Author's Notes: Hey, guys! Been a while... Yeah... I'm so sorry for my absence. If anyone was wondering where have I been, I was working on my thesis with my classmates... again... BUT GOOD NEWS! If everything goes well, I should be graduating this month! I can finally leave friggin College! Afterward, I'm probably gonna apply to some random electronics job somewhere nearby. But hey! At least I can finally work on my stories a bit more consistently now! Sorry for the long wait.
Also, just a few announcements at the end of the chapter as always.
Hope you guys enjoy the story so far!
"No!" Team RWBY and the rest shouted in unison.
Penny tilted her head. "No? Why not? I bet he will be thrilled to know that he has many admirers."
With a sheepish smile, Yang wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulder. "Look. We gals prefer letting him know ourselves about our feelings, ya know? Coming from someone else would spoil the surprise, ya know?"
"Y-Yeah! What she said." Ruby was in a state of panic and worry, making her voice shaky. "Please don't tell him."
Weiss was in the same state but wasn't as obvious as her leader. She simply crossed her arms and replied, "I would appreciate it if you keep it to yourself."
"Understood!" She cheerfully saluted in response to their plea. "Your secrets are safe with me."
At that moment, Ruby waited anxiously if Penny would hiccup after saying those words... And none came. This made her sigh in relief. "Thanks, Penny."
"Anything for my friends!"
"Hey!" Nora called their attention and pointed toward the screen. "I hate to interrupt and all, but I think the boys are done with Penny's tier placement."
"Oh, no matter. I could always replay the footage if need be." She sat back down and held her scroll up to give everyone a good view, and continued eavesdropping on the boys.
"We settling for B-tier, right?" Manning the computer, Dove placed Penny's picture on her designated tier.
"Can't she be at least an 'A'?"
"Dude... For the last time. You don't know much about her. She's cute but not super gorgeous. And it's safe to say that most guys are not into girls mostly made out of metal. Not to mention procreation issues."
"B-But..." Jaune struggled to find the words and ended up with nothing. sighing in defeat, he conceded. "Yeah... I guess you have a point."
Ruby saw Penny frown from their discussion. "Hey. You okay?"
He held her scroll in one hand while she gazed at the other, opening and closing it. "I'm quite alright. It is what it is. I'll talk to him about that as well. I'm fully aware that being artificially made has its downsides."
The rest of the girls felt bad for her as well but decided not to talk about it. Ruby seemed to have it covered.
"Okay, next up is team RWBY." Dove pulled up the team members' pics individually. The leader's profile popped up on his screen for everyone to see. There were two images of her, one wearing her combat attire and the other, Beacon's uniform. "Let's start with this Ruby girl. Thoughts, guys?"
Cardin was the first to pitch in. "Right off the bat, she's... pretty cute, I guess. I'd put her in B-tier."
"B-tier," Russel said...
And Sky agreed. "Same here."
"A-tier." Jaune and Ren said in unison.
"Meh, the majority has decided. B-tier it is-"
"Hey, could I at least try to convince you guys? I mean you already made me spill the beans about Pyrrha. Might as well."
"That's because we were curious about her. This girl though?" Cardin took a brief pause to eye each of his teammates "Not so much."
"Aw, come on. She can be pretty... uh... attractive? That's the general criteria we're using, right?"
"Go ahead, dude. Better be quick though. We have plenty of girls to rank."
"Okay, here goes." Jaune started placing his right forefinger on each of his left hand's fingers for each compliment he could say about Ruby. "She's a dependable leader. She's a nice and quirky girl..."
Jaune wasn't done before Sky already interrupted him. "Yeah yeah. Of course. No offense, Jaune, but those are B-tier stuff. Average ain't bad, dude. Being nice is pretty much a basic standard."
"I'll have you know that she is just as cultured as we are."
"Cultured?" The boys looked at each other before Cardin asked, "How?"
Yang was grinning and giggling throughout the scene. "Here it comes."
"Please clutch it out, Jaune." Ruby clasp her hands together and chanted, "Please be A-tier, please be A-tier, please put me on A-tier..."
"Aww~ Come on, sis~ B-tier ain't bad~"
"She's... really into video games?"
"..." The room when silent for a second.
"What genre?" Sky asked.
"Plenty of genres. She plays fighting games, board games, card games... Oh! She plays chess too actually." Jaune chuckled as he recalled a story that Ruby told him. "Since they made the word 'checkmate' a team attack name, she accidentally summoned Weiss and Blake into the room with their weapons drawn out."
