"GOOD MORNING, TEAM RRWN!"
TWEEEEEEEETT!
"AHHHH! KILL IT!" Nora blindly flung her bedside lamp at the source of the annoying whistling noise.
"Holy crap!" Ruby ducked just in time to avoid getting lamped in the face. The light fixture smashed into the dorm wall and shattered into a hundred pieces. "Nora! What was that for?"
"Serves you right." Weiss said from the floor, rubbing her ear. If it weren't for Aura she was sure that whistle would have blasted their eardrums out. Could it be some kind of sonic weapon? No, that was stupid. Weiss had never encountered such a thing, and probably never would. "Maybe next time you'll think before waking a Huntress with an unexpectedly loud noise?"
"Oh, it's just you. GOOD MORNING RUBY!" Nora rocketed out of bed and tackled their team leader to the ground. Weiss stifled a giggle. It wasn't so fun being on the other end of a hyperactive child, was it?
"Ack! Can't breathe! Nora, get off me!" Ruby flailed her limbs rather pathetically. "How is Ren sleeping through all this?! How?!"
"I'LL HANDLE IT!" Nora sped off, shaking their last teammate like a rag doll. "WAKE UP, LAZY BUTT! IT'S MORNING! IT'S MORNING!"
"Ah. Good morning to you all." Ren said calmly, or as calmly as he could while Nora tried to turn his brain to porridge.
"Ahem! Anyways!" Ruby stood back up. "Now that you're all awake, we can officially begin our first official order of official team business!"
"PANCAKES!"
"Uh...no? I meant decorating—"
"BOO! Bo-ring!"
"Hey! Don't boo your leader!" Ruby pouted. "This is mutiny!"
"Well, I say we make Captain Ruby walk the plank!" Nora leapt onto her bed, pointing dramatically to the ceiling. "I'm the captain now! And I say we sail for the Cafeteria Island, the land of oats and syrup! Avast ye!"
"That's not what 'avast' means..." Weiss muttered.
"Nora, we do still need to unpack our belongings." Ren said, trying to restore some sanity to the proceedings.
"Oh. Right."
"Yeah! That's what I meant!" Ruby smiled nervously. "Just thought decorating was a cooler way to put it! Haha..."
Mutiny thwarted, Ruby slapped on her headphones, peppy montage music playing as she set up her various baubles. Her favorite corgi pillow went on the bed, a stack of weapons magazines in her drawer, a jar of those hard strawberry candies on her desk. This was going to be her home for the next four years, after all, and now it was starting to look like one!
"DONE! PANCAKE TIME!" Nora called triumphantly. The montage music screeched to a halt. Ruby looked up from the curtain she'd been about to trim. Aside from the bare necessities, plus a small wooden hammer on Nora's bedside table and an oddly curved dagger on Ren's, their side of the room looked barren.
"Ren? Nora? Where are all your things?" Ruby asked, feeling deflated. What an anticlimactic montage that had been...
"Nora and I...we never stayed in one place very long, growing up." Ren explained. "It was easier if we didn't have too much to carry around, besides the necessities."
And with that, all the energy drained out of the room.
"What! But that's so sad!" Ruby gasped. "Ahh! I'm so sorry! I swear I didn't mean to be rude, I was just caught up in the decorating! Um...not that I think your life is sad, but I mean, not having a place to live is kind of sad, and I've had sad stuff happen too and I should've—"
"IT'S FINE!" Nora tackled Ruby again, sparing them from her rambling apology. "Renny and I've been doing that for a long time, so we're all used to it by now! Totally fine!"
"Still, it must have been...difficult for you two." Weiss looked troubled, stepping back from her newly hung oil painting. "Not always having a home to go back to. Even if it wasn't..." She stopped her sentence abruptly.
Ren shrugged. "Like Nora said, it was a long time ago. We lived our lives, we got stronger, and now we're here." He gave Weiss a polite nod. "Thank you for your sympathies, Weiss, but they are unnecessary."
What was a long time ago? Weiss wondered.
"Thanks Nora." Ruby sniffed, wiping her eyes on her cape. "I'm not crying! I just got...allergies...um...now what?"
"Breakfast does seem like a good idea." Weiss suggested, to general agreement. Team RRWN collectively allowed the awkward moment to fade away. "It's 8:15, and our first class is...9 o'clock? We ought to have sufficient time."
"PANCAKES!" Nora cheered one last time, licking her lips. "Ahhh, fresh out of the frying pan!"
—and into the fire, thought Blake miserably.
