BLUE
Chapter 4
First Impressions Make The World Go 'round
"Fine morning, ladies and gen… Evan."
At 7 AM to the second, Blanc spoke with a resounding, but not loud, voice, waking Evan and Olivier up with a groan.
"Buh… buh 'orning…" Evan rolled out of his bed, while Olivier simply threw her pillow in the general direction of Blanc's voice.
He stepped just a little to the side before looking to the furthest bed to the right.
"Odd, it seems that our new teammate is not here."
"Hrr…" Evan voiced the egregious amount of concern he had over that fact.
"Uhhh…" Olivier voiced her agreement with Evan's concern and her own marvellous points.
The sight of the two invoked a sense of a horror flick. Specifically, the one involving the undead wandering the streets searching for human flesh, if you were to remove any sense of atmosphere, fear, and general coordination.
Evan rolled his way into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him with immense effort. Oliver curled back into her bed, quickly resuming her sleep. Blanc looked out the window, lamenting his life choices.
"I do wonder where she is, however."
Just then, the apartment door buzzed, and slowly creaked open, revealing Alex with a light pant and a couple streaks of sweat across her face. She was still wearing her sweater, weirdly enough, though the lack of sweat implied she had thrown it on after whatever workout she had done. Her eyes met Blanc's, and she immediately looked away and ran to her bed.
"Welcome back." Blanc began rummaging through his luggage, preparing himself for what would surely be a long, long day.
"Mhm…" Alex let herself give a hum in response before returning to her own actions.
The time was 8:00 in the morning, give or take a couple of seconds.
Evan had stayed in the cafeteria, wishing to eat some more food as his body was still somewhat sore from the previous day's altercations. Olivier had eaten within ten minutes and ran back to their room, saying she hadn't finished sorting out her things. As such, only Alex, Blanc, and his bag were sitting in their first class (Grimm Studies, starting at 8:30 AM on this day in particular), with Blanc waiting patiently while Alex fidgeted with her fingers, sitting five metres from the only other person in the room.
"... seeing that we are in the same team now, should I organise an introductory session for us tonight?" Blanc spoke slowly, with a controlled cadence and a somewhat-monotone voice.
"U-uh… sure…?" Alex managed, with an uneven cadence (if it could even be considered a cadence) and a worried, hastened voice. "B-but wh-uh-why?"
Blanc stared at her for a moment, causing Alex to shrink a little in her seat.
"I just said." He eventually responded, a light amount of worry in his voice. "Are you feeling alright? I would not like to spend the first day here at the infirmary."
"N-NO! Ah- I'm alright!" Alex jumped a little in her seat, horrified at the idea. "J-just a little… uh… nervous!"
"...very well." Blanc chose not to call Alex out on the understatement of the century, and instead pulled a notebook and pen from his bag, flipping the book open and clicking his pen three times. He tapped the pen on his notebook twice, before writing in a neat cursive atop the page, 'Grimm Studies, Year One'.
Alex widened her eyes in horror, realising she had forgotten-
"I-I forgot my binder!" She stood up suddenly, only to remember she wasn't alone. Blanc turned to his right, looking at Alex with a tired look in his eyes.
"I have spare paper."
"O-oh." Alex let herself breathe a sigh of relief, before quickly sitting back down.
Twenty minutes passed before anyone else showed up, the first being a couple other teams in their grade, with most people sitting down by 8:28 AM (Olivier arrived at 8:25, with Evan lagging behind at 8:27).
"Hey, everyone~!" Olivier sat down with a slight 'flump', placing an arm around Blanc, who simply exhaled.
"You two took a while."
"Yeah, sorry, man. Got lost, and Lav was flirting with a second year."
"Olivier, you were fully aware when the first class was."
"Mm hm, but this girl was really hot! She was rocking a beret! A beret, Blanc!"
"With sunglasses too!"
"Look at my outfit, you two. Do you think I understand?"
Alex simply moaned in confusion.
Right then, the doors slammed open, louder than they had in the past nine minutes (which was quite impressive, as every single hunter who had stepped through those doors had slammed them with a loud 'BANG'), revealing two teams.
One was made up the by-now famous Team RWBY (Ruby Rose, a supposed prodigy of 15 years, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Blake Belladonna, who honestly only fit in because she looked cool, and Yang Xiao-Long, the sister to the mentioned prodigy), and the other one was-
"PYRRHA NIKOS!"
