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Scrublord Yoda

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A loud bell tolling had him jerking awake the next morning, scrambling back into his corner with one hand while the other dragged Mort Noire up in front of him defensively, scabbard and all. Blearily he looked around as the bell tolled on, but the auditorium was empty aside from an old janitor sweeping by one of the doors. The man heard him move and turned, straightening and waving as if Jaune wasn't holding a sword, and, after a hesitant moment, Jaune waved back."

"Frontier boy?"

"Yeah." He nodded, "A, uh, couple of years now. You can tell?"

"We get a few o' you lot come in every year or so." The old man said, running a wrinkled hand through his long beard to straighten it out along his stomach. Shrugging, he went back to his work, "Always wavin' somethin' around like that when first bell chimes on their first day in."

"First bell?" He grunted, standing and adding, after a heartbeat, "And, uh, sorry. About the sword, I mean."

"Don't you go apologizin' for your instincts, boy." The janitor called with a simultaneously bright and wizened laugh, "They probably kept you alive out there. And 'sides, what harm could you possibly do with a sword from twenty feet away?"

"More than you know…" He sighed, "What's first bell mean?"

"Breakfast." He answered, "Out the door back towards the dorms. You'll smell the food 'fore you see the building."

"They're making that much?"

"Oughta." The janitor answered, "People should be arrivin' here in 'bout half an hour. New students, old, chaff what'll be sent back 'morrow. Don't got many doubts about which of those categories you're in."

"No?"

"Frontier boy?"

"Yeah…?"

"Then you'll pass, flyin' colors." He answered, turning to point a long, gnarled finger at him and adding, quietly but loud enough to be heard, "At least so long as you don't play the hero boy out there and make a dead fool of yourself."

Jaune didn't answer, really, just nodding and earning a dry laugh from the man. And then a dismissive wave as he turned back to his work, sweeping floors that already looked more than clean enough. With a shrug, Jaune turned to gather up his sleeping bag and supplies, toting them over a shoulder as he made his way towards the door. Idly, he flicked out his Scroll to bring up a map.

He had a map, he didn't need to follow his nose.

Right?

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Half an hour came and went, along with a dozen hallways in three buildings, while he stared at the map and looked around desperately for any of the signs the map said should be up on the corners. Rounding one more corner he sighed and growled, "A-5? How did I get to A-5?! Where even is A-5?"

"The end of the avenue." Mort sighed, more than tired of his wandering and grumbling, "You know. The one full of students."

Turning, he watched the few dozen milling students and staff that were watching over them, acting kind of like a guide fence to direct the younger ones not wearing uniforms in the rough direction they needed to be going. Others, older and dressed in what he knew were Beacon uniforms, wandered up and around the boulevard too. But they moved more purposefully, in little groups of friends headed off to what he supposed would be familiar haunts for them.

"There are so many more new students than old…" He murmured, watching the oncoming herd.

"Yeah." Mort murmured, "Almost twice, maybe even thrice, as many… That's kind of weird, isn't it?"

He didn't know and, before he could answer, the quiet whump of an explosion muted by the building beside him had him on his knees, yanking Mort from his sheath in full this time while he looked around. Other students, mostly among the older population, did similar while their younger counterparts scurried back and then went to chattering amongst themselves. Standing slowly when nothing else happened after a moment, and flicking looks to the staff who seemed unperturbed aside from checking their Scrolls, he began inching his way towards the sound.

"Why are we going towards the explosion, Jaune?"

"Someone might be hurt."

"Ah, right." The sword sighed, "Hero time."

The building was a class building which, at least, meant that it was easy to pass through. As he went he sheathed his sword, knowing how weird he looked with it out and fairly sure that he didn't need to worry about an attack by now. It was lucky, too, because the small, soot covered woman that nearly bowled him over might have found the business end of it in her throat.

Literally, too, given how small she was.

"Who in the-" She blinked and shook her head and he could see the soot on her hair, too. She paid him little mind, shoving past him and grumbling something that ended with, "...here a ruffian?"

"Well she seemed fine." Mort offered quietly, "Can we go now?"

His only answer was to head the way the white-haired woman had come from, so he could make absolutely sure everything was alright. Which, of course, earned a weary sigh and grumbled complaints from the spirit. But what did Mort expect? He wanted to be a knight, so he couldn't not help someone.

"Well," Mort said when they reached the blackened little crater and saw the girl laying in its center, "she's dead. Can we go now?"

He rolled his eyes and flicked the little gem with a finger, stepping into the circle of sooty devastation. When he stepped into the sun and stood over the girl, she blinked up at him and he offered a hand, "Are you okay?"

