So, uh, the timeline of events in RWBY make sense in broad strokes but falls apart if you try to apply real-world academic calendars and whatnot (when I first drafted the outline for this, I was working off the assumption that Beacon is basically running on Japanese High School Anime rules, but that would mean they only spent like 5-6 months actually studying there, which is just so hilariously sad) so while I'm sticking as canon as close as possible, I'm fudging dates, months, and the timeline of events.
What I'm saying is, don't be like me and think too hard about the timeline. For the record, I just view the timeline as volume 1: first semester, volume 2 and 3: second semester, volume 4 and 5: first semester of a hypothetical second year for our crew up to the semester break, and volume 6 onwards is the start of the second semester. I know that won't make sense for a lot of readers, whose first semester is usually set around Fall season, but them's the brakes. The more observant readers will also notice that this means I'm pretty much making the Fall of Beacon happen near the time of Ruby's birthday. Yes, she celebrates her birthday while in her silver-eyes induced coma. Because I am a cruel writer.
Imagine that there's a month between the end of volume 1 and 2, just so I have space to do the stories I want to tell. Also fudged some stuff about Sun's arrival to Vale just to make things easier for myself. I'm leaving lots of spaces in between volumes because I want to cram as many little interactions I can before show plot kicks in. Expect lots of Pyrrha appearances because, well…
-0-
Volume 1.5 (Tuesday): we live in a society where harem fanfics are more tolerable than tentacle porn
This chapter is set between Volumes 1 and 2, a day after the previous chapter
Welcome to the beginning of the Blake Belladonna and Pyrrha Nikos group!
Blake Belladonna has changed the group's name to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Blake Belladonna uploaded 5 files to the chat!
world_building
rough_outline_for_real_this_time
cover_art
character_sketches
Blake Belladonna: that should be everything. we've migrated all the files from the old chat.
Pyrhha Nikos started a call.
Blake Belladonna joined the call.
Pyrhha Nikos ended a call.
Pyrrha Nikos: I'm sorry!
Blake Belladonna has changed Pyrhha Nikos' name to Achilles Jeanne
Pyrhha Nikos uploaded a video to the chat!
Blake Belladonna has changed her name to Tiger & Dragon
Achilles x Jeanne: Should we really be using our pen names here, Blake?
Tiger & Dragon: meh
Tiger & Dragon: thats why thats our chat name
Tiger & Dragon: so nobody suspects a thing
Tiger & Dragon: love the wet hair look btw
Tiger & Dragon: not so much the 5 second video of you fumbling around with the scroll
Achilles x Jeanne: I can't help it!
Achilles x Jeanne: These Valean scrolls are just so strange to me. I just don't understand the interface at all! They're not very user-friendly, in my opinion.
Tiger & Dragon: ur not just used to it pyr
Tiger & Dragon: besides isn't jaune teaching you stuff
Achilles x Jeanne: Yes, and bless him.
Someone is typing…
Achilles x Jeanne: Apologies. Nora and Jaune's game is proving very heated. Ren's still in the bathroom, so I am the only one who can mediate. I'm not sure how they have the energy, considering all the extra work we did for detention today.
Someone is typing…
Achilles x Jeanne: Apologies again. Jaune and Nora started chatting about… content creators? Just now, Jaune told me that I should consider recording instructional training videos and upload it to DusTube. I will have many… subscribers? Clicks? Nora wants in, apparently. I'm not sure what the point of it is, honestly.
Tiger & Dragon: sounds good
Tiger & Dragon: your training w jaune is paying off
Tiger & Dragon: you'd make a good DusTuber
Tiger & Dragon: go record stuff w your scroll
Achilles x Jeanne: Unfortunately, I have always been… bad with technology.
Achilles x Jeanne: I've never interacted well with machines, I suppose. If I'm not careful, I might accidentally rip machinery apart with my semblance.
Achilles x Jeanne: I shudder to think of what could happen if I encounter those Atlesian models they're supposedly bringing for the festival.
Tiger & Dragon: dont be so dramatic pyr, those things are tougher than they look
Tiger & Dragon: ive destroyed my fair share of em
Achilles x Jeanne: What?
Tiger & Dragon: what?
