So, my day sucks. Every time life seems to stabilize, it loves throwing things at you.

But I've made a decision that I'll post chapters as I finish them and have them edited and overlooked by patleon909(whose been great about it, go give him a good word).

Enjoy. Thing'll speed up next chapter in the Initiation.
-Phoenyx

"Wow, Beacon sure is something." Ruby hopped on her toes, hands balled into fists over her chest and shaking as they moved. It was like a talent of hers, a mix between skipping, excited bouncing, and walking. After Oobleck's very quick escape, and a very long trek until they'd found students, the male of the two was surprised that she could muster such energy. "Oooooh, I wanna explore all of it!"

"Yeah, it's big." Jaune couldn't think of another way to say it. "But uh… where are we supposed to go?"

"Well…" She lifted a finger, which he followed over to a gathering of people. "Maybe there?"

"Oh. Well." He shifted a hand up to grip his neck. "Let's go?"

"Yeah!" Ruby took four steps forward, before stopping and spinning around in a small jump. "Hey, wanna be on a team together?"

"Team?" Jaune stopped short, the sudden question startling him. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you don't know? Students at Beacon are divided into teams of four. My uncle used to go here." She lifted a slender finger while she explained, "Same as my Dad and Mom. They were actually on the same team, Team Stark! Anyway, you, me, same team?"

"Sure." His reply came after a moment, not to think if it was a good idea but to just catch up to her quick speech. "That'd be nice."

"Awesome!" Ruby jumped, throwing a fist in the air and spinning back to head to the group. "That's three!"

"Three?"

"Yeah." She explained while he caught up. "Yang, you. And hopefully that one girl that I uh…" A nervous laugh, nearly lost as they entered the crowd. He caught her last word though. "Exploded."

"Who… You what now?"

"I dunno. Didn't get her name because she was too busy yelling at-"

"You!"

"Oh no, not again!" Ruby jumped, her clothing rippling as she spun to find the coming threat. While the girl did, in fact, find Ruby first and start with what seemed like a long tirade, Jaune didn't catch a word. He was mesmerized. Girls from his village just didn't look like this one - porcelain skin, angular features, perfectly manicured nails, shimmery, silky hair… even the scar that stretched over her eye seemed like it was exactly where it should be.

"Jaune." Ruby gripped his arm and used him as a shield. Whatever words he tried to respond with were lost when the angel tried to pursue her unwilling target around the unwitting male, brochure in hand. A faint scent of vanilla in the air. "Jaune, help me."

"Uh."

"Great!" This time, her eyes settled on him. Her tone was accusatory. "Hide behind this neanderthal."

"Jaune make her leave."

"I-I'm a natural blonde you know."

Smooth. Was that the best he had?

"...What?"

Yes, in fact, while she was that close it was the best he could think of. All of his thoughts were focused acutely on that gentle curve of her jaw, and the annoyed look in her eyes that just fit her.

"Good, you've got her on the defensive!" Ruby chimed in a whisper, like she was some sort of boxing coach. "Now hit her with the ol' one-two!"

"Uh."

"Just tell your friend," The white haired girl ground between her teeth. Her perfect, pearly teeth. The brochure was pressed firmly into his breastplate, but when he didn't reach up to take it, the girl moved his hand for him. Soft. Warm. "To not come near me. Ever again."

And then she was gone, and he mourned her passing.

"Oh you're a lifesaver." Ruby half-collapsed against him, before removing herself entirely and brushing her skirts off. "I thought I was done for. You're like a knight in shining armor!"

"Who was she?" The reply came far later than he had intended. Jaune only shot Ruby a glance, much preferring the retreating figure of beauty. "I should have asked her name…"

"I don't know it. She's apparently some daughter of some big shot."

"Huh. How do you know that?"

"Because she's really mean." Jaune removed his sight from the already disappeared girl to find Ruby pouting. She hunched her shoulders and pursed her lips, her eyes trailing right. "I just want to make it up to her. Repair bridges, you know? Normal knees."

Normal knees? One quick and hidden glance told him that Ruby's knees were, in fact, as knee-like as they came. Instead, Jaune nodded."Right, makes sense. I'm sure you'll find a way."

