"I don't exactly see why I should be here for this bit of your plot. I was having the time of my life out in good ol' Mistral and now I'm stuck here in a drab place like Vale." From where she sat on her bed, the leader of Team TIME offered a bored gaze towards 'Eleanor Tremaine'. "Why are we even wasting our time here? Shouldn't we be out in Vale making sure the lad you've got the balls of doesn't screw things up?"
"This is no waste of time." 'Eleanor Tremaine' continued her work on the Scroll in front of her, her building frustration with the teen set on the backburner for now. Discipline could come later, she was far too busy at the moment. "We are precisely where we need to be for the plan to continue." She went over the information once more, frowned at the update she had been given. "The only reason you're here is to play your role. Don't forget it or how intolerant I am concerning failure." She gathered up her things, spent a moment to touch up her makeup. "Now, I'm leaving to see Goodwitch. If I hear you caused any problems, I'll deal with you."
Despite a glare, the only member of Team TIME in the room let her leave without a word.
It wasn't worth drawing Fall's ire. As much as she disliked her, disliked that she had been dragged into her grand little plot, the woman also terrified her.
When being alone proved itself an unappealing prospect, she decided to leave the already near empty dorm room herself.
"Ain't this just a wonderful waste of my bloody time." Ever since stepping on Beacon Academy's campus, all she had felt was a terrible boredom. Her "partner" was likely off hiding somewhere spying on someone, Fall had her plot to see through, Black had slipped away almost as soon as they had been left alone, and Sustrai was off doing something for Fall like a good dog. She had all of zero things to do since she had gotten here.
"It was at least fun hangin' out with T. He knew how to show a lady a good time." She shook her head, her smile at the fun times showing off the metallic teeth in her mouth. "If I thought I had a shot…" Her grin widened, something approaching a blush taking hold of her partially scale covered face.
If she was older, if he wasn't so committed to seeing Her as a Goddess and the like, she maybe would've tried her shot a long time ago.
She wandered out the dorms, pulled out the Beacon Academy issue Scroll to check the map on it, see if there was anything worthwhile to see on the campus.
The lot of them were supposed to go about and "familiarize" themselves with Beacon's grounds over the next few days, get ready to start a lot of boring classes come Monday. Fall had been clear enough after the Professor had left, told all of them she expected them to play their roles.
Or else.
"This place it too damn boring. Not a bit of fun to be had." Her hands drifted down to one of the swords hanging on her hips, ached to draw it and see what one of the students at Beacon could really do. It would get her blood pumping at least, get her excited for something to finally happen.
Coming from the hunt out in Mistral, the fun she had day after day with T, to a place as boring as Beacon Academy was a change she hadn't been ready for. If it wasn't for Fall threatening to burn her to little more than ash if she stepped out of line, if she put the plan at risk, she would have left by now. And if it wasn't for Fall showing that she was a woman of her word, she would have tried to call her bluff.
For all the messes she had gotten into over the years, the handful of lives she had already taken before signing up with Her, there was something especially sadistic when it came to Fall's way of going about things. There was a certain eeriness to the methodical way to how she went about her business, how coldly efficient each life she had taken had been.
Despite herself, despite her nature as a predator herself, she had gagged the first time she had smelled burning flesh. She didn't think Fall even noticed the smell anymore, considered it anything but a normal occurrence.
She couldn't help it, the Faunus felt a shiver travel up and down her spine at even the memory.
"Now I remember why I listen to her. She freaks me the fuck out." She was talking to herself now, so bored that she couldn't help it.
"Same." She didn't jump at the voice next to her but she did draw one of her swords from her side.
Mercury Black, rather casually, leaned back to avoid the swinging blade from sweeping over his throat.
"Bit jumpy there aren't you, Tick-Tock?" Mercury knocked the blade away with the back of his hand, Tock returning it to her side.
"How 'bout you don't sneak up on a lady next time?" Tock ached to teach him a listen when he scoffed instead of taking her words to heart, settled on continuing on her way and ignoring Mercury.
He, with his sixth sense on how best to be annoying, decided to follow after her.
"I don't see any 'lady' around. Mind showing me one?" He was obviously trying to get a rise out of her, something she wasn't going to give him as she ignored him.
As much as she wanted to do nothing but give her "teammate" nothing short of an ass kicking for running his mouth, she decided to control herself instead. Fall had been clear on the four of them not causing any problems, had been clear on what would happen if she had to stop working on her plan to solve a problem from them.
She would need to be smart with how she went on about teaching Black some much needed manners.
She checked her Scroll as Black seemed committed to following after her, seemed committed to being nothing but a pain in her ass.
'I could go and kick his ass in the locker room?' Classes should be back in session, everyone too busy to bother with checking inside, would keep any wandering students from involving themselves.