-0-
It was the revelation of Jaune being untrustworthy when it came to official documents that convinced Blake that, yes, revealing her own secret wasn't a mistake. The small circle they had formed in Team RWBY's dorm room had fallen quiet when she admitted that she was formerly affiliated with a terrorist organization, and Blake didn't miss Weiss' uneasy looks at her. Oh, Weiss knew already, she understood intellectually that Blake wasn't a bad person, but Blake knew better than anyone that you didn't just get rid of habits, lessons carefully developed through years of indoctrination, in one simple conversation. No, habits were formed, and unforming them took time. She didn't miss the look of recognition on Ren's face either, no doubt from his and Nora's own experiences as orphans from Mistral. Blake didn't think they hated the faunus, but they would have heard of the things the White Fang had done in the pursuit of equality, since the White Fang did a lot of work in the Kingdom of Mistral.
That Jaune had timed it perfectly when the awkwardness of Blake's own secret had settled in was not lost to her (he's crafty, but he isn't subtle at all) and she didn't miss Pyrhha's look of concern when Weiss and Yang screamed in unison (You what?!) at Jaune's revelation. Leave it to the dog to try and upstage the cat, Blake mused. By then, Nora and Ren recovered from the shock of Blake's reveal and began bigging up their Fearless Leader, how Jaune progressed so quickly from the bumbling idiot who didn't even know what Aura was–
Wait, what?!
Well, that was another surprise, but in retrospect, it shouldn't have. Perhaps it was the ease in which the team accepted Jaune's criminal acts, or Pyrrha's willingness to subvert the point of initiation by choosing her partner for herself, or Nora's willingness to break legs at the drop of a hat while Ren only weakly admonished her for doing so, but Team JNPR looked after its own, even if their own was reckless and did stupid things like join one of the most prestigious schools with little to no knowledge and armed with only a family heirloom and a burning to desire to do what was right. (And some selfish, dumb notions about heroism, but could she really talk, when she had joined the White Fang with nothing but a burning sense of idealism that had deteriorated into violence?) Theirs was a bond united by shared secrets, both the spoken and unspoken, as well as a willingness to bend the rules to achieve what they felt was right.
Blake blinked, realizing just how much she felt she understood team JNPR at that very moment. She supposed that spending all that time with Pyrrha (and Jaune, although most of that was watching him get beaten up by Pyrrha and the occasional small talk when his body was recovering) led to all this meditation. It wasn't a bad feeling, Blake thought.
-0-
Welcome to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Achilles x Jeanne: In any case… I'm sorry if we accidentally upstaged your little, er "Coming Out" party.
Achilles x Jeanne: I'm not sure if it's proper to phrase it like that, honestly…
Tiger & Dragon: its ok
Tiger & Dragon: just glad you all took it well
Achilles x Jeanne: Still, Jaune feels bad because he was worried you'd think he was trying to equate his actions with yours.
Achilles x Jeanne: He looks up to you, you know. He thinks you're so brave for coming forward with all this. That you had a goal that was worthy. Far more noble than his, anyway. Or so he says.
Someone is typing…
Tiger & Dragon: sorry i kept it a secret
Achilles x Jeanne: That's quite alright.
Achilles x Jeanne: Everyone has secrets they wish to keep.
Achilles x Jeanne: And sometimes, people need the space to process things on their own.
Tiger & Dragon: thanks
Achilles x Jeanne: Oh, don't thank me. Our Fearless Leader taught me that lesson. It kind of made me realize how meddlesome I could be at times.
Achilles x Jeanne: Besides, if it wasn't for him being, well, secretive, we wouldn't have had the chance to interact like this, I don't think.
Tiger & Dragon: i think so too
Tiger & Dragon: altho now Yang's going to tease him mercilessly for weeks
Achilles x Jeanne: That's fine.
Achilles x Jeanne: Jaune is, unfortunately, used to dealing with the teasing. Seven sisters, remember? He's learned not to let someone like Yang get to him.
-0-
Yang, being, well, Yang, definitely didn't get to Blake. No, sir. Not even when Yang was shocked that Blake was capable of having a casual conversation in their group chat with members of their sister team. (Stupid Yang, Blake grouched, you're one to talk, you brag about being a social butterfly but I never see you interacting with anyone besides our teams…) It also didn't get to her that Yang assumed that Blake was incapable of social interaction. Who did Yang think she was, Ruby?
