V3E5: Pride before the Beatdown
I feel sick.
Hope cringed as Coco's knees buckled. There was a massive bruise on her exposed midriff and vomit dribbled from her busted lips. The fearless future huntress's eyes kept darting around like a paranoid schizophrenic, desperately searching for her hidden opponent's whereabouts.
This hurts to watch...
The charismatic, prideful and damned stubborn second year was currently getting her ass kicked in the arena and her current partner, Yatsuhashi, was nowhere to be found. It was safe to assume that he was locked in combat somewhere in the holographic jungle of the arena's battleground. Emerald walked out of the jungle, a predatory glare accompanying a toothy grin. She walked out in plain view of Coco but it seemed like the chocolaty sophomore just couldn't notice her.
"She's right in front of you! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
Hope's cringe deepened as a desperate Velvet screamed next to him. She's been doing this since the match took its defining turn. Yatsuhachi, meanwhile, was doing everything he could to try and take down Mercury.
He wasn't achieving much.
Mercury was a far more nimble fighter and his kicks hit like a Mack Truck. To win against him, Yatsuhashi would have to reconnect with Coco but for some reason unknown to him, he was stuck in the jungle.
"What's happening?" Fox asked. "Is he still stuck in that damned jungle?"
"Yup," Hope confirmed.
"How?! He's been stuck there since the match started!"
"Emerald has an illusion-type semblance."
The other half of Team CVFY stared at him bug-eyed in shock.
"What?!" Velvet exclaimed.
"Why didn't you tell them?!" Fox questioned.
Hope sighed frustratedly.
"I tried... But..."
Fox facepalmed, already knowing that this was somehow Coco's fault.
"Please don't tell me Coco told you not to spoil the surprise." He begged. "Please tell me she wasn't that damned stupid."
Hope snapped his fingers.
"Bingo."
Fox threw his hands in the air, screaming in frustration.
"DAMNIT COCO!" Fox exclaimed. "WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!?"
On the massive screen above, the perspective switched from Coco to Yatsuhashi. He was not doing any better, blood dripped from his snarling mouth as he used his enormous sword as a support. Awful-looking bruises coloured his now exposed chest, hell, most of his outfit was torn to shreds along with his ruined armour. Hope smiled viciously as Mercury came into view, no way in better shape. The murderer in question was quacking in pain, a large gash ruining the back of his jacket.
"You son..." Mercury panted. "Of a bitch! That was... My favourite... Jacket!"
"And those were my favourite robes," Yatsuhashi replied venomously, his usual calm disturbed. "So now, we're even."
Mercury took his breath before scoffing dryly.
"Nah, I don't do even."
Yatsuhashi's already narrowed eyes narrowed further.
"Grudges are like poison for the soul, it can-"
Mercury cut the giant off with a boot to the nose. To his shock, CVFY's absolute unit did not budge despite the iron boot still pressing against his face.
"...You know what?" Yatsuhashi asked frigidly.
Mercury didn't bother taking the bait and just kept kicking him, doing absolutely nothing. Yatsuhashi grabbed Mercury's foot mid-kick before swigging his into a tree, felling it on the spot. Both of their auras had to be deep in the orange, so luckily a few cheap hits like that should do the trick and at least guarantee a pyrrhic victory.
Hope already had a lot of respect for Yats but seeing him hold the line against an actual killer was admirable as hell. Not just hold up but fight back and match him blow for blow. Out of the two of them, Hope feared for Coco the most. Mercury was a purely physical fighter with no semblance. He was incredibly dangerous but he had no fancy tricks or get-out-of-jail-free cards. If he didn't have the smarts to outwit his opponents and if he can outfight them, he's screwed. The question then is this: seeing as he and Yatsuhashi are about evenly matched, who's gonna come out on top? Hope chose to believe in Yatsuhashi, he can't afford not to but at the same time...
He already knew the outcome.
