p style="text-align: center;"strongIDNO RWBY, that stroke of genius belongs to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum. /strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"strongAkumagirl92: Thanks for the tip, I'm going to be using that since no one else voted. *glaring at the rest of the audience*/strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"strongI also went back and changed a few things in the rest of the story, check it out and tell me what you think./strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Chapter 3: Get Ready to Go/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The next morning, I woke up to the bustling of my schoolmates. It was initiation day, so we were trying to make sure we were ready. At least Ruby and I were. I noticed one guy that was just leaning against one of the lockers. He had a handsome face and a sly smile, but the wild look in his eyes told me he was a force to reckoned with. His eyes were mismatched; his left eye was a golden amber, while his right was amethyst purple. His hair was grey, and had two small, slightly pointed nubs at just the right place to be a faunus. He wore only a breastplate for armor, a white, short-sleeved t-shirt and cargo pants. On his feet were a pair of military-style boots. He had a dagger strapped to his belt on the left side, for the left hand by the way it was positioned and the way the hilt was designed, on his right, he had an M .22 Dust Pistol holstered, positioned just between his hand and elbow, for maximum draw and fire speed, I'd guess. Across his belt and chest strap, there were different magazines for dust style bullets; mainly lightning and ice. Otherwise, he looked like he was about to audition for a TV show rather than be initiated into a high-class hunting academy. He made me slightly uneasy, and when someone makes me uneasy; I try to make friends since it'll throw away the extra anxiety. I know that some people feel that you should avoid people like that, but usually you end up getting into a scuffle with them after you avoid them for a while, or they think that you like them, and as you may have guessed, I'm not gay, and he didn't look to be either./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I looked at Ruby pand said, "Why don't you go find Yang? I've got a possible friend to make."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She nodded her head in understanding, "Just don't be too slick about it like last time."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I chuckled at her facetious reference to our first date, "Yeah, unless he's a complete pervert, I don't think that'll be a problem."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We shared an encouraging smile before she left to find Yang. I went over to the (possible) friend./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey," I said casually./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked at me like he was imagining every different way he could dispose of my dead body. "S'up." His voice was smooth and charming, making me even more uneasy, most people with that kind of voice were people who took girls on dates, spiked their drinks, and got into their pants all in one night, causing me to take an involuntary step back. He seemed to find this amusing, "Sorry if I make you nervous. I have a tendency to unnerve people."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So it seems," I swallowed the nervousness I was feeling and continued, "So how'd you get into Beacon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I just did my best and worked my way here." I could tell he was holding something back, but decided not to press the matter and risk him slitting my throat and throwing my body to the beowolves and the possible friendship. "You?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I got in by taking down some dust thieves that were robbing a dust shop down in Vale."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cool. What's your weapon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I pulled out my sword and switched its modes to scythe form, "My scythe, Wolf's Fang."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You named your weapon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah. Just about everyone names their weapon, especially if you're the one who forged it or them. Everyone at Signal Academy forges their own weapons, so the majority name 'em, including me and Ruby."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The guy looked down and scratched his head, obviously considering the idea, "Well, I forged mine, so how about… 'Shox' and 'Jolts'?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I like it," I gave a small shrug, "So, might I ask your name?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Loki. Loki Ironwood." He offered his hand to shake. I vaguely recognised the name Ironwood, but passed it off for just reading it in a book about trees./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Christen Black." I reached to shake his hand and got a surprise buzz to my hand, causing me to recoil while Loki doubled over laughing and holding up his hand to reveal a rather bulky hand buzzer. I took a moment to look at the situation and put my hands on my knees while we chortled and guffawed at his prank for a minute. I know it's kinda kiddy, but considering that I hadn't seen it /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"at all/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", I think I could have a good laugh over it. before "I take it that your semblance is illusions or perception manipulation?" I asked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He nodded, "Perception manipulation," he nodded and clarified while his original smirk returned to his features, "Yeah, it makes for great pranks, although my dad doesn't approve of me messing around." I decided I liked how this guy worked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So, who was that hot yellow-haired babe I saw you and that red-hooded girl were with in the assembly hall?" he asked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yang? She's my best friend's sister. Why, do you have a thing for her?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I got my answer from the way his cheeks went a little red, and he said, "Yeah. She's like the hottest girl I've seen so far."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You want me to introduce you?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked down and said in a small voice, "Yes."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Before or after initiation?