"IT'S THE INVINCIBLE GIRL!"
"CanIgetanautographpleasepleaseplease-"
The two teams immediately got swarmed, leaving only a few teams, including BLUE, sat down upon their desks and waited for the teacher to come and hopefully professionally break up the crowd.
Unfortunately, their teacher was one Professor Peter Port, who upon walking in with his bushy moustache and m-shaped hair, simply laughed and sat down at his desk.
Blanc regretted his life choices for the seventh time within the past twenty-four hours, and pulled a pair of well-used headphones (black and red, with a sharp metal aesthetic) out of his bag and upon his ears.
He turned on the noise-cancelling feature (adjusted precisely for his ears, with the headphones themselves slipping on nicely) and put on Piano Sonata No. 8, Act 1, by an unnamed composer from aeons ago.
In the end, it took a full thirty minutes for the class to settle down, at which point the two Teams of attention could finally sit down. Team JNPR, or as everyone else knew it, 'Pyrrha Nikos and three other people', sat in the row ahead of BLUE, though to the right, leaving RWBY with the seats directly ahead of the four stooges.
Weiss Schnee walked in first, sitting down for a moment before looking behind her and letting a small scowl grace her face before she walked up to Ruby Rose and said, with a suitably haughty tone, "Sit down there."
Despite the unkind tone, Rose beamed and nodded, before flopping onto the seat in a manner not too dissimilar to how Olivier had done earlier.
Behind them, Evan looked over to Blanc with a mildly worried face. Blanc stared back with his usual expression, clearly not worried.
"Are we all seated, huntsmen and huntresses?" The professor, Peter Port, paced the stage, his mouth hidden behind his moustache but brimming with exuberance. "Very well, very well." He didn't wait for a response, and immediately jumped into his class.
"Monsters! Deeeeeeeemons… prowlers," and he paused for dramatic effect, "of the night. Yes, the Creatures of Grimm have many, immeasurable, uncountable names, but I like to call them…" and he paused once more, "...
Prey."
Blanc stopped his writing immediately, wondering whether it wasn't too late to transfer him, Olivier, and Evan to Atlas. Evan had a goofy grin from one side of his face to the other, Olivier looked mildly concerned, and Alex looked defeated.
In front of them, the star prodigy was already doodling on her paper, with one of Pyrrha's three ornaments (or teammates, if you wanted to be technical) already falling asleep but clearly trying his hardest.
"Psst, Blanc," Evan tapped Blanc's shoulder, and he nodded to signify his attention. "Should we listen to this guy?"
Blanc considered the consequences of not listening, and the amount of brainpower he'd save if he didn't, and ultimately answered with a resounding, yet quiet, "No. Gods, no."
Olivier nodded as well, nudging Alex once, twice, three times, before finally blowing into her ear causing a small 'yelp!' from her.
"Wh-what?!"
Olivier smiled, and turned to the other two. "I'd say this is a good time to introduce ourselves properly to each other, right? Just names aren't enough, after all!"
"Exactly, Olivier," Blanc breathed out, "yet you did not seem as keen last night when I brought it up."
"Yeah, 'cuz no one talks about stuff like that while playing video games!" Evan pointed out, even raising his hand as if he were scolding a child.
Alex found it somewhat ironic, as a bystander to the barely-functional, yet well-oiled machine that were these three.
"Well , since Olivier has kindly brought us all together, allow me to begin." Blanc spoke with a light hint of dry delivery, as Evan scooched a lot closer, ignoring Professor Port as he went on his third tall tale about Grimm vampires and fair ladies. "I am Blanc Dorado, born on June 21st and friend of these two… beings for twelve years."
Olivier took some offence to that, lightly smacking Blanc on the head. Evan did nothing as he was currently playing on his handheld, not even bothering to turn off the sound (though, luckily, the Professor did not seem to realise, so engrossed in his tale was he) as he clicked to and fro.
"I have a sister who works at the SDC-" Evan let out a small laugh at that, earning Blanc's ire as he glared at him with enough frost to chill a volcano, "and she is the one who picked out my wardrobe, much to my despair." He adjusted his uniform at that, which he seemed to take care of at a near-obsessive level.
