Chapter 4: New Girl On Campus
Anne woke up, panting heavily. "Guys, guys, guys. I just had the craziest dream. I got sucked into another world. There were bone monsters and people with sup-." She explained and stopped when she turned to see Team RWBY looking at her.
"Oh, Right…" Anne remembered she was not dreaming. "...not a dream."
"You sleep alright, Anne?" Ruby asked.
"I wouldn't recommend doing that. It's not going to work." Blake referred to waking up and saying yesterday was a dream.
"Weiss did that the day after our team formed." Yang joked.
"I did no such thing." Weiss barked.
"It was fine, Guys," Anne assured them as she got up and walked to the door.
"So, what are we doing today?" She asked, opening her door to see Goodwitch standing there. Anne closed it immediately.
The young huntresses turned to Anne after hearing the door.
"Who was that?" Yang asked.
"Uhh, the wind?" Anne sheepishly fibbed.
"Miss Boonchoy, I doubt a gust of wind would be a good reason to slam a door on a person." 'The wind' argued from behind the door.
Weiss huffed in annoyance at Anne and opened the door letting Goodwitch in.
"Our apologies, Professor. Anne must've not seen you." Weiss apologized. "Didn't you, Anne." She gritted.
"Yeah." Anne deadpanned.
"What brought you here, Professor?" Blake asked.
"I came to check up on Beacon's guest and see if she's well accommodated," Goodwitch explained.
"Umm, yeah, we're all good here," Anne replied with a thumb up. "Weird, why is she all nice to me now, when yesterday she was using 'The Effort' on me all willy nilly?" She thought to herself.
"And to see if she follows the rules," Goodwitch states bluntly.
"There's the Goodwitch I met." Anne deadpanned to herself.
"You will be happy to know that RWBY will show you around campus. I would do it myself, but I have to attend business with Vytal Festival preparation."
Anne stood there for a bit. "Uhhh, that's all?"
"Yes," Goodwitch replies before heading out the door. As she walked away, Team JNPR just happened to be walking down the hall to Anne's room.
"What was that about?" Nora asked.
"I guess she wanted to check up on Anne, too," Pyrrha suggested.
Then Anne and their sister team came down the hallway. "Did you see how she was eyeballing me?" Anne asked them. "She never looked away."
"Yeah, she does that a lot," Yang noted.
"You wonder why?" Weiss asked sarcastically.
"She probably hates my free-spirited nature." Anne bragged. "They all do." She muttered to herself.
Ruby tried to say something but spotted JNPR at the end of the hallway. "Oh, Hey, guys."
"Morning Ruby," Jaune replied. "We wanted to see if you want to head over to the dock. More people from the other schools are arriving."
"Yes, We volunteered to help show them around Beacon," Pyrrha added. "Also, it will be great to see many of my old classmates from Sanctum and catch up."
"Maybe we should go too," Ruby suggested. "We're already going to show Anne around."
"Well, I have nothing else to do," Yang replied. "So, let's go."
The group follows JNPR to greet the new students.
-x-
Dock-
Teams RWBY, JNPR, plus Anne, were waiting for the boat to arrive. Nora and Yang were holding signs to welcome the new students. Blake helped too, but she only had a flag with the Beacon crest and waved it around, looking lost in thought.
"So… these other schools?" Anne raised an eyebrow at Ruby. "They're here for a festival?"
"Oh, Sorry, Anne. I forget you're from another world." Ruby apologized for forgetting Anne's predicament.
"Beacon is the Kingdom of Vale's Huntsman academy." She explains. "Their Haven for Mistral, Shade for Vacuo, and Atlas for umm Atlas."
"And every two years, the schools host the Vytal Festival to symbolize peace and unity between the kingdoms," Ren added. "This year is Beacon's turn to host the Festival."
"Oh yeah, Goodwitch did mention this mega-important festival," Anne recalled. "So what happens at this festival?"
Ren was about to answer, but Nora interrupted.
"We party all night and beat the crap out of the other schools for bragging rights." She boasted.
Then Ren pushed her back. "That is only in the tournament, Nora. The rest is mostly sharing and showing the cultures of each kingdom."