All she needed was a minute after all, a wonderful sixty seconds.
She adjusted her course, entering Beacon Academy's main building.
Black kept following her, a smirk she wanted to smack off on his face.
"Really making it that obvious?" Black had moved to walk next to her in the empty halls. "What? Plan to jump me?"
"Can't do much else with all of Ellie's little rules I've got to follow." Tock stopped at the door. "Mind leaving me alone or are you here to take an ass whooping?" Her hand hovered above the wound clock at her waist, her metal fangs on display as she grinned. "What's it gonna be boy?"
"I don't know: Do I really want to waste, what, a minute, minute and a half with you?" He was trying to rile her up, shifted enough to react if she swung for him with either sword at her side.
It took one look for Tock to see Mercury was tempted, seemed just as anxious for a fight as she had gotten over the past week.
After that mess Black had left down in Vale a couple weeks ago, Fall had tightened the leash on all three of them. She hadn't been happy with the fact that she had to pressure Torchwick more than usual afterwards to keep his Dust robberies coming, had to wait for him to find another source for his muscle.
All it would take would be for her to swing on him, let her Semblance activate while she went through the door with him following behind her.
She couldn't kill him but she could have a bit of fun, stave off her boredom for the day if she mopped the floor with Black's face.
If the door hadn't opened behind her, who knows what would have happened.
A blonde had nearly crashed into her before he managed to stop himself, Tock taking a step back and raising an eyebrow at the sight of him. She glanced behind him at the massive sword on his back, took in the rest of him.
She recognized him rather easily.
Well, she recognized who he was so set on being like.
T had always gone on about a blonde kid Pickerel had been teaching before he had made the mistake of coming after him, that the kid had been trying to imitate the Huntsman since the day they met.
Knowing about him for so long and now finally being able to meet him? She considered herself very lucky indeed.
She offered him a fanged smile, one hand falling on her hip, planted just above the clock at her waist.
"And where are you getting to Blondie?" It looked like she had finally found some entertainment.
"Class?" The blonde rose an eyebrow in blatant confusion at her question. "If you don't know, the usual schedule for today has been changed." He made to step past her, found his path blocked by the shorter Faunus, her grin not falling in the slightest. "…Do you need something?"
"You could say that love." Tock stepped closer, her smile only growing as the blonde took a step back through the open door. "You see, I've seen a sword like yours before." Her smile widened at the look on the blonde's face, the number of emotions flickering over them. She took another step forward, the blonde taking another step back. "Seen it on a Huntsman a friend of mine knew back when I was a youngin'." Mock hurt came across her face, mock sympathy. "Shame to say I haven't heard from him in years. Real sad, liked him when the old guy came around on a job. Swell fella, wanted to be a Huntress myself from seeing 'im at work."
Mercury decided to make himself scarce as she started playing whatever this angle was, whatever she wanted to get from the blonde.
She ignored him as he left, the blonde stumbling back when she gave him a solid shove to the chest.
"If you're going about wavin' a sword as big as yours around, one lookin' like his at that, then you must know 'im. At least seen 'im." Tock made sure the door was shut behind her. "So, what's the story there, love? He save your life? He settle down and teach you all he know?"
"No…nothing like that. He was a family friend, stopped by every now and then. He inspired me to be like him, showed me what a Huntsman should be like…" The blonde seemed to finally get over his shock, still stared at her with a mixture of shock and a growing curiosity on his face. "My grandfather was the one who showed me how to fight." Blue eyes stared at her, were narrowed in focus. He was seemingly trying to place her face from the look on his face.
"Don't bother with that. I'm from Haven, here on an early program." Tock felt like laughing at the embarrassed look on his face at being caught, she held out her hand, the other was set on her hip. "Silly me, where have my manners gone? I'm Tock MacDonald. Team Leader for Team TIME."
"Jaune Arc…Team Leader for Team JNPR." Jaune didn't hesitate to accept the hand, Tock's smile growing. He seemed a lot like T had told her Pickerel had been like, friendly to a fault, strong for a Huntsman, and always trying to do good like he was some storybook hero. "So, what are you doing here?"
"Just trying to have a little bit of fun before Monday." Tock looked the blonde up and down, gave him a rather blatant once over. "Mind showing a lady like me around campus?"
"…Sure." Tock was personally going to just call Jaune Blondie from now on. Blondie glanced to his Scroll, checked the time. "I've got around an hour before class."
"Then we've got an hour to spend together love." Tock stepped into his personal space, linked her arms with his. "Think you'd be up for some fun afterwards?"
"I-I don't think that's…" Tock laughed at how flustered Blondie was, dragged him out the door before he could finish.
"Quit talking. Let's go."
As long as she was stuck at a place this boring, she was going to have some fun and so far that looked like it would be with Blondie here.