A few months later...
The faunus in the white hood was lost in thought. It was really nice wearing fresh, new clothes. Wynion already kept himself clean (It was hard pickpocketing people when they didn't want to be within smell range of you), but all his clothes being fresh was such a wonderfully new experience. As he waited, he idly adjusted and fine-tuned the folded scythe in his lap. His scythe. He named it Ladrones, it was thinner and a bit longer than Crescent Rose, and thanks to it's simplicity, far easier to mess around with.
He thought back to the past year.
Ruby's uncle had left Signal to go back in the field, leaving her to hang out with only her remaining family and Wynion. The white-hooded boy had confirmed that Ruby was indeed socially awkward among most people, because apparently because she was always concerned about what others thought. Wynion wanted nothing more than to tell the girl to only focus on the people that mattered, her family and himself. As much as he wanted to give her that advice, it was pointless. After all, if she did that, Ruby wouldn't be Ruby.
On the plus side, she didn't give him ear scratches as punishment in public anymore, just all the time in private. She was still the same Ruby who dragged him across half of Vale to visit a weapons expo (and have him steal tickets for the both of them because hypocrisy was a myth), so nothing really changed all in all.
The thief updated the schematics for Ladrones on his scroll as he worked. The scroll was a gift from Ruby, as were the clothes. Their birthdays were two weeks ago. For her present, he had given her some tickets to a weapons museum. To his credit there was a free give-away for those tickets (which he didn't win, but that was irrelevant).
Wynion had been pushing Ruby a lot into training him. She probably knew that he was stealing things on purpose and "accidentally" bringing them out, but she never refused him. She probably would have helped anyways if he asked her outright, but it wasn't as fun. On the other hand, Ruby had been pushing him too into coming home with her and staying at Patch, which she almost succeeded at. However, he had Beacon to go to, and he didn't want to disappoint her by staying only for a year.
He finished his last touches on Ladrones, and looked up. Everybody else had left the ship already. He was the last person on board. He folded his scythe, and stepped off, deciding to take off the hood. The square in front of the academy was empty, save for a sizable crater. Looks like he missed all the action…
He decided to walk to the entrance hall, there had to be someone there.
He found everyone else. It appeared he was in the right place. Ozpin wasn't here yet, so it seemed he still had time. He walked to a corner and began working on Ladrones again. This was quite therapeutic, actually. It was starting to become a habit, so easy to get lost in-
"Hey there wolfy! Nice weapon you got there!" He looked up to see a blonde girl with lilac eyes smirk at him. He went right back to his work. "Not much for talking, huh?"
"I don't have anything interesting to say, and by the looks of it, neither do you."
The blonde frowned, "What's got you feeling so down?"
"Nothing, I just don't like talking to anyone except my friend. My friend isn't here." He sighed. "Actually, that's pretty much it. My friend isn't here, and I just realised I'm going to be seeing her a lot less than I used to, since I probably won't have the time."
"Your friend sounds pretty important to you."
He smiled, "She is. I owe her so much, including helping me make Ladrones here." He gestured with the weapon. He continued tinkering, not really listening to the blonde.
"... have to meet my sister! She's just like you, but uh- she's kind of weapon crazy though..."
Wynion grunted, "My friend is already one weapons crazy person in my life too many." He disappeared into the crowd before the conversation could continue, folding the scythe back up.
He walked along, not watching where he was going. He looked through the lien that blonde was carrying. Around ten. Oh well, he stole some dust rounds which more than made up for it. Suddenly he bumped into another blonde. A guy, this time.
"Ah, sorry!"
"It's fine, I just dropped my lien." He scooped up the ten lien.
"I'm really sorry, it's my fault!"
"Don't worry about it." For some odd reason, he felt relaxed talking to this guy.
"Sorry... " He held out his hand while hanging his head, "Uh… Jaune Arc."
He accepted it, "Wynion, just Wynion."
Jaune sighed, and slumped down his posture.
"Hunter school… Hehe… I feel so inadequate… Do you?"
"A little bit," Wynion admitted, "But probably not as much as you."
"No confidence, not as much experience as everyone else, no cool weapons... Everyone has such cool weapons, and all I got is a lousy sword and shield." Really, what was it about him that felt so familiar...?
"A sword and shield?"
Jaune pulled out his sword from the sheath and activated the shield.
"Yeah, that's all they are. It's not as cool as that mini-cannon over there." Argh, it was so infuriating. He felt so familiar, but why?
"The mini-cannon was built for high damage output with no visible way of reloading effectively. The ammunition is custom, highly expensive, and dangerous. The person over there has a deathwish." His mouth moved automatically, used to getting into arguments about this kind of thing with Ruby.
