"People Speaking"
'Jaune Thinking'
JAUNE TYPING
Chapter 1
The Beginning of Something Loud
It was a beautiful day in the city of Vale. The sun was shining, the wind was rustling the leaves on the trees, people were going about their day, and the birds were flying high in the sky; right next to the window of an airship. Jaune Arc, Arc scion and wielder of the legendary Crocea Mors, looked out the window and saw one such bird, noting its lustrous black feathers and wondered which species it was: a crow or a raven. He didn't have long to look when it suddenly dived out of sight below the window. Looking down now, the blonde knight saw the sprawling City of Vale below, dotted with people and the occasional car.
A view like this used to make him green in the face. In fact, airships in general used to make him sick, to the point that he couldn't even leave the ground without a pocket full of barf bags. That was before his aura and semblance were unlocked during a Grimm incursion when he was six. Since then, Jaune's parents kept him under lock and key, "training" him to keep his destructive semblance in check, but as a bonus, it removed his airsickness in the process. It was a hellish childhood, but the knight knew his parents and sisters merely wanted to keep him safe.
Speaking of sisters, the two brightly colored girls by the other window seemed to have a sisterly bond, as indicated by the bigger girl relentlessly teasing the smaller girl. Jaune knows the feeling very well. 'Good luck, little Red!' The knight didn't want to spy on their conversation but now that he was facing them he picked up the last bits of it.
"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees."
"I don't want to be the 'bee's knees', okay? I don't want to be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees."
"Then prove it."
Little Red looked like she had been physically struck.
"HUH?!"
"I said prove it. Go talk to someone." Little Red was panicking from the simple suggestion of starting a conversation. Seems like she had a severe case of Introvert-icidis. 'Patent pending'. Jaune and one of his sisters used to suffer from the symptom, he knew firsthand just how awkward starting a conversation with a stranger could be. Whoever she was going to talk to was going to be-
"What about that guy? He looks like he needs someone to talk to!"
-a very lucky guy. Seems like he was staring for too long, whoops. The tall blonde girl was sending a glare his way. From his experience with living with eight women he interpreted the look as a combination of his mothers 'you're busted, buster' glare and his oldest sister's 'you're thinking something rude' look, an impressive combination. He sent an apologetic look back, and the glare lessened.
"Go on, I'll be over here, totally not listening in or anything."
'Liar!' That was a classic sister move. She was definitely going to be listening in! Seems like Little Red bought it though. Well, whatever. Let her listen, it's not like the knight was going to be mean to the girl, no matter what he originally thought, because that was what men did.
The girl in red finally turned and started walking his way, looking every bit like a kicked puppy, before shaking her head and perking up, silver eyes glimmering with the results of whatever motivational speech she told herself, and marched towards Jaune.
"Hi! My name's Ruby, what's yours?" Awww, wasn't she just adorable! Her puppy dog eyes could almost beat Jaune's youngest sister despite being a couple years older than her. The knight smiled and pulled out his scroll, showing her his Beacon ID. "'Jaune Arc'… but why couldn't you just say-?"
Expecting the question, Jaune quickly opened a notes app and typed out SEMBLANCE. As she read the word, her eyes grew even larger and brighter than before. Her entire posture morphed from 'Get me out of here!' to 'OMG TALK TO ME RIGHT NOW!'
"That's so COOOOLLLL!" The smaller girl started to ramble off question after question: What is it? What can it do? Does it have any drawbacks? Can you use Dust with it? Can you-"
Jaune showed her the answer to all of her questions and more with one simple word:
SECRET
She immediately deflated.
She looked hopeful again, "Well can you at least tell me what weapon you use?"
Jaune smiled and typed out: CROCEA MORS. STANDARD SWORD AND COLLAPSIBLE SHIELD
If Little Red had faunus ears they would have been standing straight up, "You mean the weapon used by Julius Arc during the Great War? I knew I recognized your name!"
Jaune was shocked, but nodded.
Ruby blushed, a little awkward now, "Sorry, I'm a bit of a weapon ner- enthusiast! Yeah. I love reading about heroes of old and the weapons they used, even though the modern ones are cooler. Sorry."
Jaune nodded, enjoying the somewhat awkward presence of a fellow classic enthusiast when a sudden heat wave approached.
"Hey! Why can't you show some common decency and talk to my sister?" Apparently the mama-bear of an older sister thought that Little Red's awkward demeanor was a sign of a one-sided conversation. "You got a problem with her or something?"
Panicking, Ruby jumped up to block her sister's wrath. "Wait! Yang, he can't talk!" She waved her arms around wildly to dissuade her volatile sibling. "He has to type on his scroll."
It apparently worked as the potential disaster was avoided. Yang ruffled her massive mane of hair as she calmed down, "So you're mute. That must suck."
Jaune merely nodded, typing out a response before Ruby beat him to it. "He's not mute, his semblance keeps him quiet, for whatever reason." She grumbled a little while giving Jaune an impressive stink eye.
Suddenly a nearby monitor of the local news was replaced by a hologram of a blonde woman. Both Ruby and Jaune looked on in recognition, while the odd one one out spoke her piece.
"Who's that?"
"Hello, my name is Glynda Goodwitch."
"Oh."
Ruby and Jaune glared at Yang for interrupting, then realized they both recognized the holographic person.
Before they could ask, the professor continued, "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."
It was a somewhat basic speech but it got the job done, as prospective students sat up straighter, feeling the weight of responsibility as new Huntsmen and Huntresses.
As soon as the hologram disappeared, the knight and the reaper whirled on one another, "How do you know her?"
A/N: Hey y'all! I'm going to try to keep these chapters short, sweet, and simple in order to hopefully have a faster update schedule, but nothing is set in stone. I'm using this story as a bit of practice for bigger projects down the road, so this is ultimately going to follow the canon story-line with my own twists here and there. Anyways I'm excited to start this story and see what people think! Please leave a review!