AN/: Let me start off with thanking you for giving this a read! I'm both excited and nervous to be taking on this project of JNRZ, but I want to be better writer for the community, so I strongly encourage to leave feedback and reviews so I can improve my skills, I'll happily take all the advice and practice I can get!
If you have any questions or looking for some info about the JNRZ AU, or want to leave me some writing prompts of your own, visit my blog on tumblr! It'll be under the name didyoutrydynamite.
With that out of our way, onto our first story!
alexanderstormbringer's prompt: It's JNRZ game night, and it is unfortunately Jaunes turn to pick. He always chooses these long, complicated tactic and strategy games, and it always takes NRZ teaming up together to defeat him. Chaos, of course, ensues.
When Jaune first suggested game night, it seemed like a good idea, a great idea even, a great way to help develop camaraderie within Team JNRZ. It was on their first game night that it became evident, soon becoming obvious in other aspects of their life such as spar matches and low stake bets that he realized they all had one thing in common.
Everyone on Team JNRZ was extremely competitive.
There was something about the Team's energy that brought out a bit of a competitive edge out of each other. Maybe it was because they all had something to prove, show they have what it takes to come out on top. Maybe a natural stubbornness when it comes to overcoming obstacles. Maybe it was because of that addictive feeling people tended to get a hard fought win.
Whatever the reason, game nights in the JNRZ dorm tended to be rather heated.
Across the table from Jaune, the rest of Team Juniors were sitting side by side with each other, conversing amongst themselves in hushed whispers while setting up their own Kingdoms around the map, pouring over documents and journals like a team of lawyers about to duke it out in court.
The court in this case was 'Remnant: The Game, Dark Tide Expansion'. It was the newest edition of a classic strategy board game, where you get to lead one of the four Kingdoms of Remnant in a battle of diplomacy and war. With the Dark Tide Expansion, it practically upgraded the Grimm into a whole fifth npc faction that could win the game itself, incorporating horde events and a new morale system that determined where Grimm hordes went and how many spawn each round.
They played this a few times already, Jaune coming out as the victor each time. He had always been fairly skilled at tactical and strategy games, owning every new release of the 'Brutal War Series' on his laptop, and wiping out entire retirement homes with chess matches. But this time, Jaune realized as he observed how Neon and Reese were openly showing their cards to each other, that this game was going to be different.
"What are you guys doing?" Jaune questioned.
"Wrinkled brow, squinted eyes, eavesdropping, definitely signs of suspicion…:"
"Just getting ready for the game Jauney!" Neon smiled innocently, " We've just been totally excited to play again!"
Jaune looked over to Reese as she held an open notebook in front of her, the front was titled Operation: Make Jaune Cry. She quickly laid the journal down against the table trying to hide the cover as inconspicuous as possible.
"Riiiiight," Jaune drawled, " It just seems to me that you all are planning to gang up on me again."
"Drawn out vocal patterns. A pinched, unhappy expression. Crossed arms…"
"Pfft, come on J-Man!" Reese breezed over, "We're not ganging up on you, just think of it as a difficulty tweak."
"Just to make sure we all have a delightful time." Neon reassuringly said.
"It's going to be delightful." Reese agreed.
"Delightful, Jaune."
"It's going to be fucking delightful as shit."
"DELIGHTFUL!" Jaune exclaimed, "I get it! But still, don't you think this is a tad one sided?"
"Stalling gestures, looking around uneasily, pressed lips…"
"May, what are you doing?"
Upon hearing Jaune say her name, May stopped scribbling notes, silently wondering if she had been writing out loud again, her one single eye studying him like a lab specimen. She leaned over to Neon and not so quietly whispered into her ear.
"Subject is showing signs of agitation. If we keep pressing him, it could hamper his cognitive reasoning skills." Neon nodded sagely to the advice.
"May will stop deducing me- did you just call me subject?"
"Anyways," Neon pressed on. " No, Jaune, this isn't as one-sided as you think, to be frank, you're an absolute monster at these kinds of games. So the others and I have decided to make things more fair."
"Fair?" Jaune argued, "You're calling a 3-1 handicap in a strategy game that involves diplomacy and trade fair?"
"Oh come on Blondie," Neon affectionately called him, " Think of it as a compliment that we're taking this so seriously. All it really shows is our high opinion of your tactical skills~" Her words were sickly sweet. "Unless you think we're over estimating you, and it turns out you really can't beat a bunch of girls at a silly widdle board game?"
