Jesus fellas I don't know what to say except I'm sorry. I've been fucking slacking on all my stories in terms of length and time and that's not right. I've been dealing with some health shit recently so I may still be a little inaccurate with how the story is going to be updated but the next chapter on my page is going to be "A Needle in a Haystack" so thanks for being patient.
Among Friends and Monsters:
Jaune Arc is still adjusting to life after the war, and it hasn't been easy. With Beacon now getting into session how will the new student body react to eachother? My guess is not well.
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The room had become deathly quiet once "Yang" had bust through the door like an axe-murderer. Jaune blinked owlishly at her for a moment, mind running off on multiple tangents at once. Until it hit him, something she said when she came through the door...
"...A... Dragoness?" He said dumbly, still blinking.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I am Yang Xiao-Long of the esteemed Xiao-Long dragon clan!" she said merrily, punching a fist into her chest.
-Xiao-Long Dragons were among some of the most influential players on the monster side during the war. Like all dragons they could breathe fire and their scales were nearly impenetrable to human weapons, so magic was primarily used to bring the beast's down. What makes the Xiao-Longs stand out is that their scales take on a bright, reflective golden hue that makes them extremely valuable.-
A Xiao-Long dragon... In my room... And in human form... What the higher ups would have given for an opportunity like this. He stowed away that thought under the "Wartime" folder and decided to introduce himself.
"Jaune Arc, human." he said curtly, deciding not to throw out he may or may not be responsible for some of the deaths of her kin.
"Lie Ren, cerastes." Ren said casually.
Nora bounced excitedly while looking at Yang. "Ooh! Ooh! I'm Nora Valkyrie, and I'm a Valkyrie. Can you transform! I heard dragon scales were awesome!"
Pyrrha giggled slightly before introducing herself. "Pyrrha Nikos, amazoness."
It seemed like Yang took a second to take in that information, Ruby already having slid off her some time ago and watching her embarrassed. Her face twisted slightly, as if she had just eaten something sour before she finally spoke.
"Jaune, right? You're a human then?"
"Yeah." was all he responded with.
"Hunter?"
"...Yeah..." was this a challenge? He sure as hell hoped not, but atleast he'd have back up.
"Ok you two, we're not here to fight." Pyrrha said softly, but even Jaune could hear the strained worry in her voice. Yang's head swiveled between the two before she coughed into her fist.
"No it's just- I guess, thanks for looking out for Ruby. She's my adopted sister y'know?" Ruby shrunk into herself and Jaune nodded, already having experience in matters of family what with having 7 sisters and a dad that acted like a child.
He could hear Pyrrha breath a sigh of relief as Yang finally walked across the threshold and was followed by three others, Ruby, Weiss, and a currently unknown person.
"Hi, my name is Ruby Rose and I'm an Akuma demon! Of course, my adopted sister is Yang!" Ruby chirped happily, dressed in her usual Beacon attire.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee family and an adept mage." Weiss said cordially, bowing slightly.
The one in mostly black eyed Jaune sharply before introducing herself. "Blake Belladonna, cat spirit."
Well, that was certainly an interesting cast of characters. None of which Jaune could see himself fraternizing with, especially when said characters could easily eat his dead body should the mood strike them. He supposed it was a moot point, the teachers here would never let that happen so there was no use in worrying about it.
"Well guys it's been nice meeting you, but we still gotta unpack so..." Jaune trailed off, casting a glance at the door. Weiss seemed to get the hint and exited without another word, Blake sort of huffed at him then left, while Ruby and Yang said their goodbyes before leaving.
"Well, they were certainly interesting weren't they." Pyrrha asked to the room.
"Was it just me, or did the cat-girl not like me?" Jaune asked, looking to the only other male in the room.
"No, I felt it too. She did not like you that's for sure." Ren said quietly, seemingly unperturbed by the sudden intrusion.
"Well regardless, Jaune is right we need to unpack. Here's to a good school year!" Pyrrha said happily, raising a fist in the air. The others agreed in kind and made the move to start unpacking.
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The morning had not been kind to anyone, least of all Jaune Arc. Beacon Academy was supposed to be a fresh start, a joint venture by both human and monster kind to help bridge the gap between both species after the war. The plan had been to create a population of still young people and have them mix to weed out prejudices and social problems stemming from the war. After that, the hope was those young people would go on to have kids and have them uphold the values they would learn at the academy. There were similar schools on every continent but Beacon, being the first, was world-renowned for its variety of staff and academics.
Getting up for class was nothing too dreadful, military discipline, instilled in both human and monster, made sure they could handle the early-morning rising without too much groaning. Jaune dressed himself in the rather classy Beacon uniform and waved goodbye to his bunkmates, he wanted to build some connections with the other humans while he could (yes, he knows that's the opposite of what he should be doing), and that meant putting his face out there for his fellow humans.
As Jaune got out of the dorm rooms he immediately recognized that something was wrong. He could see some assorted monsters and humans walking quickly away from some kind of epicenter where more of both parties gathered round. Oh boy, I wonder what this could be he thought, wading through the crowd to get a better look at whatever spectacle was going on.