"Hey, She had me with parting all night and free bragging rights," Anne admitted.
"Of course it did." Weiss groaned to herself. Then a loud ship horn goes off.
"They're here," Pyrrha said, excited.
"You know it!" A new voice agreed.
They all turn to find the source and find a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy similar to Jaune hanging from the lamppost behind them. The fact that he's hanging from a lamppost is one thing. But a key feature separates him from 'Sir Goobs-a-lot, and something Anne was not expecting to see. He had a monkey tail and hung upside down with it- Spidey style.
"Sun!?" Blake exclaimed, still not sure how he kept being able to pop out of nowhere.
"Sup guys." Sun greets and hopes down to the ground. "Great seeing you after all that craziness last week."
Anne leaned towards Ruby's ear. "This guy knows he has a monkey tail, right?" She whispered.
Blake heard Anne's question, which caused her bow to twitch a bit. She turned back to Sun. "This is going to be fun to have our classmates here. Especially with Sage and Scarlet coming."
"Our? Oh, Neptune's here?" Weiss realized. On cue, another guy with blue hair and eyes arrives on foot, panting.
"Hu-huh, A-am I late?" Neptune asked, trying to catch his breath.
"You are on time." Weiss components. "The boat just pulled in."
The boat then parks into place as its passengers disembark, mostly Haven students. A lot of them immediately recognized Pyrrha, Sun, and Neptune.
They socialized, caught up, and Sun got his ear pulled as a dark-skinned girl with olive eyes and platinum blonde hair.
She starts chewing him out about ditching school and some other things with a red-haired guy with a cape and a green-haired, dark-skinned guy with tattoos and a long coat. Anne assumed this was the 'Sage and Scarlet' Sun mentioned. The others could help and giggle at Sun's predicament. While that happened, Blake pulled Anne to the side.
"You asked about Sun's tail?" She asked her.
"Y-Yes," Anne said sheepishly, feeling like Blake was interrogating her. "Is that rude here?"
Blake raised an eyebrow. "So you don't know?" She asked.
"Ok, will you just tell me?" She deadpanned to the raven-haired girl.
"Sun is a Faunus." She explains to Anne that two races live in Remnant.
Besides run-of-mill Humans, there are also Faunus. They may resemble humans that have heightened senses and night vision. Their defining characteristic is their animal features and abilities, hence the name. They range in all animal classifications, mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, fish, and even amphibians. Despite these abilities, Faunus are discriminated against and treated as second-class citizens in most places in Remnant.
"Oh, I see." Anne understood, then realized something. "Wait, Faunus are below people because of their animal parts? That stupid,"
"Yes, It truly is," Blake agreed, feeling a sense of relief from Anne's view of Faunus.
"So, she and Ruby were telling the truth about Anne being from another world. She looked like she'd never seen a single Faunus before. If she's some sheltered forest kid, she would have at least been aware of the existence of Faunus. " She thought as her suspicions of the young middle schooler faded a little.
"I mean, it's no different from back home with some people judging you because of skin color and where you're from," Anne commented.
"Ok, that is completely stupid." Blake deadpanned the understatement of the millennium.
"Hey, I think the fight is dying down." Ruby popped into Anne and Blake's conversation.
The three turn to see Pyrrha standing between Sun and his classmates, acting as the middle ground, reminding them that they are here for the Vytal festival. So they stopped, and Team JNPR gave the Haven students a tour of the school.
-x-
The tour went on mostly as planned, touring many parts of the school Anne hasn't seen before.
Like the library, Yang boasted about beating her team in a strategy board game. Well, she beat Ruby and Weiss. Blake just walked out, and Yang won by default.
Anne wondered how the blonde brawler would fare against Marcy. Or whether her friend back home would meet her match here, probably the first thing.
The cafeteria, where Nora ranted about an insane food fight JNPR and RWBY had and how they should have won. She went on about how she made an 'impenetrable fortress' out of tables, sent Yang flying through the ceiling, Jaune went flying into a window, and how they use food as makeshift weapons. The fight only ends because Goodwitch uses her telekinesis to restore the whole room.
Anne had to admit the food fights Sasha started were never that crazy. But she usually annihilates everyone in those fights. So she would probably be fine in their shoes.
