Chapter 33: A Call For Help

Hey, readers, it's The Draigg here again. Before I go into my usual legal disclaimers, I want just thank all of you for your continued support. After all, it's you people I write for. So, keep shining on, you crazy diamonds! Okay, now it's time for the legal stuff: Monty Oum owns RWBY, not I. There, done. Now, let's get going!

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At Beacon Academy, the day for Team JNPR had been, for the most part, boring. Sure, Nora somehow managed to get her hand stuck under a vending machine while she looked for spare change, but that had already happened the other day.

So, now that Nora had been rescued and classes were over, Team JNPR was hanging out in their room. However, instead of doing their own stuff like they normally did during the afternoon, this evening was board game time. Jaune had been really pushing it for, as he put it, "An excellent way to build team machismo and spirit".

Ren was surprised that Jaune knew that big of a word, considering the plays he had put on the board. They were playing Rabble, the game that made crossword puzzles marginally more interesting.

"There! B-e-e-t-l-e! That gets me three points!" Jaune proudly declared. Ren rolled his eyes. Jaune seriously needed to improve his vocabulary if he wanted to play this game.

Of course, Pyrrha was now acting like Jaune was the God-Emperor of the common tongue. "Wow! Good play!" she congratulated. Ren was absolutely sure that she wasn't being sarcastic, as she batted her 'Take me now" eyes at him.

Now that Jaune had made his play, it was Ren's turn. Ren looked at his game pieces. He had some high value tiles to work with. Heck, he might be able to pull ahead this early in the game. So, with his little letter pieces, Ren spelled out 'tsukkomi'. He was well aware of the irony at play there.

"Uh, Ren, I don't think that's a real word," Jaune said slowly, as if he was talking to an idiot.

"I've never heard of it," added Pyrrha.

Ren gave an annoyed huff and said, "I can assure you, it's a real word. It more or less means 'straight-man'. You know, like a comedy act?". The looks from his teammates indicated to Ren that Jaune and Pyrrha didn't believe or understand him.

"I believe you," Nora chimed in as she put a hand on Ren's shoulder. Ren appreciated the gesture. It was at times like this that he was reminded how nice of a person Nora was.

"It's like that one sex show thing, right? The kabuki theater?" Nora added.

And… that feeling was now ruined. Well, it was nice for the thirty seconds it lasted.

Pyrrha and Jaune shared look, before Jaune said, "I thought we agreed to keep this thing family friendly, Ren,". His attempt to look and sound like a serious leader didn't impress Ren. It just looked like he was trying to put on his big-boy pants and look cool in front of Pyrrha.

"Whatever. I still get the points, right?" Ren asked with a resentful breath.

"Fine… that's ten points" Jaune agreed as he wrote down the points Ren had won. Now Ren was three points ahead of Jaune, who had the lead before with fifteen points. Behind him were Pyrrha and Nora. Pyrrha had played small words (probably to let the others win instead of her), and Nora had played… mostly random crap. She hadn't scored a single point yet.

Speaking of Nora, now it was her turn to play. The red-head hummed to herself as she arranged some tiles on the game board. The word she played was 'Götterdämmerung'. How Nora managed to have that many letter tiles, let alone ones with umlauts, Ren didn't know. He wouldn't be surprised if Nora was just able to warp reality somehow. It would certainly explain all the stuff he went through.

Jaune looked shocked as he tallied up the points. "Well that's… thirty points," he said in shock.

Ren immediately called out, "Oh, so my word gets debated upon, and that one's fine?".

Pyrrha simply shrugged and said, "That's the rules,".

"You two haven't even LOOKED at the rulebook at all," Ren groaned, now feeling the familiar emotion of annoyance.

"Look, I'm pretty sure I remember it perfectly," Jaune said as he waved away the argument. "I think I've played this game enough to know,".

Before Ren could point out how stupid of an argument that was, he felt his scroll vibrate in his pocket. Given how it buzzed repeatedly, it was most likely someone calling.

"I'm getting a call," he quickly excused himself from the table as he walked into the hallway to take the call.

Shutting the dorm room door behind him, Ren pulled out his scroll and looked at the caller I.D. on the screen. It was from… Yang? Why was she calling him? Ren only gave his number out for use in emergencies. So, if she was calling him now, that either meant that she was having trouble, or was just pulling some prank. Either way, he felt obligated to answer.

So, he pressed the answer button, and began the call.

xxx

"Hello? Ren, is that you?" Yang asked desperately into her scroll.

"Yes, it is. You better have a good reason for calling," Ren's voice buzzed over the scroll.

"Oh, thank goodness. I really need your help right now," Yang said with some small relief.

A brief pause came filled the other end. When Ren spoke up, he asked, "…With what, exactly?".

"You've dealt with some… 'out there' people before, right? You totally have that experience?" Yang asked. It was pretty clear who she was referring to when she said, 'out there'. Sure, Nora was a friendly girl, but even Yang, the party animal, found her levels of energy and enthusiasm a little odd.

"Look, are you going to tell me the problem or not?" Ren impatiently asked on the other side.

"Right, right. Err, this is going to sound weird, but how do you talk down someone who locked herself out on a balcony and is refusing to come back in?" Yang questioned.

To explain what Yang was talking about, Weiss was the person in question. As soon as Team RWBY got to the room, Weiss dropped her luggage down and entered the balcony through the sliding door. But, it had been a while now, and when they knocked on the door to get her to come inside, Weiss propped a chair against the door and barricaded herself on the balcony. As the others could see through the glass door, Weiss had flipped over every piece of furniture and was now sulking in a corner.

