XV - Samara
~~~(XV)~~~
"So that's how the faunus won that battle." Oxon was sitting with Weiss again the next day. They were going over the faunus rights revolution over lunch. While yesterday's study session had been fairly strenuous for an introduction, he had eventually gotten the hang of it.
"Yes, the faunus' night vision rendered an attack at night pointless. Making the battle of Fort Castle one of their major victories." She was helping him get caught up on what was supposed to be common knowledge. While there was a lot of material to go over, Weiss had great methods to help him retain it all.
"Honestly, I'm still confused why there's still prejudice here in the kingdoms. Back home we had no faunus, at all, not a single one. If we did, we definitely would not have treated them the way they are, they sound too valuable." Seriously night vision and added base physical abilities from their traits? That seemed like something to encourage. It gave him a headache just thinking about all the wasted potential that the kingdoms could have used. Seriously, what was everyone thinking?
Blake spoke up, and actually put down her book. "Humans didn't like the fact that they lost the war, so they spread their hate and prejudice to their kids. Even though the war was not long ago, there are still many who hate the faunus."
"But still, with the Grimm and all, shouldn't the kingdoms want more faunus? I mean, if I could have been born with night vision, that would be pretty nice. I know my home could have used guards with the ability to see at night." Oxon was pondering what kind of extra feature he'd have wanted. He was so deep in thought he didn't realize he spoke of his home in the past tense, and that the other four noticed it. Blake, though, focused on something else.
"You'd want to be a faunus?" Blake had an intense tone of voice that brought Oxon out of his thoughts. Turning, he saw a strange expression on her face; bewilderment? Awe? Hope?
He knew she hid her faunus features for some reason. But it's not like he was going to call her out on it. Though her question gave him pause, after all, why wouldn't he?
"Of course I would, like I said, I'd never met a faunus before arriving in Vale, didn't even know of em till I saw one in the street actually. Now that I think of it, I probably looked a little racist when I stopped and stared for a good minute. But still, I can't understand why they get the treatment they do. If I had gills, horns, or wings, then that would be an incredible gift." His answer gave her pause, then she gave him an honest smile.
"I wish there were more people who thought like you." The mood was much different than it had been a few minutes ago. Not bad per se, but a weird mood nonetheless. So it was nice that team JNPR showed up then.
"Hey guys." Nora plopped down loudly and so powerfully that the table shuddered. Oxon had to catch his cup before it tipped, though it seemed like the other four had avoided the whole issue by lifting their entire trays right before she sat down. Clearly this was a common occurrence.
"How's it going Jaune?" Ruby moved from her seat to sit next to Oxon who was opposite to the blonde teen.
"Eh, you know, training with Pyrrha this morning then some video games in the afternoon. Finally beat that Grimm Souls game." The two of them talked about this and that. Until Ruby tried to change topics.
"Speaking of training, how is that going?" It seemed Ruby's idea for them to bond via fighting was about to be attempted. "I know you train with your team, but have you thought about expanding your options?"
Oxon was content to eat his pizza while she went to work. And damn did he love pizza. He'd had waffles, burgers, and a couple other new foods, but pizza had yet to be topped.
"You want me to spar with you guys? Yeah that sounds good." Jaune, it seemed, hadn't quite gotten the hint.
"Well us too, but Oxon here said he wanted to spar with you again." Uh, what?
Oxon choked on his food as Ruby said what she did. Hacking to push down the bite he'd been chewing he gave her an incredulous look. "The fuc-udge I did!" He didn't know if it was an illusion that Yang's eyes flashed red when he was about to swear at her sister, but he wasn't going to risk her wrath.
Ruby chuckled awkwardly at the reaction. "Well maybe not in those exact words. But I think it'd be a great way to get you both to improve!"
"And you think I should fight Oxon to do so?" It was clear Jaune wasn't very interested in the proposition. Oxon wasn't exactly jumping at the chance either.
Ruby wouldn't be dissuaded, she actually seemed physically incapable of it. "It's a great idea, you'll be able to gauge your progress easier since Oxon isn't experienced with fighting non-Grimm." Jaune still seemed less than convinced of the idea. The dude had Pyrrha Nikos as a trainer, he definitely didn't need to waste both their time by fighting each other.
