…So uh…
Remember what I said in the first chapter about consistent updates?
Yeah…
Don't expect this speed to be a thing that happens like, ever again. Weekly updates would kill me.
On a separate note, I'm really appreciating just how fast this story blew up. I'm flattered that you folks find my stupid idea enjoyable (and it is stupid, don't deny it, it's just… stupid and amusing).
The only, the ONLY reason I was able to crank out another chapter so quickly is because I'm currently in isolation right now due to le Rona with nothing productive to do except read and write. I… don't know how much longer I'm gonna be here to be honest. I don't have it, (I don't think I have it, been here for almost 2 weeks now without showing symptoms), but once I'm done with isolation I then have to wait around the area for an unknown time to get transferred to the place I'm supposed to go. So who knows? I might just continue writing a shit ton any way to pass the time and completely burn myself out writing and start absolutely hating this stor- We'll cross that bridge when we get there.
Also, this chapter is much shorter than the first one, but that's a given, considering the first was EIGHTEEN. THOUSAND. FUCKING WORDS.
(Inhales)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Got a much more laid back and light-hearted chapter for you folks here. Well, as laid back as it can be. It certainly isn't nearly as heavy or as intense as the first chapter.
I suppose that I should also add that I don't own the Cthulhu Mythos nor do I own RWBY. I mean, that's kinda obvious though, innit? If I did, I wouldn't be here, writing fanfiction now, would I?
Please, read, review, critique or flame.
In a field, stood two men that were monsters. They were family, and didn't like each other. They didn't like the other at all right now.
One of them had been selfish.
"...!" One of them yelled, a man with a beard, and wings, "You thieving worm!"
"It hardly counts as thieving …," said the other, the one who was selfish, "they were there for anyone, really."
The other man didn't like this.
"I walked this world before you even knew of its existence! They were mine!"
"So you were what, taking your time?" The other one asked him. His voice was very, very mean. "And come now, you weren't the only one with your feelers in the things. …..., …..., even …..., they were all looking here in one way or another."
That made the man with wings angry.
"THEY HAVE CULTS EVERYWHERE!" He screamed, loud enough to shake the ground. "THEY COULDN'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE PLANET, THAT'S JUST THEIR BEING AFFECTING THE COSMOS!"
The thief wasn't scared.
"Hardly my fault you decided to wait. Or maybe you were just slow… really now, of all the times you would choose to enter the Sleep..."
The man smiled.
It wasn't a nice smile.
"OR, maybe, just maybe… you were focused on other matters? Recovering? I taste a memory... A memory of a boat smashing your head…"
The bearded man ran at him.
"I WILL WEAR YOU AS SKIN FOR A BILLION YEARS, MESSENGER!"
The man, his family member, began walking towards him with an evil smile.
"Try it, Prophet."
"Jaaauuune~."
The lump on the mattress shifted and mumbled, and the woman standing over it smiled in response.
"Come on, sleepy head. Breakfast is waiting, and you have your first day of school at eight o'clock. It's a big day!"
"Mmmm… okay…" it replied, and seven year old Jaune Arc sat up, groggy.
Juniper Arc's smile only seemed to grow warmer.
"There's my little boy."
Jaune blinked sleepy eyes and yawned.
His mother straightened up.
"Come on, you can have breakfast in your jammies. How does that sound?"
"Okay." Little fleet slung over the edge of the bed, and the brave warrior stood, tall and proud at 3 feet, 10 inches. He was somewhat short for his age.
He had to get his bearing for a moment, which was just fine. His mother was waking up his two younger sisters in the room with him. Normal families would probably segregate their different gendered siblings' sleeping arrangements in that unspoken rule of society. Normal families didn't have eight children in their house.
It wasn't unusual. At least, for him. It was just a fact of life, in his eyes. The sun shined(and hurt to look at), cake was delicious, he had seven sisters, and he shared a room with two of them.
Of course, it hadn't always been that way. His five older sisters had always been there, as had his sister, Amberly, who was a year younger than him. Then, he had happily become a big brother to his youngest sister Lana, who had just… popped up out of nowhere one day when he was three. It was one of those earliest memories of his that all humans have; those murky and hazy thoughts that seem to be more dream than reality.
He never dwelled on those thoughts though. He would when he was older, as all children are want to do, but for now, he accepted it with that unquestioning nonchalance so common in children. Such was the joyous innocence of a child. There was one memory though, about today maybe, that he was forgetting, something important.
Eh, he'd remember it or he wouldn't. Childhood problem-solving at its finest.
He shuffled down the hall, already filled with the sounds of girls getting ready for the day.
"Coral, hold still so I can brush your hair, please."
"You're pulling it! It hurts!"
"Daphne! Get out of my room! Mom!"
"Daphne!" His mother called, balancing her four year old daughter on her hip and holding the hand of her six year old on her other side, "You stay out of Jasmine's room! You know today is a big day for her!"
"But she's not even gonna be here for another day!" Cried a tall sixteen year old girl.
"Daphne Evans Arc!" Her tone was stern, the 'full-name', 'no-more-nonsense' tone. "We agreed that you can have it when she leaves! And not a moment before! Besides, you're not even going to be using it for almost a year anyway !"
"But-""No 'buts' young lady! You are not too old to be grounded at school for pushing buttons. Am I understood?"
The pixie haired girl sulked. She most certainly did not pout. Heaven help anyone who said that Daphne Arc, a tomboy with fingerless gloves and combat boots, pouted.
"...Fine…"
Yes, such was life in the household of David and Juniper Arc. Never a single quiet day. A maddening drama that could only be handled by a constant exposure to estrogen over the course of years.
Sometimes, his dad looked really tired, and Jaune could never figure out why.
Jaune walked into the dining room area.
Speaking of dads, his father was at the head of their huge dinner table, having just come back from a mission. He was reading one of those papers that were full of boring adult stuff, like 'plans' and 'politics'. For some reason, his dad didn't seem to like reading the latter. He always liked to refer to it as 'stupid bulls'. It always sounded like that wasn't the full name he was gonna say, but his Mom would always cut him off with an angry face and a low tone of 'Dave'. He couldn't understand why his dad didn't like it, but read it anyways. It had to be an adult thing. Jaune himself didn't care for the paper. Unless it was Sunday. Sunday had the cartoons. He never understood their humor, but the drawings looked funny, at least.