It was easy to assume things about Blake Belladonna and her, well, charming personality. It was almost discriminatory, in a way – just because she was part cat didn't mean she embodied all the cat stereotypes, she complained in her head. She could admit, to herself, that she wasn't the most sociable of people, that she was skittish around people she didn't know, and that dogs utterly terrified her, but when dogs often turned out to be biggest impediment in a sneaking mission to disable Atlas security or breaking into SDC property, you learned to be wary of the blasted things and their ability to sneak up on you despite your enhanced senses. Plus, dogs were absurdly sturdy – they'd take a beating and remain steadfast in their duty of stalling you until actual help arrived. Behind those eyes were some crafty, if unsubtle monsters, Blake screamed, internally.
The thing that she hated the most, though, was when people assumed that she was antisocial and withdrawn all the time. In her head, she made a clear distinction between being antisocial and being introverted, and she identified as the latter. It wasn't that she hated talking to people – she just preferred to stay in the shadows and observe (curse her training!) and do things at her own pace. Besides, just because she didn't talk much unless prompted meant she didn't want to be their friends. She had friends she could talk to normally, dammit! (Okay, one friend, and Ilia did most of the talking, but they could confide in each other! It took a lot for her to open up to people, but she could!)
She liked people. She liked her team (well, she was wary of Weiss at the start, but recent events managed to convince her that maybe #NotAllSchnees). She loved Team RWBY, she really did, she wanted to be there for her team, which is why she waved the adorable little RWBY flags and tagged along when Yang would drag them to Vale. So she wasn't talkative to them. Big deal!
But she knew that thanks to her upbringing it was difficult to just… trust in people so fundamentally open, especially people like Ruby and Yang, who didn't hide who they were. Weiss was Weiss, sure, but she was so transparent to read, despite the hot-cold demeanor. (If anything, that just made her easier to read. Just like in my Mistralian cartoons, Blake would tell herself.) She wasn't shy about revealing just enough about her insecurities to her partner or to her team, and her desire to rise above them. And Yang had her secrets, sure, but she didn't hide the fact that she kept secrets – she just refused to share them. It was her pain, and it was private, and Blake respected that. (And she didn't want to get started on just how pure Ruby's soul was.)
But that was Blake's dilemma: the more open someone seemed, the easier it was to read them (there's the book lover in her), the harder it was for her to let her guard down and open up. Adam had done so much damage to her, she realized.
Perhaps that was why she was drawn, despite herself, to their sister team. Intellectually, they made no sense: Nora's manic energy was balanced by how, at the drop of a hat, she could turn sweet and sisterly; Ren's passivity reminded her far too much of her own, but then he would surprise her by being a willing participant when Team JNPR would pull prank wars on Ruby and Yang; Pyrrha's politeness and aloofness implied a level of detachment from her peers, perhaps even condescension, but once you got past the rehearsed smile, Pyrrha proved remarkably thirsty for normal interaction. It was like the entire team was so used to hiding who they were, dressing up and putting up a façade that people expected of them. Once you got past those layers, you would be shocked by what you found. In many ways, Blake felt she could relate to that. A part of her appreciated the… secretiveness of it all. She found herself relaxing more when she was observing their sister team and trying to figure out what made them tick because, as Blake realized, she was in her element when she was trying to puzzle out a difficult passage from her books. What she sought from her books was the subtleties of the heart, the things left unsaid that emerged despite the characters' best attempts to suppress them. (The erotica was just a bonus.)
Strangely enough, it was Jaune that triggered her instincts the most. It didn't make sense – the leader of team JNPR was so simple, so seemingly naive. He wasn't a threat in combat at all, and he was like a big, dumb, bumbling dog in the way he wore his heart on his sleeve and his determination to be friendly to everyone. He was just so determined, during the times their teams would share meals in the cafeteria, to make sure people were involved in the conversation: throwing out questions to Pyrrha to allow her to contribute to whatever inane conversation Ruby and Yang would start, clumsily trying to charm Weiss enough for her to stop filing her nails and join in Yang and Ren's argument over the best approach to combat King Taijitu (Ren preferred a more reactive response, Yang preferred, well, Yanging her way through it), even asking her about the book she was reading. (She was glad Ruby and Yang didn't remember her stock line about the man with two souls, because it would have been awkward to explain why she hadn't finished the book she had been reading a few months ago.) The man didn't seem to have a single deceptive bone in his body, and he kept nothing secret: not his budding crush on Weiss, or his large family (seven sisters! seven!) or his utter lack of competence in anything combat related.
