Foreign Exchange
Chapter 2: New, a rival
AN: I'm surprised, the ratio of views to favourites has really been whacked-off by this story.
One moment, the teen was looking a hooded man in the face.
The next, Shavodon Ontronik Odadjian was standing in the middle of Vale International Airport's B-7 with a suitcase in one hand and a ticket in the other.
Shavo was about six feet tall with slightly angular features and shaggy brown hair with dark green eyes and a small brown billy-goat goatee on his chin. He wore a black jacket with pockets on the forearms, breast and sides with a gray fleece hood. For pants, he had boot cut jeans with small holes in them and a chain attached to his left hip. His shoes were brown steel-toe hiking boots, and the only thing on his hands was an iron ring that had a symbol of a crow on top of a skull.
He was also taking this surprisingly well for his first time switching universes.
Surrounded by people walking by to their flights, Shavo looked at the ticket in his hand and tried to look for the area listed on the slip of paper, A-9. He saw no such sign displaying anything.
Looking around, he spotted a map on a wall across the large area he was in and began walking past random passerbies to take a closer look.
When he arrived, Shavo looked up and was instantly lost in the cascade of squiggly red, blue and green lines with white and black boxes seemingly everywhere. Not to say he couldn't read maps, but this was very different from any map he had ever seen. After staring at it for what felt like five minutes, he stepped back a bit to try and get a larger view of it.
And right into a person trying to walk by.
"Shit!" He squawked as he reeled, trying to keep himself upright, before he failed and fell on his behind and his luggage fell out of his hand, thankfully not spilling it's contents everywhere for them to get trampled by people going about their day.
"Oh, I apologize!" Said a female voice with an apology that seemed almost exaggerated, "I wasn't looking where I was going!"
Shavo looked up from his place on the ground to see first black shoes with long black stockings that led up to a old-fashioned blouse with feminine overalls that consisted of grays and greens. The person also had orange hair that went down to her chin, a pink bow in her hair, and light green eyes.
The eyes of Penny, the marionette.
He stood there, taking in the live and real appearance of the first RWBY character he would ever meet, before he realised it looked like he was gawking at her and quickly stood up.
"I-It's fine." Shavo assured her as he scratched the back of his neck, "My fault, I was trying to figure out where I have to go."
"Oh, I believe I could assist with that!" Penny said as she placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest proudly before instantly gaining a curious look as she leaned forward slightly, "What can I help you with?"
Shavo held his ticket up for her to see, pointing to the words A-9 as she stood next to his side to look over his shoulder. Penny then stepped back to look at the map Shavo had been studying before very quickly pointing to a certain white box.
"There! Bay A-9 is located approximately six hundred and ninety four point three feet from here."
Shavo looked at the place where she was pointing to see, in very small print, the words A-9.
"Huh, well I'll be damned." He remarked off-handedly before reaching up to scratch his goatee, "Now I just have to figure out how to get there…"
"I could assist you with that as well." Penny reminded the traveler of her presence as she popped up next to him.
He turned to the android and realized this would be a good opportunity to actually get himself connected to the characters of the story, even if it was someone in a less than main role like Penny. Shavo didn't mind, though. It was amazing that he was simply able to interact with any of them.
"That would be much appreciated, actually." He stated with a small smile before sticking out his hand, "Name's Shavodon. You can call me Shavo."
Penny practically beamed as she took his hand and shook it in a vice grip.
"It's very nice to meet you, Shavodon! My name is Penny!"
Once she released his hand, Penny immediately turned around and began to walk in the direction of what Shavo could assume was the direction of bay A-9 before he quickly caught up with her and matched her pace as she lead the way. Shavo looked around at the airport for a few seconds before he tried to think up some sort of conversation topic that would last past fifteen seconds.
"So, what are you here for?" Shavo asked as he looked back at the ginger girl. She turned to him with a smile as they continued to walk.
"Oh, I'm going to go attend Beacon! My uncle highly suggested it, he said it would be a good experience to make friends."
"Well, it looks like you're off to a pretty good start, then." Shavo nodded as they rounded a corner. Penny gave him a curious glance as the (literal) gears in her head began to turn before she came to a complete stop, causing Shavo to stop as well so he wouldn't run into the girl. He walked around to face her and saw she was staring straight ahead at nothing in particular.
"What did you just say?" Penny asked as she turned to him right before he was going to wave his hand in her face.
Shavo jumped back slightly, but recovered quickly.
"Uhhhh… I asked what are you here for?"
"No, after that." Penny said as she got really close up to the traveller.
"I said you were off to a pretty good start…. To making friends…." He began to scratch his goatee, wondering if he had screwed up already in his first five minutes of being on Remnant.
Again, silence for a few moments as Penny stared at him before she slowly began to speak.
"That's…. That's…."
"POSITIVELY STUPENDOUS!"
The next thing Shavo knew, Penny had wrapped her arms around him in a hug that would make a bear cry and began spinning around in a circle with a big grin on her face.
"Aggh, Penny!" Shavo cried out as his ribs felt like they were getting crushed by a trash compactor, "Please put me down!"
Doing as she was told, Penny set the young man back down on his feet, but was still practically vibrating with excitement as she started talking again.