Externally, the cat faunus looked a model of calm, lounging on her bed with her nose in a book. Internally, she was screaming. What were the odds of her escaping from Adam, only to end up taking orders from Jacques Schnee's spawn? Surely it was proof the gods existed, and either personally hated her, or had a particularly twisted sense of humor.
If she'd been a samurai from one of her books, she would probably have committed seppuku by now to preserve whatever shreds of honor she had left. Fortunately, Blake had always favored the way of the ninja. And ninjas knew how to set honor aside, how to run, hide, lie, and survive. Survival was the objective. She just had to treat the next four years like an extended mission in enemy territory, and she could make it. The bow could never come off, for starters. Maybe she should glue it to her head? And she'd have to weigh every word carefully, of course. Oh gods, what if she had a nightmare and talked in her sleep? She could've exposed herself last night! She ought to gag herself before bed just to be safe. Wait, how would she even explain that without looking like some sort of deviant?
"How can a boy take so long in the bathroom?" Jaune Arc complained aloud.
He was last in line for the bathroom that morning. Blake had woken up after a restless night's sleep and taken a short fresher, then Yang had hogged it for half an hour. Sable had taken his turn next, and was past the twenty minute mark. The muffled sound of a blow dryer could be heard within.
"Want to say that to his face?" Blake muttered. Jaune shook his head vehemently.
"Give the man space, Vomit Boy!" said Yang. "I'm glad someone on this team understands the importance of proper hair-care."
"I don't particularly see the point." argued Blake. "You do realize we're just going to mess it up training and sparring?"
"It's about the principle, Blake!" Sable suddenly opened the bathroom door, making the black-haired girl jump. "The world's full of nasty surprises, and it's a Huntsman's job to bring them back under control. How do you expect to accomplish any of that, if you can't even be bothered to control your appearance?" He punctuated the spiel with a haughty flick of his hair.
Jaune went into the bathroom and locked it, fingering his messy blond locks self-consciously.
Blake was quite sure that was just a fancy way of refusing to acknowledge his vanity, but her partner seemed impressed. "See! This guy gets it!" Yang stuck her hand out. Much to everyone's surprise, Sable actually high-fived it. "Holy crap, you can be nice after all! It's a miracle!"
"Of course I can! What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Chill out, it's a compliment!" Yang laughed it off, before taking a closer look. "I really do like what you've done with it, Icy-Hot. Do you mind if I...?" She hovered a hand by his head.
"Hands off, if you'd please." Sable said warily. "And stop calling me that..."
"Cool man, I get it." Yang held her hands up soothingly. "Honestly, I don't like anyone touching mine either."
"As you shouldn't! The last thing I want is some uncultured cretin putting their hands on my hair!"
For the next few minutes, Blake tried to focus on her book, while her teammates engaged in a passionate but mostly civil conversation about the merits of various hair products. It was not an easy thing do, not while one of the White Fang's mortal enemies stood three feet away. And she was supposed to share a room with that for four years! How was she supposed to stay sane if her team leader triggered her fight-or-flight response?
"—so yeah! What do you think, Blakey?" Yang called out. Blake startled, having completely tuned out whatever her question was. "Cat got your tongue?" her partner said teasingly.
"No!" Blake said defensively. "Sorry, I didn't hear whatever you said. Um...this book's quite engrossing..."
"You're holding it upside down!" Sable pointed out.
"Uh..."
Then Jaune came out of the bathroom wearing his uniform, and she silently thanked her idiotic blond rescuer.
"What is that, you buffoon?! Have you ever worn a tie before?!"
Meanwhile, Pyrrha was lonely. Quite literally the loneliest of them all, as the only student in the year not rooming with three others.
"Good morning, me..." she said to her silent and empty dorm, trudging into the bathroom.
Well, if there had to be an odd one out, she supposed it was better her than someone else. Pyrrha was confident in the skills that had won her four tournaments, if not fond of the fame that had come with them. Maybe it was better this way, she told herself. Thanks to the wonders of the CCT, her name was known in every kingdom, not just Mistral...well, maybe the faunus in Menagerie hadn't heard of her, what with the lack of a CCT connection. But there was the small matter of Menagerie not having a Huntsman Academy, or, you know, any humans. Realistically speaking, what were the odds of her picking up three kind, supportive teammates who weren't star-struck fans?
Besides, it wasn't as if the staff could guarantee that a perfect multiple of four would pass initiation. Right?
By sheer luck, the two sister teams (literal sister teams in some cases, as Yang would gleefully observe) arrived for breakfast simultaneously. Sable was the first to sit down, plunking his tray at the head of the table. Weiss took the spot facing her brother. Ruby slid in next to her partner, and Yang across from her. Ren and Nora filled RRWN's side. Jaune went next to Yang, and Blake took the seat on his other side, as far from the Schnees as possible.
