Chapter 42: The Penultimate Day
Hey! Listen! It's The Draigg! I order to equip the bottle, go to the menu and press—wait, wrong intro there. Well, I know you reader have been holding out on a music show for a while now. Good news! We're right on the cusp of it! But, before you can sink your teeth into this chapter, you should know that I don't own RWBY. Now, Chapter 41, LAUNCH!
A bright sun rose over Beacon academy that Friday morning. However, Team RWBY wasn't in the mood that morning to appreciate nature. Well, not that there was anything bad about nature (other than the creatures of darkness that nearly drove humanity to extinction). It was just that they were too focused on their work at the stage.
All of Team RWBY had decided the night before to wake up early, as to finalize the stage preparations. Sure, they trusted Team JNPR's work, but they just wanted to make sure everything was fine. So, they were currently huddling together near the audio control table.
"So… does everything look good here?", Yang asked, looking over the various switches and dials. She would say that they all looked Greek to her, if Yang had actually seen Greek before, or knew what it was to begin with.
Her question didn't get much of an answer. Weiss, Ruby, and Blake looked at the soundboard with the same confusion as Yang. Any of them could tell you how to build and maintain dust-based firearms, but they couldn't tell you how to work thousand-lien audio equipment.
"I'm inclined to say yes.", Weiss decided after some thought. All those switches looked like they were in the right positions. They probably should have gotten Yang to ask for the instruction manual when she picked up this equipment.
Ruby scratched her chin while looking at the array of lights. "Let's see…", she thought, "Those lights are green. Green means go on streetlights. So, if these lights on here are green, then that means everything's good to go!". Well… at least Ruby's train of thought was somewhat on the right track. Or, at least in the right rail yard.
"I agree with Weiss.", concluded Ruby. Those lights were nice. They were all bright and friendly, blinking on and off.
Nodding at Team White Rose's answers, Yang then turned her attention to Blake. "Whatcha think, Blakey?", she asked.
Blake froze as she tried to think of an opinion. To be honest, she wasn't paying much attention to the soundboard. Sure, she was looking at it, but her mind was miles away. What she was thinking of actually was how Yang would look like in her costume tomorrow.
Thinking quickly, Blake just decided to go with the answers of the other girls. "It's all fine to me.", she replied to Yang.
"Okay, I guess we're good then.", Yang concluded. Great, that was an important issue out of the way.
Team RWBY shifted and stood in place. What were they supposed to do now, anyway? They had gotten up early for just this reason, but now they had no idea what of inspect next.
"Umm… the rafters look nice.", Ruby observed, looking up at the overhead light riggings.
"Yeah… very… rafter-y.", Yang said, agreeing with her sister.
Another weird silence fell over the group.
"Should we just go?", Weiss asked. They had nothing to do, it was a little cold out, and she was hungry. Weiss wanted to go to the cafeteria. At least it was warm and full of food. Now that she thought about it, combat skirts weren't a good idea for colder temperatures.
"Yeah…", Blake said, looking around the stage. Nothing really seemed out of place, really. In fact, they probably could have done this later today. There wasn't a real need to get up this early.
"Okay, executive decision time!", Ruby announced, pointing her finger in the air. "If you want to go eat breakfast, raise your hand!". Everyone (including Ruby) raised their arms in the air.
"Good! I'm hungry, too!", cheered Ruby, pleased with the voting. But seriously, if she didn't get any sugar or caffeine in her system soon, she was going to flip the hell out. She NEEDED that sweet, sweet nectar flowing in her veins every morning.
"Banzai!", Blake and Yang cried, pumping their fists in the air. They had gotten the idea for that salute from some anime the two of them liked. It was a cute thing they shared. It was one of the little things that made Blake and Yang seem more like a typical couple.
Weiss raised an eyebrow at the bee colored duo. Sighing she hopped off the stage and started to walk towards the cafeteria. One thing she had in common with Ruby was a desperate need for caffeine in the morning. And, she wouldn't let any hijinks stand between her and her coffee.
Team RBY followed suit and also leapt off the stage. Man, they needed breakfast today. Maybe a nice meal would be good for getting them mentally prepared for the show happening tomorrow.