"Yeah, sure…" Evan grinned, finally closing his handheld much to Alex's relief, whose life flashed before her eyes whenever Professor Port faced their direction. "Anyway, I'm Evan Bronze! I main Bluez on Remnant Fighter, and I'm ranked Grimdark Obsidian on Xtreme!"
Alex stared at him, unable to comprehend his words.
"His birthday is on January the 1st, and he transferred into our Prep Academy late, as he took too long to decide whether or not to be a Huntsman." Blanc added onto Evan's incredibly descriptive description, his expression still more or less the same 'dead inside' face, with a slight incline towards annoyance.
"Yup! And I'm Olivier Lavender, born here but moved when I was five!" She spun her pencil as she spoke, a practised motion with tricks within tricks so elaborate it seemed nigh-on inhuman, "My birthdate was on February 14th, and I've been training all my life to be a Huntress!"
Evan sulked a little as he watched Olivier flex her pencil-spinning skills.
"Could you stop showing off your skills, Lav? It makes me feel like crap…"
"Git gud, nerd."
Alex suddenly realised she was supposed to contribute to the introductory session when the other three turned to her expectedly, Olivier's pencil now moving like a ticking clock.
Tick, tock,
"Uh…"
Tick, tock,
"Mm…"
Tick, tock,
"Ah…"
Tick, tock, and a full minute passed before Blanc broke the ice that had formed in between with, "Kindly continue, please."
"...could I say no?" Alex tried a strategy most unique, avoiding the question. It truly was intelligent, perhaps the greatest idea to grace mankind.
"C'mon, we all went!" Alas, the genius who was Evan Bronze broke Alex's shield, causing her to mutter under her breath with varying levels of comprehension, from 'aaa' to 'gah'.
It took a solid five minutes for Blanc, Evan, and Olivier to convince her to join in, though how much help Olivier and Evan were depended on whether their goal was to get Alex to do something or to further discourage her.
"I-I'm Alex."
Blanc sat patiently, Evan rocked back and forth, and Olivier watched intensely.
"Um… I, I was born in a frontier village…" Alex rummaged through her brain, physically represented by her fidgeting as the three continued their silent wait. "And, um, I was born on January 21." She stopped there, content with the enormous amount of information she had shared.
Blanc stared for a moment, causing Alex to shiver a little before he finally spoke in a low drone. "Ah. I suppose that… concludes our session."
As if on cue, Professor Port finally ceased with his ramblings of stories that most likely did not happen or were incredibly over-exaggerated. "The moral of this story, my fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses, is that a Hunter must be honourable!"
Evan whistled to himself, prompting Weiss Schnee to turn around and scowl, before quickly realising her mistake and mouthing an apology before she turned back to her leader.
"A Hunter must be well-educated and wise in all ways!"
Alex nodded along subconsciously, though jumped when Olivier tapped her on the shoulder to show a drawing she had made.
"So, who amongst you all believe yourself to be the em~bodiment of these very traits?" Port bellowed out, catching everyone's attention but garnering nobody's support, short of-
"I do, sir!" Weiss Schnee raised her hand, which had been clenched until she spoke, when she quickly amended her position to something less resembling an old lady shaking her fist at the young ones.
"Well then," Professor Port pulled a tarp from what should've been a very obvious cage had all the students not been either dozed off or annoyed to the bone, revealing a Boarbatusk with large… tusks and bone surrounding it in a grotesque type of shield, like patches of land emerging from the depths of its dark flesh, its red eyes glowing as it struggled against the cage, roaring and screaming. The tarp Port pulled off landed upon the floor with a loud yet muffled 'thump', indicating both its weight and soundproofing.
In front of Blanc, Ruby Rose jumped up to hug Weiss Schnee out of nowhere, earning an indignant yelp and another glare. "Good luck, Weiss!"
"D-Ruby Rose, you're a team leader!"
Blanc tuned out their conversation, instead turning over to look at Olivier, opening his mouth only for her to respond before he had a chance to speak.
"She'll probably be good. No Hunter Academy worth their salt would let someone in via status alone."
Evan chimed in with his own observation, for once focused and alert. "Maybe, but her weapon's too small. Good if you're fighting someone else, but not so much against Grimm like this."
"Because of the armour, correct?" Blanc spoke once more, writing upon his notebook for the first time since the lesson had started.