"How did we just run into each other?" wondered Jaune, pulling at his now Sable-approved and uncomfortably tight tie. "I mean, our rooms are across from each other. Shouldn't we have seen you guys in the hall?"
"No idea!" Nora said brightly, enunciating quite clearly despite a mouth full of pancakes, probably from plenty of practice. "But I think it looks cooler this way! Sets the scene better than just walking around in the halls, doesn't it?"
"Um...I guess..."
"Morning Rubes!" Yang greeted her sister cheerfully. "Congrats on making leader, by the way. I said you were going to be the bee's knees, didn't I?"
"Ah..." Ruby looked up from her plate of cookies and fruit. "I didn't really do much, though! Nora was the one who actually took out the Nevermore."
"C'mon, give yourself some credit. It was your plan, wasn't it? Blasted that big ugly out of the sky, just like that!" Yang violently skewered a sausage on her fork for emphasis. "Kind of the point of having a leader, if you ask me. I'm sure your partner agrees; isn't that right, Ice Queen?" She gave the heiress a challenging look. Yang had picked up on Weiss's reaction to Team RRWN's leader choice, all right. Let no one say she didn't look out for her little sister. If the princess was going to be the bad apple of the bunch (she was eating one for breakfast too! A+ comedy!), better to nip that in the bud (like a rosebud? Man was she on fire today. Ha! Fire!).
"Ice Queen?" Weiss looked up, affronted.
"That's an interesting way to say 'I'm sure you'll do fine as leader, Ruby!'" Yang rolled her eyes. "Icy-Hot, any words of encouragement for your fellow leader?"
"Icy-Hot?" questioned Weiss.
"Do I look like a motivational speaker to you? And stop calling me that!"
"Oh gods, you really are twins." Yang sighed. "Do you have a hereditary allergy to kindness, or something?"
"I think you'll be a great leader, Ruby!" Jaune gave his unsolicited feedback, complete with thumbs-up.
"Thanks Jaune!"
"Eh..." Sable grunted. "I'm sure that Ozpin...picked whoever he thought the best person was to lead our teams."
"You really think so?" Ruby asked hopefully, apparently not noticing the self-evident nature of his statement.
"No, he probably picks the worst person just for fun! Of course I think so!"
"Right! That makes sense!" Ruby psyched herself up. "I guess I can't let Professor Ozpin down, if he believes in me! Thanks Sable!"
That actually helped? Weiss looked on in disbelief. Then again, considering Sable's first words to her had been 'GET OUT!', almost anything else could probably be construed as 'nice'...
"You might need a firm hand with that one, though." Sable jabbed a thumb at Weiss, smirking ever so slightly. "She's going to inherit our company one day, you know? Not exactly used to taking orders."
Weiss just looked annoyed...more than usual, that is. "As a matter of fact, I intend to be a wholly supportive teammate." she gritted out.
"Well you better treat my sister right, Ice Queen." Yang looked amused by it all. "Just chill out, okay?"
"Look, it's 8:55!" Ruby exclaimed, a touch hastily. "To class!"
9:00 AM: Stealth and Security
The teacher's desk was vacant when they walked in at 8:58. The clock struck nine, and there was still no sign of their professor—Ann Greene, going off the schedule.
"This is stupid." A boy with spiky green hair yawned. "If Greene's not here in ten minutes, I think we're legally allowed to leave—"
"No, Mr. Thrush, you are not." A disembodied voice rang out. Russel Thrush looked around wildly for its source, followed by the rest of the class, but no one could be seen.
"I...I think that was from the vents?" Blake tilted her head, trying to pinpoint the voice's location.
"My name is Ann Greene, and welcome to Stealth and Security." Every word the professor spoke seemed to come from a different spot in the room: the blackboard, the back wall, below the floor, even the middle of the student desks. Blake went cross-eyed trying to keep up. "Much of your time at Beacon will be spent learning to fight, but sometimes the most efficient way to win is to avoid fighting at all."
"And how to accomplish that, and counter those foes who seek to do so against you, is what you shall learn in my class." Greene chuckled. "By fourth year, some of you may even be skilled enough to glimpse my true form..."
"Scary..." Ruby shuddered.
10:30 AM: Plant Sciences
"So! I'm sure you are wondering! Why you have to take a botany class! When a Huntsman's job is to kill Grimm! Am I right!"
Professor Thumbelina Peach was no more than four feet tall, and had hair the color of her namesake fruit. And while her style of discourse lacked the speed of her infamous colleague, Bartholomew Oobleck (who the students would meet the next day), she more than made up for it in sheer volume.