At the center of the shifting crowd there was 3 people. One human and two monsters on account of the bared fangs and red eyes respectively, the human stood across from the two and was in a frantic anger.
"I knew we couldn't trust your kind!" the man shouted, hand continually clutching his neck.
"Bullshit! I didn't do anything!" the one with fangs bared shouted back, hands clenching and unclenching.
Deciding to play the magic mediator Jaune pushed himself into the center and stood between the two.
"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, looking between the two with his best "dad stare" as him comrades called him. Something he inherited from his father, of course, and, apparently, quite good and cowing someone.
"T-this thing went for my neck just now!" The human shouted, pointing a finger at the one who still bared his fangs.
The man, a vampire perhaps, hissed. "Fuck off, I only bumped into you human."
"Then why did I feel your fangs scrape my neck!"
"You're imagining things!" the other monster shouted.
"Enough!" Jaune snapped, he rubbed his temples and sighed. "Did anyone call a teacher?"
"I think someone ran off to get one." came a voice from the crowd.
Jaune breathed deeply and pointed at the human. "Your name, what is it?"
"N-Nolan." the man stammered, looking down at the ground.
"And you two?"
"Bolin."
"Nadir. We're Dhampirs." the man said. He was certainly exotic enough to be one, what with the pink hair and tan skin.
-Dhampirs are the offspring of humans and vampires. While uncommon there is a small portion of these "half-breeds" as some of both factions have taken to calling them across Remnant. While unusually resistant to silver they are more susceptible to their hunger, making them undesirable for both sides. They can be killed like normal vampires.-
"See! Dhampirs! No wonder he tried to take a chunk outta-"
"Enough, Mr. Porfirio." came a clipped voice that parted the sea of students. Dr. Oobleck (as he had seen on the staff roster) strode in between them and judged the scene silently.
"Alright you three, you're going down to the office to handle this personally with Miss Goodwitch." the three students grumbled but shuffled off towards the building, each one keeping a distance from the other. "And you, Mr. Arc I presume, I suppose you stalled for me to get here."
"I suppose- look, don't go too hard on Nolan he's probably still jumpy from the war." Jaune tried to reason, looking out for a fellow human.
"And both Mr. Hori and Mr. Shiko must deal with a hunger out of their control." Oobleck replied casually, despite that I could tell he had riposted my reasoning and struck me.
"O-Of course, Doctor." I said, a hot wash of shame coming inexplicably over me.
"Relax young man, I didn't come here to scold you." he said, putting emphasis on the last word. Oobleck ran a hand through his green hair, the exotic color betraying his true identity, a leprechaun.
-Leprechauns are widely known as fairy spirits in folklore. In the war, they, and their kin of the same family, meaning other faeries, acted as mages to the monster factions due to their predisposition to the arcane arts. Many a grudge has been formed between the magicians of man and monster due to the leprechaun's liking for practical jokes that usually end up with someone being injured horribly. Iron works best on them, like all faeries.-
"R-Right, sorry sir." Jaune said, and then quickly extricated himself from the situation entirely. There were too many eyes on him, and, knowing about half of them belonged to creatures of the night, he did not wish to be the center of attention for much longer.
Speeding quickly out of the courtyard and into the main grounds of the school, Jaune checked his schedule and was relieved to find he had a free period this morning. Trying to do any work on his frayed nerves at the moment would most likely end with him blowing his fingers off with a bad spell. In the main grounds he found himself likening it to the airship ride, one side was predominantly human while the other was predominantly monster, with both sides throwing heated glares at the other.
Luckily, before he could be singled out again, Jaune caught the eye of his brother-in-arms Cardin and his right hand man Dove. Cardin saw him and motioned for him to come over, we he had his own group of friends that he had made.
"-Boys, I'd like to introduce you to our resident mage: Jaune Arc." Cardin said, gesturing towards the man himself. The other three men gathered around him welcomed him kindly and Jaune couldn't stop himself from breathing a sigh of relief.
"Thank fuck Cardin, poor guy got his ass busted by Oobleck back there." he said, recounting his tale to the group.
"Damn, that's a shame. Although you did the right thing, don't wanna fuck with no leprechaun." One of them, Mercury if he remembered right, shook his head. "Damn shame about Nolan though, he's my roommate."
"Eh, sure it's just war nerves. He'll be off the hook in a bit." Cardin said evenly, he then turned his attention to something behind Jaune. "Can't say the same for us it seems."
Jaune turned to see what his friend was looking at and soon found found it. Three people, one girl and two men, all dressed in thick clothing and bright red beanie hats. They were currently situated directly across from Cardin and his group and were giving them death glares. Jaune could see one grumble something to the others who nodded in agreement.
"Fuckin' Redcaps." one of the guys muttered beneath his breath. Jaune was inclined to agree, given what the little buggers were capable of.
