Laughter is the Best Medicine:

Jaune's semblance has slowly been killing him over the past 10 years. However undaunted, Jaune continued to pursue his dreams of being a huntsman. Whether this was because he desperately needed something to do, he hoped he would die somewhere in the woods, or he couldn't take another flinch from one of sisters whenever his semblance activated. "

"Laughter is the Best Medicine is filmed in front of a live studio audience..."

0-0-0-0

When Lie Ren first laid eyes on Jaune Arc he was tempted to go get the nurse. The poor guy was gaunt, had hollow eyes that were sunk into his head, and a scraggly scruff of stubble that permeated his face. The guy walked, hunched over and huddled into his jacket, around aimlessly the night before the big initiation test, not stopping to talk to any of the socializing people in the ballroom.

He was dressed in thick layers, a black shirt and green flannel underneath a heavy brown jacket. Occasionally he'd see the man pull the articles of clothing tighter, shake his head, and then meander off. Now, Lie Ren had been tired before, a 36 hour pancake and video game marathon left him worse for wear, but he refused to believe he ever looked as bad as this guy. The old sword in a scuffed sheath jangled on his side as he wandered to and fro, no one bothered to talk to him and people actually gave him a rather wide berth.

He saw a girl in a flowing red cape try to talk to him at one point. Ren vaguely remembered as being someone Jaune had helped up when she tripped earlier, however he did leave quite quickly after doing so, not exchanging a word. The girl was obviously trying to say something to him, but, once again, Jaune just watched with those dead eyes, hardly even breathing. Honestly the guy looked too sickly to even swing that sword of his let alone fight through whatever initiation had planned.

"Hey! Hey Ren! Watcha looking at?" his long time companion (but not like that) crowed from beside him. Nora bounced happily in her seat, taking a break from eating her pancakes to look at her friend.

"Nothing, just that guy over there." Ren replied.

"Ooooh, you mean Jaune?" Nora asked. They both only knew because Nora found him intriguing enough to pester him for a name.

"Yeah, doesn't something about him seem off to you Nora?"

"Besides the fact he looks like a withered corpse?

"Nora! Language." Ren chided her, she giggled and offered her apology and Ren turned back to trying to find his quarry only to find the man himself staring straight at him, less than 10 feet away. Jaune stared at him with a kind of quiet intensity, a look in his eye that Ren would only describe as a toss up between pleading and subtle curiosity.

"O-Oh, hello there! Sorry about Nora pestering you earlier, you get a little sugar in her and she becomes-" Ren tried to joke, only to find one of Jaune's cold hands covering his mouth.

"No, no more jokes." was all he whispered before removing his hand. Ren just stared dumbfounded by the man's actions, not to mention the fact the guy moved about 10 feet in the span of a few seconds and had a grip like cold iron.

"Yeah, ok." was all Ren said, Nora looking between the two slightly worried.

Jaune shuffled away as Ren could only stared perplexed at the young man. Did the guy have some weird phobia of jokes or something? Whatever it was, Ren could only hope he didn't go postal like Nora does when she's on a sugar high.

The rest of the night went ok, or Lie Ren thought it did. Jaune retired early and just sat there, huddled up on his bedroll and silent as usual. The next morning, however, yielded some very strange results.

Waking up hadn't been so bad atleast. Everyone was pumped for initiation and pretty much all you could see was smiling faces and courageous hunters-to-be, except of course one Jaune Arc. Ren wasn't even sure if the guy changed let alone took a shower, perhaps he just didn't care enough to do either. Nora, being most intrigued by there withered companion saddled up next to him as they went to the cafeteria.

"So Jaune-Jaune, are you excited for initiation?" Nora asked, bumping his ribs with an elbow lightly. Jaune didn't say anything but opted to just nod, the poor guy looked like he got no sleep last night if the even darker circles beneath his eyes were any indication.

"Well, you know what they say! The early bird gets the worm!" Nora cheered sweetly.

Then, it happened...

HaHaHaHaHa!

Laughter.