But that was the thing: despite his, well, everything, his team respected him – and not even in a patronizing way, as Blake had initially suspected when she observed Pyrrha defer to him even if he was clearly inexperienced at, well, everything. Ozpin certainly saw something in him when he was made leader, and it definitely wasn't just the fact that, like Ruby, he took charge of his team during initiation and made the best use of their skillsets when nobody else could. No, there had to be more to it. Like the rest of the team, there were layers to him, and to her horror, she couldn't properly read him until he came forward with his own secret. That explained why her instincts flared up around him, she supposed. He had earned his team's loyalty because he was one of them. Someone they could trust to keep their secrets, and someone who trusted them with his. And despite his own deficiencies, he always watched out for them and their wellbeing.
(It was official, Blake concluded, when Jaune revealed the forged transcripts: Jaune was pretty much a dog. And you don't trust dogs, the crafty monsters. Dogs gave unauthorized snuggles and knew just how to break down your defenses to steal said snuggles. Her instincts were right again.)
The point was, she liked team JNPR. She didn't mind conversing with them, and for the most part they were good at giving her space when she made it clear she didn't want to talk. She worried endlessly about that part of herself (am I being too cold? Should I respond more? Do they think I'm ignoring them?) and always resolved to do better next time, but it was difficult to change such a fundamental part of yourself, and easier to just ignore the problem. (Perhaps that was why her semblance allowed her to run away from her mistakes.) But they never bothered her when she wanted her privacy, and she repaid them the favor. They kept their secrets, she kept hers. That was all she ever asked from people, so if Pyrrha approached her with her dirty little secret, hoping to share it with someone, why wouldn't she reciprocate? The girl clearly knew her boundaries. In their line of work, that was surprisingly rare.
So maybe Yang got to her a bit. Not much, just a little. Why did she have to justify her friendship with Pyrrha anyway?
-0-
Welcome to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Achilles x Jeanne: I do hope you aren't too cross at Yang for last night, by the way.
Achilles x Jeanne: I believe it was rather mean of her to imply that you were, ah…
Achilles x Jeanne: The terminology was "Grumpy Cat", I believe?
Achilles x Jeanne: I treasure our secret little writing nook and discussions of who "Best Girl" is, and I understand why you would want to keep that secret.
Tiger & Dragon: its ok pyr
Tiger & Dragon: yang doesn't understand the resonance of our immortal souls, for she is no paragon of virtue and glory
Achilles x Jeanne: Indeed. Our souls, on the other hand, are infinite in distance and unbound by death.
Tiger & Dragon: And so I release my soul – that it may protect thee
Achilles x Jeanne: And I… thee?
Something is typing…
Tiger & Dragon: dude
Achilles x Jeanne: I'm sorry!
Achilles x Jeanne: It's been so long since I read the novel!
Tiger & Dragon: fake fan
Tiger & Dragon: i see how it is
Tiger & Dragon: The great Pyrrha Nikos, who claims that she, too, is a fan of the esteemed Ninjas of Love series, can't even quote the confession/soul melding scene in the fifth book properly. Miss Nikos, I am ashamed of you.
Tiger & Dragon: your just as disgusting as the filth you call cartoons
Tiger & Dragon: ren was right, ur a dust-damned meeb
Achilles Jeanne: You love those cartoons too Blake!
Tiger & Dragon: im not the one who draws the yuri fanart
Achilles x Jeanne: At least I don't do tentacle yaoi… smut! I'm not even sure how that works!