"I blew up." She answered quietly, looking at the hand for a long moment before taking it and letting him help her up. Looking down at her soot-covered self she grimaced and then, for a moment, seemed to blur. Petals fell away and, almost like magic, she was left clean and fresh looking. "Ah, that's better… Best Semblance ever."

"You… Have a self-cleaning Semblance?"

"W-What?" She blinked and after a moment bounced back and away from him on her heels, waving her hands between them and scattering more petals as she did. Nervously, she rushed out, "No, no, no- My Semblance lets me, you know… Move myself around super, duper fast. It just, ya know, also makes me… Turn into petals, for, ya know, reasons. So the little trick I learned was to do it to get rid of gunk."

"Convenient." He nodded, "How do you keep your clothes, though?"

"Huh?"

"Your clothes." He repeated, "If you're doing it to get rid of stuff on you, isn't it tricky not to lose them?"

"O-Oh, well… Yeah, it was, back when I had the idea and started, you know, practicing." She said, pressing her forefingers against each other anxiously and kicking the ground, all while doing everything she could not to look at him. Flushing, she said, "B-But I don't lose anything anymore. I just, ya know, think about what I'm wearing and it's all fine."

"Oh Dust she's adorable…" Mort murmured, "Can we keep her?"

Once again, he flicked Mort's gem, drawing angry grumbling from him while he offered his hand to her, "Jaune of House Arc at Ansel."

"Ruby." She blinked, shaking his hand and stiffening in his grip, squeaking out, "I-I mean, um, R-Ruby of House, um, Rose at Patch."

"I literally just met this girl but if anything happened to her I would kill everyone in this street and then myself."

"New to doing the whole 'noble introduction' thing?" He asked, ignoring the very obviously bored spirit and turning to walk on, Ruby hoping to catch up and walking beside him. She nodded quietly and he smiled, "Yeah, I'm not super great at it, either."

"You seemed alright at it…"

"Nah, that's just the basics." And he had to walk himself through it sometimes to get it right, too. Chuckling quietly, he waved a hand at his old, admittedly a bit ratty armor and added, quietly, "I've spent the last couple years or so out on the frontier, working, so anything past the basics are kind of beyond me."

"I can see that." He hummed and gave her a look and she flushed, stammering, "I-I don't mean, you know, that you look scruffy- I mean you do, a bit, you kinda need a shave, and your armor is all messy, but-"

"Gee, thanks." He chuckled, waving her off when she seemed to panic even more and explaining, "I know what you meant, Lady Rose. I'm not offended or anything, don't worry."

"...me that."

"What?"

"D-Don't call me that." She repeated, louder the second time. When he looked her shoulders were squared, eyes boring into the floor as they walked. "I'm not a 'lady' or anything like that. I mean, my mom was, but I'm not. Not yet, at least. S-So please, don't- Just call me Ruby, okay?"

"Okay, Lady Ruby."

"Oh my spuds!"

"I'm simply joking, Ruby, relax. Also 'spud'? Really?" He laughed, shaking his head wryly as they rounded another corner, passing by a library now. She grumbled about his teasing and he smiled, "But if I am to call you Ruby then you can call me Jaune."

"Really?"

"Sure. "He smiled and shrugged flippantly, "Why not? I'm not big on the whole 'Lord' and 'Lady' and 'Master' nonsense anyway, so if you don't mind, I won't either. Just gets in the way between friends anyway, if you ask me."

"W-We're friends?"

"Sure." He shrugged, raising his brow and giving her a look while his fingers scratched exploringly at his chin. True enough, there was a bit of stubble… "Why not? We're getting along so far, I helped you out, so why not? Unless you don't want me to call it that, yet. If you do then I'm-"

"N-No!" Ruby squeaked suddenly, bouncing around in front of him to walk backwards, grinning widely and tapping her forefingers against each other. Anxiously, but still beaming a smile, she stammered, "I-I mean, um, I'm not, uh, you know… Great with people. So, um, making friends is normally kinda hard for me. B-But if you don't mind hanging around a weirdo like me-"

"I think you're just fine." He cut her off, smiling when she flinched and blinked up at him. "A bit. Uh. exposive, maybe-"

"Hey!" She squawked, "Not my fault!"

"-but you seem fine to me, so don't stress about it. Okay?" Pouting at his ignoring her she nodded and he smiled, waving ahead of them and adding, quietly, "Now please m'lady, do show me the way to the auditorium? Or the cafeteria. Food would be nice…"

"Wait, you don't know the way…?" Grimacing, he shook his head and Ruby pouted even more, "Whaaaat? I was following you, though!"