"Morning...Dad." David Arc looked up from his tabloid, and gave a wide toothy grin. It would seem that his son was starting to enter that age; the age where every boy wants to be a big man, but still wants to call their father 'Daddy' instinctually.
"Morning kiddo!" He replied with amusement. Jaune walked over to the table, and took his official spot, right between where his sisters, Saphron and Daphne, sat. A strategic placement by his parents. Daphne tended to butt heads with both her older and immediate younger sister. In front of him sat a tower of pancakes, a bowl containing a sea of scrambled eggs, and a plate full of bacon.
He eyed them hungrily, but waited. It was an official rule of the house; everyone eats together.
"Big day today, eh? First day of a new school year." A small nod with a grunt of acknowledgement was his answer. He was still tired. His dad cocked an eyebrow, but otherwise kept his face mostly impassive.
"You excited for Jasmine?"
Jaune blinked. Jasmine? What?
That's when it came back to him. His sister was leaving today. She was going to Beacon A-ka-dummy. To become a huntress.
"Oh yeah…" he mumbled. How could he have forgotten that? Huntsmen were super duper important. They were the heroes of Everyone, after all. He wanted to be a huntsman. Out of his sight, David Arc snorted lightly, mouthing 'oh yeah,' and shaking his head with a smile over a mug of coffee.
Jaune didn't know what to think of his sister's soon to be departure. In a way, it was cool! Really cool! His sister was gonna learn to be a hero! His really cool big sister! He heard often how popular she was in school. He heard that all his older sisters were, which was extra cool!
It's just… his sister was leaving.
Now, having siblings away from the house was nothing new to Jaune. A few of them went to combat school. Signal Academy, in fact. Not having them there for a good portion of the year was something that he was used to. But, with every summer break and holiday in Signal, his sisters always moved back. Jasmine moving to Beacon meant that she was an adult now. She was, at most, gonna be back for a week or two during the summer, not for the two months and holiday breaks that Signal Academy had for their schedule. For all he knew, she was leaving for good.
It was hard to swallow. She had been there for all his life. Sisters weren't supposed to leave. Not for good.
Of course, it didn't help matters that Jasmine was his one last defence in the house.
Sometimes… His other older sisters would get ideas.
Ideas that involved makeup.
And hair ties.
He didn't like those ideas.
The rest of his sisters did though. Often were the times that he would find himself grabbed, made to sit still under giggling eyes and nimble hands, and then photographed to his great embarrassment. Jasmine, while she did join in on the "fun", knew where the line was to be drawn. He remembered one time a year ago that his four older siblings, Daphne leading them, had once brought him into one of their rooms. They had a dress, a pink dress. It was the eldest Arc that came to his rescue. She had gone and grabbed their parents, and it didn't look like she liked the idea as much as the others. In fact, it looked like she disliked the idea more than their parents. She had been frowning much harder than they had been after all. That she came to his rescue apparently didn't matter at all to his parents, who had given his savior and hostage takers a very stern talking to that night. They never took it that far again, but he knew, he just knew, that they wanted to try it again.
He could see it in their eyes.
Once she was gone…
He shivered.
Yes, he was definitely going to miss his awesome big sister. He wanted to stop thinking about it, it was way too sad a thought to start the day for him. So, he decided to ask a question on his mind to the one man he looked up to. He was also the only man he had to look up to, but that's besides the point.
"Hey Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"How much is a billion?" His dad cocked an eyebrow at him, curious, but over-all desensitized from years of random questions from growing children already. He decided to answer the parent way, blunt and short.
"It's a lot."
Jaune pouted.
"But how much is it?"
His dad put down the tabloid and leaned back with a sigh. He might as well humor his son.
"It's… a number no one really sees a lot, Jaune. Imagine- actually, no. Here."
He pulled out his wallet, and took out a 100 Lien note.
"So we got a hundred lien here, right?" Jaune nodded, he had never handled that much money before. It was a lot already.
"Now let's make it a thousand Lien." He stacked nine more notes on top of it, able to do so through the rather high paying career of being a huntsman. Jaune's eyes went round at the stack. It was the most he'd ever seen in his life.
"Now, that's a lot of money. It's worth a lot, but it's actual size isn't very big, is it?" He asked. Jaune nodded. He could lose something like that faster than it took him to walk to school.
"If you were to have enough of these notes to make one billion Lien, it would be a stack almost as tall as me that would completely cover the front lawn."
Jaune's eyes were saucers. Their front lawn was Big. With a capital 'b'.
"Woah…" he uttered in awe.
"Woah is right." His father nodded sagely, "Almost no one ever sees that much, but who knows? Maybe when you're older and get your own business, or become a lawyer, you'll see that much."
Jaune pulled a face.
"But I don't wanna be a lawyer," he whined, "I wanna be a huntsman! Like you and Mom and Jasmine when she's done!"
He never noticed his father wince.
"Ah. Well. We'll see when you get older. You might change your mind…"
Jaune shook his head vehemently. Huntsmen were the most awesome thing you could be!
"I won't! I'll be the best huntsman there is! Then Daphne and Saffron and Coral and Jamie won't be able to put makeup on me again!"
David Arc smiled and shook his head with a soft chuckle.
"Now Jaune," he chided softly, eagerly steering the topic away from where it was going, "they wouldn't do that if they didn't love their little brother."
"Easy for you to say," Jaune muttered, eyeing the pancakes, "You ain't their little brother."
His dad opened his mouth to respond, then closed it with a conceding nod. It was a most simple and valid point. The two proceeded to bask in a comfortable and masculine silence of bonding between father and son.
Soon, the drumming of feet on wooden floors announced the arrival of the rest of their family. The female half(and therefore the majority) of the Arc clan flooded into the dining room, overwhelming the small bastion of testosterone that had previously been living in quiet harmony. A tragic and horrific killing.
"Dave, darling, why do you have a thousand Lien out at the dinner table? Put that away before you lose it!"
It wouldn't be remembered.
As portions were served around the table, Dave heard his son, amidst the clattering of utensils, and feminine roar of conversation, mutter to himself.
"That means it would be a really long time, wouldn't it?"
He rolled his eyes. Oh, to have a child's train of thought again. He smiled. Just another good ol' morning in the Arc family.
"Saf'! Why are you grabbing syrup!? You said you'd be watching your weight, you liar!"