Jaune knew she was baiting him, they were visibly chomping at the bit to finally beat him at his own game. He knew they had an obvious numbers advantage, and by the thick journals of notes and stratagems, they obviously prepared ahead of game night.
But as mentioned earlier, Team JNRZ just had a way of bringing out the competitive side of each other. Jaune shuffled his faction deck, a calculated look of determination setting on his face, steeling himself for war.
"Bring it."
Four hours. Four of the most grueling, intense hours of boardgaming passed by. It was no exaggeration that High King Arc was an incredibly capable tactician and even more dangerous enemy, but the Confederacy of Jaune Sucks Butt finally had him on his last legs.
The combined forces of Kommissar Katt, Great Khan Chloris, and Grand Sultan Zedong have pushed the Valean forces all the way back to their Capital, now an island in the center of a sea of soldiers occupying all surrounding territories that once belonged to Jaune.
Neon couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction looking over the fruits of NRZ's labor. They prepared for everything. For the last week when Jaune wasn't looking, Neon spent her time studying the rulebooks and player guides to the point of a bonafide 'Remnant: The Game' rules scholar. It was boring as hell and would rather have been clubbing, but it'll be worth it. This time she knew every little possible move that all factions could do and use it to their advantage.
May's investigative skills were on full display as she eyed Jaune's face like a hawk, using her perceptiveness to scan every muscle on the blonde tactician's face. Any twitch, shake of his shoulders, or drop of sweat that helped give away Jaune's feelings was intuitively given meaning, then immediately reported to her allies to act upon.
Reese's 182 IQ was also put to the test as she was running probability calculations in her brain like a human computer. She could accurately calculate risks of what attacks would be worth trying, what resources they could gather most quickly, and how many soldiers they would need for certain objectives. Not to mention she was also using her skills to count the cards, giving her allies a heads up on what cards Jaune most likely possessed in his hand at any given time.
Between the three of them, they were practically reading Jaune's mind, predicting nearly his every move.
Across the table from them, Jaune was in full stoic tactician mode, eyeing the map with an admittedly impressive poker face he could only pull off when he got serious like this. But thanks to May, he was practically an open book.
"He's struggling," May reported, " He's clearly aware of the bind he's in, but he's not just ready to give up yet."
Neon smirked, knowing their leader wouldn't go down without kicking and screaming. He wasn't always like this though, when they first met, the boy would have bent over backwards to avoid confrontation in the first place. Seeing him stubbornly stand his ground like this against impossible odds really did fill her with some pride.
But such feelings had to be put aside in war.
"Looking a little rough over there stud," Neon teased, "You know, if you're willing to treat us all next time we eat out, the Confederation will consider being nice and end this quickly."
"It's still your turn," Jaune said curtly.
"Oh~" Neon cooed, "I'm just trying to cheer you up with a nice night on the town, but if you insist." She rolled her three damage die and got triple threes! "Aye! Look at that! Three of a kind. You know what that means!" She practically sang as she reached over to the Event Card Deck and held up a single card.
"Vytal Festival," Neon read, as May and Reese both groaned in annoyance, everyone flipping their red war tokens over to peaceful blue, "Which now means nobody can attack on their next turn, boring! Guess you'll just have to wait a little longer before we end this stud… "
Neon's voice trailed off as she looked up to Jaune's face as he… smiled. No it wasn't a smile, it was a shit eating grin large enough to devour Mantel's waste management plant!
Pulling two cards from the deck, Jaune inspected his new hand and quite ominously said, "My turn."
Jaune layed down a card with a picture of a tall stone castle wall, picking up a few resource tokens off his already dwindling supplies, all three girls eyeing him warily.
"First I use some resources to reinforce my defenses", Jaune then reached for his blue token and flipped it back over to a bloody red with a clack, "and then I break the Vytal Festival truce, attacking Great Khan Chloris's forces directly."
"WHAT?!" All three girls jumped up and shouted.
"You can't do that!" Reese pointed accusingly at King Jaune, "During Vytal Festivals, no players are allowed hostile actions!"
"Without dire consequences." Jaune interjected.
"H-huh?!"
"The point of the Vytal Festival is to promote peace," Jaune explained as he rolled his admittedly pitiful damage die, yet as May noted, didn't bother him in the least. "Not force kingdoms into peace, players are still allowed to attack during Vytal Festival Events, it's just people usually don't do so because of the penalties that come with it."