"Uh huh…" The short girl fell silent, slouching down again. She remained that way for several moments, blowing air through her lips before her mood spun one-eighty once again. "Oh! I recognize that person!"

"Huh? Like a friend of yours?"

"I wish!" Following her pointing finger, Jaune's eyes fell onto a girl in shining gold and hearty reds. She stood in a relaxed pose, one hand on her hip and her gaze moving to examine everyone who passed by. "That's Pyrrha Nikos. The Pyrrha Nikos!"

"Py-what now?"

"Do you live under a rock!? Four time champion of the Mistral Regional tournament!"

A pursed set of lips and a shrug.

"Top of her class at Sanctum?"

"That's a school, right?"

"Have you ever eaten Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes?" Ruby seemed to be grasping now, looking at her hands as if the right explanation was hidden in her skin. It felt silly, but Jaune shrugged anyway. "A long time ago… Maybe? Got a hoodie out of all the box tops..."

"Where are you even from?" Her delivery was one of disbelief, like the thought of not eating sugary cereals was absolutely appalling. Which maybe she thought it was? "Space?"

"Woad… Couple kilometers south of the Agriculture district…" He did feel foolish. Was this supposed to be common knowledge? "I'm pretty sure our prime export is herbs… for like, cooking."

"Like spices and stuff?"

"No… herbs… it's the leafy stuff." Jaune blinked twice, his words slowing and trailing the longer he spoke. "Spices come from the stems…"

"Right. I didn't know that." And surprisingly, she didn't seem weirded by the new knowledge. "Learn something new every day."

"Yeah." A chuckle escaped him. Though, as much as he'd like to detail out his knowledge of cooking ingredients, minimal as it was, Jaune's eyes were drawn elsewhere. A bright blonde head of hair, her arm waving widely and her voice closing over the distance. "Ruby!" The elder sister called, "Over here!"

"Oh! Yang!" The hooded girl twisted towards him with an apologetic look, already moving. "Sorry, gotta go, bye!"

"Uh." Though he held his hand up for her to wait, she'd already sifted through the crowd and left him to his lonesome. Frowning, Jaune scuffed his shoe into the concrete. "Okay…"

A tapping sound followed soon after, then a whine of feedback. A man stepped fully up to the plate, towering over the assembled below. His can tapped down onto the hollow ground, an echoing sound following the impact. With one look toward the short woman flanking his right side, the gray haired man pressed his tiny glasses up the bridge of his nose and cleared his throat.

"I will keep this brief." He started, his voice smooth, deep, and commanding. The assembled students, Jaune included, fell silent. "You come here in search of power, be it in the form of knowledge or the honing of your craft. This power you plan to use by dedicating your life to the protection of the people. But I look at you and see… wasted energy.

"This is nothing negative, however, it simply says that you need to be given a path. Purpose. Direction. Now you may assume that power, in whatever form, will free you, or that we at Beacon will provide you with this direction. We will not. Instead, we offer you an opportunity. A foot in the door." He paused, most likely for dramatic effect. "But it is up to you to cross the threshold."

While the words echoed over the silence, while the woman who had been at his right hand took his place. "Students, if you may gather in the ballroom for the night. Initiation will take place tomorrow morning, where you would be evaluated. Dismissed."

Though he was certain that he was included among the dismissal, Jaune remained still as a rock. The Headmaster had a way with words, not only in the sense that his speech had, for all it was worth, put him in his place. No, the moment he had started talking was the most impressive - Every student had gone completely silent. That alone was something that impressed him, mostly because he knew how his peers were. Neither silent nor respectful listed among words he would use to describe them. The stillness subsided quickly enough, along with the process of his thoughts. Instead he chose to hurry along behind the assembly to avoid being lost(again), as well as to look like he was fitting in(for once).

The ballroom was a tall and wide room, much larger than many if not all of the buildings from his hometown of Woad. It was an impressive enough sight, nearly as much as the fact that every inch of floor space was taken by his peers. Hundreds of faces that were moving animatedly in a variety of actions; talking, staring, reading or, somehow, sleeping. Jaune took the first empty spot he could find, fit between two much taller boys, and settled his bags onto the floor.