Coco was still in her pickle, jumping at every shadow and just tearing through the jungle with her minigun.
"STOP HIDING AND FIGHT!" She screamed in rage.
"...Alright?"
A pitiful shove sent Coco face-first into the dirt. The fashionista scrambled to her feet, only for her to get sent back to the ground by getting tripped up.
"Ok, this is literally bullying!" Velvet complained from the rafters.
Coco panted heavily, still on the ground, as Emerald finally showed herself. The green thief smirked cruelly as she squat down to her prone opponent.
"Nothing personal."
Coco clenched her teeth, frowning furiously.
"Fully fucking personal!"
Coco threw her head upward, headbutting Emerald right in the teeth. The thief stumbled backward, holding her mouth as she felt her teeth painfully loosening. Coco seized the advantage, crawling quickly unto Emerald and just started wailing on her. Emerald, who hadn't been breaking a sweat up until now, began fighting back by pulling, punching and scratching at Coco.
In short, their duel devolved into a bitch fight as the both of them discarded their weapons to go at each other.
On the other side of the arena, things weren't much better. If anything it was worse, seeing as Yatsuhashi went completely nuts, ripped a tree out of the ground and is trying to swat Mercury like an insect. Hope thinned his lips at his friends' unusual displays of... Whatever the hell kind of savagery one could call their behaviour.
"I'd say I'm surprised, but I always knew Yatsuhashi's dark side would be a fucking gorilla."
"And Coco's?" Fox inquired curiously.
Coco held Emerald in a headlock before suddenly groping her.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Emerald shrieked.
"Damn bitch! you'z got a fine ass~" Her playful expression turned vicious. "LET'S SEE HOW NICE IT IS WITH MY BOOT UP IT!"
Hope's lips remained thin.
"I see not much has changed. That's kind of disappointing."
"What did you want to see?"
"I dunno... Not that?"
Emerald broke the headlock, spinning around ad delivering a roundhouse kick to Coco's forehead. Her stylish shade fell to the ground, broken in half. Emerald smirked, seeing Coco's eyes for the first time.
"Not so stylish now are you, pervert!"
CVFY's fashionista scoffed before pulling a second pair of identical shades from her bag that also doubles as her minigun.
"I'm fine, thank you." She pointed at the thief scathingly. "You on the other hand need some help, stat."
"I don't give a damn about how I look!"
"Honey, with that outfit, you are not gonna catch yourself a man. Or woman for that matter."
"Do you see me care?! Besides, do YOU?" She countered pedantically.
Coco paused, actually thinking for once. She turned her head towards the rafters, to where the other half of her team and Hope were. The stadium camera followed her line of sight, putting Hope, Velvet and half of Fox on the big screen. Hope blankly took out his scroll and stretched it far and wide, the message "She looks better than you, Coco." displayed over Hope's cheeky smile. The crowd laughed as Coco flipped him the double bird, utterly outraged.
"YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!"
A rosy-cheeked Emerald blinked slowly at Hope before shaking her head. He's obviously being a goof... Right? The train of thought wouldn't last long as an insensed Coco came back swinging.
Suddenly, everyone stopped as a blood-freezing cry emerged from the jungle.
Hope's eyes shot to the Aura meter and to his dismay, Yatsuhashi's Aura wasn't in the red. It had broken completely, meaning that whatever caused him to scream had happened to him when he was completely defenceless. Coco must have had the same reaction as Hope as she completely disengaged Emerald and ran head-first into the jungle. The camera shifted back to the previous jungle POV and Hope immediately cringed.
"Christ on a bike..."
Yatsuhashi was embedded in a large tree, a worrying amount of blood pouring from his mouth. A massive black bruise discoloured his abdomen. Velvet gasped, holding her hands in front of her mouth as she stared in horror at her comrade's state. Fox grimaced similarly to Hope, the image he scried from Velvet's brain burning into his own. Mercury was on his knees, himself spitting blood, as he tried desperately to regain his breath. Hope snarled.