"Okay, uh… Bad example, my sword and shield isn't like that cool-"
"If you're referring to the gun with the interchangeable barrels lined on the inside with specialised dust, allowing for the mixing of dust effects, it works. However, the barrels' effects must wear off fast, making it a normal gun in a hurry. They seem to have gotten around this flaw thoug-" He slapped his hand over his mouth.
"Wow, you're really into weapons…" Jaune remarks, amazed. Wynion collapsed to his knees, well aware of the curse.
"It's a burden… One I do not carry willingly…" What had he become? He would never recover from this, would he?
Jaune was in silence above him. Probably staring in confusion.
"Uh, well… It'll probably come in handy!" Jaune tried to reassure Wynion, who just looked up at him from his position.
"Your weapon is basic. It avoids a lot of the pitfalls most weapons hunters and huntresses find by making it too specialized."
Jaune brightened a little bit, "Huh, yeah that is true I guess-"
"But your weapons are too basic to really compete with other hunters and huntresses in any meaningful way."
"And now I feel depressed again…" Jaune wilted, "Uh, thanks anyways." He offered Wynion a hand again, which he accepted.
"... Talk about cute boys, like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there." Jaune perked right back up.
"If you'll excuse me, it seems I have a madam to pursue." Jaune grinned, walking away from Wynion.
God damn, I just realised how much he acts like Ruby when she has to talk to strangers.
After the brief speech by Ozpin (and Yang managing to be irresponsible enough to lose her money), the students were directed to store their weapons in their designated locker, before going to the mess hall to sleep.
"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang plopped down right next to her where she lay.
"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys though."
Yang gave her a lecherous grin, "I know I do."
Ruby sent off a text to Wynion:
Ruby: Hey, I got some news! It's a lot though, so I think I'll have to tell you tomorrow…
Yang noticed her scroll, "Who's my little sister texting?" She teased Ruby.
"Just my friend back at Signal. I wanted to let him know how I was doing."
Yang gasped, "My baby sister is growing up so fast! So this mysterious friend of yours is a boy? Hmmm?"
"Shut up! I didn't get to take my friends with me to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here." Ruby's scroll pinged.
Wynnie: Won't be available tomorrow. Trying out for a job. Long story too. Gtg.
Damn it. Ruby was so busy having to prepare for her surprise entry to Beacon last week, that she hadn't talked at all with him.
"What about Jaune? He's…" Yang searched for the right word, "nice? There! Plus one friend! That's a fifty percent increase!"
"Pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend, back down to zero."
"There are no such things as negative friends, you just made one friend and one enemy!" Exasperated, Ruby threw her pillow at Yang.
Yang sighed, "Look, it's only been one day. Trust me, you've got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet." Yang attempted to reassure her. "I saw this guy with a scythe just like you. Looked pretty awesome, maybe you can bond over that with him?"
Ruby put her scroll away and turned over with her back to Yang in her bed roll, noticing a familiar girl with a bow reading a book.
"That girl…" Ruby sat up.
Yang raised an eyebrow, "You know her?"
"Not really… She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could say anything-"
"Well, now's your chance!"
"Hey there again! Good to see you-"
"Jaune, I like you. But it is way too easy to steal from you." Wynion interrupted him. Wynion was still wearing his white hoodie and black jeans, only change was him pulling up his hood.
"Huh? What do you mean, steal?"
Wynion pulled out a 15 lien card, "This is from the first handshake," he pulled out a photo of Jaune and his family, "This is from when I fell to my knees," and finally pulled out Jaune's scroll, "And this, is from just now."
He stared open-mouthed at Wynion, before quickly snatching his stuff back. "Hey! You can't just take all of that!"
Wynion shook his head at Jaune, "Everything about you, even the way you carry yourself is vulnerable. It is a sin to be that easy to steal from."
Jaune sighed, not feeling any better about his current situation at Beacon.
"Whatever."
Wynion smiled, "Well, at least you're trying. From what I've seen from you, I expected you to have already required medical attention from the shear pressure of this place-"
"Wynion?"
"Yes Jaune?"
"Shut up."
Beacon is starting, and my habit of publishing unfinished chapters is no where near an end!
So much to keep track of... Ugh...
Ladrones is Welsh for thief. Is Wynion Welsh at this point?
I have also made a funny discovery. It appears that Wynion has something in common with just about everyone but Weiss. It really is funny, I was looking foward to Wynion clashing with others, but it appears that if they take a second, he has at least one trait in common with everyone else. Doesn't mean he won't get along with Weiss, but I didn't plan on him connecting with so many people. Ugh. What a pain.
Also, twenty favorites and nearly thirty likes? I'm not one to focus on those numbers (I get my rocks off from the view counter), but damn, is that a lot from the prologue. OH YEAH! THE PROLOGUE IS DONE!
EVERYONE! RUN BUCK NAKED IN THE STREETS AND YELL THIS TRUTH! SPREAD THE WORD MY CHILDREN! WE ARE OUT OF THE PROLOGUE!