"And Weiss, didn't you want to see how Oxon fares against enemies that are not computer generated?" And like a magic spell, Weiss' name being mentioned prodded Jaune's desire to impress her. Oxon watched as the blonde resolved himself and accepted Ruby's plan. It seemed like it was happening after all.
Jaune left with his team to get ready and promised to meet them in the spring ring. The five that were left watched them go. Weiss turned to Ruby with a raised eyebrow.
"Did you just use his infatuation with me to get him to agree to a fight?" Ruby only nodded her head in satisfaction. "I'm not even surprised, just disappointed that it worked."
"Well come on Oxon! Time to get ready!" Ruby hopped off her seat and began dragging him out of the cafeteria. "Time to become friends via violence!"
~~~(XV)~~~
All nine of the students found themselves in one of the empty training arenas. The three of team JNPR not fighting were calling out support for their leader. Team RWBY was sitting next to them while cheering for the both of them.
Letting out a sigh, Oxon faced off against the blonde on the opposite side of the ring. He recalled their last bout. The fact that Oxon now had actual armor and weapons now wouldn't help Jaunes odds.
Jaune raised his hand in the direction of the people watching. "I would like to commemorate this fight to Weiss, my Snow Angel." Oxon didn't have to turn around to imagine the expression on the girl's face. Oxon cringed internally, but felt like he might as well have some fun with it.
"Yeah, same here. Dedicated to Weiss and all that jazz." This time he did turn his head to the side to see the expression she would have. From this distance he couldn't make out much, but her flushed face stood out clearly against her white hair. Eh, probably not a good idea to piss off his tutor, but the face on Jaune was worth it, all flushed and angry. A rare smirk flashed briefly on Oxon's face.
"Well, you ready, Arc?" He rested his ax-rifle on his shoulder as the blonde got into a combat stance. Ruby counted them down, and with a "go", they began.
Oxon decided not to use the gun function in this fight and just focused on the melee half. Holding the ax in a high vertical position. If Jaune, in some freak twist of fate, actually started to win, he still had his revolvers.
Jaune must have prepared for him in the time since they last fought. Instead of thinking he had an easy fight, the blonde knew a little of what Oxon could do. He wasn't rushing in, but Jaune clearly wanted to set the pace of the engagement by striking first.
The swordsman opened with a thrust at center mass, one Oxon batted aside with hir armored arm. Oxon's counter was blocked by the medium shield. Clearly the two were similar in the case of their protective gear.
Oxon backed up to give some space before winding up for a heavy blow. His overly telegraphed downward swing did exactly as intended. Those blue eyes widened for a moment before being blocked behind the shield. With a quick halt of his momentum, Oxon spun from an overhead swing into an underhand swing.
Since the blonde had braced for a blow from above, he was unprepared for the ax blade to slam into his hip. Jaune staggered as the force knocked him to the side. Oxon could have punished it, but he felt like that would be too quick. .
"You need eyes to fight, Arc, might want to not block them."
He let Jaune recover his guard before gesturing for the scraggly teen to attack him. Spurred on by the taunt, the blonde unleashed a flurry of strikes that Oxon was ready for. Or so he thought.
The quicker the blow usually meant less force behind it, but Oxon grunted as the sword had more force than expected. He blocked a good few, but some caught him in his chest and unarmored arm.
Oxon managed to end the assault by grabbing the blade mid swing, cutting into his aura, and throwing the boy a distance away.
"Any particular reason you didn't do that the first time?" Oxon had expected a similar fight to the one before. The blonde might have been trying before, but something must have caused him to change.
"Helps to have a good team that works well and to train with." That may have been an attempt to mock him for his dysfunctional team, but honestly he didn't care. Fuck team CMOS.
Grunting in reply, Oxon moved forward and thrust forward with his ax. It might not be a spear or a sword, but there was one thing an ax could do that a straight blade can't. Hook things. Jaune deflected the blade away from his face and was about to counter when Oxon lowered the weapon, snagging the shield.
"Gotcha!"
With a mighty pull, Oxon ripped the shield out of Jaune's hand. The blonde tried to retrieve it, but Oxon simply kicked it out of the ring.
"There goes half your arsenal, mine can't even be detached unless you cut off my arm." Oxon waved the metal covered limb for effect, the plates making a decent amount of noise. "Well you could take away my weapons, but that might be a trial and a half."