"Well! Let me tell you a story!" Peach poured herself a glass of some strange, viscous red liquid, chugged it down, and continued. "Once upon a time! There lived a Huntsman! Who graduated top of his class from Haven Academy! With over three hundred confirmed Grimm kills! Then one day! He was on a mission in the wilds, and got hungry! And decided to make some mushroom stew!"
In loud and gruesome detail, Professor Peach went on to explain how the Huntsman had mistaken a Death Cap mushroom for an edible one, exhausted all his Aura fighting the poison, and died a horrid death, spewing from both ends of his digestive tract. Half the class were left covering their ears, for more reason than one.
If there was one thing everyone could agree on, it was that food poisoning would be a really embarrassing way to die.
12:00 PM: Lunch
"You got cream of mushroom soup?" Ruby stared at Ren's lunch. "Are you crazy?"
"I like mushrooms." Ren said mildly. "And I doubt the Beacon staff are so incompetent at identifying fungi."
"...I've managed to reserve Training Arena #12 for us, half past seven." Sable instructed his team. "Don't be late, or you'll regret it."
"Extra training on our first day?" Yang chuckled. "You're a real slave-driver, you know that?"
Blake twitched.
"Slave-driver, is it?" Their leader growled. "If you're not willing to put in the work, you can damn well go home!"
"Hey, I'm not complaining!" Yang cracked her knuckles. "I'm always down to kick some ass in the ring!"
Jaune looked as if he'd been informed of his impending execution.
1:30 PM: Dust Studies
"Next, add one part Wind Dust to the reaction vessel." Weiss read in a bored tone. "Light the burner, and turn the collar until the air hole is half-open..."
Yeah, this class wasn't exactly geared towards the heiress to the world's largest Dust company, whose Semblance made heavy use of Dust, and who'd basically breathed Dust her entire life. Combining Wind and Water to make Ice Dust was one of the most basic reactions in the book, and Weiss had the book memorized. So naturally, she was reading the instructions and having Ruby do the work. Might as well make sure her leader learned something, no?
"All righty!" Ruby fiddled with their burner, and the blue flame roared to life.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Too late, Weiss noticed that the mixture in the beaker looked a little overly green. Instead of light blue ice crystals, a writhing mass of green vines sprouted from the glass container.
"AHHH! WHAT IS THAT?! KILL IT!"
"That was Plant Dust, you dolt!" Weiss facepalmed. "Wind Dust is light green!" The heiress to the SDC, botching her very first Dust Studies assignment. What a wonderful way to commemorate their first day.
"There's a Plant Dust?!" Ruby said incredulously. "How does that even work? Is the Dust alive?"
"No one actually knows." Sable had dropped by to regard their failed experiment with faint amusement. "Atlesian scientists have long debated whether Plant Dust operates via some biogenetic mechanism or true spontaneous generation..." Ruby looked utterly lost.
Was it too late to break out the Dust for Dummies pamphlets?
4:00 PM: Grimm Studies
"...for in those lands, there lived a dread prowler of the night. An Alpha Beowolf of great age and cruelty, whom the people of the surrounding villages christened with a terrible epithet: The Bloody Wolf of Vacuo, Jaws Dripping Red! More commonly known as Vacuo Red, for the full name was quite a mouthful..."
Grimm Studies left much to be desired, in Weiss's honest opinion. She was starting to wonder if perhaps its true purpose was to train the students to resist mental torture. Or maybe Professor Port was secretly an Apathy Grimm hybrid, considering how the will to live was draining out of the room? No, an Apathy couldn't possibly be so fat.
"...the beast had claimed the lives of twenty brave and noble souls who had tried to slay it, Brothers grant them rest. The villagers lived in such fear that they could not even imagine the foul creature being bested. They were certain that I, the handsome Beacon Huntsman, was going to meet his death..."
She chanced a look down the row. Nora was face-down, fast asleep. Ren and Blake were still listening to the lecture, as was...Yang? She was surprised and slightly impressed at the loud girl's dedication. Jaune was slowly drooping onto his desk; then Sable smacked him over the head with the course textbook, and the blond straightened up again, rubbing his pate.
A giggle came from her other side. In place of notes, Ruby had drawn a crude caricature of the teacher, stink lines coming off him. Weiss's eye twitched in irritation. It was miracle Port hadn't noticed anything, considering how Ruby was brandishing her 'masterpiece' in the front row. Then again, had he even opened his eyes this whole time?
"...the beast had closed to no less than twenty feet away, but I remained undaunted! With steely calm and iron nerves, I let loose a great volley from Blowhard, my trusty blunderbuss..."