"Yup! She'll probably be able to manoeuvre to its weak spot, though. Unless-" And Evan groaned as he watched Weiss Schnee's teammates create a banner with ripped-out papers and copious amounts of tape, "... unless she's distracted…"
Despite sitting safely in the middle of a huge crown of meatshields, Alex couldn't help but feel a shiver run down her spine.
Most notably because she noticed Weiss Schnee's grip on her weapon, or rather lack of it owing to the furious tremble her hands had adopted.
Five minutes later, Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company stood upon the impromptu battleground that was Professor Port's classroom, facing the Grimm gnawing at the steel bars, causing sparks and bits of paint to fall off and flutter onto the floor.
To her credit, Weiss Schnee stood strong, looking upon the Boarbatusk like it was an inmate on death row, and she its executioner.
Team RBY were stood up, Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long standing upon the desks waving the very stable banner with tape plastered upon every crease and hole while Blake Belladonna remained seated, waving a flag with bubbly letters spelling 'RWBY' much to her (and Weiss Schnee's, as could be seen by her vein slowly becoming visible) dismay.
"Go, Weiss!" Yang Xiao-Long cheered, quite into the situation.
Not on the level of Ruby Rose, leader of Team RWBY, however.
"Yeah! Represent Teaaaaam RWWWWBY!" She hollered at the top of her lungs, causing Blanc to cover his ears as he was right behind her in seating.
Blake Belladonna muttered a quiet "Yeah, go RWBY…", mortified at the indignity.
Weiss Schnee turned around, glared at Ruby Rose, but then took one, two, three breaths before turning back around with noticeably more 'enthusiasm', if it could be called enthusiasm to wish to send a Grimm to the darkest depths of the abyss.
"Well then…" Professor Port stood next to the cage, hand upon the unlocked door yet keeping it closed via raw strength, a feat most impressive considering a Grimm was currently pushing upon the door with all its might. "Are you ready, Miss Schnee?" His voice wasn't so dissimilar to that of an announcer at a tournament, the excitement felt even by the most gloomy of students in the corners of the room.
Weiss Schnee took one, two, three slow, controlled breaths before she looked up at the teacher with a fierce determination burning in her eyes. "Yes, sir!"
"Then, let the match…" He ripped the door off its hinges, using it as an impromptu shield and redirector to lead the Boarbatusk to its target. "Begin!"
Weiss Schnee stood at the ready, her rapier pointing forward and her posture immaculate.
The Boarbatusk jumped up in a slight diagonal, pouncing back and forth in an animalistic, uncontrolled manner. Weiss jumped back, using one of her glyphs as a makeshift shield, causing the Grimm to run right into a large glowing-white circle with various runes surrounding a meticulous snowflake pattern.
She didn't stop there, however, using another glyph under her feet to move around and behind the creature before it had a chance to turn around, much less counter her stab at its rear.
However, the rapier simply scraped off to the side, the bone plates surrounding the creature too dense to pierce using even a decent dust bullet, let alone a giant metal needle.
Letting out a small 'tsk', Weiss Schnee used another glyph in front of herself to bounce away from the grotesque boar before it could retaliate, using a couple more glyphs underneath herself as she slid away, which caused particles of Aura to shave off her snowflakes and runes.
At the third glyph, she stepped down and faced the Boarbatusk again, which had recovered from the initial run-in with a giant snowflake and growled, if gargles and clicks could be called anything remotely close to a dog's growl.
"Hang on, Weiss! You can do it!" The voice prompted Weiss Schnee to look over and yell at last, clearly having reached a boiling point.
"Could you stop badgering me, Ruby Rose?!" The raw exasperation was odd to hear from someone as prim and proper as the SDC Heiress, who had up to this point (if two days could really be considered a good amount of time to get ahold of one's personality) been as close to a princess as one could imagine.
"Sorry- Boar!"
"Wh-" Weiss Schnee didn't even have a second to react before the Boarbatusk, sensing opportunity, ran at her, catching the Schnee off guard.
With the little time she had, Weiss used the glyph she had kept active under her to launch herself to the left, though the attack grazed her arm and caused her to drop her weapon upon the floor as she clenched her teeth.
"Weiss!"
"You OK-"
"SHUT UP!" And there was Weiss's first proper yell of the semester as she jumped over the Boarbatusk, now thoroughly done with Ruby Rose and the rest of her team. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut! Up!" With each repetition of the phrase, she activated another glyph, each one launching the Boarbatusk up further and further as her Aura visibly strained, judging by the flickering over her body.