Then shows the CCT tower that allows the Kingdoms to talk with each other, the training hall for training and combat class, and the blacksmith shop where students repair, maintain, and upgrade those crazy mech-shift weapons Anne saw in the woods. Ruby went all fangirl and had to be restrained by her team. Plus, many other places.
During all this, Anne learned about the other students. That girl who was scolding Sun was named Arslan. She was like the first-year representative for Haven. She initially came off as a 'Miss Ruley' like Weiss to Anne. But seem cool with her whole warrior-monk theme. Like RWBY and JNPR, Arslan has three teammates.
Bolin and Nadir seem nice, But Reese is a whole other story. Plus, how she paired with Nora was going to be entertaining. Sun and his team weren't bad, either. Anne couldn't help but notice how Weiss was eyeing Neptune. Guess Ice Queen's heart isn't completely frozen.
-x-
Later-
Team RWBY and Anne were walking back to Anne's room. "So you guys fought a frigging giant robot?!" Anne asked them.
"Yeah, it was epic!" Yang bragged.
"D-Don't brag about it," Weiss nagged, looking around in case there were any teachers.
"Uhh, technically, it was a crime boss in a stolen mech suit," Ruby explained.
"But, a robot either way," Yang added. "Anyways, tomorrow we should take you clothes shopping cause you can't keep going around wearing the same thing, like a cartoon character."
Anne looked down at herself. She had been wearing her middle school uniform for a few weeks. "True." She agreed. "Well, see you tomorrow." Anne waved as she went down the hallway.
Team RWBY walked away down the other hallway. Weiss turned to Blake, who's been silent during the Haven student tour.
"Is everything alright?" She asks the brunette. Blake was still silent.
"Is this about what that said about the White Fang?" She asked again.
Blake sighed and then answered. "Yes."
"Sun's teammates said that White Fang violence had been rapidly dropping. Not just in Mistral but all over southern Vale. No one can't seem to figure out why." Blake explains, concerned.
"Yes, when I heard this, I laughed it off. But I checked the news and was shocked that it was true." Weiss explained what happened when she learned this. "They're doing this all of a sudden, after everything." Weiss gritted on that last part.
Blake looked away from the heiress. She knew both of them knew what the White Fang was capable of, her more than Weiss. For now, Blake doesn't know what to make about any of this. On one hand, the Fang has finally come to their senses or might be planning something big again.
"Either way, I need to get to the bottom of this." She says to herself.
-x-
Anne returned to her room and slumped over onto her bed. "Uh, what a day." She sighs.
"Tell me about it." A voice said from the other side of the room.
Anne's eyes burst open, and she sat up quickly to scan the inside of the room. Sitting on the bed adjacent to Anne's was the one, the only, Sun Wukong.
"SERIOUSLY! HOW DO YOU KEEP DOING THAT?!" Anne cried
"Mad skills, that's how," Sun replied.
"OK! But why are you here?" She asked the monkey. "Shouldn't you be with your team?"
"Yeah, I was on my way back. But then I heard Blake and her team talking bout you."
"They were?" Anne replied.
"Yep, So your really from another world and one with no Faunus?" He asked.
"Well, I never met or heard of anyone who's part animal back home." Anne deadpanned. "So what do you think."
"Must be pretty cool to be another world?" He asked.
Anne chuckled a bit. "You think it cool, but to be honest, it's not all that. I miss my home my everything is back there, especially... my friends. Without them, I just feel kind of lost. You know?" She realizes her bottled feeling about her situation to the curious Faunus.
"Oh, but talking is what friends do?" He asked.
Anne raised an eyebrow. "You want to be friends with me?"
"Yeah, why not. You seem cool." Sun countered. "Plus, RWBY and JNPR like you,"
Anne gave a small smile. Maybe Sun was on to something. For the next hour, Anne and Sun talked. , Anne noted during their conversation that Sun kept mentioning Blake's name a lot. Anne brought it up, and Sun bashfully admitted he liked Blake. Anne thought it was funny that he was into 'Miss Emo,' Maybe she should help them with that.
