Here we go again.
Thanks to Genetools for letting me use one of his Ocs, but I'll keep who it is quiet for now. And thanks to the story My Turn for giving me insperation to write again.
Note: I don't own RWBY, that right belongs to Rooster Teeth!
"Trust everyone, but always cut the cards." ~ Benny Binion
Sizzle...Sizzle...Pop
The fire's now on it's last few embers, Qrow and Amber went to bed already, leaving me out here alone. I always liked watching fires burn out, watching the shapes and shades the flame gives off, just relaxes you no matter how stressed your are. Given the current events this is exactly what I needed. How lucky...maybe not lucky just fortunate that I ran into Qrow and Amber.
I didn't talk to much to Qrow, I did have some small talk with Amber but nothing too not worthy. I pull out the map and compass and maybe a pen I 'borrowed' from Qrow. I begin writing Important notes on the back.
'Before main events, Qrow escorting Amber her to beacon, how far back was I placed'
"What are your writing?" A soft voice calls quietly. I look up to see Amber leaving her tent walking to me and sitting down on a log to the right of where I was sitting.
"Nothing too important, just some distances and directions. A land mark or two that I need to remember." I lied while folding up the map and sliding it into my pocket. "Don't wanna get lost you know."
"I get it...you never said why you are in the Emerald forest, and with no means to protect yourself." I at her seeing the level of curiosity in her eyes.
"I-I always lived outside Vale, I've never actually been in the city. I had 2 siblings one older one younger.. loved them both very much." I turn my gaze back into the fire taking a deep breathe. "Me and my family had some...disagreements about my dreams, we argued I said some things I shouldn't have said and they kicked me out."
"Wh-why didn't you grab anything other then the map and the compass?"
"No time I just... felt like I was the issue, which I was, so I grabbed what I could and ran. Disowned my self changed my last name to Black, and then you found me I wasn't in a very good state of mind a-and I panicked."
"What did you say to you parents?"
"... Pardon?"
"What did you say to them that made them kick you out?"
...
"Nothing good, nothing I want to repeat to anyone else." I look back at the fire as silence over takes us. "I'm sorry I shouldn't dump this on you we just met."
"NO!" I jump back from her out burst. "I-I mean I don't mind, better to have it out now then b-boil over on the t-trip," she said nervously.
"Even so I... I'm sorry I really don't want to say more I-I...I'm sorry"
...
"There's something about me that make me special-" I look back at her. "-and a lot of people want me to help them."
"Look you don't ha-"
"No, but I want to." She looked at me with soft eyes, "I-I don't get to converse with people often because of my...semblance. And I never really had friends...we may have just met b-but you one of the closest people I've talked to in recent memory"
...
Well...damn. "Amber I-I get what your feeling, when I was younger I was never popular I kept to myself. While I don't know what it's like being forced to be lonely.. I know what it's like to be alone."
She walks over to me from the log she was sitting.. and she hugged me? "Y-you don't know how happy you just made me" she started crying into my shirt.
"H-hey don't cry, there's no need to cry." I hug her back trying my best to comfort her. "There are better things to cry other, d-don't waste them on things that make you happy...save them for when you need them the most."
...
"D-do you have anything to protect yourself tomorrow?" She wiped away a few tears, still sitting next to me.
"No, I...I used to run a lot I was just planning on bolting and hoping for the best." I respond honestly...yeah I know not the best plan but it's all I got right now.
"Well I guess we can't have you walking alone then." She gives me a smile before getting up and walking back to her tent. "Goodnight Coal, I'll see you in the morning."
"Goodnight Amber"
...
I heard her tent zip up as I look back into the fire "What the hell did I sign up for..."
"Kid wake up" I felt someone kick me, "Kid if I'm taking you to that village then you better wake the fuck up."
"Alright, alright I'm getting up." I get up from the awkward angle I was sleeping at and crack my neck hard.
"Did Coal wake up?" Amber says walking up to me and Qrow.
"He's in the process of it."
"What I wouldn't do for a fucking cup of coffee right now, to fucking early for this shit." I mumble mostly to myself as I rub my eyes.
"Ha! You sound like someone I know, he can't go three minutes without coffee!" Qrow laughed before walking away leaving me and Amber alone.