"It doesn't count here Daph', it's breakfast!"
Leading into a good ol' day…
"Oh, I'm gonna miss you so much!" Juniper Arc sobbed on her daughter's shoulder, who hugged her back awkwardly.
"You stay safe, you hear me? And call as soon as you land!"
Jasmine scrunched her face. She had already said her goodbyes to everyone, with her immediate younger siblings having already left for Signal. Their leaving hadn't been nearly as dramatic, but it would seem that a certain parent had trouble with the idea of a bird leaving her nest.
"Mom, it's really not all that different from going to Signal. You… you don't need to cry so much."
The woman only cried harder. Her daughter looked over to her father with a begging expression. He sighed.
"Alright June," he urged his wife softly, slowly prying her off the young woman, "I need to take her to the bullhead now, otherwise she won't be able to attend the initiation. And you need to get the rest of the kids to school."
"*sniff* Okay… *sniff* okay…" she whispered, to herself more than anything. She fixed her daughter with a teary glare and a pointed finger, "You had better call. Have fun, and be safe!"
Jasmine nodded an affirmative. Behind her, Dave had started the trek towards the large machine. Her mother took a recovering moment to look behind her at the man, and smiled slyly.
"And be sure to tell me of any boys who catch your eye. You can even bring them here during the break." She stage-whispered with a conspirative wink.
The man tripped, whirling around to stare incredulously at her and mouth out the words 'fuck no', repeatedly while shaking his head.
His wife ignored him in favor of smiling at her firstborn. She knew perfectly well what she had just done, and the future embarrassment she had just subjected her daughter to.
Jasmine smiled awkwardly.
"If...if I find someone… maybe." She stumbled out. No way in hell she would. Her father was one of- if not the-most overbearingly protective parents in Ansel, maybe even Vale. And that was just him. They may be prone to butting heads with each other as all families with a large population of children are prone to do, but let it not be known that they weren't fiercely protective of each other.
Arcs look after each other after all.
One last hug, and then they were off, two of them starting their short trek to the awaiting transport.
"Bye girls!" The girl called out with a wave behind her.
"Bye Jaune!" She added in consideration for the lone male in the group.
Jaune smiled, and waved his arm back and forth over his head.
"Bye sis!" He yelled. "You better do good there! When it's my turn, I'm gonna try harder than you!"
His sister chuckled awkwardly. Beside, and slightly behind him, Jaune never noticed his mother's smile dim.
"And here we are," His mother said, "Ansel Elementary and Middle School."
Ansel had started a small village, but had grown into a decent sized settlement in the years following his birth, or so he was told. Before, every educational opportunity had only been available through a single school house. The influx of migrants had quickly proved too much for the overburdened teachers, and all available hands, both new and native, had gone into the creation of several new institutions of learning, along with other establishments key to the survival of a growing society.
The original inhabitants of Ansel had been most worried about the immigration at first. Such a wave of fresh new people was sure to invite danger, the grimm being a primary concern due to the negative emotions that came with moving. With the fresh faces however, came several experienced huntsmen, eagerly searching for a quieter life away from the city, for them or any fresh starting, or already existing, family they had. They proved instrumental in keeping the peace, and protecting the bustling town from brigades, bandits, and monsters alike.
A few of their family members and some of the already present town residents had eagerly taken on the role of teachers in the school, as experience with children gave them a handicap in their favor when it came to teaching.
His mother was not one of them. She had taken to working at Ansel's clinic, now a small hospital.
She fawned over each of her children, as if going through a checklist, which given the amount she had birthed, was most definitely a preferred method.
"Got your lunches?" Various nods were the reply. A few more items were gone over, bags, books, things of that nature. Finally it was time for the goodbyes.
"I have to take Lana to pre-school now," she informed them, kneeling down to kiss each of their cheeks and foreheads, "be smart, pay attention, and remember, strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!"
""Yes mom."" Came the chorus response with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Most parents didn't pay so much attention to their kids right outside of school. Most parents weren't Juniper Arc.
"Alright," she beamed down at them, "off ya go!" The children of the Arc name left, heading to the school as a group. Her smile faltered, seeing one of them lag behind. She sighed, then called out to her child.
"Jaune!" He turned to her with a questioning brow.
They had arrived early, there was still some time.
"Come here." She beckoned to him. He did so with hesitation, as if sensing how the conversation was gonna go. Meeting him halfway, with Lana in hand, she kneeled down so that they were eye level.
She smiled softly for a moment, a slightly resigned smile.
"I know that you don't wanna go and learn…" she began. Jaune shook his head at the probe, never seeing it for what it was.
"I have no problem with school. I love learning!" He denied. It was true, he loved learning, and he didn't hate the school. But it was an evasion, a lie by omission that, despite being a lie, and painfully obvious to the woman, still made her smile, if only a tiny bit. Foolproof to children. Open to adults.
If she didn't nip it in the bud now, her child would be running circles around everyone when he was older. It certainly didn't help that he had five older sisters to learn it from.
"But you certainly don't want to go." She pointed out.
Caught red handed, an expression of guilt flashed across his face. He looked down at his feet.
"Do I have to?" He mumbled.
She knew why. His ability to quickly recover at home was legendary, but it didn't hide what was going on at school.
She didn't know why. She had suspicions, but she didn't know for sure..
"Hey, look at me." She murmured. He did. Let it be known that Jaune always obeyed his parents, especially his mother, "No one is alone forever, okay?"
Jaune nodded, blindly accepting her word as law.
"There's a reason I remind you and your sisters, every time you start a class, the fact about strangers."
"They're friends we haven't met yet." He finished weakly. Juniper Arc knew, she wasn't gullible after all, that there was a definite limit to that mantra.
She wasn't innocent, years of a huntsman career coupled with vagrants and bandits slain by her hand ensured that. There were some bad people in the world, some sick and twisted minds among them. There were none here though, especially in an elementary school. Being a small, if growing, town ensured that. To children, for whom outside affection and social interaction were critical for growth, the phrase was perfect.
She knew of course, that Ansel was also growing, and with growth came strife. But by the time the town was big enough to house those problems, her children would already be old enough to use common sense. The modest and nicely dressed boy or girl was a potential good friend. The drunk man who had stubble and a tongue to make sailors blush was not.