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He thought about it for a moment, "After. I don't want to be distracted before then."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Huh. A prankster with a sense of responsibility. I like that in teammate. "I guess I'll see you out there." I put my fist forward for him to bump./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah," he put his fist to mine./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I walked back toward my locker and got my sword, then I went looking for Ruby, hoping there wasn't going to be another Dustin at this school. But, as luck would have it, there was a tall, caucasian guy standing over by the lockers and I could already smell the blood on his knuckles. He was one for dunking new guys' heads in toilets and beating people out of their lunch money for kicks and to scare people into respecting him. I really wanted to get into a fight with him in the arena and kick his ass. Before I got mad enough to reconfigure his facial features, I took a breath and kept looking for Ruby. I found her at her locker talking to Yang. When I got over to them, she asked, "So how'd it go with the new friend?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I smiled and replied, "We hit it off great. He seems to take an interest in you, Yang."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Before Yang could open her mouth to reply, my ears started twitching like crazy and you could see them moving. I don't know if it's my something that my semblance does or if it's just part of being a Faunus, but whenever there's two people that would make the perfect match, my ears start acting up and I get a real weird but nagging feeling in my gut that pulls me to where they are. Ruby, taking notice of what my ears were doing and squealed, "Yaaay, new OTP. C'mon take us to the new OTP."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I held up my hands in surrender and chuckled, "Okay, okay. Follow me."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yang shrugged and decided to follow us while I navigated my way through the enormous locker room until we came to another section of lockers where Jaune, Weiss, and a woman I recognised as Pyrrha Nikos, a world renowned tournament fighter who owned the title "Queen of Battle." Jaune was obviously not aware of any of this, since I kept hearing him say things like "beg pardon" and "gesundheit" when Weiss would state facts about Pyrrha's exploits, only recognising her when Weiss, while waving her arms indignantly, said that Pyrrha was on every box of Pumpkin Pete's marshmallow puffs./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Pyrrha, unlike Weiss, seemed to actually take pleasure in the fact that she wasn't being recognised. She was very relaxed and a small smile played on her features. She also started playing with her hair and her cheeks were tinted pink. Due to my semblance, which I call Aura Touch since since I sense things from others' aura and have a bit of influence over others' aura, which gives me a bit of an edge on others in a fight, I could tell she was relishing the fact that someone was finally talking to her without asking for her autograph or asking he for a date. What was interesting was that I could feel their auras attracting, almost physically, a lot stronger than most others'. If the red thread of fate were a physical thing, theirs would be getting shorter and shorter until their hands were inseparable, that's just how strong the pull between their auras was. I pointed to Jaune and Pyrrha individually, "It's Jaune and I think that other woman is Pyrrha Nikos."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I turned around to face Ruby, giving her my full attention, "Now remember what happened last time you told the two people that they were destined to be together. Let it happen." The last time I told Ruby that two people would get together, it was two of the most stubborn people that were at Signal Academy, and they refused to get together after that./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ruby tried to move around me, but I grabbed her arm and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. She simply pointed to where Jaune had been pinned to the walled by Pyrrha's javelin. As Weiss and Pyrrha walked away, she retrieved her javelin and said, "I'm sorry." I realised that Ruby was just trying to help out. I covered my face with a hand with an embarrassed smile and let her pass, following her to help Jaune out. I looked at Yang, "How 'bout you head to the cliff, we'll catch up." We lifted him up, and leaned him into me. When his body came into contact with mine, I got a sudden rush of energy and strength. I was able to carry him a little bit better and felt like I could run a hundred miles before I got tired. I got scared for a moment, thinking that someone had slipped cocaine into my breakfast, but then I wasn't feeling so energised but I didn't have a banging headache and numb muscles, so cocaine was definitely not the answer. I had a feeling that it had to do with Jaune, but didn't feel any powerful aura emanating from him, so I decided that it couldn't be that and that I'd just had some caffeine left over in my system. When Jaune asked what he did wrong with Weiss, Ruby told him that ice princess was probably not the best way to go. I told him, "You know, I don't think you're going to be able to get a date with her if you keep doing the smooth pick up lines. No guy I ever saw got a girl by using pick up lines that involved complimenting themselves."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;"br /span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We continued the conversation while heading to the cliff, going from subjects like board games, comic books, and what kind of music was the best to listen to in the gym. When we arrived at the cliff we saw a long row of platforms, obviously for us to stand on, with Glynda and Ozpin to the right of them, I saw Loki standing on a platform near the end next to the three platforms nearest the two teachers. I stepped on the center one, Ruby stepped on the one to my left and Jaune stepped on the one to my right. When we were all on a platform, Ozpin explained what we were going to be doing, all the while Jaune asked questions about how it was going to work, the apprehension clear in his voice. After Ozzie had finished explaining, he Launched us all into the air toward the Emerald Forest. When I began to make my descent, I'm not sure what happened, but I could've sworn I saw every grimm in the forest look directly at me and bow, or at least I felt something like that happen. I couldn't tell what, but I knew that something interesting was going to happen in this