Jaune grimaced and held his sword in a two hand grip. Oxon was confident in his ability to win, but he'd forgotten to account for the fact Jaune would be forced to be more offensive.
The guy was already able to hit like a truck and that was with one hand. Hmm, guess I gotta up my defense. Well, might as well see what he can do.
Oxon's plan to gauge the teens strength went not as well as he'd hoped. With a loud clang of metal on metal, the heavy sword blow made him wince. He'd even blocked it with his left arm and it still took a chunk of aura.
The time for messing around was over, it was time to end the fight. Oxon deflected or blocked each slash after and waited for Jaune to use a stab. The blonde did an admittedly decent swing and spin into a thrust, but that was what he was hoping for. Sidestepping the thrust by a small amount, Oxon wrapped his arm around the blade. He sacrificed a bit of aura for the move, but the sword was now trapped.
"Down ya go, bud." Jaune, distracted by trying to free his blade, looked up right as it was too late. Oxon brought his aura up to his head and repeatedly used his reinforced skull to headbutt the blonde.
Once Jaune was nice and disoriented from the blows, Oxon yanked on the blade, fully disarming the blonde. The blade seemed well made, so it felt right putting it to good use. He punched Jaune in the stomach with the cross guard before slamming his ax into his legs, hooking one foot in the beard and lifting up.
With his opponent now laying on the ground, Oxon aimed his rifle barrel at the downed teen. "Well, still pretty bad, but it was certainly better than last time. To think you improved from a willow tree to maybe a paper birch. Next time you might even move up to a maple tree."
He did remember the purpose of this fight, Ruby's little fixation on them getting along. In the end Oxon put away his weapon and offered Jaune a hand up. The blonde accepted it and Oxon pulled him to his feet and handed him back his sword.
"Insults aside, I didn't expect that much of a difference in that short amount of time." Maybe it was Oxon being overconfident and underestimating him, maybe the blonde really improved that quickly. In the end, Oxon was able to soundly defeat him again. And as long as he kept training hard, he didn't see himself losing anytime soon.
"I wasn't expecting suck dirty tricks." Oxon snorted at that, if you weren't fighting dirty, you weren't trying to win. His dad had beaten "honor" out of him a long time ago. It was better to come back home than fight clean.
The after fight talk was interrupted by the two teams walking into the ring. Nikos walked past Oxon to check up on her leader. She checked over him in the most motherly way possible. Ignoring their strange dynamic, he focused on team RWBY.
The girls gave their praise for the both of them. Ruby seemed happy that there seemed to be no apparent bad blood between them. Yang was impressed by the moves he'd pulled to take away Jaunes weapons. Blake was Blake, and offered a nod with a slight smile. Weiss seemed off though.
"Just what was that declaration of yours?" What was she talking about? Seeing his confusion she clarified. "When you "dedicated the fight" to me. Just what was that? I expected it from Jaune, but not from you."
Seeing the frown on her face as she demanded answers almost made him chuckle. "It was just to mess with Jaune and his cringey speech. Didn't mean to make you mad." She calmed down slightly at that and mumbled about "stupid boys" or something.
Ruby finished congratulating Jaune on getting Oxon's aura down to 62% then made her way to Oxon. She gave him a beaming smile that just made him nervous. He didn't think they heard the mid and post combat banter. All she must have seen was him offering a hand to him.
"You did really well in that fight, disarming an opponent is a pretty good strategy." He was just lucky his opponent was incompetent in unarmed combat. If he had tried that on Pyrrha, or gods forbid Yang, then it would never have worked. Oxon himself was limited without a weapon, he really only knew a few basic hand to hand forms.
"Thanks, it's just a form of shield denial I learned." His father had preferred to use them, so he had to figure out ways around it. He'd learned the style with a hooked glaive, but the beard of an ax worked just as well. "To me, the best way to end a fight is to remove the enemy's options. Can't fight if they don't have a sword."
"You could say you, fought ahead, ayyyy?" Yang flashed a smile and two finger guns at Oxon, who only had a deadpan look to give. He'd forgotten about her love for shit jokes.
Jaune, after finally escaping his team, walked over to him. He looked up into his eyes with a strong determination. "Next time I'll win. Just watch."