"You alright?" I get up and roll my shoulder and walk up to Amber and nod.
"I'm good...I lied coffee withdraw is not fun, like at all." I manage to moan out, Amber laughing at my misery. "Yeah laugh it up, I'll get you back someday, you won't see it coming but I'll get you"
"I-I'm sorry you just look so much like our friend Ozpin when Glynda won't give him coffee." Great now she's in full laughter mode, sound the alarm misery is funny now. I mean I guess it's kind of funny.
We continue walking over to where Qrow is joking along the way. Honestly even though my coffee induced migraine is killing me being around Qrow and Amber joking around helped alleviate it a bit and Qrow even starting out a dick and fucking kicking me to wake me up, is a very chill dude. Making jokes on my expense of course, but so was Amber and she's nice.
...
"Look all I'm saying is that when you suffer from withdraw, I will laugh my ass off while you suffer." I exclaim loudly
"I well...you're not even going through withdraw on a real drug!" C'mon Qrow that's a shitty comeback I know you can do better.
"Yeah, because I don't want to fucking get addicted to hard drugs. What time is it...7 in the morning and how many times did you drink from that flask?"
"He-hey that's completely different."
I roll my eyes as we get to the gates of the village, a sign that was hanging up displayed the name of this place...you go to be shitting me the name of this village is literally 'The Village'. How uncreative do you have to be to name a place the village like what the fuck? This is so obscenely stupid...that it's perfect, the exact thing I would name it. I wouldn't mind living here at all.
"So kid you got a career path you want to take, because frontier towns like this need literally everything" I turn to Qrow giving him a nod. Qrow gets a point in my book being concerned about my future and all.
"Yeah I do...I just want to let you guys know how much this actually meant to me. I-I'm sorry if I ruined anything that you had planned, but I'm thankful either way." Amber actually looked very solemn and Qrow was...impassive.
"No, kid I'm going to be honest I wanted to leave you...but I'm glad I didn't" and you lost the point. I look at Amber and she wouldn't meet my gaze...that hurts even though I know she's upset, though I guess that heart to heart we had last night meant a lot...now I feel like a dick.
"Well...hopefully we can meet again." I sigh before I take a step towards the gate before a weight appeared on my back...
"I hope we meet again too." Amber softly said into my ear. I swear there was like static electricity all over my back...might just be my shirt. "C'mon Qrow we should head to Beacon."
I hear them walking away when I look behind me and I see Amber looking back at me and give me a smile, one I returned. She turned around and I swear I heard Qrow say something along the lines of 'you could do better', fuck you too Qrow. I turn back towards The Village and sigh as I walk through the gates...
Honestly I should have expected this sort of reception everyone was giving me these weird looks, these like I'm in a new high school again...it makes me feel extremely awkward. But I just keep walking paying attention to the shops I pass, 'Onyx Joe's Bar' , 'Billy Willy's Smithy', and finally 'Opal Carpentering' there's another sign right next to that one 'Lumberjack needed.' Perfect. I walk up and open the door up and walk in.
"Hello, anyone here?" I call out.
"Yes, one second." I hear some shuffling before a door to my right opens up. "Hello hi, how can I help you?".
"I'm here for the Lumberjack job." I look at who greeted me, hot damn this guy looks more like a lumberjack than I do.
"Ah yes follow me." I follow him into a living room area, so basically from the front desk there's a door called 'Living' and it led to this living room. Which I guess is his house in the back there are stairs going up and a door called 'Workshop' and a open doorway leading into a neat kitchen. "So the job is very simple, I used to do most of the work by myself, but grimm has been appearing at rapid rates and I need someone to help me get through the day quicker."
"Sounds good, what's the pay like?" Hey don't look at me like that it's very important, even though it's my 'destiny' to be a lumberjack I still need something to live off of.
"20K a year, but I will provide you lodging, and we can both contribute to meals...so basically you will be a roommate. Only I will take car of the rent." Sounds good enough to me.
"I'll would have taken the job for less, as long as you give me enough where I can do some stuff on my free time, I will live my life fully." he nodded before taking a breathe.