forest./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p style="text-align: left;"strongAkumagirl92: Thanks for the tip, I'm going to be using that since no one else voted. *glaring at the rest of the audience*/strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"strongI also went back and changed a few things in the rest of the story, check it out and tell me what you think./strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Chapter 3: Get Ready to Go/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The next morning, I woke up to the bustling of my schoolmates. It was initiation day, so we were trying to make sure we were ready. At least Ruby and I were. I noticed one guy that was just leaning against one of the lockers. He had a handsome face and a sly smile, but the wild look in his eyes told me he was a force to reckoned with. His eyes were mismatched; his left eye was a golden amber, while his right was amethyst purple. His hair was grey, and had two small, slightly pointed nubs at just the right place to be a faunus. He wore only a breastplate for armor, a white, short-sleeved t-shirt and cargo pants. On his feet were a pair of military-style boots. He had a dagger strapped to his belt on the left side, for the left hand by the way it was positioned and the way the hilt was designed, on his right, he had an M .22 Dust Pistol holstered, positioned just between his hand and elbow, for maximum draw and fire speed, I'd guess. Across his belt and chest strap, there were different magazines for dust style bullets; mainly lightning and ice. Otherwise, he looked like he was about to audition for a TV show rather than be initiated into a high-class hunting academy. He made me slightly uneasy, and when someone makes me uneasy; I try to make friends since it'll throw away the extra anxiety. I know that some people feel that you should avoid people like that, but usually you end up getting into a scuffle with them after you avoid them for a while, or they think that you like them, and as you may have guessed, I'm not gay, and he didn't look to be either./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I looked at Ruby pand said, "Why don't you go find Yang? I've got a possible friend to make."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She nodded her head in understanding, "Just don't be too slick about it like last time."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I chuckled at her facetious reference to our first date, "Yeah, unless he's a complete pervert, I don't think that'll be a problem."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We shared an encouraging smile before she left to find Yang. I went over to the (possible) friend./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey," I said casually./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked at me like he was imagining every different way he could dispose of my dead body. "S'up." His voice was smooth and charming, making me even more uneasy, most people with that kind of voice were people who took girls on dates, spiked their drinks, and got into their pants all in one night, causing me to take an involuntary step back. He seemed to find this amusing, "Sorry if I make you nervous. I have a tendency to unnerve people."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So it seems," I swallowed the nervousness I was feeling and continued, "So how'd you get into Beacon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I just did my best and worked my way here." I could tell he was holding something back, but decided not to press the matter and risk him slitting my throat and throwing my body to the beowolves and the possible friendship. "You?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I got in by taking down some dust thieves that were robbing a dust shop down in Vale."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Cool. What's your weapon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I pulled out my sword and switched its modes to scythe form, "My scythe, Wolf's Fang."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You named your weapon?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah. Just about everyone names their weapon, especially if you're the one who forged it or them. Everyone at Signal Academy forges their own weapons, so the majority name 'em, including me and Ruby."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The guy looked down and scratched his head, obviously considering the idea, "Well, I forged mine, so how about… 'Shox' and 'Jolts'?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I like it," I gave a small shrug, "So, might I ask your name?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Loki. Loki Ironwood." He offered his hand to shake. I vaguely recognised the name Ironwood, but passed it off for just reading it in a book about trees./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Christen Black." I reached to shake his hand and got a surprise buzz to my hand, causing me to recoil while Loki doubled over laughing and holding up his hand to reveal a rather bulky hand buzzer. I took a moment to look at the situation and put my hands on my knees while we chortled and guffawed at his prank for a minute. I know it's kinda kiddy, but considering that I hadn't seen it /spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"at all/spanspan style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;", I think I could have a good laugh over it. before "I take it that your semblance is illusions or perception manipulation?" I asked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He nodded, "Perception manipulation," he nodded and clarified while his original smirk returned to his features, "Yeah, it makes for great pranks, although my dad doesn't approve of me messing around." I decided I liked how this guy worked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""So, who was that hot yellow-haired babe I saw you and that red-hooded girl were with in the assembly hall?" he asked./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yang? She's my best friend's sister. Why, do you have a thing for her?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I got my answer from the way his cheeks went a little red, and he said, "Yeah. She's like the hottest girl I've seen so far."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You want me to introduce you?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked down and said in a small voice, "Yes."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Before or after initiation?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He thought about it for a moment, "After. I don't want to be distracted before then."