Secretly, she hoped Jaune didn't turn out like Dave. In his eyes, everyone was innocent until proven guilty.
"Here at school," she continued, "is the chance to make friends that stick with you for years. A chance to be open with people other than your family. And a chance to find new things to talk to new people about!"
She could see doubt in his eyes. Not fully questioning her words, but not fully believing them. He was stubborn like that. A trait she was ashamed to say came from her. He didn't understand, couldn't understand unless he learned to break out of his shell. She hoped he would. Here on the sidelines, motivation was all the support that she could supply.
"So go in there, and make this the start of a wonderful year." She smiled, and he smiled in response to her infectious attitude, "And you know what?"
"What?" He asked, ensuring her that she had his undivided attention. Her smile grew.
"If you don't succeed today, then there is always tomorrow, and the day after that, and every day after."
Technically true. Timing was unimportant at so early in the game, especially with how many new faces there were gonna be this year.
"Okay." He nodded.
"Okay." She echoed with finality, and gave him a tight hug.
"Love you Mom," he whispered, and Juniper nodded.
"I love you too." She squeezed him and stood up with her daughter, "Now, off you go. Lana? Say 'bye bye Jaune!'"
"By-by Jon!" Her daughter cheered from her side, and that seemed to lift the boy's spirit even more. He waved them goodbye, then headed into school.
She watched him go with a smile, one that diminished when he was out of sight. She still had to keep it up though, for her daughter's sake. It was her first day of preschool.
"Alright missy," she turned her head to the girl and pinched her nose, making her scream and giggle in response, "let's get you to preschool!"
"Okay!" She turned away from the school, deep in thought on her one and only son.
"What's your friend's name, Holly?" The girl smiled as attention shifted to her. She was a social butterfly from the city, and eager to be included in conversation.
"My friend's name is Matthew!" She answered brightly.
"But that's a boy's name!" Said one of her classmates, a large boy by the name of Nathan who had been living in town for a while, "Your friend has to be a girl, like you!"
"Why?" She asked, looking at him in confusion, "He's imaginary."
"Your friend has to be the same as you!" He argued, as if it was common law.
"Is he cool?" Asked another kid, a girl, who had no concept of gender segregation as some kids tended to early on. The questioned girl furrowed her brow.
"I guess..." she decided with a shrug of her shoulders, "He's not real, so it's not like it's important."
"It is though!" Another boy argued, "My friend's name is Jack, and he's a huntsman!"
"Yeah, that's cool and all," said Nathan, "but mine is a huntsman too! He's the best huntsman! And he's a werewolf!"
The others in the group didn't believe him, but didn't feel like arguing with him. Nathan tended to be very pushy, and was known to get physical if things didn't go his way.
"If you like him like that," Holly shrugged.
She turned to see a blonde boy at his desk, drawing.
"How about you?" She asked.
"Huh?" The boy asked, looking up to her. Behind her, Nathan frowned.
"Do you have an imaginary friend?" She reiterated.
The classmate blinked blue eyes a few times at the question.
"... I guess…" he said slowly. Holly smiled.
"What's their name?"
"...I dunno…"
It sounded like an admittance. It also sounded like he didn't care much for talking. Holly had heard about people like this in the various books she liked to read. An introvert. Someone who liked to read and do things by themselves more than play and talk with people.
Holly liked to read too. She loved reading a lot. But she also liked to talk to people, and play tag and hide-and-go-seek as well. She was an extrovert.
"Is he cool?"
"...I...don't know…" he frowned. Holly was intrigued.
"You don't know if he's cool or not?" She asked with a giggle. Everyone else giggled with her, though some of them sounded rather mean.
The boy seemed to shrink in his seat.
"I don't talk with him that much." He admitted with a mumble that she barely heard. "He's… Not really nice…"
Everyone else seemed confused or weirded out by the information, but Holly giggled again. This kid was kinda funny! And by the sound of it, he had a very vivid imagination! She decided in that moment, as had previously happened many a time in Human history, known and unknown, to do that which every extrovert had done to an introvert they had taken a liking too.
She decided to adopt him.
She plopped down in the seat next to him. He seemed confused by this action, his eyes flicking over to Nathan who bristled at not being the center of attention.
"My name's Holly!" She smiled again, all teeth, and holding out a hand to the boy.
He looked shocked, looking back and forth between her hand, her eyes, and everyone around them, who shifted awkwardly at having such a weird kid included.
"'M Jaune." He eventually mumbled, taking her hand and shaking it with a serious expression.
Holly had to fight hard not to giggle again. His look was just too funny.
"Want to be friends?" She asked excitedly.
"Now just a sec here!" Nathan butted in, and she turned to look at him. "You don't want to be his friend Holly!"
She frowned and asked him, "Why not?"
Nathan seemed surprised for a moment, then answered.
"Because Jaune's weird." Jaune seemed to deflate at the words. Holly didn't like seeing that. She looked back over to Nathan with a bigger frown.
"That's rather mean to say," she pointed out, "I don't know if I like you being rude."
"It's not rude if it's the truth!" Nathan reasoned, crossing his arms like he was in the right, "Believe me! I've been trying to make him stop since last year. He won't change."
Holly's frown turned to a glare.
"That's a terrible thing to do!", she hissed, "Where I come from, that's bullying. And I'd rather be friends with a 'weirdo' than a bully. So leave him alone!"
Nathan looked shocked that she would defend the boy. His thunderstruck expression soon turned to a sneer.
"Fine!" He shouted, "Stay next to him and be his friend! But you're not gonna like it!"
Holly was disappointed. It would appear that bullies were everywhere, even in the small and pretty town.
"I'm not gonna take the word of a bully." She declared. Nathan looked angry at the remark.
"Come on guys," Nathan ordered, "let's leave the weirdos." He stomped off. The other children, fearing the social taboo of being labeled as part of the "wrong crowd" left with him.
Holly watched them go to the other side of the classroom with a huff. They had seemed like such nice kids too.
"You don't have to be my friend," she heard, and she turned to look at the messy haired boy beside her.
"Why?" She asked.
"No one really likes me. And Nathan's always convinced new people to do the same." He admitted, as if that explained everything, "No one wants to be seen with a weirdo."
Holly frowned. That seemed really cruel. Well, her mom had taught her better than how the other kids were acting, and right now she saw a lonely boy who could use a friend.