Oxon struggled to bite back an insult. He knew if he belittled the blond knight, Ruby would be on him for it. In an effort to minimize the tiny girl's interaction with him, Oxon simply nodded his head and accepted the challenge.
"We'll see, paper, we'll see." With that Jaune made his way to the lockers to put away his gear. His team bid their farewells and left through the main doors, likely to their room.
"Well looks like your rivalry is just beginning, eh, Ox?" Yang gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder as the five of them watched JNPR leave. "Though I gotta admit, I didn't think you'd take my idea to fight for Weiss seriously."
Ugh, not that again. Weiss clearly thought the same since the normally polite girl was giving a fierce glare.
"I already told Weiss, but it was just a joke. I definitely don't feel that way about her." Seriously, it was just a joke to mess with Jaune. Ugh, he may have to clear that up with him if he took it seriously too. Yang didn't look convinced, that or she just wanted to tease him more. "Forgot it, I'm going to go to the target range, I need to shake off the shooting rust."
"Oh! Let me get Crescent Rose!" Ruby zipped off to the locker room in a burst of rose petals and returned just as quickly with her weapon. "We can shoot stuff together!"
Oxon groaned internally, but figured she might be his best bet at getting back into the swing of things. He grabbed himself a box of extra ammo and followed the little leader to the shooting range.
It was fairly well designed. He could choose from stationary targets, moving targets, pop-up targets, and a combo too. Oxon decided to start slow and warm up with a stationary target.
Ruby was beside him firing her own rifle at targets much further down the range than he. He couldn't tell if she was hitting them, but the grin on her face gave him a clue. He watched as his target moved away from his area to its intended distance.
Pulling up his rifle, he took aim at the target. Focusing on the center of the chest, he fired off a few shots, cranking the lever between each one. Moving the paper back to him, he saw that the four shots he'd taken orbited the center in a decent cluster. One was almost a bullseye, but wasn't quite inside. While his brother would have been dead center each time, he didn't do poorly.
That pride did take a hit when Ruby recalled her own target. She must have been aiming at a target at three times his distance, yet her results were much more impressive. He could only see two holes in the target, one dead center in the head, and one dead center in the chest. She had fired at least six shots, so unless she missed the other four, she had to have hit the same place each time.
"Not too shabby if I do say so myself." Ruby inspected her handy work and glanced at his. "Good cluster."
Oxon was impressed by her work. She clearly put a lot of hard work into her marksmanship and it showed. It was even clearer what the difference between the two of them was. While she had been training for a decade, he had focused more on other aspects of his life back home.
He set up a new target after reloading his tube. He refused to stay as far behind as he was. Lining up his sights again, he focused harder on getting a bullseye.
~~~(XV)~~~
"Ahhhh, nothing like taking my baby to the range." Ruby and Oxon were seated at their own benches and cleaning out their guns before putting them away. "The scythe form is beautiful and all, but it's something else when I get to just focus on some long range targets."
Oxon could understand that. There was something almost relaxing about target practice. Near the end of the session, he'd used his revolvers as well, and though he was nowhere near as accurate with them compared to his rifle, it was good to get some practice in.
"I guess so." Awkwardness, thy name is Oxon. He honestly didn't know what to say to the girl across from him. The constant interaction with her was helping him lessen his fear of her. At this point he was only mildly uncomfortable around her.
"So I forgot to ask, what's their names?" Oxon paused at her question. He wasn't sure what she meant, his family? He hasn't really spoken much about them and he wasn't about to either. Not knowing what she meant he asked her to clarify. "Your weapons, silly, what's their names?"
"Uh, they don't have any?" Why would he name them? They weren't pets or people, so why give them names? This seemed like the wrong thing to say.
With an enormous pout, Ruby shook her head in disappointment. "All good weapons need a name. My sniper-scythe is named Crescent Rose, Weiss has Myrtenaster, Blakes got Gambol Shroud, and Yangs are Ember Celica. So you gotta give yours a name too."
Give them names? Sure, he'd read about famous fighters of old who wielded legendary weapons. Those had names. But his weapons? They didn't seem important enough to have names, after all, he wasn't even important.