"Get what you deserve." He spat.
Hope unlocked his wheels as he rolled towards the exit. Velvet bolted out of her seat to join him. Fox stared at the pair in confusion.
"Wait! Where are you two going?"
For once, Hope let his mental walls down if for just a moment.
Yat's is down... I don't want to see Coco get destroyed either... I can't handle this.
Fox looked down sadly, easily seeing why Hope was so reticent to keep watching. He left his own seat, hurrying to catch up with the two.
Being a sour puss wasn't really in Hope's wheelhouse, but CVFY's defeat at CMEN's hand definitely left that certain taste in his mouth. One he was desperately trying to wash down with an energy drink. The damage wasn't catastrophic but with everything that was going to go down, Hope couldn't help but feel like his efforts are going to be for naught. He shook his head before slamming the rest of his drink.
No, I believe in them. I know that they'll be careful and that cooler heads will prevail.
"Didn't you already have one this morning?"
Hope didn't bother to turn around.
"Didn't I tell you to not sneak up on me?"
Blake slinked out of the shadows to sit next to Hope's wheelchair. She looked around for a spell before leaning her head against his shoulder.
"It's not recommended to drink more than one per day." She said, ignoring his previous complaint.
Hope snorted, lifting his other hand to pet behind RWBY's feline huntress's ears. In response, Blake purred in delight.
"My heart's tolerance for caffeine and other energy additives is out of this world."
Very fucking literal, in this instance.
Blake snuggled closer, wrapping herself around the arm she initially leaned against.
"It's been a while since you and me... You know..." Blake noted shyly.
Hope reflexively went to ask her if she regretted it but judging by her current behaviour, he had a hard time justifying that train of thought. Hope kept petting Blake, whose usual stoic facade completely melted away along with any worries she might have had at the moment.
"Yeah." Hope finally answered. "Why are you bringing that up?"
"It's just..." She hesitated. "It's been a while since I got to be... intimate, with someone."
Hope deadpanned.
"Wow, a whole semester of celibacy. That's like three months."
Blake's face turned red like a cherry.
"I meant... It's just that... It feels like years, is all..."
Hope snorted again.
"Jesus, you must have gotten a lot of dick back in the day."
Blake's head began steaming as she did everything in her power to avoid looking into his eyes.
"I... I've got nothing to say to that..."
"Did Adam have a bull cock too? or was he just hung like a bull?"
"ANON!" She screeched in indignant embarrassment.
Hope mumbled a laugh as Blake pouted.
"You know, for being the resident pervert, you're awfully prude." Hope dissed.
"W-What makes you think I'm a pervert?!"
"You read erotica in broad daylight, all of your undies are really lewd, and you're almost as thirsty as Velvet who's a fucking rabbit..."
"That's not-"
"Oh, and I've seen your sketchbooks."
Blake turned pale.
"Y-you've seen..."
Hope hummed affirmingly.
"Not the weirdest thing someone did regarding my likeness." Hope also became pale, thought more through disgust than dread. "At least you didn't make some kind of homunculus or shrine of me..."
"...I don't want to know, do I?"
"Nope."
Blake sat there silently for a long while, stunned by Hope's incredibly weird life.
"You know, The more I learn about you, the more questions I have."
"I don't blame you."
"Like... A shrine?"
"Yup."
"As in one with your picture and stuff like chewed gum and apple cores and an old greasy comb?"
"No, more like a perfect marble bust of me, a vial full of blood that I donated and an old clean comb."
"... A bust? Like a statue?"
Hope nodded, the old memories still impressing him to this day.
"She was a damned good sculptor." His face scrunched into a disgusted cringe. "Too bad the creepy bitch chose to be a stalker. Good thing I threw her off a building. Not that that could have stopped her, but at least she got the message."
"...I'm still not sure if your life is insane or if it's just you."