"I'll be friends with whoever I want to." She declared with a bit of pride. It was a big girl declaration. The boy looked surprised by the statement. That made Holly sad and very angry.
"I'm not gonna listen to others who like to be such… such…" she was a good girl, and didn't have much of a vocabulary for mean words to pick from.
"My friend likes to call Nathan a brainless and basic monkey." Holly blinked, then turned to look at Jaune incredulously. What type of friend said something like that? He shrugged and gave her a small timid smile.
"Like I said, he's not very nice."
Holly was confused. Who was he talking about? It hit her a moment later.
He was talking about his imaginary friend. It was a joke. A very dirty joke. She smiled nonetheless.
"Friends?" She asked, holding her hand out once more. He almost managed to hide his surprise this time, but as he shook her hand again, Holly decided that the genuine smile that broke his face suited him a lot more.
"Friends." He agreed. Holly, looking for new conversation, looked down at what he was drawing. It looked to be a brown man with a beard and wings. Standing next to him was black colored man with what looked like very long hair caught in a breeze.
"Whatcha drawing?" She asked, pointing to the paper for emphasis.
Jaune followed her finger to the picture and shrugged.
"I dunno," he told her with a shrug, "I saw it in a dream. I like to draw whatever I see when I sleep. I got a whole drawer in my room of different things I've seen."
If the sentence sounded strange, it didn't bother the girl one bit.
"Is the brown man a faunus?" She asked with curiosity. Her parents did not fall to racist ideology like so many others.
"He didn't look like one." Jaune replied. He paused and scrunched his eyebrows, then turned to her with a question.
"Can faunus have wings?" Holly nodded an affirmative.
"Yep!" She confirmed, slightly popping the 'p', "I've seen one with 'em!"
"Really!?"
Another nod.
"...Huh…" Jaune looked back at the drawing with an intrigued face, his eyebrows high on his forehead, "Maybe he was a faunus…"
"He looks mad."
Jaune couldn't help but laugh.
"He was super mad!"
Holly was nice, Jaune decided after a few days, leaning against a tree with a book in his hand.
It was lunchtime previously, and all the elementary students were out for recess. It was a tactical decision on the teacher's part. They hadn't quite figured out a set schedule yet, so it was decided that, if all the kids would be out at the same time for playing, it would be better to have their bellies full. The kids would be more lethargic and less incidents would happen mixing younger and older kids together. Besides, it was a rather large playground, planned for a future generation of kids larger than what was currently there. It fit all the grades on it comfortably.
Jaune was currently alone right now. He was taking a small break, having played tag with Holly and a few other new kids who didn't seem to mind spending time with the "weird" kid of the class. It had been… fun. Most enjoyable. It was also super tiring he had found out. Thus the need to rest his small legs. Holly had initially been worried, but was persuaded to go around with the others on the condition that he would stay right there. He wasn't going to leave that spot, he had pinky promised.
No one breaks a pinky promise.
He smiled at the thought. He had never made a pinky promise with anyone outside of his family before. That was proof of how quickly Holly had become his friend.
It still surprised him somewhat, that she had decided to. Most of the kids in his year had quickly turned away from the strange boy with his stranger drawings, and until Holly, that nice girl from the city, all of them had left whenever he had made the most grave error. The error of him talking about his…
Imaginary friend.
He dropped his smile.
Yes...
His… Friend.
Young Jaune Arc had an imaginary friend alright. But his was different from others. His wasn't nice. At all.
He was rather jealous of all the other kids. Their imaginary friends were cool. And did cool things like be a huntsman, and a werewolf, and be nice to them.
His was mean.
He never gave him a name. All the other kids' had given them their names. Some kids' even let themselves be seen. His never showed himself at all.
His was also rather mean with words as well. The first time they had talked, his new imaginary friend had demanded that Jaune tell no one about him, not even his parents! He had been about to anyway, as any excited six year old would, but his presumable friend had then told him that both he and his family would be hurt really bad if he did. He never spoke much, but every time he did his words were mean, to everyone and everything, including him! He didn't even try to help Jaune when his sisters decided to have 'fun' with him. He never left Jaune. Well, he did for long periods of time, but he always came back. He also wouldn't even let him get a new friend, as some of the other kids had done. His was determined to stay.
I wish he would go away for good, he thought bitterly, setting the book aside and wrapping his arms around his legs. His 'friend' didn't answer, he almost never did. He looked to the other children on the playground, all running and chasing and laughing. He had been doing that just moments before. It didn't feel like it right now. He felt like he had all of last year, alone and bullied.
"Jaune!" Holly's shout startled him. He looked around wildly for a moment, before seeing her running towards him.
"Hi Holly." He said with a fake smile, he didn't want her to know that he had been sad, she would ask too many questions if he did, and that meant her possibly leaving like all the others. He didn't want to lose his new friend.
His smile however, dropped when she got closer. She looked scared, and perhaps angry as well.
"Jaune!" She gasped, and he knew she must have ran really hard, she was much stronger than him, "You're sister's Amberly right?"
He nodded with a growing concern. Where was she going with this?
"Nathan's picking on her!"
Blue eyes narrowed. And he stood up, looking up at her eyes. A combination of him being short and her being somewhat tall.
"He's what?" He asked with a fiercely low tone. Holly seemed taken aback by his attitude, but quickly recovered.
"Come on!" She urged, "we have to tell a teacher!"
Jaune frowned at the suggestion. Nathan Brake had always had a thing for him, ever since last year, since he had seen Jaune's various drawings and heard him talk(complain really) about his imaginary friend. He had decided then and there that Jaune was a weirdo, and had proceeded to bully the boy. Jaune had done the sensible thing in response then, and had told his teacher. He hadn't wanted to, but it was a suggestion from his imaginary friend of all things. One of the very, very few times that he was anything but mean, numbering a total of two in fact. The first time… wasn't important right now.
The teacher, when told, had done nothing. Now that's a twist on words there. The teacher had done something; Nathan had gotten in trouble, but that had only seemed to increase the boy's dislike of Jaune. He learned to be sneaky, always acting a good boy in class and becoming a bit of a teacher's pet, while secretly taunting Jaune out of sight and ear shot, and steering people away from him to join his own literal child-like gang.
He had tried going to the teacher again, but they had gotten a new one, who simply adored the larger boy, and didn't believe him to be capable of cruelty.
