The forest is as quiet as it has ever been. The forest, now with a boomerang-shaped path cutting through it, has much less Grimm inside than before. They have become a little bit more cautious after the metal ball of doom rolled around.
They would probably be telling stories to their Grimm descendants about the night that the metal ball rolled through, tearing down hundreds of trees in its wake. It was set to cut the forest in twain until it stopped halfway. Then a comet was seen, and the ball turned around, going out of the forest, never to return.
But Grimm can't talk. Or have babies. Sucks to be them.
This peacefulness was disturbed, not by a Grimm, but by three pairs of footsteps. The red, white, and black trio approach the forest entrance. The first thing that catches their eye is the U-shaped curve that cuts through it. It's filled in with some plants now, but it still stands in stark contrast to the tall trees of the rest of the forest.
The red one drags out 7 logs and puts them in a circle surrounding a nearby stump. They wait around before another arrives, this one with scarlet hair.
The four take their seats and wait as the night continues on. The shattered moon of Remnant sets light down on this group, but not enough. The black and scarlet ones go to gather some wood. Luckily fallen branches and twigs are absolutely everywhere. They come back not a minute later with arms full. The moon has not risen very far, but the colorful quartet down below do not follow a lunar clock.
"No one else is going to show, huh?" The black one starts off.
"It's not looking like it." The white one continues.
"No matter! They aren't important anyway!" The red one exclaims with a shine to her voice.
This improves everyone's spirits.
"Did someone say I wasn't important?!" a new voice says, coming into the clearing in full camouflage.
"Coco!" Ruby and Pyrrha exclaim.
"You really think I wouldn't show up?! I wouldn't miss this for the world. Sorry for showing up a little late, I had to find the right clothes! You know how it is."
The others don't really know how it is, but don't question it.
(A/N: The conversation from here on is color coded for your viewing convenience and my convenience of not having to write 100 variations of "_ said." That shit is painful for me. You'll get who's who pretty fast, but if you can't tell go to the "Just a RWBY Color Test" fic. And if I didn't color code this it would be harder to figure out than a crossword puzzle designed by Satan high on LSD. Which, incidentally, is the guy writing this fic.)
Ah yes, the color system. I dread the idea of having to write '(NAME) said.' I just don't think it looks right. It's even worse when said is replaced with an action word, such as grimaced, stabbed, etc. etc. To me, those words mean physical actions, and putting them in that context isn't right, and feels too adjective/adverb heavy. But that is just a personal writing habit.
Nowadays I have pretty much got down how to structure a conversation such that it can be figured out who is saying what without the constant qualifiers, but back then I didn't have any idea. Since this was originally an AO3-exclusive, and I knew AO3 was very sophisticated, I decided to try coloring the text to fix this problem.
After a lot of finagling, I got it to actually work, and this entire conversation was color-coded by the time it was posted. FFN, however, doesn't have color. And I am too lazy to restructure the conversation. So guess what!
You get to play the 'Who's talking' game! See if you can successfully decipher it. Also, I am still just as crazy as the A/N suggests I am. After all, I am doing this...
Blake starts everything off.
"Ok. It's beginning to look more and more like Jaune will not be leaving this academy. What is our next move?"
Everyone jumps in at once, making it impossible to hear.
"One at a time, please!"
"Let's shoot his arm off!"
"Yeah! Let's put some rounds in him!"
"That idea is unworkable! Did you already forget what happened a few hours ago?!"
"That's because sis got too angry. I won't let that happen to me!"
"I'm sure Yang said that before the spar."
"Are you implying I can't control myself!"
"I remember when someone tried to take your weapon away. You sure didn't look controlled during that."
"That time was different! I was less mature back then!"
"That was three weeks a-"
"Girls, please! Since you can't stop interrupting, how about everyone write their idea down on a piece of paper."
Blake then gets out a piece of paper and hands it to Ruby.
She writes an idea down, then she gives it to Pyrrha.
All the other 4 members write down an idea, and the paper comes back to Blake, who begins to read it.
Snipe him with Crescent Rose!
Lock him in a room!
Burn his clothes!
Make him a pet!
This little bit should be easy.
Blake slowly turns her head and stares at the heiress who wrote that last one.
"What?"
Blake gives her the "Really?" look.
"He could be like Klein!"
"But Klein was useful. What could Jaune do?"
Weiss has no real answer.
"This is why he is still around. None of you can coordinate!"
"It's not my fault! I got Weiss to help me!"
"But what about the rest of us!"
"You would have shot him!"
"And?"
"I don't want him to be hurt that bad!"
"Why not? You want him gone, don't you?"
"Not like that!"
"Coco, if we hurt him too much, he'll be surrounded by bodyguards everywhere, and then we can't do anything."
"It's a bit late for that one, now isn't it!"
"No. You really think one attack will get someone guards? Weiss is the heiress to the largest company on the planet and doesn't have any."
"Who would be dumb enough to try that?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Then talk about this! Why have you not done your part?!"
"What are you talking about! I helped Pyrrha out! She wouldn't have done anything without my insight!"
"All I saw was her doing the typing, Weiss. You just coasted along while she did it all."