"Probably both."
Once more, Blake was silenced by the shit spewing from Hope's craw.
"Hope."
"Yar?"
"Is everything... Ok?"
"Could be worse. At least God isn't gonna come down from his high chair in Heaven to tell me I'm a disappointment again."
Blake blinked slowly. His God came down from the sky to scold him?
A chilly autumn breeze gave Blake the excuse she so desperately needed to end this completely deranged conversation. A shiver travelled down her body as she came closer to Hope for warmth. Hope quietly unlocked his wheelchair's wheels, slowly rolling forward.
"Let's go somewhere with temp control."
Blake flung herself off the bench, taking place behind Hope.
"Sound's nice. Your room?"
Hope gave his feline friend a cheeky glance.
"Well, you're direct today."
The rosy-cheeked Blake pouted quietly, waiting for Hope's actual answer.
"Let's go to yours for once." He said. "Haven't been there in a hot minute."
"You're not missing much."
"Did your beds finally collapse?"
"Nope."
Hope turned to glare at Blake in confusion.
"Really? It's held up with spit, clear tape and Ruby's hopes and dreams."
"It's shockingly sturdy."
The way to RWBY's dorm was uncharacteristically quiet. Since VytalFest started, classes became far more irregular and more about inter-school training. so a lot of the time, people just hung out.
Clearly not today, though.
Hope had an educated guess that told him that something was about to happen. Blake had been unusually quiet. Well, quiet compared to her usual self. Hope craned his neck up, meeting her big yellow eyes. Her expression was distant and blank.
"What's up?" She questioned.
"You're thinking about something." He said matter of factly. "Can I know?"
Blake paused before sighing quietly. she seemed sad if her dejected frown was anything to go by.
"How'd you know?"
"I'd know that miserable fucking look anywhere. Something's eating at you."
Blake nodded quietly, slowing down to a stop.
"Want to talk?" Hope asked again
Blake nodded, leaving his side to lean against the hallway wall.
"Earlier, we talked about how I used to be..." She paused to search for the right words. "Frequently intimate... When me and Adam were still together."
Hope deadpanned her.
"I don't want to know how big his dick is, that was a joke."
"No!" She exclaimed indignantly. "Not that! It's just..."
Her sudden burst of emotion returned to a quiet melancholia. Hope rolled to join her, setting his wheelchair next to her.
"Made you think about your ex and now you can't get him out of your head?"
Blake nodded.
"I think I've been putting off getting over him for a while now. It's been almost half a year since... And I still don't know how to feel."
"Do you still love him?" Hope asked flippantly.
"No." Blake's frown worsened. "I haven't loved him for a long time."
Hope nodded slowly.
"When did you realize it?"
"There's always been this sense that he had a hidden violent streak." She admitted. "I always felt like the only reason he hadn't crossed that line, was because of my dad."
"Ghira did?" Hope asked.
He couldn't remember one instance in canon where Adam and Ghira had a positive interaction. Blake smiled nostalgically.
"Yeah. Dad was the one who saved him."
Hope thought back to the secret speech Blake had caught on camera before the fight at Highway 17.
"Yeah, now that you mention it, I remember him saying something like that from the video of the meeting you crashed." He squinted thoughtfully. "Wait, didn't he say that he was saved by Sienna too?"
At the mention of the Fang's current leader, Blake's face contorted into an expression of revulsion.
"That scheming, hateful, home-wrecking bitch couldn't save a person if it cost her a second away from cursing mankind!"
Hope grimaced amusingly.
"That was quite the description."
Blake spat on the ground hatefully.
"Sienna Khan is the personification of everything that's wrong with the modern White Fang. She's the worst kind of racist, if it were up to her, mankind as a whole should be enslaved in revenge for the decades of oppression we faced. Barring that? Lynchings and killings in the streets. It's the main reason why humans are seriously discouraged from entering Menagerie."