The rest of them, even Ren, chuckled... except for Sky. He had a question. "Why those two?"
They all looked at him funny...
"Dude..."
Then it clicked. "Ohhhh! Their color scheme... Riiiiiight..." Now he rubbed the back of his head, grinning with embarrassment.
"Heh... Dumbass~" Dove remarked.
"Shut up!"
Cardin ignored the two and egged Jaune to continue. "Anything else?"
"Ruby's into comics. She likes 'X-Ray and Vav' just as much as I do. There's this newer comic called 'Camp Camp' that we started getting into. We even started watching the animated series."
Sky's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, didn't you voice act for that show?"
"I'm surprised you knew about that. You recognized who I was voice acting?"
"Not at first, did see you in the credits though. You voiced David?"
"People read those?"
"Why were you even in a voice acting gig?"
"I mean... I have to somehow pay Beacon's tuition fees, right?"
"Jaune! Back on topic. Geez." Russel was not having it and turned to his teammates. "And don't distract him or he'll go off on a tangent again."
"R-Right uh... Sorry." Jaune thought about anything else he could add. "That's all I got at the top of my head."
Cardin summed it up nicely. "So basically, she's a gamer girl who's into comics?"
"And nerds out about weapons, but yep... Pretty much..."
Cardin turned back to the rest of his teammates. "What do you guys think?"
"S - tier."
All eyes turned to Sky after saying that.
"S?"
"Yeah, she's up there." Russel agreed.
"What?! Heck no, she's not!"
Dove had a hand under his chin, actually weighing her pros and cons. "Are we gonna put on her on S-tier just because she's a nerdy gamer girl?"
"I think it's fair. She does have a friendly personality." Ren added.
Cardin placed both hands on his hips and leaned forward. "Having a great personality is supposed to be standard, man."
"It's not just that. She just looks like a gal who's a pretty good friend. Lacks in the looks department, sure. But she got spirit. She seems like someone who's kinda cool to hang out with. You know?" Now Russel was earning everyone's stares.
"Couldn't have said it better myself~" Sky began patting Russel hard on his back. "Either you're looking for someone to play fighting games with, or you just have a crush~"
To that, he simply looked away with his cheeks slightly reddening.
"Probably both..." Dove said, seemingly not caring.
Cardin sighed and gave a suggestion. "How about this. We just put her in A-tier. Fair enough? I don't think she's S-tier just yet."
"Sure. I think that's fair." Jaune nodded in approval.
Before Dove could even put her image on the designated tier, Sky made his suggestion. "I'd put her at high A-tier though. I think she's a tad bit better than that Nora girl."
"How so?" Ren asked.
"I know she's like... your best friend and all, but most guys wouldn't wanna hang out with... crazy. Get what I'm saying?"
"No..."
"I agree with Sky on this one," Cardin said. "It's okay to be a bit biased but... this is our tier list, not just yours."
Ren simply shrugged and remained in silence.
Ruby's scroll notified her of a status update regarding Jaune's feelings towards her. Checking it out, this was displayed:
Penny - 75% - Green heart
Pyrrha - 70% - Green heart
Weiss - 65% - Green heart
Ruby - (80 15) = 95% - Blue heart
Yang - 75% - Blue heart
Velvet - 50% - Blue heart
Blake - 45% - Blue Heart
Coco - 40% - Blue heart
Nora - 50% - Violet heart
Ren - 0% - Violet heart
"Oh yeah!~ I'm an A-tier~" Ruby proudly said. "And I got some points for it!~"
"Hehe~ And little Russel seems to like you too~" Yang began poking Ruby's cheek just to annoy the heck out of her.
"S-Shut up! I like Jaune already! So he's a no-go." She gave it some thought. "I wouldn't mind being his friend... if he's not a bully anymore."
Nora pouted adorably and whispered to herself. "I can be less crazy than Ruby..."
In a little bit, Weiss' name was mentioned out loud from Penny's scroll. Hearing her name, she immediately stopped whatever she was doing and then stood right beside Ruby, paying close attention to the boys' opinions of her. "Finally~ It's my turn~ I hope Jaune would like me a bit more after hearing what they have to say~"
"Okay, next up! Weiss... Weiss Schnee..." Dove said her name with a very slight hint of disdain, as he pulled up the white-haired heiress' images of her in her Beacon uniform and her combat attire.
Everyone picked up on this except Jaune. "Definitely S-tier."
The room was dead silent. All of them, even Ren, looked at him as if he was the only crazy person in the room.