Ruby's pout was turning into an ineffective glare. Like most things in life, it was clear she wasn't about to give up on this. Well, if every other huntsman was doing it, he might as well too.
"Sure, I'll think of a name."
"And they need to fit both you and the weapon! The best names mean something to the user." He was guessing naming them Shooty, Shooty two, and Mr. Choppy was not good enough. He was in the middle of cleaning the revolvers his brother had given him, so he might as well start with those.
He picked up the first one, its blackened steel shined like new after he'd sent it in. The grips were new since the old ones had become cracked from hitting Grimm. He'd engraved his brother's sigil on the new grip, a seal holding an arrow in its mouth. Had his brother needed these guns that night? He'd given them to Oxon so he'd be safe, but, he likey died wishing he had them.
His grip on the firearm tightened in shame, he'd killed his brother by accepting them. He thought of a suitable name for it. "Fratris, to remember my brother by." Ruby seemed to have mixed feelings by the choice of name.
He placed Fratris in its holster and inspected the second revolver. This one was a hand me down from Oxon's father to his brother, and now it was his, passed on to him that night. There was no carving on the wooden grip, but instead there was an eye engraved on the back, near the hammer and rear sight. This gun had a dull gray sheen coating most of the weapon, though it got slightly darker at the end of the barrel.
His father had taught him much, mostly through tough love, but it had shaped Oxon into the man he'd become. He wanted to think of his father more, but memories of that incursion soured any. "Patris. For my father." Leaving his father how he did and taking his armor still felt dirty to Oxon.
Ruby looked like she wanted to ask him about the names. Oxon was incredibly thankful that she did not. He put the newly named Patris in its own holster before looking at his ax-rifle.
This was a weapon that held no attachments to anyone but himself. While the rifle had been modified to hold his old ax head, it became a whole new creature. Oxon had to think longer for this one. It had served him loyaly for years back home, when it only needed to cut trees.
Arbol Muerte? Loggers Luck? Maybe focus on the rifle component? I could call it Prism's Bark? Ugh, no none of those sound right. This is just like when I tried to name our lumber bulls… Wait a minute…
Oxon then remembered his longtime bovine partner. A dark colored bull with bright blue eyes that helped transport the lumber from the forest to the village. Honestly, the name Oxon gave him was almost insulting, who named a bull Babe? The two of them had made a great team, Oxon never had to worry if weight was too much, Babe had carried it all. The bull had even killed a few Grimm even!
"Bulls Breath. For a good partner." Oxon had a rare ghost of a smile on his face as he remembered the first time the bull carried half of lumber a few years back. Damn blue eyed bull could probably lift a bullhead.
With the cleaning and naming of his weapons, Oxon gathered them up to put away in a locker. Cinder had been kind enough to finally inform him that he actually had a place to put his equipment instead of in the room. He was putting away Bulls Breath when he noticed Ruby was still looking at him. He did his best to ignore her, but she was annoyingly persistent.
"Do you want to talk about it?" It? "It" could mean a good many things. He didn't think there was much he wanted to tell her though. "You've mentioned your family a few times, and with how you named your weapons…"
So she wanted to know about his family? Did she want to know about his home? Why did she care? She'd never met them, and it was impossible to know anyways.
"I might have said a few things here and there."
Don't push Ruby, get the hint.
"I just wanted to know if you wanted to talk about it? Them. I know we haven't known each other long but-" Her questions were interrupted when he loudly slammed the locker closed.
Taking a deep breath, Oxon tried to calm his emotions. This whole conversation had been nothing but aggravating. He humored her when naming his weapons, but the memories they brought up were unpleasant at best.
"Ruby, you're nice and all, but this conversation isn't happening." He just had to push it all back down again. The less he felt the better.
"Are you sure, I kno-"
Oxon turned sharply to face her, a furious glare on his face. "Listen, Red, you are on some mighty thin ice right now. We might get along ok, but I'm going to need you to drop it. Kay?"
Ruby shrank back from the uncharacteristic anger Oxon was showing. Thankfully, she stayed silent and left to put her own gear away. Once she left around a corner, Oxon sighed heavily and massaged his temples with his fingers. Yelling at her was a mistake, but in the moment all he wanted to do was get her to drop the conversation.
The biggest issue is that he was certain this wouldn't be the last she'd try. Nice people with good intentions tended to be like that. "This could get annoying."