Hope winced.
"Oh, that can't be good for business..."
"Gee, you think?! We are hip-to-hip with Mistral when it comes to wealth disparity and that's almost entirely because of that! The only way you're not poor is if you're part of an established clan in Kuo Kuana or if you're with the Fang. Otherwise, you're probably some poor farmer trying to cultivate on garbage dry soil!"
Blake let out a long, drawn-out, exasperated sigh.
"Before she came, Menagerie actually had a chance to become a proper kingdom. Now? It will take literal decades to get back to square one."
Hope hummed quietly at Blake's raging rant.
"Still, just one person doing all that damage. It's pretty impressive, in a disgusting sort of way."
Blake shook her head in disgust.
"Of course, she's not alone. She has a whole crony squad that fervently worships her like she's the future of Faunuskind."
"Adam's one of them?"
"No." Her disgust turned dour and sorrowful. "He's just another victim of hers. When they saved him from that godawful place, he was..."
The memory of his childhood self's scarred and burned face made her quiver frightfully.
"Broken..."
Hope scratched the back of her ears, calming her down a little bit.
"I think I get the picture. Take an emotionally, spiritually and/or mentally damaged person and remould them into whatever the 'Great Leader' want them to become. Soldiers, servants/slaves, lovers, fucktoys, it doesn't matter as long as they work towards the ideal with as few complaints as possible."
"That's pretty much it." She said sadly. "Although my dad was the one who saved his life, Sienna was the one who took him in."
"And over time, she turned him into her personal puppet."
She nodded, tears beginning to form at the edge of her eyes.
"He was just a scared, maimed orphan with no one to turn to. But even still, he was so sweet." she reminisced. "When I first met him, he was still so stunned that he was free, that he could eat as much as he wanted, that he had a warm bed to sleep in. It was like he died and entered the Everafter. He was so thankful."
Tears began to roll off her beautiful face.
"He would always hound my dad to help him when Sienna wasn't busy training him. Even if it was just some errands that anyone else could do, he would always do them. He just wanted to help his saviours. I... Admired that drive. To do good unto those you owe so much to."
Blake slid down the wall, bringing her legs close to hold them.
"I would always look at him as he trained in the nearby courtyard close to our manor... The way he would spend days on end practicing his swordsmanship, training his body until he was drenched in sweat, his calloused hands bleeding and his eyes full of pained tears." She paused. "I... I fell in love with that dedicated man, who swore his life to save those who would live as he had."
She stopped talking completely, letting her tears stain the hallway's carpet.
"Then... Something happened. He, my dad and Sienna went on a mission and something happened. Dad didn't tell me about it but Adam was... Different now."
Hope closed his eyes. he remembered a promotional short about Adam, about an ambush gone wrong and Adam killing someone. Marking his psyche with the blood of another, naturally, must have changed him.
"After that mission," Blake continued. "Adam stopped caring about who he hurt. At first, it was understandable. Someone would pull out and gun and he would cut their hand off in self-defence. Then when someone would try to use a hostage and he would lop their heads off to save the person in danger. He just..."
"He stopped hesitating," Hope noted. "He stopped feeling the weight of the lives he took."
"He never went out of his way to kill but If he did... Yeah, pretty much."
Blake let go of her legs, looking at the ceiling emptily with her big teary eyes.
"Sienna took him and twisted him into her very own boogeyman: the Red Swordsman, the bloody fang of the tigress."
Hope snorted bitterly at Blake's sorry tale.
"The hateful daimyo groomed her perfect samurai, a butcher who won't hesitate once given the order."
She nodded sadly, eyes empty save for grief.
"I knew that he wasn't the same anymore when he killed that man on the train... He..." She choked up. "He cut him down where he stood... There was so much blood... He didn't even stop to look... He just... He just-"
She began to hyperventilate as the memory replayed in her mind. The train, the workers who were all in the back, the defence droids and their controller who jeered them. The way Adam gunned for him and split him open. The wails of pain and panic as he tried to keep his guts inside him. The chilling silence with which Adam blew the man's brains out with his shotgun without even looking at him. The gore covered the walls as they continued, the many droids circling them.