If they went to one now, it probably wouldn't be any different.
It was the reasoning of a child. Adults would have rationalized that the teacher didn't know any of the kids, and hadn't formed any solid opinions on them because it was a brand new class, but an adult Jaune was not.
"No." He decided. This would have to be dealt with, but without a teacher. Holly looked shocked.
"What!?" She demanded, "Jaune, he's bullying her! We gotta get a teacher to stop him!"
"Don't get a teacher." He snapped, stepping past her. She backed away a foot or so, as if the diminutive boy was dangerous.
"He's not touching my sister."
Arcs look after each other after all.
"Gib it bak!" Screamed a teary eyed, pig-tailed, and runny nosed Amberly Arc. The large boy in front of her only held his hand higher.
"Make me, cry-baby!" He taunted.
In his hand was a toy. A doll. Amberly's favorite doll in fact. She always brought it with her to school, much to her mother's exasperation.
Around them, a war was looming on the horizon, Amber's circle of close friends standing behind her and glaring at Nathan's much larger gang, both in numbers and height.
Children were cruel. Nathan had decided to pick on the smaller girl, because she was related to the weirdo, and didn't that make her the same? His posse also had it out for the boy, though not quite as much. It was mob mentality, or perhaps pack mentality, at its cruelest and lowest level. The leader's word was law. He said Jaune Arc was a weirdo, so he was. He said the girl was the boy's sister, and had to be one too, so she had to be one. It was only logical. He laughed at the boy's pain, and now his sister's too, so it had to be funny! Childish logic, innocent in perception, cruel in practice.
"Give it back to her!" Yelled one of Amberly's friends, a very brave girl. Heartless laughter was the response. How could kids be so mean?
Because they were kids, and the implications and substantial weight of modern morality had yet to set into their still developing brains through discipline and constant lecture. It wouldn't for some years.
One girl, rather smart and cool headed for her age, debated on grabbing a teacher. A yell stopped everyone.
"Nathan!" The boy paused, looking over to see the shorty Jaune Arc walking towards him, his new, and therefore equally weird, friend hot on his heels.
"What do you want?" He asked boastfully, he had already figured out how to cheat the system, there was nothing Jaune could do.
"Quit messing with my sister!" Jaune yelled again, his tiny hands balled up in fists of anger.
Nathan was surprised. The boy had never been angry before. He wasn't impressed.
"Why?" He asked, still holding his hand above his head, the other blocking the still crying six year old, "she's just as weird as you!"
A few laughs came from his little group behind him, though not quite so many as usual. They were just fine with torturing the one boy, but wasn't going after his sister kinda pushing it?
Jaune's glare deepened. He had handled the bullying just fine. Had managed it for a year in fact, a very large stretch in the life of a seven year old. His sister getting bullied was unacceptable. No, it was beyond unacceptable. It was…
Stupid.
Nathan blinked, then matched Jaune with a glare of his own.
"What did you call me?" He asked, for Jaune had repeated the word out loud.
"You're stupid," Jaune reported, "And a bully, and a crap jerk."
A sharp intake of breaths was heard from more than half the ring that had formed around them. Some children had heard far worse from their parents. The rest had yet to even use the word 'crap'. It was a most vile word.
Nathan's glare had turned frosty. He dropped Amberly's doll, focused entirely on him. Amberly didn't reach for the doll, wide blue eyes watching the exchange in fear.
It was what Jaune wanted, to forget about his sister. He was successful, and now the four foot two giant bore down on the three foot ten dwarf.
Nathan slowly trudged up to him, a hostile glint in his eye.
"I'm gonna hit you now." He simply stated.
Jaune didn't flinch. In his mind a ghost breathed, shadowed and muffled voices whispering silently in his ear. He knew what that meant.
His imaginary friend was here, and about to speak.
Say this to the monkey, it whispered softly as he approached, and Jaune listened, and obliged.
"Stop being simple…" he drawled with a sneer.
A moment of confused silence all around, especially from the larger child, but he didn't pause for long. He didn't have to understand to know it was an insult. It was the tone of voice and the accompanying look of disgust that broke his restraints.
A small meaty hand slapped Jaune's chest, slightly bruising him and pushing him away. Jaune reciprocated. It wasn't as effective. Nathan still looked surprise from the returned attack. Then his glare deepened. He hit Jaune again, harder this time. Jaune did the same. It escalated. A slap turned into a shove, and rolled into bodily strikes, avalanching into a childish, but no less furious, flurry of attacks. And it only seemed to increase in intensity.
Screams and cries surrounded them, the crowd moving with the boys and being driven by an instinctual need to see the violence. It was much more exciting than any of the playground equipment.
Holly was screaming something. What it was, Jaune couldn't say, his vision had tunneled, focusing on the source of his social misery for the last seventh of his life, and the fight between them.
A fight he was losing.
Nathan was larger than him, and in the world of primitive locomotion that was child inflexibility, that was everything. His shoves pushed farther, his slaps hurt more, his occasional punch even moreso. That didn't dissuade Jaune though, as he did his damnedest to give as good as he got, slapping, and hitting, and grappling the titanic enemy before him.
A childish brawl, fueled by what felt to be a lifetime of animosity, and deafened by the shrieks of panicking and delighted children. It was, of course, rather short. Adrenaline being what it is, and doing what it did, slowed the world around them, locking the two boys in their own field of time, their only focus being each other.
Jaune could vaguely hear Amberly crying far away, before a hand most definitely bigger than his connected with his head, sending the world around him into an explosion of fire and shadow, and tingling his skull. He growled through the pain. He wanted the boy to stop; to stop the bullying, and the taunting, and the hitting, but he just wouldn't. A barrage of hands, and maybe even a foot thrown in, battered his tiny body.
Jaune decided, in a haze of sharp and throbbing pain, barely dulled by what little chemicals his body could send through him, that if he wasn't going to defeat his target, then at the very least, he could certainly make him bleed. Maybe that would get the bully to leave him alone?
He reached a hand out, past the arms now gripping his shoulders and pushing him down. Nails, fingernails he had been neglecting to have trimmed for a few days now, dug into the cheek of Nathan's head, and he scratched, breaking the skin and tracing three small lines from his cheek to the corner of his mouth. Those lines quickly turned red, and began to drip.