When the Grimm reached 30 metres in the air, Weiss Schnee activated one last glyph, this one being at least four times as large as her previous ones. Her Aura trembled, cracks emerging as a couple drops of sweat fell from her face.
With a final, guttural yell, she swung up, causing tens of icy spikes to launch from the glyph, piercing the Boarbatusk right through its belly. It didn't stop there, however, as more went up and ran the Grimm through over and over and over again, each 'shunk' only making Weiss more enraged.
With the twenty-first icicle, her Aura broke, and she stumbled a little as all her remaining glyphs shattered with it.
The remains of the Boarbatusk fell behind her, if it could even be called a creature, let alone a Grimm or a Boarbatusk.
The room was silent for a solid ten seconds, before a wary applause began from Pyrrha Nikos, causing everyone else to immediately join in with whoops and cheers.
Blanc, Evan, Olivier, and Alex all watched in shock as Weiss Schnee walked out the front, ignoring Professor Port's praise (which, to be frank, went through their ears as well), her teammates, and the dissipating mess of a creature behind her.
The doors swung open, and slammed shut behind her retreating figure, causing Team BLUE to regain their senses and mind.
"That… was… interesting." Blanc put emphasis on 'interesting', as Team RWBY was right ahead of them, their leader rimrod-straight.
"Interesting? I think 'crap' is a better description." Evan was noticeably annoyed at the performance, ignoring Alex's slight 'eep' at his harsh words.
Olivier was confused as she spoke, unconsciously spinning her pencil slower. "She was completely out of it. Why?"
Blanc simply moved his head slightly towards the shell-shocked 15-year old in front of them.
The four sat in silence for a moment as Professor Port spoke of what their next lesson would entail, simply processing everything that had occurred in the past ten minutes.
In the end, it was Alex who broke the silence, right after Port declared the class dismissed. "D-do you guys hate me?"
The sudden question prompted all three to turn away from their packing to stare at her.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Quoi?"
"Apologies, but I have to ask you what kind of demon possessed you to think that."
Alex looked down, unable to handle the stares. "It's just… that girl and her leader seemed fine until that fight… and I thought that maybe- maybe you were hiding your thoughts on me…"
The three kept on staring for a moment before Blanc let out a sigh, like a salaryman after a long, long day.
"Alex, we've known each other for precisely forty-eight hours and twenty minutes. I do not think we could hate you that fast even if we tried." He placed his notebook in his bag, and carefully put it on.
"Blanc, try not to talk like that. Of course she'd think you hated her if you spoke like a corporate-man!" Olivier teased as she tossed in all her stationary, earning a light bonk from Blanc in return. "Ouch~"
"Dunno whatcha talkin' about, Alex." Evan simply tossed his duffle bag over his shoulder, jumping over the desks in front of them where Team RWBY had already left. "I just wanna go eat lunch, man…"
Alex let herself breathe out slowly, and gave the group a light grin as they walked out the classroom and began their trip to the cafeteria. "Y-yeah, I'm starving from that lecture…"
"Want me to feed you~?" Olivier threw her hand around Alex, causing her to go red.
"Stop that, Olivier. You're scaring her."
"Yeah, Lav!"
"You can't say anything, Mr. 'I wanna be a Huntsman and date women'!" Olivier did a reasonable, if somewhat mocking impression of Evan.
"Oi, that's a perfectly reasonable goal!"
Blanc simply kept walking, determined not to lose any more braincells to the two.
Alex, on the other hand, listened to the duo.
Perhaps her first impression of them wasn't so accurate after all.
Author's Note:
Lo and behold, the New Year has arrived.
Spent my first few hours of 2023 writing story prompts with some friends, though we celebrated New Year's itself via the very reputable medium of Fortnite Battle Royale.
I then proceeded to procrastinate for another two weeks before finally writing this.
Motivation is an odd lady.
Hopefully the next chapter doesn't take twenty-seven years to write.
Hope the 300-odd people who read this at one point or another since this fic's inception are enjoying their lives.
Reviews are appreciated, and criticism is encouraged. I believe that praising the strong points of someone's writing is important, but so too is pointing out one's flaws. Only then can we improve.
Here's to the New Year,
Fails Salot
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