"You want coffee as we finalize the deal?"
"Yes...yes I would."
...
He came back with two cups of coffee. "I ran out of creamer and sugar this morning, hope black is alright."
"Yes that's okay thank you." Hell yeah it's acceptable to drink black coffee exactly how god, or err Buddha intended? I take a sip enjoying the caffeine as it is cooling my withdraw down.
"So let's begin with names. My name is Adam Opal."
"Coal. Coal Black"
He looks at me with a smile on his face and sticks out his hand. "Well Coal I look forward to working with you here at Opal Carpentering."
"Me too Adam, me too." I grab his hand and shake it and raise my cup of coffee for a toast. "To our future success"
"Too our future success" He raises his glass and toasts mine.
I'm currently in the bathroom of the room that Adam is letting me stay in, examining my face looking for if I've changed at all. Good news no, nothing changed my face looks the same though my eyes which were hazel before, now seem a little greener. I move my hand to scratch the 5'oclock shadow that has started growing on my face debating whether I should shave or not. Hmm...you know what I'm a mother fucking lumberjack, we don't fucking shave. ALL WILL BOW DOWN TO MY MAGNIFICENT BEARD! Anyways I should probably head out and introduce myself to the people of The Village.
I exit the bathroom and leave my room. I see Adam in the kitchen about to prepare dinner for himself, "Hey Adam I'm heading out will probably buy dinner while I'm out."
"Alright just remember your starting work tomorrow so be back at a reasonable hour."
"Yess daaaaaad," I call back in a joking manor before leaving the house and stepping into the cool fall air. I began walking to the bar because, at this time of night everyone one's at the bar. Ahh here we are Onyx Joe's Bar, probably the only place to buy alcohol in the town...anyways I enter into the bar.
RING...RING
Huh they got a bell neat. I look over examine the layout of the bar...let's see the bar is to my left, pool tables to my right and poker tables in the back where you know they are there but completely hidden at the same time. I walk towards the bar where a burley tough looking dude who looks like a bouncer more than a bartender, I sit down somewhere in the middle of the bar.
"How can I help you?" The man asks looking at me curiously.
"Ahhh, scotch on the rocks and a cigar please." He nods before preparing my drink, I begin to grab some lien from my pocket, the money that Adam gave me as a sign on bonus, at what I feel I would be paying...maybe 30ish lien, sounds about right. "I'm guessing you're Joe?"
He nods coming back to me with my drink and cigar "That'll be 30 lien." See I swear I'm a god at guessing prices he hands me my drink as I slide him the money. I take a sip enjoying the quality liquor, and grab a match from the container, which I believe was there for people smoking a cigar.
RING...RING
"Do you know how hard it is to find a bar this part of Vale?" Oh no not this I'm just done with this bullshit. I can handle meeting Qrow and Amber...mostly because of Amber. But this guy? No. Nuh uh. No way.
"I'll have whatever this guy is having." I look over to see Roman Torchwick sitting down in a chair next to me. Time for me too leave I am not dealing with this bullshit today.
"Hey Joe, I'm going to finish up for the night" I finish my bourbon in a few gulps and prepare to leave the bar, he nodded and cleaned the glass.
"Oh come on, don't be like that at the very least finish your cigar with me." I sigh before sitting back down and taking a heavy puff from the cigar. "In case your wondering I'm Roman Torchwick."
"Coal...my name's Coal." Honestly I was getting sick of my old greeting felt...over used. And I didn't want to give this guy my full name, just to be sure.
"You play any poker kid?" Before I could respond he gets Joe who was helping someone else, to come over. "What kind of poker do you guy's play here?"
"Valian Hold'em." Oh so Texas Hold'em my favorite...played that a little too much my first year in college.
"So kid what do you think a little poker, some fun before you leave?"
You know what, even though Roman is looking like a classic pool shark I'll play see what I can do against him. "You know what sure let's do this"
He smiles acting like this is all going to plan...yeah keep smiling. We get to the poker table where two people we already seated. I turn my gaze towards Roman, I guess it's time to pool shark the pool shark.
...