Ruby had given up on taking notes altogether, and was now balancing her notebook and an apple on the tip of her pencil. It would have been a remarkable display of dexterity, if not for the blatant disrespect of it all.
Also, she'd been planning to eat that apple.
"...the villagers gathered, staring in awe and gratitude at the body of the Beowolf on the ground, and hailed me as their hero! For who knows how long that demon might have gone on living, were it not for that young Huntsman with the blunderbuss on his hip!"
She swore that they would have words after class was done. Ruby was fortunate that she, unlike her brother, was not so uncouth as to physically discipline her partner during class. Not that she could get away with doing so, not being the team leader...
"...a true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"
"I do, sir!"
"So do I!" Another hand went up at the other end of the row. Weiss scowled harder. How typical of her brother, to repeat whatever she said but louder.
"Well, I believe Miss Schnee was first to volunteer!" Port called on her, Sable lowering his hand in disappointment. "Step forward, and face your opponent!"
Wait, had that mass of darkness with glowing red eyes always been there?
Well, that was besides the point, she thought, now standing in front the mystery cage. Time to show this lot how a proper, disciplined battle should be conducted.
"Fight well." Ren nodded in acknowledgement.
"Yeah, represent Team RRWN!" Ruby cheered.
"GO SABLE!" Nora roared. Wait, what?
"Nora! How could you forget my name?!"
"LET THE MATCH BEGIN!" boomed Port, cutting off Weiss's complaints. The cage opened to reveal a Boarbatusk—a small one, about her size. The beast charged immediately, as expected of a young and inexperienced specimen; Weiss dodged easily. The Grimm skidded to a halt and turned for another tilt.
"Hang in there, Weiss!" Do I look like I'm in trouble, Ruby?! That attack didn't even touch me...
"Quit playing with it!" An unwanted cheering gallery and a heckler, brilliant. Some people just didn't understand the merits of letting your opponent make the first move.
He had a point though; she might as end this quickly. It wasn't as if this pig would give her much difficulty compared to, say, a massive animated suit of armor. A certain black-themed boy might have tried to show off by obliterating the Grimm with a flashy display of pyrotechnics, even though one clean thrust would be enough. Weiss was sure the Professor would appreciate her strategy for its efficiency, not to mention the decreased risk of setting the classroom on fire. She copied the Boarbatusk with a charge of her own, aiming to skewer it neatly through the eye. At the last second, the beast turned, wedging Myrtenaster between a tusk and its bone mask. A brief tug-of-war game ensued between Grimm and Huntress.
"Come on Weiss, show it who's boss!" Insightful advice, Ruby...
Weiss shot her partner a dirty look, and in that moment the Boarbatusk twisted its head, sending Myrtenaster flying. Damn it, Ruby!
Sable made a loud noise somewhere between a groan and a scoff.
Fortunately the pig had no further attack plans beyond 'CHARGE', and she dodged again. A roll took her behind the Grimm, letting her cross the room and pick her weapon back up.
"Weiss, go for its belly! There's no armor underneath!"
"Stop telling me what to do!" I know that! What do you take me for? Some child who slept through Grimm Studies?
The Boarbatusk decided to copy her this time, going for its own roll...and crashed into a mid-air glyph, landing flat on its back. Weiss launched off, rapier aimed at the its conveniently unarmored underside. There was the payoff she'd been planning for since she got her sword back. Any resemblance to courses of action suggested by outside parties was purely coincidental.
"Die!" Myrtenaster pierced soft flesh; the Boarbatusk let out a high-pitched squeal and flopped to the floor, lifeless.
Oh Gods, did I really just say that? Yes. Yes she did...
"Woo!" Nora clapped. "Good job, Sable!"
"That's my name! And it wasn't!" the real Sable complained. "As if I'd let some pig disarm me!" Scattered laughter greeted his comment, and she felt her cheeks starting to burn.
Weiss gave the room such a murderous look that the laughter died on the spot. Jaune looked ready to wet himself (more than he already did), Ruby was wide-eyed and open-mouthed, Nora's smile took on a slightly nervous quality; even Sable looked taken aback.
Good. She'd had her fill of immature partners and infuriating siblings for the day. Weiss stormed for the exit, none daring to stop her.
I always assumed Grimm Studies was the 9AM class they had, except that doesn't really make sense. Ruby and Weiss have their argument right after class and make up at night...so was that the only class of the day? Did they just awkwardly ignore each other in all their other classes?
So here's a bit of flavor with the non-Goodwitch/Port/Oobleck teachers. They'll probably never be seen again.
Yes, Peach is drinking Forever Fall sap. What do you think she does with all those jars? And yes, Port's story is exactly what you think it is.