It made the blonde a bit uncomfortable. "W-What?"
Everyone seems to be thinking the same thing. Without answering him, Dove simply began typing. He seemed to be working on the tier list again.
There were currently 4 tiers. Arranged from highest to lowest were the letters: S for the top-tier, A for high-tier, B for mid-tier, and C for low-tier.
Dove was adding another one at the very bottom. Afterward, he put Weiss' image on it without even having a discussion yet.
Dove smirked and even seemed to be proud of what he did. "Trash tier."
"EXCUSE ME?!" Weiss had the biggest frown she could muster. Eyebrows furrowed with fury.
Pyrrha was taken aback and felt sorry for the girl.
"Oof..." were the only words Nora could say.
Penny was indifferent about it. She didn't give much of a reaction.
"HA!" Yang burst out a quick laugh before stopping herself, trying to hold it in as best as he could, and tried comforting the heiress with a nice hug coming from behind. "Sorry. It's okay, Weiss. We all can't be winners."
Ruby was the same, but she was struggling to keep it in. She would snort now and then, trying to stop herself from laughing so hard. Especially with how confident Weiss was earlier made the situation sound funny to her.
Though Blake seemed to be the least interested in this whole situation, she felt bad for her teammate, and just kept on reading.
Ren remained silent, feeling a bit bad while Cardin and his team chuckled in agreement.
Jaune however was a bit furious. "You gotta be kidding me, right?"
"Oh! Oh! Wait. Sorry. You're right. Let me just..." Dove edited the new tier's name. "There! Right where she belongs."
The new tier was now named... "The Streets."
"HAHAHA! HAHAHA!" Ruby broke and fell on her face, banging and hammering the floor with her fist while crying tears of laughter. "HAHA! I'm so sorry, Weiss! HAHAHA! I really can't-! HAHA!"
Grumpy Weiss sighed with a stern look, lowering herself to reach Ruby to pinch and pull on her cheek.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Okay! I'm sorry! Owwie!"
At this point, Jaune had his fists clenched. He took a deep breath as if calming himself down before he did something he might regret.
Noticing this, Cardin stepped in and asked. "Dude, before you start anything, could you please explain to us why you're upset right now?"
"What kind of question is that?! Of course, I'm upset! I'm not gonna stand by here and watch you guys bad mouth and disrespect my friend-"
"Jaune..." Ren interrupted his leader and placed a hand on his back, trying to calm and comfort the guy.
Cardin was about to talk again before Dove held him back with an arm. "Let me handle this. You're just gonna escalate the situation."
"Says the guy who started it." Jaune made a snarky remark, much to their surprise.
"Dude... Let's have an honest conversation about Weiss, but first, let's lay a bit of foundation. So I'm gonna ask you this... Do your feelings trump over facts and logic?"
It was a surprise to Jaune as well that they seemed to be willing to talk this out. Taking another deep breath, he calmed himself and tried to hear him out. He thought about what he asked and then answered... "No. They don't."
"Good, now may I ask you to instead use logic instead of being emotional about this? Because I'm about to list a whole bunch of stuff about Weiss, dude. Hear me out. Cuz' we're about to get your reality checked. And before we have this convo, I have one rule. Do not overtalk me. I'll let you speak when it's your turn, then we can have a nice and clear conversation."
"..." He took a moment. "Sure... But for the record, I think putting her that low on the tier list is a bit too much."
"Oh, trust me. She deserves to be right where she is on our list. You said she was a definite S-tier right? Is it because you genuinely think she's up there on the same level as Pyrrha? Or is it because you're simping hard for the Ice Queen?"
"I-I... I think... She's definitely in the level of-"
"No no no... stop. Think logically. Please. None of this delusional stuff. Do you really think she's S-tier? Let's test that. Who is nicer to you. Pyrrha or Weiss?"
"W-Well... Pyrrha. But that doesn't mean-!"
"Don't overtalk me, man. Again, I'll let you speak. I promise. Just answer the questions for now. Pyrrha is S-tier. You said she is nicer. Okay, now let's go to A-tier then. Is Weiss nicer to you compared to Ruby or Nora?"
"Well, not really... But do they have to be nice specifically to me though?"
"I don't know, man. You tell me. You have no right to be offended about some random guys' opinions on someone you can't even consider your friend."
"You mean Weiss? Of course, I can consider her my friend."
He just facepalmed. "You're gonna give me a headache. Have you and Weiss ever hung out? Or does she actively try to avoid you?"
"We've hung out."