-Redcaps are extremely violent fairy spirits. A cousin to the leprechaun, Redcaps must constantly soak their hats in the blood of humans to keep themselves alive. During the war, Redcaps were used as a means of ensuing chaos on the battlefield and as high-profile guards to the castles of the monster faction leaders. Their extreme strength and dangerous tenacity makes them a common target for humans, like all Fairies they can be killed using iron.-
"Jesus man, where do you think they get the blood for them hats?" Dove whispered to the group, Jaune fought down a shiver at the thought of Beacon or the government nabbing people off the street to be killed or taking away a body from a family to be drained of blood for Redcaps of all creatures.
"Fuck man, I don't know. And I sure as hell ain't finding out." Mercury said, glaring back at the murderous faeries.
"Jaune, you ever kill a Redcap?" Cardin asked, turning towards him.
Jaune grimaced, but nodded. "Yeah, I fought one once. Worse fight of my life too, damn thing was stronger than an ox and ripped the guy in front of me in half."
"Fuck man, sorry you had to see that."
"Don't be, I lit that fucking elf on fire."
Cardin chuckled and fist bumped him, in his heart Jaune knew he shouldn't be bringing back memories from the war, but, for right now, it was just a means of catharsis. The group shuffled away as the bell sounded, each going off into their own separate ways. Jaune's first class was "Magical Intuition and the Subject of Study" with Professor Goodwitch.
He still couldn't believe, he, a competent but still young mage, was going to be learning of the Glynda Goodwitch! Scholars back home would have only dreamt of getting such an honor in a hundred lifetimes! Goodwitch was widely recognized as the greatest witch in modern history, her ease of use in spellcraft and her calculated grasp on even the fringe sciences of magic were phenomenal!
He smiled happily and was lost in his that he didn't notice the man he was about to walk into. Bumping harshly against him with an "oof" Jaune could hear some papers fall as he cleared his head. Some poor schmuck was on his knees with a pile of notebooks strewn across the floor in front of him.
"Oh damn, hey man I'm sorry that was an accident." Jaune said looking to help the guy up. "Here let me help you-"
Jaune was suddenly pushed back roughly, taking a few steps back from the force. The guy on the floor got up, glowering at him with unbridled anger, Jaune could faintly see what looked to be pincers pushing their way out the back of his mouth.
"Look man, I said I was sorry it was an accident!"
"An accident? Yeah, sure. When push comes to shove it was just an "accident" then, huh?" The man, a Myrmecoleon apparently, hissed eyes turning slitted like a cat's.
-A Myrmecoleon is an ant-lion hybrid that is adept at digging tunnels. During the war they dug underground pathways and guarded bases situated in caves or rocky terrain. Though intimidating, they can be killed normally with fire being the best use.-
"Look man, I'm not looking for trouble. But if you wanna go I'll go." Jaune gestured around the hall that was beginning to pay attention to them. "Look at these people, they'll see that you started this."
"Like I give a shit, shoulda never trusted you humans." he spat angrily.
The man closed in on him and Jaune felt his body react with it. He breathed deeply, remembering all the training sessions and practice his coach used to tell him.
Breath deeply, feel the power ebbing through your body. Now harness it, push it into you hand and fingers. Do you got it? Ok, once it's there you need to feel that energy expelling out of your hands as hard and fast as possible...
The telekinetic blast that emanated forth from Jaune's hands through the monster back into the wall. The creature hit it with a dull thud, and struggled to get up, either too dazed or too hurt to do so properly.
"You good man?" Jaune asked tentatively.
"Goddamn human, I'll get you you sonuvabitch." he grumbled, getting up awkwardly. The man made to charge once more but was stopped when he heard the sharp voice of someone ring through the halls.
"That's enough, Mr. Fiemma." Professor Goodwitch said, heels clicking through the halls as a redheaded student followed her close behind. "I was watching the entire thing as I cam over here. You are at fault, Mr. Fiemma."
"B-But this human- he pushed me!"
"No he did not, it was an honest mistake." Goodwitch said evenly adjusting her glasses. "Please report down to the principal's office, I will let him know you're coming."
Jaune sighed relieved, but quickly sucked it back in when Goodwitch regarded him. "And you, Mr. Arc, you are an adept mage with a vast potential to learn. I would have hoped you'd be mature enough to not use such a spell in such a crowded area. See to it that it does not happen again."
"Y-Yes ma'am."
As Goodwitch left Jaune felt a hand come down on his shoulder. Looking over he found the same redheaded student from before regarding him warmly, his beacon uniform slightly loosened all around.
"You good? I saw what was happening and figured you needed the help."
"Thanks for the save man, didn't want to kill that guy anyway." Jaune chuckled.
A ghost of a smile passed the redheaded man's lips. "Yeah, I feel ya. Disgusting little creatures aren't they?"
"Yeah, my name's Jaune. Your's?"
"My name's Adam, Adam Taurus."
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Oh boy fellas a new chapter all done and done for you guys. I promise the next one will be for Needle in a Haystack so don't worry. I'm still working out my schedule so bare with me for a bit.
By the way, "Mother!" is a terrible movie. I saw it yesterday and it was the worst film I've ever seen.
XOXOXO
CoffeyJoe