Hope slung himself off his wheelchair to hold Blake in his arms. RWBY's feline jolted in surprise as she was enveloped in warmth. Blake hugged him back as her breathing evened out before hiccuping uncontrollably, only to break down and bawl her eyes out.
"Why? Why did he do that? Why did he kill him? Why couldn't he have let him go? Why did we leave all these people to die?"
He shushed her gently, petting her hair calmly.
"You're not on the train anymore. There isn't any blood. And he's not here."
Blake buried her face in his shoulder and she hiccuped, the horrid red of her memories still clouding her vision as it did on that awful day.
It took fifteen minutes for Blake's cries to quiet down into inconsequential sniffles as she finally let go of Hope. Hope held her for a second longer before letting go himself. He reached for his handkerchief, wiping away her tears.
"I'm so... So sorry," Blake muttered, letting Hope dry her tears. "For just... Unloading all of this on you."
"Don't mention it," Hope reassured. "I mean, I did the same thing a while ago, so this is just us getting even."
"I guess." Blake smiled fondly at her friend. "Thank you. For being here for me."
Hope bowed his head humbly.
"A pleasure to be of service."
The pair arrived at RWBY's dorm a few minutes later, the flow of students having returned to its usual congestive flow. The door of the dorm, normally so inviting to Hope, felt incredibly unappealing all of a sudden. Blake also felt the dark feeling emanating from her dorm, so much so that it made her feel uneasy.
"What the hell?"
Her and Hope shared a worried glance before he slowly reached for the doorknob and twisting it open.
Standing awkwardly on one side of the room was a distressed-looking Yang. Her perturbed look briefly switched to the new arrivals who stood (and sat, in Hope's case) silently as a scene played in the middle of the dorm. A miserable Qrow was kneeling in a seiza* with weights on his thighs, his hands tied and a wooden sign hanging around his neck reading "Bad Uncle".
(A/N: Seiza is the formal, traditional way of sitting in the land of the rising sun. Basically, you kneel down and sit on your own legs with your heels to your rear. It's pretty uncomfortable if you're not used to it due to paresthesia. A traditional punishment is forcing someone to sit in a seiza and strap weights to their thighs.)
Ruby's back was turned to the door but judging by her stance and the menacing aura emanating from the youngest member of the group, she was absolutely the perpetrator of Qrow's condition and the boss of this dorm. Qrow craned his neck, still looking like a beaten dog, and muttered something to the new arrivals.
"Help... Me..."
Ruby noticed her uncle's action and slowly, intimidatingly tilted her head back. Hope, still holding the doorknob, figuratively shat himself.
"Fuck this!"
He went to slam the door shut but as the door was about to close, Ruby burst into a cloud of rose petals and kept the door from closing. She and Hope engaged in a trial of strength to decide if the door opened or closed and Hope was losing. Ruby's face was hidden in shadows, her usually beautiful and warm silver eyes now full of fury. Hope screeched like a little girl as Ruby wrenched the door open, nearly tearing it off its hinges.
...
Blake and Yang stood to one side of the room, trembling like leaves on a tree in autumn. Qrow was in the same position as he was in the last scene while Hope was docilely sitting there next to him. Lastly, Ruby stood in the middle of the room with arms crossed, bearing down on Qrow and Hope. The usually cheery leader of team RWBY looked especially menacing, her Cresent Rose strapped to her hip.
"Uncle Qrow." She named, her tone full of menace. "Tell me why you are here."
"Because you're my darling niece and I wanted to catch up after not seeing you for months?" He said, intimidated.
Ruby unfurled her scythe, causing Qrow to begin sweating profusely.