From it, he withdrew the pajamas that he had hastily packed and found… the only thing he had hoped to leave behind; his onesie. The blonde frowned at the object, brow furrowing while he weighed the pros and cons of simply sleeping in his armor. This is much more comfortable. Was his decision, hefting the powder blue garment along with the rest of his things and trudging his way to the marked changing area - A locker room, where he found his name on a list along with a combination and a number.

Changing out if his armor was much quicker than the opposite, the pesky straps falling away as if he hadn't spent an hour getting the damn things on. Once he was suited up, including the attached bunny slippers, he flicked through the combination for his assigned lockers and stored his gear, settling Crocea Mors onto a suspiciously perfectly shaped mantle last.

The walk back to his chosen sleeping area was far more embarrassing. At first it was nothing special, but like any oddity in a group of teenagers, he soon found himself at the forefront of giggles, laughs, and stares. At one point he heard the feline sound of a female growling at him, but his joy soon turned to disappointment when the blonde whose shoes he had nearly ruined switched to a 'blech.' A quick glance told Jaune that he'd ruined Yang's view of two shirtless teens wrestling.

Not even a pity look from her either. Life was so cruel.

Still he survived the walk to his blankets. To his side came a tirade of chatter emanating from a redheaded girl who seemed glued to a boy his age. It was a bucket of crazy for another day. His priority was to get away, which was accomplished by sinking down beneath his blankets and half hiding his embarrassing attire from the crowd and the hyperactive girl. It's comfortable, Jaune reasoned, one day they'll see, and then I will laugh.

The thought did little to comfort him as he felt his eyelids go heavy. Sleep soon followed the sensation, dreamless and fleeting.

Starter chapters are so short.

Alright, next chapter should be up soon. It'll likely be longer than these first two.

Lemme know what you think.
-Phoenyx

Advice for the Aspiring Writer; Character Voice.

This is an easy one for Fanfiction, or it should be if people were better at characterization. We know these characters because we've seen them in Canon. Pyrrha is a shy girl, but confident in her abilities and polite to a fault. Ruby is a dreamer, who wants to be a hero and save everyone. Yang is an aggressive girl, we generally know how she reacts to certain situations. Nora's exciteable, Ren is introspective, Weiss is a thorned Heart-of-Gold, Blake is quiet and bookish. This is characterization, but in writing it needs to be reflected as the characters voice as well, because otherwise every chapter between PoVs feel the same. A fantastic example is Coeur's writing, any story that has multiple PoVs, or even between the stories. Stress Relief(really good, even if the pairing is hated among Arkos fans) reads way differently than, say, Professor Arc, because the character voice is established early and strongly.

You ever have a friend who you could always imagine what they would say or do in any given circumstances, even if they weren't with you? How about things you can't imagine them saying? That would be having a good sense of that person's voice.

Character voice, at it's definition, is essentially having the actions a character take reflect what the reader thinks it should in that situation. This is much, much more noticeable in first person perspective, as the writing follows along with the characters thoughts and beliefs, as well as the way he/she processes information. In third person, it's more noticeable in action and dialogue, but proper writing allows it to shine through in-between the lines as well.

As a Fanfiction writer, even though I've changed Jaune to be a bit more competent, he's still Jaune. He stutters and flushes around pretty girls or in response to flirting, that's something you expect, right? But it goes deeper when it comes to fiction, more notably when it comes to my style of writing which encompasses a bit of the character in the writing. I change vocabulary and word choice based on the character. Jaune's got an optimistic viewpoint, but he's self depreciating, so you want him to have good thoughts but contrast them. You see this in the last section with Yang and his 'life is so cruel' comment, then his thoughts on everyone finding out onesies are comfortable. It's small, very small, but it's important in order to develop character voice.

Another good example would be using idioms based on where they're from. Jaune's from a country city, so he's likely to use similes that talk about animals or plants, while city boys would reference urban environments; lamp posts, for example. There's also things like 'What now?' that he's said a few times when someone talks about something he doesn't know about. "Py-what now?"

In the next chapter, we switch PoVs to the other main character of the story. One thing you'll notice is that there are going to be bigger words, of course, but you're going to notice a really stark difference once we hit the fight scenes. Jaune is a rookie at fighting, while our other PoV character is familiar. Ergo, Jaune will not catch the little things that matter in a fight between skilled opponents, unlike our other PoV character.

Character voice is not just the words that come from their mouth - It is their point of view on the world.