~~~(XV)~~~
Ruby walked back to her room deep in thought. She kept replaying the recent conversation in her head. Clearly she'd stepped into something bad. She bit her lip, Oxon had usually kept a passive, if often annoyed, expression. Kinda like a more annoyed version of Ren. But he had been anything but passive then.
And she had been doing so well. Yang and Weiss called her naive, but even she could tell that he was uncomfortable when she was near him. She was young, not stupid. She had worked hard to get him to relax, and it was working.
Now Ruby was worried if she ruined it. He'd gone from warry acceptance to outright hostility. Curse her social awkward habit! She knows she needs advice from someone more experienced.
Entering the dorm, she spotted her teammates and har main target. "Yaaaaaannnnggggggg."
Weiss looked up from her journal. "Ruby, what is going on?"
The exaggerated use of her elder sister's name caused her to look up from her magazine. "What's up sis? What's with the long face?"
"I think I made a mistake with Oxon." The smile on Yang's face vanished and was replaced by a slight frown.
"What kind of mistake? Please don't tell me he tried anything? Do I need to hide his body?"
Ruby quickly shook her head in denial. "No, Yang, nothing like that happened. I tried asking him some things, and it didn't exactly go well."
Blake's golden eyes peaked above her book to give Yang a pointed look. "And you say my tastes are strange."
"Belladonna, that's because you read poorly disguised smut."
Pushing past her team's banter, Ruby tried to bring things back on topic. "Yang stop being a butt, I need help figuring out how to fix things."
"Look sis, the guy seems to be in a constant state of brooding. Even if you made him upset, I'm sure whatever it is, it'll be fine by the time we get dinner."
"Might be a little worse than that." Ugh, she really didn't want to have to think back on it, but she had no choice, so she explained to Yang what happened and his reaction. "You know what to do?"
Yang and the others had listened well as she explained it, though she did wince when it was clear a sensitive subject came up. "Yeah, I think ya stepped on a landmine there."
"I know thaaat. Clearly I shouldn't have pushed when I did. Do you know what I should do?" An apology was obvious, but she was unsure what other steps should be taken. Her lack of social experience had her floundering in thinking of fixes.
"Well the guy doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge. Sure, you might have upset him by prying into some sensitive stuff, but give it time and I'm sure it'll be fine."
Weiss chimed in next. "I agree with Xiao Long, apologize later, and give him time to settle and things will surely return to normal."
"While it's clearly a touchy subject, I wonder what it is that happened?" Blake said what Ruby was thinking. Summer had died when Ruby was still young, so she had time to move on and mourn. Oxon didn't seem like he had been able to yet. "I mean, it has to be pretty bad to get that reaction."
"He's brought up his past on rare occasions, but clearly whatever happened either with his family or home was not a pleasant experience." Weiss had a strange look on her face. Ruby guessed that not everyone had a great family life waiting back home.
Weiss was the one he got along with the best as far as Ruby knew. Blake and Oxon acknowledge each other but hardly interact. Yang likes to tease him like she does everybody. And Ruby herself was trying to get him to like her. Weiss is probably their best bet at trying to learn anything. Not that she was going to try anytime soon.
"So Ruby can apologize and Weiss can fish for info. That sounds like a good plan to me." Once again, Yang was missing the point. Thankfully Ruby didn't have to explain that.
"While I admit I am curious as well, I don't think trying to question him is a wise idea." Thank you Weiss, bastion of wisdom. "Especially since I've yet to ask him about his team and their fighting skills."
Ruby put her head in her hands as she mentally revoked the praise she'd just thought. Trust Weiss to still be focused on the tournament. Well as long as nobody made the same mistake Ruby made, it should be fine.
She sat at her bed and thought about the names he'd given his revolvers.
Fratris and Partris. Those sound like shortened versions of fratricide and patricide. Why would you name them such morbid names? Especially when you say they are supposed to remind you of your family. Just what happened to you?
~~~(XV)~~~
The second semester of Beacon starts soon. I am debating whether or not I want to include the food fight scene. On one hand it's a cool scene to try and write, but on the other, I'm not sure if Oxon would be the type to participate. Though one could say that about Weiss and she went the whole hog with that swordfish… hmmmmmmmm…