Breakfast, for the most part, was an uneventful affair in the lives of many of Beacon students. Much more interesting things happened around lunch and dinner. So, if normal breakfast was boring, early breakfast was about as dull as a knife made of rubber.
On the plus side, at least all the good food was available. Ruby was scarfing down her third bowl of marshmallow cereal, Blake was munching on her scones and reading an e-book on her scroll, Yang was popping hard-boiled eggs in her mouth at a quick pace, and Weiss was on her third cup of fresh coffee. Her plate of blueberry muffins was completely untouched. Coffee ALWAYS came first.
"Sho…", Ruby said, her mouth full of milk and cereal, "Yhu guish fheel rheddy?".
Weiss, not looking up from her mug, said, "Swallow before you speak.".
Ruby swallowed quickly. The lump of soggy cereal stopped part of the way down her throat, so she thumped her chest to get it all the way down.
"So, do you guys feel ready for tomorrow?", Ruby asked again, much clearer this time around.
"Well, we're as prepared as we could get.", Blake pointed out, still scanning over her book.
Yang stopped stuffing eggs in her mouth briefly to agree with Blake. "Yeah, I think we're good to go.", she said.
"Well…", Ruby mumbled, now looking serious. "I just wanna say that I love you guys. I mean, without you, I couldn't live out a dream of mine.". Ruby's eyes softened as she looked at her team. All of them were beautiful to her. They were beautiful because their kindness, their spirits, allowed a small girl's dream come true.
"I love all of you so much..", Ruby said again, now starting to choke up.
Team WBY sat there, touched by Ruby's actions. Ruby had always worn her heart on her sleeve, so she was fond of expressing her feeling completely honestly. She was really the team's collective heart. So, whenever she felt overwhelming emotions, her teammates often soon followed suit.
"D-don't cry, dolt…", Weiss said, looking like she was also feeling the same as Ruby. Sliding over to Ruby, she looped one of her arms around Ruby for a sideways hug.
"Aww… geez, sis, it was nothing. I would do anything for ya, you know that.", Yang said, giving a small smile to Ruby.
Blake also smiled at Ruby. In the time they had gotten to know each other, she had grown to consider Ruby like a little sister. It helped that she had Yang to help that grow that feeling more.
"I know that with you guys by my side, we can do this!", Ruby declared proudly through her small tears.
"Yeah!", cheered yang, extending out her fist for a group bump. Without a moment's hesitation, Weiss, Blake, and Ruby, answered her gesture. They were more than a team. They were a kind of family now. And, as anyone can attest, families always stayed with you, regardless of who it's members were.
Moving forward, the day continued as if nothing was looming over the horizon of time. The day passed by. Professors delivered lectures, students slept in class, the sun shone, birds sang, and creatures of Grimm freely fed on small, defenseless animals in the woods.
So, pretty normal stuff, all things considered.
That's what was weirding out Team RWBY so much. They were hanging around the snack bar after classes, as if this was a regular day. Why was everything so calm? They were on the cusp of putting on a massive project for the first time! They should be in an uproar! They should be flipping out and banging their heads to a fine, greasy pulp on the concrete! So, why weren't they?
Blake looked up from her ginseng tea and focused on her friends. She had a feeling that they all had the same thing running through their heads: were they just ignoring the upcoming day, or did they collectively just reach a Zen type state?
"Does this feel weird to anybody?", Blake finally asked. Her teammate's answers immediately overlapped each other.
"Finally!", Yang exclaimed, glad somebody else noticed the collective mood.
"Yeah!", cried Ruby, who was incredibly creeped out by her friends levels of calmness.
"Of course!", Weiss huffed, annoyed that nobody brought up this awkward mood earlier.
Blake sighed in relief. "Oh, that's good. Wow, doesn't this just feel… odd?", she asked rhetorically.
"You know, I kind of expected Ice Princess here to flip out by now.", Yang noted to the group. Weiss would have protested, but yet again she also thought that a breakdown should have happened to somebody by now. So, she held her tongue.
"Is this normal? Or even real life?", Ruby asked, staring at her hand. She looked as if she expected her hand to turn into a tentacle any moment now. Ruby seemed genuinely convinced that this feeling was wrong and weird.