Laughter that came from absolutely nowhere. The troupe of hunters stopped dead in their tracks to look around, but, just like Ren and Nora, there was no sign of anyone laughing. Ren looked to Jaune for some recognition until he was struck with a weirdly chilling realization.

The laughter was the loudest around Arc. It was raucous and full of clapping and whistling that just seemed to drone on and on and it all seemed to be coming straight from Jaune.

The other students began to trace the sound back to the man standing next to him. Looks of confusion, shock, disbelief, and a myriad of other flavors stretched along the sea of students.

The laughter finally died down and Jaune sighed deeply, all 100 hundred pairs of eyes set on him.

"Yes, as you can see that was my semblance: Studio Audience." he slicked his hair back which gave an unfortunately clear view of his once slightly-covered face. Pale, unhealthy skin and more scruff made him look like a homeless bum rather than a huntsman. "There are literally no practical advantages to my semblance, other than the fact that I'm constantly assaulted by these bastard voices!"

Ooooooooh!

There it was again, like a crowd of people who had watched their favorite sitcom character crack a witty retort. Silence filled the hall, even the teachers leading the group eyed their new student strangely.

Jaune gave a sickly cough before trudging off towards the cafeteria, as he passed people gave him a wide berth. Breakfast was a similarly odd affair, with Jaune sitting alone save for Ren and Nora who eyed him curiously. People continually sent looks their way, mostly at Jaune, while others decided to just ignore it for the most part.

"Hey Ren, can you pass the salt." Jaune asked him, Ren reached for it but was cut off by Nora.

"No don't worry Ren, I'm closer." he she reached for it but slightly misjudged her angle causing it to spill over the table. "Hehe, oops? Guess I got bad luck now then huh?"

HaHaHaHa!

"Oh man that's priceless!"

HaHaHaHa! HaHaHaHa!

The laughter came back again, this time it was even worse. Ren could hear distinct voices making comments about the quality of Nora's "joke" (all of which were positive) as the laughter grew louder. Jaune just had this dead look in his eyes before he finally moved-

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ren watched as a 17 year old man with a semblance that produced a phantom studio audience banged his head against the table causing silverware to jump around slightly.

"Ugh Ja-Clang!-Jaune? I don't think you should be doing that." Nora whisper tentatively, reaching over to stop their companion from giving himself brain damage. Funnily enough this was the moment Ren had an epiphany: No wonder the poor guy looks like he's about to jump off a bridge, he's been living with this for god knows how long.

Eventually the breakfast group was dismissed to get their stuff from their lockers which proved an affair of its own. Ren and Nora were hesitant to leave their comrade behind in the face of his own semblance and tendencies, but they had no choice...

Pyrrha Nikos did not like being put on a pedestal, in fact she hated it. She was never allowed to make friends of her own, they had to be the right people of the right upbringing and of the right attitude to prevent them from tarnishing her reputation. People like Weiss Schnee flocked to her for her own fame and power and she disliked it immensely. She was more than just some idol to be fawned over!

She sighed wearily. Well she thought it could always be worse, you could be like that poor, poor boy. She grimaced as she thought of the pale figure from before, years of that would drive anyone to their grave.

Weiss kept yammering on about something or other before Pyrrha felt something bump into her. She turned to see who it was and found herself face-to-face with the young man from earlier.

"J-Jaune right? Nice to meet you!" Pyrrha stammered for a moment, extending a hand to him. He took it and, even through her gloves, she could feel how cold his hands were. It was like his body didn't give off any warmth.

"Ah yes, you are the... man from earlier." Weiss said tentatively, obviously uncomfortable at their newfound guest. Well she could leave then, this Jaune was the only person so far not to want to get with her for her reputation.

"Well Jaune, it's nice to meet you! I hope we can be on the same team!" Pyrrha said happily, she nearly squealed with joy when she thought she saw a ghost of a smile pass over the face of her hopefully partner.