"… Should I ask why?" Ren asked, as if he didn't really want an answer.

"It would be a long story," Yang quickly answered.

Yang could have sworn she heard a heavy sigh on the other end. It was followed by a minute long silence. "Okay," Ren finally said, "Did you already try to lure her out with something? Like food or a favorite stuffed animal?".

"She doesn't look like she would fall for that right now," Yang replied. For all she knew, Weiss didn't have a favorite stuffed toy. If she did, then Yang would have used that point as joke fodder already.

"Okay… try saying that she's disappointing you by not coming in right now," Ren suggested next.

"I know for a fact that wouldn't help," shot down Yang. If she tried that, then Weiss might throw herself off the edge in despair.

"Come on, Yang! You have to get something!" Blake said with concern. She was trying to get the door open to save Weiss. So far, all she had managed to accomplish was futilely tug at the wedged door.

"Is there someone else there who can help out?" Ren then asked.

Yang looked around. Blake was still tugging at the door, and Ruby was sitting on a nearby couch, looking on in horror. The hooded girl had tears streaming down her eyes, but was otherwise paralyzed by fear. But yet, she was the only person who could possibly get through to Weiss right now.

"Y-yeah," Yang said into the scroll.

"Well, other than getting them to help bust down the door, then have them try to do something really distracting. If that gets the balcony person's attention, then they might come out," Ren recommended.

Yang heavily considered that option. It could work, but that would mean getting Ruby out of her funk first. Well, maybe Yang couldn't do that just yet, but she started to get an idea on how to get Weiss' attention.

"Okay, I think I can work with that," Yang said to Ren.

"Good. I hope it works out for you, whatever the problem is," Ren said in his usual monotone.

"I hope so too. Thanks," quickly said Yang before she hung up.

Yang looked across the room as her plan grew in her brain. Hopefully, neither Weiss nor Ruby would hate her for what she was about to do.

xxx

Ren snapped his scroll shut as he walked back into Team JNPR's dorm room. Without a word, he sat back at his spot at the table. To his (incredibly dulled) surprise, he had walked in on a heated debate about a word.

"I'm telling you, 'sipi' is totally a word! It's the name of a bone!" Nora argued to the others. Ren could have said something about everyone apparently skipping his turn, but he decided not to. He didn't need to make this any harder on himself.

"I was willing to accept Goat—Godd—whatever word you used before, but I can clearly tell that this one is made up," Jaune debated back.

"I'm telling ya, it's real! It's as real as Ren's word!" Nora tried justifying to Jaune. What she said didn't help her own case, let alone Ren's.

"So that word is a fake too?" Jaune asked Pyrrha.

"I guess. Nora is pretty certain that her and Ren's words are real, but that's," Pyrrha said as she gestured to Nora's word, "Clearly wrong,".

"Well, I guess I have to get rid of both of your guy's points then," Juane said firmly as he scratched out Ren and Nora's points. Nora pouted in response, while Ren did his best not to explode at his teammates. Why did they keep on insisting on disregarding everything from his culture like that?

"It's Pyrrha's turn now," Jaune announced. He gave Pyrrha a nod of confirmation.

After a minute of thinking, Pyrrha put down her word. She spelled out, 'arete'.

"What does that mean?" Jaune asked.

"It's a system of self-excellence, like a code of honor. I'm proud to say that I live by it every day," Pyrrha explained, a hint of pride in her voice.

Jaune gave a small shrug and conceded. "Fair enough," he said as he wrote down points for Pyrrha.

"What?!" Ren and Nora exclaimed at the same time.

"That's absurd! She gets her word in, and we don't?!" Ren complained.

"Yeah!" Nora agreed with Ren.

"Hey, she played her word fairly. I don't see anything wrong with it," deflected Jaune.

Now Ren had flat out snapped. He had had enough of his teammates constantly screwing over whatever he said or did.

So, doing the only thing he thought was fair, he pulled out his StormFlower pistols. Before anyone could stop him, he emptied both of his pistol's magazines into the board game. Then, once one he had run out of bullets, Ren stabbed the now hole-filled board with the bayonets on his guns. Finally, he tossed the remaining shreds of the game out of the window, for good measure. Everyone silently gaped at Ren as he turned to face them.

"Count that as my turn," Ren spat at Jaune before sitting on his bed.

"My game!" Jaune declared as he sprinted out of the dorm, hoping to recover what was left of his board and game pieces. Pyrrha shot Ren a brief glare before running after Jaune.

Nora, who was watching on with glee, was smiling ear to ear. She was feeling a mixture of amazement, satisfaction, justice, and some arousal (Or, as she put it, 'special pants feelings'). With all of that, she skipped over to where Ren was sitting and plopped down next to him.

"I like you when you get like that," Nora said as she played with Ren's ponytail.

Ren gave a small smile and replied, "I know you do, Nora,". Because of his unofficial position as Nora's dream interpreter, he was frequently told of whatever action filled dreams she had. And, to back up his knowledge, Nora said his shirt somehow always got destroyed in those action packed dreams.

Ren reflected on what just happened. In hindsight, game night could be considered a success. It was supposed to be a team activity, meant to blow of some steam and feel better about each other.

Ren could certainly say that got rid of a lot of stress indeed.

xxx

Well, how did you like that brief glimpse into Team JNPR's day? Don't worry, I fully intend to show Yang's plan in the next chapter. I just felt that you guys needed something a little more light-hearted after all those previous chapters of angst. Anyway, get back to me on this one, I like to hear your guy's feedback! This is The Draigg, signing off for now!