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Huh. A prankster with a sense of responsibility. I like that in teammate. "I guess I'll see you out there." I put my fist forward for him to bump./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah," he put his fist to mine./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I walked back toward my locker and got my sword, then I went looking for Ruby, hoping there wasn't going to be another Dustin at this school. But, as luck would have it, there was a tall, caucasian guy standing over by the lockers and I could already smell the blood on his knuckles. He was one for dunking new guys' heads in toilets and beating people out of their lunch money for kicks and to scare people into respecting him. I really wanted to get into a fight with him in the arena and kick his ass. Before I got mad enough to reconfigure his facial features, I took a breath and kept looking for Ruby. I found her at her locker talking to Yang. When I got over to them, she asked, "So how'd it go with the new friend?"/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I smiled and replied, "We hit it off great. He seems to take an interest in you, Yang."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Before Yang could open her mouth to reply, my ears started twitching like crazy and you could see them moving. I don't know if it's my something that my semblance does or if it's just part of being a Faunus, but whenever there's two people that would make the perfect match, my ears start acting up and I get a real weird but nagging feeling in my gut that pulls me to where they are. Ruby, taking notice of what my ears were doing and squealed, "Yaaay, new OTP. C'mon take us to the new OTP."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I held up my hands in surrender and chuckled, "Okay, okay. Follow me."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Yang shrugged and decided to follow us while I navigated my way through the enormous locker room until we came to another section of lockers where Jaune, Weiss, and a woman I recognised as Pyrrha Nikos, a world renowned tournament fighter who owned the title "Queen of Battle." Jaune was obviously not aware of any of this, since I kept hearing him say things like "beg pardon" and "gesundheit" when Weiss would state facts about Pyrrha's exploits, only recognising her when Weiss, while waving her arms indignantly, said that Pyrrha was on every box of Pumpkin Pete's marshmallow puffs./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Pyrrha, unlike Weiss, seemed to actually take pleasure in the fact that she wasn't being recognised. She was very relaxed and a small smile played on her features. She also started playing with her hair and her cheeks were tinted pink. Due to my semblance, which I call Aura Touch since since I sense things from others' aura and have a bit of influence over others' aura, which gives me a bit of an edge on others in a fight, I could tell she was relishing the fact that someone was finally talking to her without asking for her autograph or asking he for a date. What was interesting was that I could feel their auras attracting, almost physically, a lot stronger than most others'. If the red thread of fate were a physical thing, theirs would be getting shorter and shorter until their hands were inseparable, that's just how strong the pull between their auras was. I pointed to Jaune and Pyrrha individually, "It's Jaune and I think that other woman is Pyrrha Nikos."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"I turned around to face Ruby, giving her my full attention, "Now remember what happened last time you told the two people that they were destined to be together. Let it happen." The last time I told Ruby that two people would get together, it was two of the most stubborn people that were at Signal Academy, and they refused to get together after that./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ruby tried to move around me, but I grabbed her arm and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. She simply pointed to where Jaune had been pinned to the walled by Pyrrha's javelin. As Weiss and Pyrrha walked away, she retrieved her javelin and said, "I'm sorry." I realised that Ruby was just trying to help out. I covered my face with a hand with an embarrassed smile and let her pass, following her to help Jaune out. I looked at Yang, "How 'bout you head to the cliff, we'll catch up." We lifted him up, and leaned him into me. When his body came into contact with mine, I got a sudden rush of energy and strength. I was able to carry him a little bit better and felt like I could run a hundred miles before I got tired. I got scared for a moment, thinking that someone had slipped cocaine into my breakfast, but then I wasn't feeling so energised but I didn't have a banging headache and numb muscles, so cocaine was definitely not the answer. I had a feeling that it had to do with Jaune, but didn't feel any powerful aura emanating from him, so I decided that it couldn't be that and that I'd just had some caffeine left over in my system. When Jaune asked what he did wrong with Weiss, Ruby told him that ice princess was probably not the best way to go. I told him, "You know, I don't think you're going to be able to get a date with her if you keep doing the smooth pick up lines. No guy I ever saw got a girl by using pick up lines that involved complimenting themselves."/span/p
p style="text-align: left;"br /span style="font-size: 14.666666666666666px; font-family: Arial; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"We continued the conversation while heading to the cliff, going from subjects like board games, comic books, and what kind of music was the best to listen to in the gym. When we arrived at the cliff we saw a long row of platforms, obviously for us to stand on, with Glynda and Ozpin to the right of them, I saw Loki standing on a platform near the end next to the three platforms nearest the two teachers. I stepped on the center one, Ruby stepped on the one to my left and Jaune stepped on the one to my right. When we were all on a platform, Ozpin explained what we were going to be doing, all the while Jaune asked questions about how it was going to work, the apprehension clear in his voice. After Ozzie had finished explaining, he Launched us all into the air toward the Emerald Forest. When I began to make my descent, I'm not sure what happened, but I could've sworn I saw every grimm in the forest look directly at me and bow, or at least I felt something like that happen. I couldn't tell what, but I knew that something interesting was going to happen in this forest./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p