Chapter 2: Casting Call, Please!
It's me, The Draigg, again! Now that we've gotten the set-up out of the way, we can now focus on the stuff everyone wants more of: comedy! Well, that, and fleshing out the plot. Remember, I don't own RWBY (Monty Oum owns that.), or any other media mentioned. Just this story. Anyway, here's chapter two for ya.
Getting a fully excited Ruby up several flights of stairs is roughly the same as wrestling an Ursa while covered in grease. That's why it took Yang holding her arms, Blake grabbing her torso, and Weiss dragging her legs in order to get her to their shared dorm room. However, even in her restrained state, Ruby still managed to accidentally kick Weiss about five times. As to be expected, Weiss' patience was worn down to the marrow by the time they managed to get through the door to their room two hours later.
"Are you sure I just can't use some ice dust?" pleaded a thoroughly aggravated Weiss.
"NO!" was Blake and Yang's shared reply. Even if they were also tired and a bit peeved, it still wasn't a justification to turn Ruby into an ice sculpture.
"I'm just saying, it would be easier…" mumbled Weiss as WBY prepared to put Ruby on Weiss' bunk. As soon as they let go of Ruby, she continued to gush about all the possible ideas she had flowing through her head.
"Does anyone have any ideas on how to calm her?" asked Blake.
"Hold on, I got this." Yang then walked up to the bed where by now, Ruby had begun loudly humming songs she wanted in the play. Yang simply pressed her index fingers on each side of Ruby's nose. This stopped Ruby dead in the middle of trying to vocalize a guitar solo. After holding her fingers there for a minute, Yang let go and Ruby sat up.
"You see, the trick is to hold her nose. I have no idea why it works, but it does." explained Yang. Blake looked incredibly confused. Weiss wanted to know how that worked, even though she knew she wouldn't get much of an answer. Ruby climbed out of the bunk and sat down to her work desk, furiously writing on a piece of paper. Once she finished writing, she held out the paper for everyone to see. On it were various positions to be filled.
"Okay team, we need to fill these jobs A.S.A.P.! That's why I want to put you where I feel where you would be the best!" declared Ruby with a puff of her chest.
"You know, if you asked us before signing up to do a play, we would've thought about this already."
Ruby turned her attention to Weiss' statement. She replied, "Don't worry! I have full faith that you'll be able pull anything off! Now Weiss, I know you can sing well. That's why I'm making you the lead!".
Weiss was a bit stunned at Ruby's orders. Then a thought hit her. "Where did you even hear me sing?".
"Err… the showers" was the barely audible reply. Before Weiss could protest, Ruby moved on suspiciously quick. "Blake I know you like books, right?".
"Uh… yes?". Blake wanted to see where this incredibly obvious question was going.
"That's why I'm putting you on the writing team with Velvet. Your experience with literature would really help!". Weiss couldn't help but huff at Ruby's declaration. Weiss then added, "Ruby, I don't think all that smut of hers counts as real literature. I mean, 'Ninjas of Love'? What kind of name is that?".
This led to a rare outburst from Blake. "Hey! First of all, it's a book, therefore it's literature! Secondly, it's not smut, it's mature romance! Get it right!". Blake stopped before she said too much more. They just wouldn't understand the love felt between the Shinobi and Daimyo-sama. It was a sad world that her generation lived in.
Moving on, Ruby leveled a finger at Yang. "Yang! You'll be Blake's editor. I don't want any references to any dread castles or mystical love arts, okay?". Yang nodded her head in agreement. Blake rolled her eyes at the (somewhat accurate) accusation. She then took another look at the casting call.
"Ruby," observed Blake, ", there a still a lot of unfilled positions. Like who's going to be this second lead?".
"That would be me of course! I can't just idly by while a musical is going to be made!"
Blake continued, "Okay, but what about these other positions? There's still a few more.".
"Ohhh. Well, I know just the people!"
Team RWBY gathered around the door to Team JNPR's dorm. Knocking lightly, Ruby put on her best 'I'm Adorable' face. It always worked, especially on Weiss, for some reason. Jaune, holding a mug of calming tea, opened the door. Seeing Ruby smiling at him, a look of panic flashed over his face before slamming the door. Undaunted, Ruby knocked again. This time, Pyrrha answered, with Jaune standing several feet away.
"Hey you guys, what can I do for you?" said Pyrrha.
"May we come in?" Weiss asked, shoving Ruby out of the way before she started to make demands.
"Of course! I'm sorry if the place is a little… unkempt." With that, Pyrrha stood aside to let them in. On a bed with it's covers completely thrown around (how did that sheet get on the ceiling?), Ren sat with Nora trying to show her how to put together a puzzle. A frightened looking Jaune sat in a corner, furiously chugging calming tea. "We have visitors!" noticed Nora. Ren looked slightly annoyed as she knocked over the puzzle as she leapt of the bed to greet them. He sighed, and started over again.
"Are you here to take Jaune again?" Nora wondered.
Jaune spat out his tea. "Oh dear GOD, not again!".
"Ruby here is looking for help with her—OUR musical. And since you offered to assist us, we've come here to take you up on it." came Weiss' reply.
"Speaking on the behalf of Jaune…", Pyrrha motioned to Jaune, who was holding up a pillow in defense, "…We would be more than glad to help you.".