Then came the time for Sun to leave. Before he did, Anne asked one more question. "Quick question, Why does Blake's bow wiggle when she's annoyed?"
"UHHHH….." Sun gave a sweat drop cause he knew the answer. "Wait till Blake tells you herself."
"Fine." Anne sighed. Then, Sun left out the window instead of the door.
After Sun left, Anne was alone in her room again. Anne then pulled out the picture of her two friends back home, thinking about all the new friends she's made in the last two days.
"Sasha, Marcy, I hope you guys are okay because I am." She said, looking out the still-open window.
-x-
Elsewhere-
A bunch of people is sitting in the corner of a room, tied up, blindfolded, and gagged.
They struggle to try and break free. But the bounds were too tight.
"Struggle all you want." A female voice challenged. "But we'll be long gone when you get out."
"You can stop playing around!" A voice called out to the girl. "We need to move!"
The figure then moves into the light revealing themselves. This figure is a young man with spiky red hair. He wore a face mask with red horn decorations on the front with two slits on each side so he could see. Even though he's dressed in all black and red, his two most striking features are two jet-black bull horns on the top of his head and a sheathed Chokutō sword attached to his waist.
"Yeah, Yeah, Hold your horses." The girl said, rolling her eyes and slamming the door on the tied-up people as they ran off.
Outside, they stood on a ledge, watching people wearing similar masks. They carried boxes to some trucks. While the two supervised and admired their handy work.
"So what yah think?" She asked the boy next to her. "Not bad, right?"
"If your definition of "not bad" included almost blowing our cover. Then, yes, you were bad." He deadpanned.
"Oh, come on, Taury. We talked about you being too negative." She said with her arms crossed. "There's gotta be something good, you could say." She asked, taking off her mask.
He groaned at the nickname she gave him. "Fine… I guess maybe it was good to carry that spray paint. Those security guards didn't see that coming."
"It's a start for a human." He said.
The girl takes off her mask, revealing herself to have pale skin and blond hair tied in a ponytail, with a distinctive beauty mark under her left eye.
"And you're tude is improving. It's a start for a wannabe edgelord." She comments.
"Yeah, yeah… We got what we came for. Let's go."
The two ran off into the night.
Author's note: Let me know what you think, and as always. Constructive criticism is allowed. Trolling is not.
Cliffhanger!
'The Effort' is the Force, so you know. My brother and I thought it was hilarious when I came up with it.
"Use the Effort, young padawan,"
"B-but I'm lazy."
So we got some plot today. Besides introducing Anne to Beacon, some staff and students, visiting students, and the ideas of Faunus and the Vytal festival. Blake also starts looking into the sudden White Fang Brutality drop.
But now, it's time for my thoughts.
OTHER STUDENTS-
Yes, like in 'The Wartwood Girls' and 'SUGARCRASH,' The side characters will get a chance to shine.
Cause, to be honest. The main characters may be the main focus, but the story is nothing without the side characters to give this world more depth and make it feel like an actual world. Who cares if they outshine the main cast? They're still part of your story, no matter how minor their role is.
If the focus is only on just the main cast. The story would become boring and repetitive fast. My cousin agreed.
So anyways, here's what I got so far for the Vytal Festival.
Dove Bronzewing: Lazy but intelligent brains
Russel Thrush: Rock n roll country boy
Sky Lark: Smartass joker, failed ladies' man
CVFY- Coffee
Coco Adel: Cool and hip fashionista
Velvet Scarlatina: The bunny
Fox Alister: Silent but knowledgeable telepath
Yatsuhashi Daichi: Gentle giant
SSSN- Season
Sun Wukong: Fun-loving monkey warrior
Scarlet David: Serious huntsman student
Sage Ayana: Dork who wants friends
Neptune Vasilias: Cool guy who is a dork on the inside
ABRN- Auburn
Arslan Atlan: No-nonsense but kind warrior
Bolin Hori: Honorably noble monk
Reese Chloris: Laid-back tomboy
Nadir Shiko: Strong insecure fighter and friend
BRNZ- Bronze
Brawnz Ni: Ruggedly friendly Macho man
Roy Stallion: A wise street kid
Nolan Porfiro: Prodigal healer
May Zedong: Shy, timid Sniper
NDGO- Indigo
Nebula Violette: Adventurous warrior
Dew Gale: Naive rich girl
Gwen Darcy: Responsible nerd girl
Octavia Ember: Aggressive Wild card
FNKI- Funky
Flint Coal: Chill jazz player unless your a Schnee
Neon Katt: Party animal, AKA- Blake's opposite
OC- Kara Lunaria: Intellectual with a beast within
OC- Ivana Blanche: Class clown
CWPR- Copper
Ceil Soleil: Wannabe soldier
OC- Lukas Wilder: Rugged Hunter
Penny Polendina: Airhead Gyroid
OC- Regina Album: Elegant dancer
(If you're wondering why I skipped Cardin I have something planned for him.)