Okay I guess I may have been a bit overconfident coming into this game, my rust at not playing for over a year showing up. To be 100 percent fair I have had really shit hands and Roman somehow knows I never have anything good so when I try bluffing him, he ups the ante every time until I lose or fold. And when I had something good he always was able to out play me. The buy in was 20 lien, big bind was 10 and small was 5 and since I maaayyyy have blown more money than I should of in this game...when I say I only have 240 lien left and since I am the small bind basically 235 lien. Romans the big, meaning that I get to shuffle the cards...perfect.
"So Roman you've been having a good game any tips?" I ask mostly to get a reaction and look for tells...He takes a very heavy drawl from his cigar before answering.
"I don't know just been getting lucky cards I guess." Lie, his tell he gave before answering concludes this. Time to strike, and since I get to shuffle and no one has cut the cards after I shuffle, means I can cheat all I want.
Since I forgot to get the other players names we will just call them Guy 1 and Guy 2. Because I dealt means I take care of all the cards except the hole cards. I deal the cards and look at my hand... two aces. After everyone checks to Romans big bind I flip the flop cards a two, another two and an ace.
"You know what let's make this interesting." Roman adds 30 lien to the table, making Guy 1, and Guy 2 to fold immediately. But I am neither and look to accept his challenge.
"You're right Roman this game has been very boring...all in." I move every single lien I own to the middle, and the look on Romans face, oh man it's perfect I wish I had a camera. Roman takes a final puff from his cigar before putting it out.
"You know Coal you are worth every cent...you really are. But right now you should save your pride before I get that too...I'll match you all in." 800 lien on the table time to make some noise.
Since me and Roman already went all in, we basically check the next two rounds. I flip the turn...another two, we 'check' and I flip the river...an ace of spades. I fucking have a four of a kind, you can only beat that with the two flushes.
"Alright Coal, Roman...flip your cards on three." I get ready to reveal my hole cards a smile very present on my face...wait is that person recording?
"3"
"2"
"1"
I flip my cards over as Roman did the same...holy shit he a had a four of a kind in twos, but I knew my aces beat his. "Like I said Coal you should have backed out" He began to try and grab the money before Guy 1 stopped him
"You didn't win man" The look on Romans face when he notices my quad aces was perfect! I grab the money and began to walk away with my spoils
"Sometimes Roman, to beat a conman...you have to become one" I leave the bar in a hurry incase Roman didn't take too kindly to my win. Moment like these make me remember why I loved poker.
Some pool shark he was.. he got too cocky like I was in the beginning. A wise man once said Trust everyone, but always cut the cards. Roman trusted me too much thinking I would lose...he just forgot to cut my cards.
Omake(Canon): Oh shit
Amber P.O.V.
(2 Days Later)
Finally I get a break from all this fall maiden training Ozpin has me doing...I can only do so much before I get tired. I walk into my room and jump into my bed with a dejected sigh. They still won't let me into Vale just yet, I mean what would I do...run to where I last saw Coal?...Maybe I should do that, though probably wouldn't help with Qrow's teasing saying I want some BC...yeah really bad joke. At least they let me have a scroll to look over the internet. I open the DustTube app and begin looking on the trending page for anything interesting.
'Absolute Nobody, Beats Poker Champ At His Own Game' is that Roman Torchwick, the guy who got banned from every bar for cheating in poker, then stole from everyone who banned him? Looks interesting wait is that who I think it is? I'm going to beat his ass,
"CCCCOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!"
...
(My P.O.V)
Me and Adam are currently out in the forest cutting down some trees, you know the usual. We are loading a cut tree into Adams truck to carry back easier...because we are not idiots.
...
"Hey Adam why did I get the feeling that next time I see this person they are going to kick my ass?"
"Which girl did you piss off?"
"...What?"
"Was it Sarah the barmaid?"
"What! NO!" ... "I just got a feelin that it was over me smoking that cigar."
"We can talk about your girl problems later, help me out will you?" Adam said as he was currently struggling to get a piece into the truck.
"Oh shit my bad"
So what did you think? Better than the last one? I hope so.
I used a lot of poker term you may not know, but since I'm lazy I'm not going to explain anything
As always like and fav if you enjoyed leave a comment on what I can improve on, and over all enjoy life
See you next Chapter.