Tiger & Dragon: you lack the imagination ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
-0-
It was such an innocuous thing, the way their relationship started. It was early in the semester, and everyone was finally settling into their rhythm, and Blake's involved heading to library after class if she wasn't training or sparring with someone. It wasn't even the lure of books that she was after, her personal collection was perfectly adequate (and the library, while stacked with literature from all the different kingdoms, didn't have any that suited her… interests). What she enjoyed was the anonymity of being in a crowd of people. A part of her understood that the large black bow on her head and her own appearance drew attention, but it was easier to distract people if you followed a large crowd of people and used the mass of bodies to slip into a nearby shelf or seat. In their dorm rooms, Yang would always ask her what she was reading, and Ruby would try sneaking a peek at one of her books (her greatest regret was leaving her first edition limited copy of the original Ninjas of Love novel, before it was the mega-franchise it was now, under her pillow, allowing Ruby to read the contents and declaring it filth) while Weiss scoffed at the idea of reading for leisure instead of education. And that was fine – Blake could take gentle ribbing of her tastes, she understood, on an intellectual level, that friends could do that. But every now and then she felt the need to just… melt into anonymity, slip into her books, and just read without the pressure of being judged. She enough of that already, being a faunus, and she was extra careful not to let her other hobbies reveal themselves.
The problem with the library, however, was that there were days where it seemed that everyone spontaneously decided to just gather there, and now it felt like all the seats and spaces were taken. Blake was just about to find a secluded corner to sit in when she spotted the Jaune, on his lonesome at the farthest edge of the library.
In retrospect, she should have known what was happening. She wasn't blind to Ruby and Jaune being bullied by Cardin during their first few weeks, and just the other day Cardin was being especially horrible to this rabbit girl faunus in the cafeteria, but she was wrapped up in her own self-hatred, her anger over her cowardice, her inability to intervene out of fear. Her beliefs demanded she intervene, but the pragmatic side of her knew that it would do the faunus no good if someone stood up for her. (That was a justification, she knew, to cover for her selfishness. Blake hated how easy it was for her to compromise on her idealism just because an easier solution presented itself – wasn't that why she had abandoned the Fang? Abandoned Adam?) So, she had allowed it to happen. She didn't let it get to her. It didn't!
Which was why it was easy for her to be blind to the signs when, out of sheer necessity, she asked for the seat opposite to Jaune, and the look on his face was that of a victim, afraid of angering their betters. She ignored the ways he tried to appease her, tried to ensure she wouldn't do anything mean to him. She ignored the fact that Jaune was writing an essay on rapier wasps when she was sure Cardin was assigned that as punishment, ignored Jaune scrambling to make small talk about the book she was reading (incidentally, a thrilling narrative about a man whose beastly side threatened to break free and act on his primal desires, and his best friend, who did his best to reign in his friend's worst impulses), ignored the wistful look on his face as he mentioned that one of his sisters was a big fan, and he had read some of the novels too, before apologizing because it sounded weird, he swore he wasn't trying to hit on her just because she was reading erotica… she ignored him when he, as a last resort, mentioned that Pyrrha was a big fan of Ninjas of Love too. It was so easy to be blind, to ignore his secrets, as he was not very subtle about anything. Still, it was his secret to keep. So she went blind.
So blind, in fact, that she hadn't realized that Jaune had left. She briefly wondered why until she saw the blonde converse with his redhead partner. Blake could ignore a lot of things, but she couldn't miss the way that Jaune motioned to her before escaping his partner's grasp and fleeing from the library. And try as she might, she couldn't ignore the defeated sighs and the murmurs from the Invincible Girl, thanks to her enhanced hearing. She couldn't ignore the way Pyrrha seemed so helpless, how badly she wanted to chase after the leader of Team JNPR but stopped herself for some reason that was between her and Jaune. And she couldn't ignore how, when Pyrrha asked to be seated opposite her, her face had once again slipped into that smiling façade, before asking her if what Jaune said about her being a fan of Ninjas of Love was true.
(She would ignore how, for a week or so, Jaune avoided contact with his team, even if his dumb face made it painfully obvious he didn't want to be away from them. She would also ignore how Jaune had slipped the Ninjas of Love name into his earlier conversation with Pyrrha, knowing full well that his partner longed to find other people to discuss the novel with. That was strictly Jaune's secret, and Blake treasured secrets. Finally, she would ignore the gaps of knowledge in Pyrrha's recollection of Ninjas in Love, or her beloved Mistralian cartoons. As an older fan, Blake knew that gatekeeping was bad, and that her responsibility was to welcome new fans into the fold.)