"Uh oh…"

"We're doomed." Mort sighed dramatically, "Absolutely doomed. They'll find your dead bodies and off to another box I'll go- Woe is me!"

As usual when the sword's spirit was acting the fool Jaune ignored them, opting instead to flick open his old Scroll again and bring up the map. Sighing, he stooped a bit to let Ruby see it and started trying to work the mmap out with her. As it turned out after a few minutes of figuring the map out, they'd somehow wandered into the teacher's dormitory, clear on the other end of campus.

Today was going to be a long day, it looked like…

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"Ruby!" He heard as they rounded a final corner after twenty more minutes of walking and searching. He looked up from the map they were both huddled over in time to see a blonde missile rocketing towards them on an intercept course, heard Ruy squawk a protest, and stepped to the side on sheer instinct.

"I was so worried!" The blonde woman said as she hoisted her cloak-wearing sister up and spinning on her heel. Ruby wriggled but the blonde was bigger and stronger, so she couldn't break free until the blonde sat her back on her feet and gave her a serious look. "You missed the speech, Ruby! I was actually starting to get worried…"

"You should be!" Ruby whined pitifully, dissolving into petals, finally, to escape her sister's grip and rematerializing behind her and beside Jaune. "You ditched me, and then I ran into a meanie and exploded, and then I got lost-"

"Wow, a meltdown already, huh?"

"You!" Another new voice shrieked, Jaune turning in time for a familiar, small woman to storm up to them. She met his eyes and glared, then looked at his chest and sighed. "You can't hide behind your raggedy little friend. Come out here and apologize!"

"I-I can apologize from back here just fine!"

"You blew me up, you little cretin!" She squawked angrily, trying to get around Jaune to face the girl. Ruby just danced around to his front, hanging onto him until the woman followed and then repeating it a few times until she got tired. "I lost so much Lien in Dust to that! And you nearly ruined my skirts, too!"

"Oh my god you actually exploded…"

"Both of you, hold!" Jaune snapped loudly, drawing on old experiences dealing with this kind of nonsense in Ansel. Both blinked and backed away as he turned to look at them both, scowling. "Both of you, breathe. First, names, from everyone."

"I'm, uh, Yang." The blonde waved from behind her sister, "Yang Xiao Long."

"Wait, I thought you were sisters…?"

"Marriage." The blonde explained, cocking a hip and folding her arms like she was ready to defend herself from… Something. "It's, uh, kind of a mystery on if we're actually sisters or not, you know, literally speaking. But as far as anyone I give a damn to hear from, we're sisters."

"Fair." He shrugged, pointing at Ruby. "Next."

"R-Ruby of House Rose at Patch." She stammered out, doing her very best to stand up straight and meet Weiss' eyes.

Eyes that, to his surprise, widened just a hair. So she hadn't even known who Ruby was, she'd just walked up to start yelling? Well then…

"You're nobility?" The white haired woman asked, surprisingly quiet and then grimacing when Ruby nodded. Shaking her head slightly she waved a hand at her, "B-But you're not wearing a sword! Or bearing a crest!"

"Yeah I am." Ruby said, turning and pushing a hip out, pointing at the little silver flower hanging on it. "Roses never wear swords, V-Valean tradition or not. We wear silver flowers, to symbolize our, um, our historical independence from Vale! It's even made from silver mined in Patch's mountain!"

"O-Oh." She blinked, "I didn't mean to- If I'd known you were nobility, I wouldn't have-" She shook off her surprise quickly, curtsying in the Atlesian way and going on more firmly, "I'd have acted differently, Lady Rose. I apologize for my, um, behavior. I am Lady Aspirant Weiss Schnee, of the Schnee Dust Corporation."

"Aspirant?"

"It means she's a merchant family daughter." He explained simply, crossing his arms and flicking a gaze to the young Rose. "From a family with enough wealth to look like nobility, but none of the titular parts that make them actual nobles."

"We're being considered by the Merchant Council of Atlas for title grants." The woman defended quietly as she straightened, suddenly all cool diplomacy and cordial smiles now that they had names to back them up. "I do apologize for my behavior earlier. The stress of the trip, you know."

"Mhm." He'd been in a mine full of Grimm and corpses yesterday, he knew what stress was. And what honeyed words were, too, he was nobility. "If you're all at peace, then, we can all go on our way."

"B-But, Lord Arc, I was…" She paused for a heartbeat, searching for an excuse to keep him - them - there. "Hoping to make amends more thoroughly. Your armor is in bad repair, no doubt due to your journeys since your, ahem, incident. So please, as a proper apology, allow me to aid you in replacing it."