I have a separate story dedicated to the bios of these characters that I have finished if you want to check that out.
"Big shout out to 'The Knight of The V Table' for helping me with the bios."
CHARACTERIZATION-
I thought it was cool that most RWBY characters are based on or inspired by characters from fairy tales, myths, etc.
But, disappointed that they didn't follow up on those inspirations after V3.
So not this time! I was thinking of doing what Spyno41's doing in their fic, RWBY: The Grimm Tales.
Where the characters don't just follow their initial characterization, they also follow the themes of the characters they are inspired by.
They only have the original four trailers. But so far, they feel way more consistent than the originals.
Some of them require lots of this!
Come to think of it. The show would have ended quicker if the characters had their original characterizations. V7-8 would have never happened the way it did.
GOLIATH IN THE ROOM-
Yes, Adam is here now! Say what you want about him, love him, or hate him. The majority agrees that he was a product of bad writing, so hear my argument.
Look, I'm no Monty Oum. Though a part of me wishes I was, who wouldn't want to be him?
But when I was explaining RWBY stuff to my brother. He brought up a good point,
'If you create a character like Adam, then you suddenly die. Would you want his initial personality removed and thrown under the bus by your crew?'
He went from an intelligent elite warrior who wanted his people to no longer be discriminated against and get personal revenge against humanity to a homicidal maniac obsessed with power and a vendetta against Blake for no reason. Ultimately he was killed off, dying as if he was a glass statue, Like Pyrrha. When they both shouldn't have.
His fairy tale allusion was supposed to be the Beast to go with Blake's Beauty. The Crew also took the redemption part of the Beast's story from him. They proceeded to give it to Blake and crossed him with Gaston from the 1991 Disney film and live-action remake. (WHO WAS CREATED FOR SAID FILM AND WAS NEVER PART OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL!) Again because they mess up characterizing Blake.
Even from his design and Semblance, he should have been the Zuko/Vergil of the show. Part of me felt that was what Monty was going for, a redeemable anti-hero.
Not some Michael Morningstar-Esque villain or a… Uuh… 'Let me know in the reviews, what other series has psychotic ex-boyfriends?'
Don't get me wrong, Adam does have his problems, and there will be crazy villains.
The reason that happened to him was that Blake was starting to become very unlikable in the show. The writers did the lazy route and made Adam Crazy villain No. 4 instead of having Blake face the fact she was no better than him.
This deconstruction of characters' personalities tends to happen to side characters that outshine the main cast.
Just look at BRNZ. In my opinion, they were the most interesting-looking team in V3. But, in the novels, they all were killed in the fall, everyone but Nolan. While all the other non-Beacon teams made it out with all their teammates, Not cool.
But luckily, this is not RWBY. So that's not happening in RWBibia.
Adam Fun Fact-
Also, I learned that if things were a bit different. A redemption arc for Adam in the show could have happened if the crew had used these three things.
1. Have him direct his rage toward Weiss instead of Blake or Yang.
2. Give him an actual backstory and explain how he got branded in the first place.
3. Have Weiss visit the SDC mines and see the terrible working conditions of her Faunus employees.
And coincidentally, in the fic 'Adam the Redeemer,' all three things happened.
So if you're writing an RWBY story and you're planning on redeeming Adam, make sure you have these things.
So that's a lot of stuff I wanted to get off my chest. Until next time. AutoHunter, Rolling out of the hunt.