"P-Pyrrha? You can't be serious! This- This person has neither the physical build or even a useful semblance a hunter should have! If anything his semblance is more of an annoyance than anything!" Weiss said, flustered. A grimace nearly worked its way onto Pyrrha's face but she reigned it in expertly.

"Well, unlike you Weiss Schnee, I know that it isn't all about having a useful semblance or being build like a tank. You have to use this as well." Jaune nearly wheezed out, tapping a finger to his forehead.

"Oh snap!"

Oooooooooh!

HaHaHaHa!

"Yeah! Give it to 'em!"

HaHaHaHa!

Pyrrha couldn't help but cringe as the laughter and jeers came from thin air, the locker room had gone silent save for the "audience" and all eyes were on them. Weiss looked more dumbfounded than offended and Pyrrha just tried to work a smile onto her face. Jaune looked around at everyone who was staring at him and then back to both Pyrrha and Weiss, a look of profound pain flashed briefly across his face before he rushed out of the locker room, sword sheathed at his waist.

Nice one Pyrrha, one friend and you insult him Pyrrha mentally chided herself, deciding to not dwell on it any further she opted to get dressed and just leave. The entire time she kept an eye out for her friend before she found him sitting alongside two others she didn't recognize. Steeling every bit of her resolve she ventured over to where they were and stood awkwardly at the outer edge of their ring.

"So yeah Ren and I have- Oh! You're new! Wanna join our new team!? I call it the 'Nora's Awesome Fun Squad Sitcom Corps'!" the ginger girl said, throwing her hands into the air.

HaHaHaHa! HaHaHaHa!

The girl's smile become slightly strained but she kept it on her face. Ren sighed and Jaune just shook his head, but Pyrrha giggled slightly and nodded at the girl's proposition.

"Will all new students please report to the lecture hall for a small speech."

"That's us guys!" Nora said, wrapping all three of them in a headlock before rocketing down the hall, thunderous laughter and applause trailing behind them...

0-0-0-0

If Ren could have described initiation in one word it would be: Odd.

Teaming up with Nora as his partner was a given, for she would have accepted no substitute. No, the weird part was the thunderous laughter and applause that played over and over and over and over again throughout the forest. When they arrived to get their relics, they found a grimy and sweaty pair of Jaune and Pyrrha picking up their own artifacts to the applause and approval of the audience. Turns out Jaune was pretty okay with a sword. Nothing spectacular and certainly not at the level of he or Nora, but good enough to make it past the Grimm in the forest.

Now here they were, Team LAVN (Lavender) led by himself, Lie Ren. To be honest he wasn't quite sure why he didn't choose Pyrrha over himself, Nora was an obvious one and Jaune looked like the worst person to try and lead people amongst them.

And yet, here was Pyrrha Nikos the champion herself and she wasn't picked. Maybe she just wasn't used to ordering people around either, so, with a sigh, he nodded his thanks at the headmaster and they left the stage. Applause from the actual audience was unnecessary as the "audience" provided more than enough approval for night they moved their stuff into the dorms and decided to hit the hay a little earlier, as they showered and such Jaune's audience was quiet.

As they crawled into bed and shut the lights off, it wasn't more than 10 minutes later when theme music blared from every corner of the room. Cheery and upbeat with a catchy jingle the audience laughed and clapped alongside it. This went on for more than 45 seconds before it finally drew to a close, and Ren realized that Jaune had finally fallen asleep.

Laying there awake, gave Ren a lot to think about. How his newfound comrade had had to live for years like this, forever haunted by laughter and reactions he couldn't control. The more he thought about the darker it got, what of funerals? Of weddings? Would Jaune's audience laugh and laugh at his own misery? What would that do to a person?

Ren soon fell asleep and found himself stuck in a nightmare where he was forced to watch his village burn and his parents die once again. Only this time there was a constant laugh track looped over the carnage, over the combined misery of all those innocent lives. It was agony, the torture of being mocked by something you couldn't even see was heartbreaking, and his poor friend had to live like this day after day.

Ren faded in and out of sleep the rest of the night until he was awoken by a similar cheery tune somewhere around 7:30...