For someone whose sole tactic in combat was absorbing hits, Jaune sure liked diversionary tactics. And for all that Pyrrha seemed to like taking things head on, she sure was fond of talking around what she actually wanted to say. What was it about Team JNPR constantly subverting her expectations of them?
-0-
Welcome to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Achilles x Jeanne: Oh dear… Weiss is raising a ruckus in the group chat again.
Tiger & Dragon: yeah shes been on that whole day
Tiger & Dragon: surprised she hasnt told the whole school, really
Achilles x Jeanne: I wish to intervene, but… Jaune said it was fine. It's easier to just let them talk, he says. That they'll get tired eventually.
Achilles x Jeanne: They aren't saying anything, but I can tell Ren and Nora are getting exasperated for Jaune's sake, since he won't do anything. Ren even started doing stretching exercises in the room! He doesn't do that after he's taken a bath unless Nora annoys him too much!
Achilles x Jeanne: I…
-0-
Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. In the short time that she had known Pyrrha, she had gleaned much from her: a tendency to mother everyone, a desire to meddle in the affairs of others that she desperately tried to curb, a love for gory horror movies, that she loved cookies more than even Ruby, even if they were bad for her diet. Blake enjoyed just how utterly normal it all felt, how easily she was telling Pyrrha things that took her a lot of courage to admit to herself. It was becoming a habit¸ and it became easy to let your guard down and be comfortable once you had formed your habits.
(The last time things started to feel like they were becoming a habit, she was on an SDC train with Adam. The only difference was, here, her new habits felt right. She felt right.)
Once they had grown comfortable with each other, the conversations escalated. They had small chats about whatever on their scrolls in between extensive planning sessions for a fanfic they were co-writing, featuring a character that Blake swore Pyrrha designed with a Pumpkin Pete hoodie and baggy jeans as his main outfit, and a heroine with shining red hair and prodigious combat ability who nevertheless always needed the wannabe hoodie knight to rescue her. She overlooked the act of self-insertion, as Pyrrha had allowed her to make modifications to Sir Hoodie Knight so that he at least had long, black hair, a more tolerable outfit and the sword and shield combo was replaced with a more practical katana-into-gun model that allowed for more dynamic fight scenes. Pyrrha even acquiesced to Blake's request to add a second heroine to their story, a blonde brawler with control over fire and a tendency to resort to violence when provoked, although Pyrrha was adamant that the redhead remained the main heroine. Blake didn't care much, although she noticed that the more she wrote, the more it was apparent that there was chemistry between the brawler and the black-haired knight who was developing ninja tendencies, which led her to push for more scenes of the brawler. At some point, the characters seemed to have develop lives of their own, and the two of them found themselves writing a rather risqué scene between the brawler and the redheaded warrior that just oozed sexual tension. At some point, Blake suggested they bring back the original design for Sir Hoodie Knight, perhaps as a new rival character. They feared the story had started escaping from them.
(By the time Pyrrha and Blake realized they had written a full-blown Mistralian light novel, the main cast had grown to eight, with a large cast of supporting characters.)
She had even (completely by accident, Blake promised) found a new sanctuary in the roof that Pyrrha and Jaune used to train most nights. She wasn't about to make a nightly habit of it, but beyond the first time she had appeared, when Jaune and Pyrrha eyed her with a wary, measured look that Blake had only seen in veteran warriors who were always prepared for every eventuality, they had all settled into a comfortable routine. She wasn't about to say anything about their training, they weren't about to say anything about her being there, and that was fine for everyone involved. Was it any surprise, then, that after a while even the act of speaking to them had become comfortable? That at some point she knew Ren and Nora's breakfast habits, since Pyrrha and Jaune talked about it so often? That it had become second nature for team JNPR to see Blake and Pyrrha chatting casually on their way back to the dorms, or that Blake was the team RWBY member most likely to knock on their door to look for Pyrrha (or Jaune, sometimes, but that was because Pyrrha was too shy to just outright ask Jaune to eat dinner with her alone, so she had to play the third wheel)? It had happened enough in the past few weeks that Ren had procured for Blake her personal teacup for when she dropped by their dorms. (He assured her he would do the same for her other teammates once they discovered the joys of tea. No such luck there.)