"It's uhhh... It's because I started a fight."
"And?"
Qrow would scratch his head if his hands weren't tied behind his back. Hope raised his hand, earning a glare from Ruby who nodded nonetheless.
"Is it because he started a fight WHILE being belligerently drunk? Again?"
Ruby nodded again, shifting her glare to Qrow.
"That's right, Anon. Qrow is in this position because he got drunk, again, said really mean things, again, and started a fight, again."
Qrow mumbled something under his breath, much to Ruby's ire. The Silver-Eyed Warrior then turned to Hope.
"Do you know why you're here?"
"Originally? To hang out with my best friends in the whole wide world."
Ruby paused unnaturally as she had to restrain a goofy smile. Hope pretended not to notice.
"But I'll hazard a guess and say that it's because I kept taunting Qrow after the fight with Winter was averted."
Ruby nodded.
"Yes! I'm glad to see you're self-aware enough to know what you did wrong."
Ruby began pacing in front of the two grown men, ranting to the pair.
"I get being angry when something you don't like happens, but what you two have done is completely, absolutely, undoubtedly, indubitably NOT ok!"
She stopped and turned to the only men in the room. Qrow had a light sweat on his brow but that could be attributed more to his current, deeply uncomfortable position. Hope on the other hand stared blankly at this diminutive red riding hood scolding him like a child. It is still not the dumbest thing that happened to him.
"And so," Ruby continued. "You both should apologize for the things you've said!"
Hope and Qrow paused, glancing at each other with their previous expressions. Qrow's initial desire to reject the offer was smothered by the painful feeling currently rushing through his legs.
"I'm so-"
Hope groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Qrow, I really don't care about what you've done and said to me, so let's just drop it."
Qrow let out a confused noise.
"I may be more grudging than a fucking fae, but I tend not to heed too much a drunkard's insults."
Blake, Yang and Ruby leaned forward, a doubtful look in their eyes. Hope's eyes swivelled towards them before focusing back to the old huntsman.
"Most drunks, anyways. But you're different."
"How so?" Qrow hazarded.
"Well, you're a huge cunt for one."
Ruby frowned, the menacing aura returning.
"Anon..."
"But you're also family to people I hold precious."
Hope noted the disappearance of the menacing aura and then quickly moved on. Quickly enough that Ruby had the time to hide her blush though not quickly enough for Yang and Hope to notice, which made the former grin wickedly.
"And therefore," Hope continued. "Expect you to at least put in the bare minimum effort of not acting like a demented bellend. At least, not in front of her."
Qrow grumbled to himself, understanding Hope's point. He was Ruby's mentor and in a way, is one of her role models. At the very least, he should take a shower before coming. The old corvid sighed resignedly.
"You're right... I shouldn't have done any of that crap." Qrow admitted.
"Good, your brain hasn't completely rotted from the scotch." Hope approved backhandedly.
"Bourbon, actually. Scotch tastes like bog fumes."
Hope went to reply but then started nodding in agreement.
"Well, we can agree on that."
Hope motioned Yang to free her uncle from his restraint. Yang looked at Ruby, who nodded somewhat reluctantly. By now, his blood circulation must be making his legs numb, so now's as good a time as any. Yang easily snapped the tie wraps holding her uncle's wrists together and as soon as he was freed, he flipped the considerable metal weight off his legs. He let out a contented groan as he stood, as blood flowed once more through his legs.
"Much obliged, firecracker." He praised.
"You're welcome, Qrowsky," Yang replied with her usual smile.
Ruby pouted quietly.
"Neither of you apologized."
"I'm not going to apologize, nor do I want him to do so to me," Hope said. "If anyone deserves an apology, it's Winter and her guard."
The old huntsman scoffed, not noticing the sound of the door opening behind him.
"Never in your lifetime. That frigid Atlesian guard bitch deserves a good kick in the ass."