"Uh-huh... Sure... That sounds like BS, dude."
"Okay, fine. She doesn't seem to like it when I'm around and the times when we hung out were pretty much kinda forced by either Ruby or Yang."
"Thanks but I'll need more of your honesty. You two know each other by name. That's the extent of your so-called 'friendship' with her. Has she ever done anything nice to you? Anything for you at all? Even the little things. Did she ever let you borrow a darn pen during class or something like that?"
"Look, I get what you're sayi-"
"Please answer my question, dude."
"Okay, fine. No, she hasn't."
"Then let's get to the point I'm trying to make. Why are you so fixated on defending her? You don't owe her anything, and she hasn't done anything for you." Dove took a seat on a nearby bed. "I don't know what you see in that girl, because what the rest of us see? Oh... We're gonna get there. I'm about to tell you why she's trash. Before you object, please think carefully and fairly assess if there's any truth to what I'm saying." Now Dove began to enumerate all the things he knew about her. "She's arrogant, especially during class... She's bossy... She's spoiled... She's mean... And you might think we're racist towards the faunus? Weiss is an even bigger one."
"What?! Okay, that? I completely disagree with."
"Jaune? She openly calls faunus horrible things. Do you even follow her on social media? She made a now-deleted statement, that I luckily screenshotted when I had the chance, that the White Fang turned into a song called 'From Shadows'. I can sing a certain verse to it to you even."
Dove tossed his scroll to the blonde with Weiss' statement for him to look at himself before he sang in a sarcastic mocking tone.
"Called us... Liars... Degenerates and Killers...
Psychos... Heartless! Insane Criminals!
Stupid... Mutts and... Nothing but pure evil...
Primal... Bloodshed! Is all that's left to do!"
Jaune couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. The lyrics were borderline copy and pasted from what Weiss had posted. "Maybe this is some kind of fake account or something? I doubt this is her."
"Do your research, man. Already did mine. I suggest you ask her yourself. I doubt she'll give you the time of day but there's no harm in trying... probably."
"I will. This has got to be fake..."
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room.
Russel was rubbing the back of his head, actually feeling bad for the guy, and said, "I mean hey! Who cares about four random bozos' opinions on some chick anyway?"
"Facts, not opinions..."
He then elbowed Dove hard.
"What? Am I wrong?" He would glance back at Jaune. The blonde seemed to be having a miniature crisis, still looking at the scroll. Dove sighed and took it back. "Dude, you can like who you wanna like, but we have our own thoughts and opinions. Maybe you can argue that she's none of those things anymore, but that's not what she has shown. I'm sorry, I can't move her any higher on the tier list. Just make your own list if you don't agree with ours, man."
"No no... It's fine. You're right." Jaune sat back down on the floor just deep in his thoughts.
Russel yet again was trying to attempt to cheer the guy up. "Come onnnnn... She can't be that bad. Maybe uh... Maybe she would at least smile at you sometimes, right?"
"Dude... A smile?" Sky just shook his head and gave the 'really?' look.
Jaune frowned. He seems to have already accepted reality. "Never actually saw her smile... not even once. I mean maybe I'm not just paying too much attention. I'm pretty sure she does smile."
"Or... Maybe she does when you're not around."
"..." Jaune sighed. That just made him a bit sadder than he already is. "You're probably right."
"Hey, buddy. So what if she's happier without your existence?" Cardin sat down next to him. "Just a friendly tip. Simpin' ain't healthy, man. This unrequited love shit? It has to stop."
"I... I get it." He took a second to think about his next course of action. "Should I just... avoid her or something?"
"You don't have to, dude. Don't do anything. Don't be rude... Don't be spiteful. Just let her be. Speak to her only when she initiates a conversation. Just be your normal self without the whole hitting on her shtick. Got it?"
Though he was hesitant, he agreed. "Yeah..."
Suddenly, Jaune's scroll began to vibrate and ring. He took it out of his pocket and saw one of his friends was calling. It was Yang.
"Hey! You two are late! You promised you'll hang out with us, remember? We don't have all day, you know. Is team CRDL giving you guys any trouble? Cuz if they are..." The sound of knuckles cracking could be heard through the speaker.
"We didn't do nothin'! They're doing just fine!" Russel shouted towards the scroll.
"Wait, how is she even cracking her knuckles when she's holding her scroll?" Cardin asked.
"I'm cracking mine." Nora's voice could be heard through the speaker.
"We're fine, Yang. On our way back." Jaune said before hanging up. "Welp, guess we should be going. Thanks, guys."