"Armor is expensive." He sighed, knowing that, disinherited or not, if he was too much of a dick to her it would blow back on his family. "I couldn't possibly agree to let you do that. Especially when you insulted Lady Rose far more than me. In my state, I'm not surprised you didn't recognize me."

"I-I would be more than happy to find a suitable gift for her, as well." Weiss promised, hands folded primly in front of herself and her smile just as cool and cordial as always. "She does not wear a sword, but perhaps a new dress? Dust for her work? Surely, the Schnee Dust Corporation can arrange something suitable."

"Nope!" Ruby smiled, "As long as you stop yelling at me, I'm willing to, you know, pretend it never happened."

"B-But I-" She blinked, and at least Ruby's flippant dismissal seemed to break that familiar, insufferable smile of hers. Coughing into a fist, she rushed, "I-I would like to insist. Please, I would rather our family be friends than have any darkened stars hanging between us. You must allow me to do something for-"

"She said no." Yang grunted quietly, stepping up beside her sister and laying a hand on the confused young woman's shoulder. Smiling almost viciously, "But if you really wanna give us somethin'... How about your dress?"

"M-My dress?" Even Jaune's brow rose at that, but Weiss seemed unperturbed and forced a stiff smile. "I-I suppose that can be, uh, arranged. I could have it cleaned and delivered later, if you-"

"Nope, I want it now." Yang grunted, ignoring how her sister pouted and whined her name. "Go on then. Hand it over, if you're that up in arms to make us all be friends."

"I-I surely- I mean you can't really think-"

"Just leave us be, Schnee." Jaune growled finally, more than tired of dealing with the fake smiles and platitudes. Not to mention who was pushing them, of course… "Besides, Schnees and Arcs already have plenty between them. Nothing you give me here now that you know you can make some Lien off it somehow will fix the shit your family pulls up in Mantle and Atlas."

"Uh oh…" Mort murmured, "Jaune, try to calm down. I know you don't like when people act like this but-"

"Are you actually going to spit on a friendly offer because of-of baseless rumors and un-cited hearsay?" Weiss gasped, glaring and shaking her head. When Jaune only grunted and crossed his arms she frowned more deeply and turned on a heel, "Very well then. I suppose I really shouldn't expect anything else from someone who was disinherited, after all."

"You little-" He took a step to follow her but a small hand on his arm stopped him and, quietly, he looked down at it and then up to its owner. "Ruby?"

"Weiss." The white-haired woman turned, cocking her head and raising an eyebrow. Firmly, more-so than any other thing Ruby had said that day, the young Rose said, "You're a really bad person. As the only remaining member of House Rose, I refuse any ties between our families of any kind until that changes. Please notify your father that Patch will be sourcing our Dust from elsewhere, if you don't mind."

"W-What, but he-"

"Come on, guys." Ruby murmured, turning to leave and physically tugging him with her. "Let's find the cafeteria if we can. I'm starving over here!"

"Oooh, I wonder if they have any steak!" Yang cheered while they walked away and Jaune turned to pay a look over his shoulder.

Weiss watched them go, eyes wide and one hand half-reaching out, towards them. When she saw him looking, though, it vanished. And she spun on a heel, marching pointedly away from them.

"Hey, Lover Boy." He grunted as powerful arms wrapped around his off arm, pressing them into something… Warm and soft that he didn't dare look at. Instead, he met sparkling lavender eyes and Yang asked, "I hear you played the knight in shining armor for my baby sis, huh? Making a move, are we?"

"Yaaaaaaaaang!"

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Zenith Tempest :

Well, pairings are not decided on this one, so I won't confirm or deny for that kind of reason. I will say that wasn't my intention, I'm trying to sell character stuff about Jaune before introducing Wei- Others so that his different behaviors are notable.

No More Hashtag :

Inside the Walls, civilians would have no real need of weaponry OR Aura. And in fact both could cause a lot of problems. What if a young thief has Aura that lets them turn invisible, for instance *looks at May*? Easier to just, ya know, not do that.

As for the 'not wearing a sword' thing, that was world-building to common tradition in-universe. Not a statement to IRL stuff. Apologies if that caused any confusion. I am keeping that comment in my notes though! Useful stuff.

I also like the idea about Mechashift being expensive, and thus more naturally restricted to nobility and the wealthy.

Hatedom Boi (Guest) :

Rooster teeth apologist? Pffft. I write following lessons drawn from RWBY and RVB. If I impress, it is due to what I have learned from RT.