"Oh, this is absolutely stunning!" Penny squealed as she began to think of all the things she could do with her very first friend ever, "We can hang out at the mall, and watch movies together, and tell each other jokes, and-"
"Hey Penny?" Shavo interrupted the girl from her imagination, "Not trying to be rude or anything… But can we please get back to finding the docking bay?"
"Oh, yes, forgive me!" Penny remembered her original task and went back to leading her new friend to his destination, "It's just that I've never had a boyfriend before!"
That caused Shavo to almost trip over nothing. Seeing that Penny had not realized her mistake, he sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Penny?"
Said marionette turned to face him with a small 'hmm?' as the duo continued to walk.
"You do realize that when you use the word 'Boyfriend', that implies we are in a romantic relationship, correct?"
She tilted her head to the side in confusion before letting out a 'oooooooh' and nodding happily.
"Oh, I did not. I'm afraid I am not entirely familiar with common slang and terms of today."
Anyone else may have had found Penny to be an exceptionally odd person by this point, but Shavo having his prior knowledge of the show, found her personality to be… What would he call it, endearing?
"Eh, no harm done." Shavo said as he stuffed his free hand into his coat pocket. "So I'm guess if you're going to Beacon, your pretty decent at fighting? They don't accept just anyone, after all."
Even though he already knew she was fully capable of handling herself, he was still trying to keep a conversation going with the girl to pass the time. Her response was an enthusiastic grin as she nodded.
"I'm combat ready!" She stated proudly as puffed her chest out in pride.
Shavo couldn't help but chuckle at the android's signature line, finding this situation to be getting more and more enthralling by the second. And to think he started off today hoping he would just have a lazy day in school.
That actually made him think for a second: was he combat ready, though?
Putting it into perspective, that was when he realized he was in a seriously precarious situation.
'Here we have a seventeen year old kid with no fighting experience whatsoever, getting thrown into a combat school full of kids who could easily level a building with their freaking fists. I give myself a week before I'm dead."
Never let it be said that Shavodon was a pessimist, but the rapidly-growing feeling that he was one screwed pooch couldn't be helped. After all, he was going to have to fight physical manifestations of evil at one point or another.
Matter of fact, did he even have a weapon?
Looking at his luggage bag, he highly doubted it would fit into there. So, where would it be, then?
'Wait, is there something on my back?' Shavo thought to himself before reaching behind himself and finding a sword handle in his grasp.
Unsheathing the blade he wasn't even aware that he had on his back, he held it in front of himself to see… A blade that looked like it was a mix between a sword and a machete, with wrappings around the handle and a thin line of gray at the front part of the blade that was darker than the rest.
"Oh, is that your weapon?" Penny asked as she looked at it close up while simultaneously walking forwards.
"It would seem so." Shavo said as more of an answer to himself than the android while he inspected it. Upon closer look, he saw what looked like a button right under the blade, but decided to leave it be for now. Wouldn't want to risk blowing up the airport on accident, now would we?
"Well, we have arrived!" Penny exclaimed once the two stopped in front of a line of people before turning to Shavo and holding out her hand, "I shall be seeing you later, Shavodon! Good luck at initiation!"
Sheathing the sword, he then accepted the hand with a small smile before realizing something.
"But wait, how are you getting to Beacon then if you're not going on the bullhead?"
"Oh, my uncle will be taking me at a later time this afternoon." The marionette told him.
'Her uncle?' He thought to himself, 'Who would be her...Oh, probably Ironwood.'
That was when he remembered the fact that the general of Atlas, Ironwood, was the girl's personal caretaker. That would certainly explain how she would have access to her own airship.
"Oh, okay then." Shavo responded before putting his hand back into his pocket, "Thanks for the help Penny. You're a lifesaver."
"But no one's life was in danger." Penny said as she tilted her head to the side in confusion, causing Shavodon to laugh at the girl's quirky behaviour.
"It's a figure of speech, Penny." He told her before turning around and waving over his shoulder, "I'll try to find you some time later at Beacon, if you would like?"
"That would be joyous! Until then, Shavodon!" Penny waved him off happily before turning around and walking away, getting lost from Shavo's sight the second she entered the swarm of people walking by. He watched her go before smiling to himself.
"Well okay then. Not off to a bad start, I suppose." He said under his breath as he turned around and started to get in line.
At least, he tried, before a loud shout caught his attention.
"GAAAAIN WAAAY!"
The teen turned just in time to catch a glimpse of what looked like a red blur with rose petals streaming behind it before he muttered out one thing:
"Me and my fat mou-"
WHAM!
Reviews
Caesar the Son of War
Not bad so far. Not exactly the most original storyline to date on here (I'm not judging. I'm working on an SI too right now...), but it's still interesting.
I am happy about one thing though. Most SI's I have read on here are either horribly written, completely ridiculous, or some combination of the two. Yours isn't horribly written (actually, you write very well) and it's only SLIGHTLY ridiculous (random old man offering you a chance to go to Remnant? Needed for the story, I get it, but still ridiculous). But hey, ridiculousness can be a good thing, right?
I'll be watching this one. I'm interested in seeing where this will go.
Caesar has spoken!
Response
Oh, trust me, Originality WILL become a thing. This is, after all, the first chapter.
And to be honest, I agree with you on the intro being ridiculous, but I honestly couldn't think of any other way to write it in which it wouldn't sound completely cliche and stupid. So, I had to settle with SLIGHTLY ridiculous.
Hope to see you next chapter,
Triple T