"Don't mention it. Thanks for the tutoring." Cardin offered a fist bump to both their visitors.
"You're welcome," Ren said.
After obliging, the other team members started to get up and give them fist bumps as well.
"Hey, remember what I told you, kay? Stop trying with Weiss. You have two girls right now that you have to deal with."
"Gotcha, thanks for the talk. That was eye-opening, to say the least." Jaune smiled and gave a thumbs up.
"Anytime, pal. Just go to me if you need any more relationship advice."
Sky began laughing. "Pfff... You? Relationship advice? Ha! You're not even actively looking for a girlfriend."
"My father is an image consultant and has already taught me everything I need to know when it comes to dating and marriage. Things to keep in mind and look out for. I have my own approach when it comes to this stuff. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Ren was already heading out, waving back.
Jaune soon followed. "I believe ya. If it ever gets too complicated for me, I'll hit you up."
"It will be. Love triangles tend to be complicated."
"True... If something comes up, I'll let you know."
Yang began dusting off her hands. "Welp. That takes care of that. They'll be here shortly."
The heiress was silently staring at her own scroll. She had a very noticeable frown on her face.
Ruby was the first to notice. "You okay, Weiss? I'm sorry for laughing earlier." She tilted her head, trying to see what Weiss was looking at.
~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~
App Update
Penny - 75% - Green heart
Pyrrha - 70% - Green heart
Weiss - (65 - 60) = 5% - Green heart
Ruby - 80% - Blue heart
Yang - 75% - Blue heart
Velvet - 50% - Blue heart
Blake - 45% - Blue Heart
Coco - 40% - Blue heart
Nora - 50% - Violet heart
Ren - 0% - Violet heart
~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~ O ~
"Oh..."
Yang joined in. "Oof... He barely has a crush on ya."
Finally, Penny actually turned to the heiress and finally spoke. "Maybe you two can talk it out?"
At first, Weiss clenched and tightened her grip on her scroll, seemingly about to throw a fit. But she stopped herself... She didn't want to prove Dove's point. Instead, she calmly took a deep breath... and then let it out slowly. "I'll... try, I guess." Just right after, she began texting on her scroll.
The rest of the gals gave looks of concern.
Until Nora stretched her arms upwards and then headed out of the room. "Welp. Gonna take a quick shower. Anyone wanna come with? Can't smell like turds for later."
Author's Notes: Stuff's gonna go downhill from here. Or uphill? Depends on how you look at it. Anyways, hope you guys found the story entertaining so far. I think this is the first time I'm gonna involve this much drama in a romantic comedy fanfic. Poor Weiss... I wonder how she will deal with this. xD
Announcement/s!
So... Uh... I made a brand new Twitter account... Okay, I'll be honest. I still feel super awkward plugging my stuff on here. Even when I've been doing it in my last few chapters already. This was actually suggested by a reader of mine so that I could keep you guys updated with either how my fic is doing or what's going on in my life currently. I also feel like a boomer trying to learn what I'm even supposed to be posting there if I don't have anything to say about my fic. xD
Anyways, here it is: AngeloGene2
Yeah, the "at" symbol won't show.
Maybe I could link something that I have currently seen/watched and maybe use it as inspiration for future scenes in my stories? I don't know. I'll try to figure things out, or you peeps tell me. I'm fine with it either way.
Oh! And if someone happens to make fanart of any of my stories again, I'll be sure to give them a shoutout! I remember back when I was just starting out as a writer, some talented dude from DeviantArt called KegiSpringfield made art for my Jaune's Video Diary story that I now use as the cover art for said story. With permission of course! It was such an awesome and humbling experience for me. It's the first time I experienced the "Senpai Noticed Me" thing in anime. xD
And as always! The next chapter (the outline and draft form) will be free to read on my online tip jar thingy that I cannot link here because the site doesn't allow it for some reason? Just visit my profile here or maybe just google my username and see what pops up. xD
Anyways, till next time! My goal is to post a chapter every week or at least every month but... You guys know the drill. Hopefully, I can get back into the habit of writing and actually post consistently. Which reminds me...
LAST and most important announcement... If a month passes without any chapter updates or any of that sort, PLEASE STOP DONATING. This goes to both current and potential future supporters of my thingy here. Guys? I have a conscience... And despite telling this months ago to my current financial supporters, they won't let up... for 5 to 6 months. Refunds are always open, and I'm more than willing to give some back if need be but still... My conscience has been beating up mentally.
That's all from me for now. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read all of this.