"OHH! We can totally help you guys! We can do sets, and costumes, and food, and sets, and—", Nora was cut off by Ren covering her mouth. "What I believe she meant to say, is that we're more than willing to be in a musical—ech!". Ren recoiled his hand as Nora licked it to uncover her mouth. He certainly put up with a lot when dealing with Nora. At least it was worth it in… a few ways.
"Great! Here's the casting call! Pick a few slots, and we can get started!". Ruby slammed the paper on the bed. Ren sighed again as his puzzle flew all over the place for the second time. This just wasn't his day. Team JNPR gathered around the sheet. Pyrrha signed up for costume design, Nora and Ren wrote in their names for set design, and after Jaune felt confident that he wouldn't be dragged off again, put his name down for movement choreography.
"Wait, choreography? Can you really do that?", questioned Ren.
"Of course! I've had a lot of experience in dance.", Jaune said as he lost himself in a distant memory.
The arcade was packed. Between half-drunk twenty-somethings and small children, most games were filled. Except for one machine. It was the throne of the king. The hallowed area, if defiled, would bring immediate shame upon whoever brought filth upon it. Only the machine's master would allow others on it, as if to give himself a few moments of petty pleasure of crushing an opponent.
The king walked into the arcade, as if he was a man strolling through a park, or as if he had wings that barely kept him grounded. In his pocket, play tokens, and in his mind, the growing feeling of entertainment when he saw challengers line up at the DDR machine. He looked upon the petty serfs with bemusement, as if he was a great beast toying with it's prey.
His name was Jaune Arc, and tonight's hunt was good.
"Jaune? Jaune!". Ruby shook his shoulder to bring him back to present day. It really creeped out everyone how he was staring off into space for about five minutes. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I can totally do it.", he replied as he regained his focus.
"Okay, awesome! We're all good now! I'll hand this in to Velvet and then we can get started!". In a flash, Ruby disappeared in a cloud of rose petals as she activated her semblance. The others blinked to see that she was gone. Overall, this wasn't really that unexpected. "Should we go get her again?", suggested Yang.
Exasperated, Weiss said, "She's YOUR sister. You go get her.".
Velvet was having a very busy day so far. Ever since Ruby had crashed through her door wanting to make a musical, she had buried up to her neck in paperwork. She had to look up days Beacon Theater was open, she had to sign wavers that any property damaged was her responsibility, and most importantly, she had to write her weekly letter to the Administration Office reminding them that the Theater Club was incredibly sorry about last time.
It was safe to say that everyone wanted to forget about that PSA disaster two months ago. 'Swords In Sheaths' hadn't gone over too well, to say the least. Thousands of lien had been spent repairing property damaged by angry students, several complaints were filed about 'disrespecting Faunus culture' (Even though Velvet wrote most of it.), and positive pregnancy tests among senior students actually rose 9.3%. The Theater Club lost what little respect it had in just one showing. At this point, she was enthused that Ruby could put on a show with the Club without starting another riot.
So, when Ruby came crashing through the door again after seeing her a few hours ago, she didn't mind as much as she normally would. Instead, she put on her best smile and stood to greet her as Ruby dislodged herself from the remains of the door.
"Velvet! I got my casting call all set up! Are we ready to start?!", half-announced, half-yelled the ever excited Ruby. Velvet tried her best not to worry about getting a replacement door and come up with an answer for her.
"Err… ummm… Okay, Ruby. I really like this energy, so keep that up. But ahh… this is going to take a little bit of time. I should get permission to use the theater by Monday.", came Velvet's reply. She couldn't help but think to herself: If they bothered to reply to me this time.
Ruby deflated a little bit at her reply. However, she still kept her game face on. "Okay, Velvs, don't you worry. I'll get this thing written up, and then we can get started!". With that, she put the casting call on her desk and sped out of the room in a puff of rose petals. Velvet slumped down in her chair. While Ruby's energy was admirable, she sincerely hoped that this wouldn't end in an even bigger disaster. She was still paying for some of those damages, after all.
By now, Team WBY went back to their room, not wanting to spend another few hours dragging Ruby to her room again. Weiss was studying, Yang was playing a game on her scroll, and Blake was updating her fan-fict— no, doing history homework. Ninjas and the placement of ancient Hunter fortresses are practically the same thing, right? It was at this point that Ruby actually walked through the door, this time. It was almost as if Ruby had a vendetta against doors, given how many she crashed through.
"Well, it's going to take a little while to get this musical off the ground...", Ruby said to nobody in particular. Not that anyone was paying attention that much. "But I still want work being done on it, okay? Think you can start writing, Blake?".
Saving her latest chapter for 'Shinobi Romance: Passion Champloo', Blake said, "Sure, it wasn't like I was doing much anyway.". She then glanced around to see if anyone noticed what she was typing. Unknown to her, pretty much everyone on Team RWBY knew already. She often left her laptop open on her fan-fiction profile by mistake. She opened a new window on her word processor.
"What do you want it to be called, Ruby?"
Ruby put her finger up to her chin. It looked like she was thinking way too hard about this. Suddenly, she spoke up:
"I know! Call it 'The Sounds Of Vale'! Now let's get started!".
At her command, Blake started to type out a few ideas she had. Oh, she'll have FUN working on this play.
Ooooh, title drop! That's the end of chapter two, and things are starting to move along. Remember to shoot a few reviews my way! This is The Draigg, signing off.