding crop and was slowly tapping her open palm with it.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Arc, the Grimm do not factor that in when choosing who to assault. Now, now, if you don't leave now, I think you'll find yourself without a partner for too long." The headmaster took out his cane and pointed at Jaune's feet.
A disguised launch pad catapulted Jaune into the sky anyways.
"And you said last year that the backup jump pads were a wasted investment, Glynda."
The blond professor sighed. "That is of no consequence, let's put aside this last… troubling incident. What I want to ask is about everything else you said to the students, Ozpin?" She pressed with an air of rigid discontentment, narrowing her eyes. "I thought that you said we would do Initiation like we did last year. Why the last minute changes?"
The headmaster sipped his coffee. "I will tell you when I figure out myself."
"Ozpin!"
He turned to leave, not reacting at all to his subordinate's complaints. "Excuse me, Glynda, I have some calls to make."
/-/
Jaune screamed. It was loud. It was desperate. And it wasn't high pitched like a girl's, because it was the scream of a man falling to his death. The point is, it did not matter what kind of scream it was!
"Menu! Menuuuuu!"
[System]: Pause is disabled in combat.
His flailing arms did little against the wind blowing past him, instead only turning his flight into an even less controlled tumble. The world spun around him, the sky becoming the ground and the ground becoming the sky and oh my god I'm going to be sick.
[System]: Rolling dexterity… Success!
Jaune blinked at the message incomprehensibly. He had seen it happen before, but did it mean what he thought it meant…?
Suddenly, a compulsion came over his entire body. He didn't know why, but every single one of his senses was screaming at him to move. He ducked. It was just in time, as some kind of long and thin projectile soared right past his head. It barely missed him, close enough to make him think it could have decapitated him if he was a second late.
Can the Grimm use weapons?! Holy shit! I can't believe I evaded that, it was as big as my sword!
There wasn't any time to think over that, however, as he approached the treeline. He braced himself, covering his face with his arms.
Smashing straight through some thin branches, he gritted his teeth as the wood sliced straight through the thin material of his clothing. A thicker branch slammed into his stomach, winding him, before another broke underneath his legs, spinning his body and causing his dive to become a headfirst one.
He broke through the tree cover, bleeding, only to see the overgrown forest floor rapidly approaching.
There is fall damage. Jaune realized clinically.
/-/
A leaf hung by itself in mid air. Usually, it'll be held up by branches, but this one, it floated. It was just like many of the other leaves around it, having fallen off their tree but inexplicably stood still against gravity. Below, a bear-like Grimm was frozen mid-leap, its mouth wide open showing its savage teeth, over a just as still Ruby Rose, her huge scythe in the middle of a swing ready to decapitate the monster attacking her in a single moment.
A good distance away, Jaune was just as frozen in time, mere inches from his grisly demise.
An elderly man stepped onto the scene. Dressed in the clothing of an old retiree, and hair white like bone, he silently walked up the young man and sat down before him. For a few minutes, all he did was stare.
"Light?" Came a voice from the bushes. "Why did you stop time?"
The god of light did not turn to face his brother. "That's strange," He said, "I only accelerated my own perception. Perhaps in my rush, I made a small mistake."
"Accelerating perception, stopping time, same thing really. Question still stands, why did you do it? I was in the middle of my part time - " Dark freed himself from some tricky plants and finally saw the scene. "Oh."
Light didn't say anything, giving Dark the time to walk up to him.
"I thought you didn't really care if the mortal lived or died in this fake realm."
Light didn't turn to face him. "I thought I didn't."
Dark gasped. "Did you… did you finally grow a conscience?"
"I made the idea of a conscience." Light growled. "No, whatever that happens to him in this fake world will be entertainment for both him and I. What I am considering, is an event that happened some time ago."
"How long ago?"
"A few septillion cycles ago."
Dark raised an eyebrow. "That's a long time. I'm surprised you still remember."
Light mumbled something under his breath, most likely in agreement.
"What was it?"
Light turned to his brother, meeting his eyes, before turning back to Jaune. He ignored the question. "I can't do this again."
Dark watched his brother stand up and raise his hand. "Are you sure you want to make changes this late? Without testing it, there could be unintended consequences."
"Why would I care?" The god of light growled. "This is but another delusion born of the mind of a fool." He snapped his fingers.
/-/
A/N: I like cake.
I will also note that the previous chapters have seen some changes. You probably won't read them again, tho, so I don't even know why I wrote this here.
Next chapter: May 30, 2021.