Yang, in response to Ruby's question, flicked her on the arm. "Ow! Geez, Yang!", Ruby complained while rubbing her arm.
"Well, doesn't that answer your question?', Yang justified herself. Ruby visibly considered what she did, but then nodded, agreeing with her sister. Okay, so this wasn't a dream or anything like that. It was comforting to know that Yang just wouldn't melt into pudding at a moment's notice again. No, Ruby didn't know why that was a re-occurring dream, either.
"I think it's like…', pondered Weiss aloud, "When you're so far gone past the edge, everything normal past that point seems odd.". As soon as they heard Weiss' idea, the rest of team RWBY wanted to smack their foreheads. Why hadn't they thought of that earlier?
It made complete sense that given all the crap they've gone through the past month or so, that a moment of respite seemed alien and unusual. Given the surprise inspections, hospital visits, budding romances, and pajama related stealth missions, their lives sure as hell had gotten complicated recently. They had just grown used to their lives being frustrating and/or absolutely outside of the box.
If the universe was a person, it would be smiling and clapping it's hands in joy at what it had done to them. Man, this whole adventure was bizarre. And that's how the universe liked it.
"I wonder how everyone else feels right about now?", Yang thought out loud. Surely, they were going through something similar to them right about now.
"No, Nora. This is my last warning.", Ren warned, glowering at Nora. He knew he should have burned that damned tree costume when he had the chance.
"Nuh-uh! I wanna wear it!", Nora shot back, curling herself around the costume to defend it from Ren's wrath.
"Why? There's absolutely no need to!", Ren protested. Seriously, why was she so attached to that cheap, cardboard costume so much?
Ren looked around his dorm room to see if he could bring anyone into this argument. Surely, an outside opinion would bring an end to this madness. However, Ren then remembered that Jaune and Pyrrha were out today, doing some more 'training'. Of al the times Ren needed them, too.
"I made this costume, by gosh I'm gonna wear it!", Nora declared. She then tried to squeeze herself in it, but got stuck halfway through. Only her arms were visible, through the face hole. Nora tried moving around, but instead kept on bumping into the desk and beds.
"Uhh, Ren?", Nora asked, her voice a little muffled by the cardboard tree. "Can I have some help here?".
Ren sighed in annoyance, and then shoved the costume down over Nora. "There, are you happy now?", he asked, exasperated.
"Uh-huh!", Nora answered with a big smile. She pranced around the room, happy to finally wear her tree costume.
In defeat, Ren flopped down on his bed. Now that he thought about it, how was Nora going to get out of that thing? And, more importantly, how was she going to go to the bathroom? Oh well, she should have thought of that before she put it on. All Ren could hope for was that she wouldn't smell too bad.
Velvet was going through her private collection of candid photos in her office that evening. Man, that was a nice shot of the one hunk from the third floor dormitories! She could see his pecks through his shirt! Oh, but this picture of that one tiger Faunus girl at the pool was even better! Velvet was feeling proud of herself that she managed to get away with taking these photos.
Velvet was completely unconcerned that the show was tomorrow. She was so focused on her day (and those photos), that any panic or anxiety was completely forgotten.
Looking to see if the door was closed and locked, Velvet propped her scroll up, the photos facing her. She figured she was ready for some more 'private time'.
"Bah, I'm pretty sure they're fine.", Ruby said, waving away the thought.
"If anything, our friends are more prepared than us.", Weiss added. The others nodded in agreement .It was a comforting idea to know that other people could keep a cool head, even when a flood of pressure and excitement was about to crest overhead.
So, with their fears exorcised, Team RWBY decided to finish their drinks in silence. They could afford to feel relaxed. Given all the hard work and stress they've gone through, they more than certainly could use a small break.
It was nice and peaceful out, with the sun starting to dip overhead, beyond the horizon. There were a few dark clouds in the distance, but it was nothing to worry about. It wouldn't storm during the show. Everything would be a smooth ride from here.
However, much like a hurricane, the eye of the storm was always the calmest part.
Are you ready for this? I bet you are! Get ready for that hot, steamy, music-y, performance, coming up soon! Be sure to tell me how hyped you guys are in the reviews section! This is The Draigg, signing off to board that hype train, baby!