Nathan yowled in pain, leaping off of him to stand up, clutching the wound and inspecting his now red fingers.
A collective gasp rang out from the onlookers, as bystander and fighter alike took a moment to stare in silence. Unfortunately, Nathan didn't cry, didn't run, or do anything of that nature. He was used to rough housing, and did not take the attack lightly.
They made eye contact, panting at each other, and Nathan's gobsmacked face turned livid.
"I hate you." Was all he said.
I hate you too." Jaune panted.
Nathan's eyes turned downward, and he bent over before standing back up.
In his fist was a rock. Jaune's eyes went wide.
He straddled Jaune, who weakly tried to push him away. He brought the rock down, and children screamed in panic, no longer enjoying the sight before them. They had stopped enjoying it a while ago.
It was a small mercy, and a point in Jaune's favor, that the fight had left Nathan almost as drained as he was, otherwise, the stone would have inflicted far more damage of a far more serious nature than it did.
It crashed into his forehead, and his head cracked against the ground. He briefly was blinded by the pain, a roar in his ears muting out even the screams of the children around him. It faded away, and he saw the stone above him, ready to come crashing down again.
Nathan, blinded by rage and already lacking the moral compass in humans that is obliterated in all times of severe anger and strife, was trying to kill him.
Jaune raised his arms, doing his best to block his face and head against the assault, as the weapon struck again and again, bruising and cutting his arms, and glancing off the top of his skull. If the assault continued, Jaune was sure to get a severe head injury, at the very least.
"Jauney!" Came a high pitched shriek, and Amberly, brave brave Amberly, threw herself at the much larger Nathan, slamming against him at beating her fists on his head and back with little effect.
What It did do however, was get the boy's attention off of Jaune. The stoning stopped as he turned to shove her away with one arm, lost in pools of rage before turning back to the boy under him. She stumbled back for a moment, then came back and continued her assault with a screeching cry.
"Stop hurting Jauney!" She tearfully demanded.
It grabbed Nathan's undivided attention, and he stood up to turn on her.
Below him, Jaune was gasping lungfulls of air with a shaky breath, his arms having lost strength and feeling, had fallen to his side.
He couldn't see or hear anything, he was in that twilight zone, that area that balanced on a knife's edge, his brain a chemical soup doing its best to drown out the body's screaming nerves. One moment ready to bring him into clarity with aches and pains, the other ready to drag him into oblivion.
He started to make out a figure above him. Nathan, he realised. He hated Nathan right now. Why did he hate him? He didn't know, he didn't care, he tried to get up, but couldn't. His body betrayed him, and all he could do was watch.
He heard the bully's voice, sounding so bubbly, and so far away when the boy was literally right on top of him.
Nathan was growling at a small girl. Amberly, he realised. Amberly was his sister. He had come to protect his sister, hadn't he? How could he do that on the ground? He tried once more to get up, and once more he failed.
"Don't touch me," growled a bruised and bloody-cheeked Nathan to a tear-stained and trembling Amberly, "You weird walking bag of crap!"
He grabbed her by the hair. It was easy to do. She was so short. And in front of everyone, he threw her to the ground as she screamed.
All the kids gasped in shock. Some of them began yelling at the boy. He didn't hear them, he was deaf with fury.
Jaune watched it happen, watched his sister tumble to the ground and even skid a little bit. She definitely skinned her arms.
She started to wail.
Jaune's eyes sharpened at the sight. He heard voices, echoes in his mind preluding something sinister. He knew what it was. He wanted to talk, again, apparently.
His imaginary friend.
He did not sound happy.
He sounded evil.
That insignificant bastard cretin dares to harm your flesh and blood! It hissed. Yes, Jaune could see that, he didn't understand some of the words, but he could understand what he was trying to say. So yes, he could see that. He didn't like that. His brow furrowed, and his face paled. The kids that hadn't already ran off to get a teacher, ordered so by the very insightful and panicking Holly, seemed fidgety for some reason, as if the air had suddenly become most uncomfortable for them. He was starting to feel better now, his cuts didn't seem to sting quite so bad, and the bruises on his chest, arms, and head had been muted from a pounding hammer to a dull throb.
No, he realised, he didn't like that sight at all.
The voice, his imaginary friend, spoke again. Another suggestion, the fourth one he had ever given him. It sounded calm, he sounded collected. Jaune knew his friend was anything but.
Hurt. him.
So Jaune did.
Every child, near and far, jumped and flinched at the utterly inhuman roar from a human mouth- Jaune's mouth- as he launched to his feet at a speed many thought impossible because of his wounds, and bodily slammed into the small of Nathan's back, knocking both to the ground.
It was simply violence. Violence of an animalistic nature as Jaune proceeded to absolutely maul the boy that had been previously winning.
Nathan, further enraged by the pain of the tackle, fought back with all that he had, punching and kneeing and elbowing the boy on top of him, but nothing affected the boy-turned-rabid-animal. Jaune punched him, kicked his knees and shins, scratched his arms and face with nails that quickly turned ineffective from a buildup of separated skin, and when he could no longer scratch?
Jaune bit him. Clamping onto his target's right shoulder with his teeth and continuing to strike all over his body with wildly flailing limbs.
That's not to say that Jaune was invincible. Every punch that connected with his arms, head, and chest left a nasty bruise. Every knee into his thighs and gut sunk deep and tingled and throbbed like cold fingers exposed to heat. And every slap sent his arm flying away, and caused his head to snap to whatever direction they flew in until he secured his head in place via his mouth.
At first, Nathan's cries were of pain and anger as he fought back.
Now they were screams of pain and fear as he tried to get away.
Another voice was screaming, but Jaune couldn't understand them as he ravaged the boy's arms, legs, torso, and face. He didn't want to. All he wanted right now was for this damn pile of flesh and cloth under him to go away, get out of his sight and leave him and his sister, especially his sister, alone.
He was going to keep beating it till it did.
"JAUNE!" A voice, shrieking so loud and so close to his ear that his eardrum felt like it almost burst, made him look up.
It was Holly. She looked horrible, with large fat ugly tears pouring from her eyes, and copious amounts of snot dribbling from her nose over her lips and chin.
"STOP IT!"
Jaune stopped, looking at her in confusion. Why was she telling him to stop? Didn't she know? Didn't she know how much misery he went through at the hands and words of the boy underneath him?