A loud cough was heard behind him. The Atlan specialist stood next to her sister, a sour look on her face as her and Qrow's eyes met.
"Mind running that by me again, you piss stinking drunk?"
Qrow laughed sardonically at the specialist.
"At least I don't stink of milk, virgin knight."
Winter rolled her eyes.
"Sex isn't the only joy to be found in life, Qrow." She smiled viciously. "Not that you would know about either, anyhow."
Sparks flew as the two adults other than Hope glared at each other as Yang, Weiss and Blake stared on almost in shock at how childish these two grown-ups are. Weiss sighed, holding her head in her hand.
"Seriously, what happened for the two of you to act like this."
"Yeah, what's the beef?" Yang added, just as curious as her teammate.
The old crow and ice Queen pointed at each other accusingly.
"IT'S HIS/HER FAULT!" they yelled as one.
Winter held her heart, offended by Qrow's baseless accusation.
"My fault?! What did I ever do to you!?"
"I can name plenty!"
"Name three!" She challenged.
"You work for Atlas, for one. Second, you're just another of Jimmy's sycophantic patsies-"
"The general is a great man and huntsman!" Winter interjected. "He has only ever shown me how outstanding of a commander he is! Why would you hate him for that?! And also, tens of thousands of men and women work for the Atlas military, do you hate them too?!"
Qrow just glared impatiently at the ice queen.
"And third, you always cut me off before I can explain. So, you know what? Go fuck yourself, I'm not telling you shit."
"Why would I bother with your stupid reasonings?" Winter asserted arrogantly. "All you've ever done is baselessly hate my people because of some stupid nationalistic pride!"
Qrow scoffed.
"Last I checked, only a hundred years back, you bastards were still putting Faunuses in work camps to starve to death while working in some sweatshops until the Great War tore you in two. Heck, until like two decades ago, you were still abusing your workforce and putting them into ghettos until the Kingdom League forced you to put in place laws to stop that shit from happening!"
Winter bit her lip frustratedly, knowing that she didn't have a retort for that particular blight on her nation's history.
"S-still, this was before my time!"
"But it isn't stupid and baseless, as you said it was." Qrow retorted, feeling clever.
"That's not the point, you fool!"
Hope rubbed his eyes, feeling them glazing over. He looked over to the others and they seemed to be in a not-too-dissimilar mood. Weiss and Yang were actively regretting ever asking what their problems were, mostly because the airing of grievances turned into an insult and yelling match. Weiss was especially embarrassed considering that her sister had never ever acted like this. Blake was just feeling awkward because the one who denounced the past atrocities committed on her people was an unpredictably violent drunk. Ruby was just staring at her uncle with an empty stare, muttering numbers under her breath. Hope also noticed that the number increased by one every time Qrow swore.
The crippled seer took stock of the situation, tuning out the two morons bitching in the background. He realized something that made him want to snap a desk in half. Ozpin's Circle was a collection of bickering clowns that kept fighting each other over what they should be doing instead of actually doing anything productive. There were two clowns who just can't stop causing the other grief for hardly any reason. There was a traitorous clown on the other side of the world, working with the rival circus to send as many clowns in the great big clown car in the skies. Another fuckwit jester on the opposite side of the continent that Hope has no clue what they are up to. The one-armed clown was currently still cleaning all the cream off his face after getting a pie thrown in his face point blank. The hot clown seemed to have realized just how much trouble everyone actually was in and was scrambling to help fix the problem. Lastly, the head clown was doing everything in his power to be useless and just delaying the inevitable closure of the circus by trying to groom young girls into becoming his star acts instead of actually doing something useful. Hope began chuckling quietly to himself.
"Oh, we are so going to get fucked."
And so, the lone janitor in the circus ground his teeth together, cursing his fate as he was stuck with the job of cleaning up all the vomit, trash and blood off the floor.
I'm going to break all of your asses over my foot, once this is over and done with!
V3E5: END!
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