"Hey! She told me what to say!"
"And you're telling me you couldn't do that on your own? How sad."
"Coco, plea-"
"Shut it, scaredy-cat. You haven't left your book these past three days."
"Yeah! Where's your idea, oh smart and sneaky one?!"
"I don't want the spotlight."
"You're telling me you can't sneak around and trap him?"
Blake thinks for a response, and that is all it takes.
"See. She isn't even prepared."
"I don't see you preparing either."
"If you could get him alone, I would. You and I both know that that gun will destroy everything that moves."
"Then why are you here if you aren't going to even try?!"
"Why don't you try at him then, Miss 'Invincible Girl?'?!"
Tensions are close to boiling over. A smaller Grimm peeks its head into the opening, looking for an easy meal, but sees the harbinger of metal and runs away.
Another girl joins the massive ruckus, but she is not initially noticed by the four that are locked in a heated battle.
Except the one who immediately notices her. This sentence was supposed to reference Coco, Ruby, Pyrrha, and Weiss as the ones not noticing her, but Blake being in the conversation only a few sentences before makes things confusing as all hell in regards to who I am talking about.
"Hello Yang, glad you could join us."
"How's this whole meeting thing going?"
"Well…"
"...Please! I wouldn't do something that stupid! I am professional!"
"Says the one who devoured a lemon cake like a hungry hungry hippo!"
"You're one to talk! I saw you pour the crumbs into your mouth!"
"I don't see you wiping your plate squeaky clean!"
"What is with you people and lemon cake?!"
"You haven't had the new cake yet?"
"WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT CAKE?!"
"Ruby started it!"
"She did start it."
"IT DOESN'T MATTER! Do any of you have any plan at all?!"
"I still insist on shooting him!"
"I want to shoot him too!"
"We got a paper here."
Yang reads the paper of ideas.
Weiss gets the "Really?" look for the second time tonight.
"I already talked about this!"
"Oh don't worry, your little idea does ALLLLL the talking."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"And I thought I had it bad for Vel!"
Weiss refuses to play this game anymore. She just goes silent.
"How about this, we just take all his weapons away! He's screwed without a weapon!"
"That's already happened. His weapon got bent."
"It did?!"
"Yes. It would be useless to take it now."
"Just take something else then!"
"Like his scroll!"
"Why his scroll?"
Weiss merely shakes her head.
"Because he doesn't need it!"
"Then go then! And take Weiss with you!"
"I'm not participating in that."
"Fine then, I'll do it myself!"
Pyrrha leaves for Jaune's hospital room.
"oooooooooooKAY then, anything else you got?"
"Also Blake, where is your idea?"
"I'm not up for executing any ideas. I prefer to be in the background."
"That's understandable. Have you tried to help anyone?"
"Uh… no…"
"See! She's barely worth anything!"
"Ruby, you can't judge someone on something as small as that."
"Yes I can!"
"Even if she can't she's not too far off!"
"I don't care who has and hasn't been helpful. We all have made many, many mistakes. Let's just put our heads together and get this done."
"Alright, what is your idea?"
"The dance is coming up, right?"
"Mhmm."
"So, how about we screw with him then? Either he'll show up alone, or he'll hang out in his dorm alone. Easy pickings."
"What do you suggest we do?"
"I was hoping all of you would sort that out, I can't go!"
"We tried!"
"We really did!"
"Think about how much we could rub it in his face."
"Yeah it would be nice to do that, now wouldn't it!"
"You'll get a chance next year!"
"I'm 15!"
"What if he doesn't end up caring about it? Or he doesn't go at all? Can't rub it in his face then."
"That's why I say shoot him!"
"Are we really goi-"
*Ping*
Everyone's scroll pings at the same time.
Girls?
What is it?
Did you take anything?
Is he done crying out in pain yet?
There's another one.
A picture is shown of Jaune fast asleep in his hospital room. This time however, two other people are in that room, also sleeping. One being Yatsuhashi, sleeping in a chair, and the other, the more important one, being Nora, who has leaned onto Yatsuhashi's shoulder during her sleep in another nearby chair. Magnhild is on the ground next to her for right now, on the opposite side of the bed compared to Crocea Mors, which, as reported earlier, is distinctly bent.
"You are fucking kidding me…"
"Of course he gets someone else on his side. How?!"
"...This is another inconvenience, but we must still continue on. So I ask again, what is our next move?"
The group goes silent, as they realize they still have nothing on that front.
Blake sighs. "Of course…"
"Alright. How about this, tomorrow let's just go over to him during lunch and ruin his day with something. That's pretty simple. Anyone object?"
"Nope"
"Nope"
"No"
"Nope"
"What are we gonna do?!"
"Take his lunch."
"That's it?!"
"I don't see you coming up with anything better!"
With Coco's silence, the meeting concludes. Was it a success?
Regardless of that, Pyrrha gets texted the result to ensure she doesn't come back to emptiness.
Meeting is over. No big plan but we got good ideas. Go back to the dorms.
P.S. Can you get some lemon cake for Coco tomorrow? She really needs to try that crumbly goodness.
(A/N: You don't know how long it took for me to get that multicolored text. The things I do for you all.)