It was inevitable, Blake supposed, that she would pick up some of their habits too.
-0-
Welcome to TEAM RRAYNNBW!
Snow Angel: I understand that I may be speaking out of line here, Jaune, and I understand that we've been discussing this matter since last night, but I still have a hard time accepting that you cheated your way into Beacon and you didn't even have your aura unlocked when went here.
Snow Angel: Who… who does that? How much of a dunce do you have to be?
RedLikeStrawberries: weisssssss
RedLikeStrawberries: be nice
Snow Angel: I am!
Snow Angel: And I still can't believe you knew about this and kept it a secret!
RedLikeStrawberries: we're besties! i cant betray jaune's trust like that
RedLikeStrawberries: besides how would you like it if I told everyone the stuff you hide under your pillow
Snow Angel: RUBY
Snow Angel: ROSE
Snow Angel: I HAVE TOLERATED YOUR FOOLISHNESS FOR TOO LONG
Snow Angel: GET DOWN FROM THAT BED AND FACE ME
Someone is typing…
SunnyLittleDragon: ok i got the two to calm down
SunnyLittleDragon: cant lose focus on the important stuff
SunnyLittleDragon: juicy deets on VB's criminal past!
-0—
Blake could already imagine the panic on Pyrrha's face, having to watch over Jaune, knowing that the leader of team JNPR did his best not to let the friendly ribbing get to him. Blake felt that Jaune understood, on an intellectual level, that friends did that. She wasn't entirely sure how many friends Jaune had growing up who weren't his sisters, and as such demanded different rules, but gentle ribbing was something friends did.
Until she recalled that, Jaune, well, wasn't exactly an intellectual. He was more of a dumb dog. Dumb, loyal, always knew how to sneak up on you despite your enhanced senses. Dust, what did Pyrrha see in him?
Well, whatever. Dumb dogs didn't know how to melt into anonymity. Luckily for dumb dogs everywhere, Blake was an expert at that.
Pyrrha, you owe me for this, Blake mused.
-0-
Welcome to TEAM RRAYNNBW!
Big Kitty Goth GF: we live in a society where harem fanfics are more tolerable than tentacle porn
Snow Angel: Excuse me?
Big Kitty Goth GF: oops
Big Kitty Goth GF: wrong chat
SunnyLittleDragon: what
SunnyLittleDragon: who are you even talking to
SunnyLittleDragon: context?
Snow Angel: Please keep things safe for work.
Big Kitty Goth GF: sorry mb
Big Kitty Goth GF: why cant i edit my messages?
RedLikeStrawberries: sorry blake this is too funny not to cap
-0-
Blake did her best to ignore the maniacal cackling from the greedy golden dragon who lived at the top of their bunk bed. Instead, she targeted the strawberry reaper, who had felt the danger and opted to escape their dorm room, rushing away with a burst of petals trailing behind. Blake dashed after the opened door, ignoring the Schnee heiress' complaints about the mess of petals.
-0-
Welcome to TEAM RRAYNNBW!
SunnyLittleDragon: oh man p-money, you shoulda seen how fast blakey ran
SunnyLittleDragon: now i kinda wanna know who shes talking to
Snow Angel: I shudder to think who she would be sharing such… lewd… thoughts with. Perhaps that uncouth monkey boy?
SunnyLittleDragon: sun? nah, apparently she doesnt reply often to him
Cereal Girl: Sun? Who is that?
SunnyLittleDragon: oh he's this dude who hung out with blake when she ran away. remember the whole docks thing? he was with her.
SunnyLittleDragon: cute monkey faunus. real nice abs. not a big fan of him leaving his team behind on a whim tho. a bit dumb but deffo loyal. really got the hots for blake, i could tell. totally blake's type I bet shes just being shy
SunnyLittleDragon: oh man Vomit Boy you better watch out if you keep bulking up blakey might notice u :3
Cereal Girl: I… see.
Snow Angel: Wasn't he set back to Haven Academy? I cannot fathom how he hasn't been expelled for abandoning his team.