"What penalties?"
"Reese, no!" Neon said, " You're just setting hi-"
"I'm so glad you asked!" Jaune loudly interrupted. "First penalty, all offending player's alliances are null and void, although that shouldn't be a problem here." Jaune said, pointedly looking across the table toward the Confederation of Jaune Sucks Butt.
"Second penalty," Jaune exclaimed as he reached into the token box, grabbing a handful of Grimm tokens, showing that it was, in fact, the NPC faction's turn. "The morale of every player drops down one point, meaning that Grimm spawn in even bigger waves now."
The board now dotted with dozens of black tokens, Jaune continued. "And third penalty, The Dark Tide spawns in the closest unoccupied space next to the offender's capital."
Neon winced when she saw Jaune hold up the Dark Tide piece, a miniature dark dragon spreading its wings. It was the largest Grimm unit in the game, it was so powerful it could take on capitol cities by itself. She watched the piece as Jaune reached onto the board to place it as close to his Capital as physically possible…
"It's spawned right behind the western front!" Reese panicked, as both May's Vacuan and Neon's Atlesian forces were flanked between Jaune's capitol and the Dark Tide, all other areas taken up by the combined forces of the Confederation bearing down on the Valean throne.
"And now for Grimm movement~" the girls watched in horror as Jaune started moving freshly spawned enemies according to game rules. " Since Vale has the faction trait of 'Pacifist Nation', declaring war or breaking truce depletes my morale by another three points, bringing my total to negative ten…"
The black tokens surged forth towards the most concentrated point of despair on the map, completely encircling the forces of the Confederacy with Jaune snuggly in the middle.
"We're trapped…" May quietly remarked.
"So is he!" Kommissar Katt spat, slamming a hand down on the table, causing some game pieces to tip over, but luckily not completely tossing the game. "Focus all attacks on Vale! With the truce broken we won't suffer for attacking on our turns. We'll end this game before the Grimm wipes us out."
"If you can even hit me," Jaune oozed out with smug glee. "Thanks to another little quirk of 'Pacifist Nation', any settlement I have that is surrounded on all sides by enemy forces activates the secondary ability 'Forced Hand', meaning in addition to minus three morale, I get an additional three points of defense to that between Forced Hand, Reinforced Walls, and Home Field Advantage…" King Arc listed.
"His defense is practically unbreakable." May whimpered as she slowly slinked off her beanie, holding it mournfully in two hands. "All he has to do is wait out the siege as the Grimm rips us apart."
Neon literally growled as her orange tail bristled with anger. The party girl had always said that Jaune needed to work on his confidence, but this wasn't a ladies man confident Jaune, this was smug superiority complex Jaune. She despised smug Jaune.
"No!" Neon shouted as she chucked her binder of rules behind her, "The Valean throne must fall! Khan!" She turned to Reese, "Math! Math it right now! What do we need-?!
"Give me a sec!" the young engineer angrily seethed." I'm trying to think!"
Reese's mind raced a mile a minute, running through multiple equations at the same time. She calculated the probability of attacks actually damaging Jaune, how many Grimm would need to spawn to overwhelm Mistrali forces, whether or not they could logistically afford to divert military resources into improving global morale in order to stunt Grimm spawn rate…
Numbers don't lie, and what they were saying is the Confederation was in some deep shit. By her calculations, there were really only two options left. They could focus the fight against the Grimm, giving Jaune ample time to rebuild his own forces and resources to launch a counter attack, extending the play time at least another two exhausting hours. Or they could try to focus all their attacks against Jaune through overwhelming firepower on the slim chance they could finish him off before the Grimm either slaughtered their standing armies or tore down their own lightly defended Capitals, turning it into a win for the Grimm.
No, there was one other way. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
The board was launched up into the air, tokens and miniatures exploded around the room like shrapnel. Cards rained down like confetti as Reese hurled herself over the table towards Jaune.
"YOU SON OF BITCH!" Reese yelled as she tackled a very surprised and quickly frightened looking Jaune right out of his chair. The blonde yelled for mercy as the girl who barely reached his shoulders unleashed her rage-quitting fury onto him.
May hurried around the table to lend aid, trying to pry off the skate punk as she clawed and cussed like a sailor. Thus leaving Neon on the other side of the table to slump against the chair, heaving out a frustrated sigh as she spoke to no one in particular.
"Yep, a delightful time…"