His tunnel vision started to subside, and he could see his sister Amberly standing a few feet behind where Holly knelt in front of him. She was worse off than Holly was. After all, Holly wasn't whimpering in fright at the sight of him.
All the children were, he realised, looking around him at what little remained, rooted in place from the horror they just witnessed. They cried, they trembled, some covered their ears with their hands and squeezed their eyes shut. A few of them had even peed themselves.
They had also backed away, creating a ten foot gap between themselves and them in the center, a circle twenty feet in diameter. There was a shifting under him, and Nathan started to crawl away, dragging himself with bloody arms and crying, trying to escape the monster that attacked him. Jaune let him, leaving just him, his sister, and Holly.
Jaune felt alone.
"Jauney…" The whimper drew his eyes to his sister. Why did she look so scared? Didn't she know that he was fighting for her?
"Plees stop." She begged.
It was like someone had pulled a plug to the cord powering him, and all the energy he felt flooding his entirety shut off and disappeared with a snap.
He collapsed, a puppet with its strings cut. Holly and Amberly cried out in shock.
"What in the world is- OH MY GODS!" A teacher had come over, having been grabbed by one of the students who Holly had told to do so the moment Nathan had decided to pick up a weapon. She had come upon the scene expecting two boys wrestling in petty childish anger.
She found two boys covered in blood, belonging more in the scene of a crime than a schoolyard.
She broke through the ring, gently shoving aside two boys to get to the wounded children. That seemed to break the spell that had rendered the onlookers horrifically stupefied. A few made to run away, and the teacher's voice thundered out.
"NONE OF YOU ARE GOING ANYWHERE! EVERYONE WAIT RIGHT OVER THERE!" An imperious finger pointed to the school's brand new swingset, the closest land marker in the teacher's line of sight. They obliged in hasty fear. The only ones remaining were the two boys and girls who they had stood around.
The woman stormed up to Jaune and Holly, then glanced over to Amberly. She grimaced, then spoke.
"That means you too Amberly."
The girl didn't respond, frozen in place and shaking.
"Amberly-""Mrs. Woodsworth!"
Her eyes snapped down, and Holly shrunk under her slowly increasing glare.
"A- Amberly is his sister." She frightfully stuttered, pointing to the red boy lying on his back. Mrs. Woodsworth looked over the boy for a brief moment before the full force of her gaze focused on the kneeling girl once more.
"Were you involved in the fight?" She asked with a snappish ire, her patience had worn thin very quickly.
Holly shook her head, her brown ponytail swishing around wildly.
"I told one of the others to go grab you," she explained rapidly, "And I got Jaune to stop."
The woman's glare receded, but only a tiny bit, as she sighed.
"Go," she ordered, pointing a finger to the building and then to Jaune's sister, "get Mr. Henning from his classroom, take Amberly with you, and then come with him. Right. Back. Here."
Holly obeyed, coaxing the little girl into action with a grab of the hand. She didn't watch them leave, instead kneeling down to inspect the boy lying on his back in the dirt. He was covered in welts and bruises, and his arms had multiple cuts, but he appeared better off than the other boy. After all, Nathan was crying, Jaune wasn't.
His breathing was less labored and he had watched the entire exchange.
Mrs. Woodsworth was led to believe she had found the perpetrator.
"And what," she began with a growl, "reason did you have to attack another student?"
Jaune took a moment to respond, inhaling a large amount before answering.
"He hurt Amberly."
The teacher blinked, surprised by the information.
"...ma'am." The boy added in an afterthought.
She kept up her mask of anger. After all, she was indeed very angry and disappointed.
"And that gives you an excuse to scratch and hit him?" Claw would have been a more appropriate word, some of those cuts on the boy looked deep.
Jaune managed a shrug at the question.
"My imaginary friend thinks so."
That appeared to have been the wrong answer, as the woman's eyes flashed and her nostrils flared in response.
"Mr. Arc," she seethed, "now is really not the time for jokes. From what I see, you and another student just tried to kill each other at seven years old and not even two weeks into the school year. Don't you dare go blaming and talking about someone who isn't real."
But… But he is real, Jaune wanted to argue. He couldn't though; that tunnel in his vision was back, slowly creeping in from the outsides of his sight and closing inwards. The teacher above him was saying something, but he couldn't understand her.
But her statement, and his planned response made him realise, and briefly wonder in terrible uncertainty.
Imaginary friends weren't supposed to be real. It was in the name. Imaginary.
So why could his talk to him?
Why could his respond to what he said?
Are… Are you there? He asked, hoping for a reply, a response, even if it was mean and heartless as his imaginary friend usually was. Only silence answered, a cold and empty quiet so silent it was almost loud.
As his vision darkened to squawking figures above him, as he finally slipped off the knife's edge into dreamless unconsciouceness, Jaune began to wonder if his friend was actually imaginary.
Perhaps... it'd be better... if he didn't know...
Whew! Boys and Girls I have been typing up a God damn storm lately. My fingers haven't typed this much in years.
A tiny bit of ultra violence this chapter, I remember entering a little bit of a rush writing it, and time seemed to stretch out for me. I go back to proof-read and it feels like I read through it in five minutes. Just like any real fight, so that made me somewhat happy.
Some might wonder if it's a bit too much for seven year olds. To those people I say that children can get really, really nasty if left unchecked. Lord of the Flies anyone?
As for the teacher, I tried putting myself in her shoes. If a student just attempted murder in my eyes, I wouldn't have any patience for them, even if they were seven.
On another note...
You wanna know a little secret? I've been typing this shit on my phone.
That might not mean much of anything to some of you, but to me that's just WRONG.
Twenty… eight… THOUSAND FUCKING WORDS.
The next time my fingers touch an actual keyboard, I might just cry in happiness.
A couple questions were asked in the reviews that I would be happy to address:
PAIRINGS! Pairings, pairings, pairings… PAIRINGS! What? You didn't think I would leave our boy by himself, would you?
Who!? Well, you'll just have to find out, won't you?
How will this Cthulhu shit affect the world of Remnant as a whole? I won't lie to you. I'm working on that. That's the far future. Right now I've got a story line that will get me through a dozen and a half chapters or so. That's already a SHIT ton of typing with the way this is turning out. Once again, I'm working on it.
That's… that's about it really. Nothing else to say.
You folks have a good day. Until next time!