Snow Angel: Also, why do you know all this?
SunnyLittleDragon: he seemed cool. we exchanged scroll numbers. we might hang out when he gets back to vale. who knows i might take VB and ren with me, lets make a boys night out of it
Party Pooper: Pass.
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The darkness in the hallways suited her, Blake thought, as she flitted from shadow to shadow to sneak up on the little red reaper, who had stopped once she found herself at the dorm's common room kitchen. Blake, feeling frisky, typed a quick message.
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Welcome to TEAM RRAYNNBW!
Big Kitty Goth GF: I see you, Ruby Rose.
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Well, that was fun, Blake thought, as she dragged Ruby back to their room. Yang's laughter rang out as she saw her baby sister scared straight by the teenage ninja catgirl faunus' antics, but Blake didn't pay much attention to that, as Pyrrha had sent her a whole lot of messages in the past few minutes.
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Welcome to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Achilles x Jeane: Blake
Achilles x Jeane: Is it true?
Achilles x Jeane: Do
Achilles x Jeane: Is your type…
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Blake's eyes squinted as she parsed Pyrrha's messages until she took the time to read the unread messages in the main group chat.
Her first instinct was to panic, because one thing she had learned about Pyrrha was that she was, well, passionate, but her second instinct was that, well, Pyrrha owed her one, and friends were allowed to gently rib each other, right?
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Welcome to Aura and Semblance Group Report!
Tiger & Dragon: iunno pyr i may have a type
Tiger & Dragon: blondes are nice sure but they gotta be determined to improve themselves + abs are optional, but they have to at least be fit. i dont mind if theyre messy
Tiger & Dragon: i dont mind if theyre dumb as long as theyre loyal
Tiger & Dragon: know anyone like that? tall, blonde, and scraggly? 😉
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Well, Blake thought, as she watched her scroll be enveloped in what looked like dark Aura, let's just hope Valean scrolls are tougher than they look.
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The curse of Blake is that she overthinks everything. Also, I love writing Blake. She's sassy when she wants to be. Also, we'll see more of this unfold from other POV's in future chapters.
If you have any specific interactions in the cast you want to see, feel free to leave a review and request 'em. I've got a ton of ideas, like the Blake's Blonde Harem group chat (created by Yang, of course) but I'm always open to new ones. The only thing I'll say, though, is that the focus will always be on the eight main characters, so I probably wouldn't be able to do something like, say, Shopkeep & Shopkeep & Tukson or something. Next chapter… we'll see what I feel like writing.
See, the other reason I wrote this fic is to write dumb interactions between team RWBY and team JNPR. I refuse to subscribe to the idea that these characters aren't incredibly good friends who hang out with each other during their off-time. I got into RWBY after watching the volume 2 food fight, and as a result I can't erase the idea that despite all the PLOT and important world-saving shit they have to do, they still get up to dumb shenanigans. I'm not fond of stuff like saying Blake doesn't interact with anyone outside her team or Sun and Neptune in volume 2 because why would she participate in the food fight if she was that antisocial? And when Pyrrha tells Jaune during the dance that he helped her make friends that will last her a lifetime, you can't tell me that she isn't thinking of how Jaune and Ruby's friendship bridged the two teams together and let her meet team RWBY as well. Or in Volume 7, while Blake and Yang's screen time was mostly between the two of them, I find it hard to believe that they still weren't doing shenanigans with the rest of the crew. (On a side note, I am sad that we never got to see Weiss, Oscar, and Jaune go to the movies, or Blake and Yang clubbing like dorks, simply because that has no bearing on the plot)
This is not meant to be a critique of the show. I love the show, despite the criticism some may level at it. The show, in my opinion, is great at leaving lots of implied spaces for us to headcanon what these characters do in their spare time, which is fertile ground for fanfiction. Unfortunately, I feel we as a FNDM haven't taken advantage of this enough to show fun rarepair interactions. This fic is my attempt to contribute to that rare fanfic idea, the canon compliant side stories parallel to the main plot. If RWBY can't afford to do filler episodes dedicated purely to characters interacting, then it's our job as fans to fill in the blanks, in my opinion. That's why I write fanfics, anyway!