AN: Alright, more details on the businesses in this chapter. The AN at the end will go over my explanation for the logic behind the third one.
With the Power of an Avalanche
Chapter 10
-Whitley-
"…Soooo…" Fox trailed off awkwardly as Whitley took a sip of his coffee, Jaune nibbing some cake beside him.
"You guys seriously own this place?" Coco, while shocked, was able to remain far more composed than the rest of her team.
"Yep." Jaune nodded, "Whitley had the money to open this place and a couple other businesses."
"Jaune provided the recipes for here and the base ideas for the other two." Whitley gave Jaune a look, "And has a bad habit of trying to deflect credit. I'm a knuts and bolts guy, Jaune's big picture."
"These are your recipes?" Velvet asked wide eyed as she ate some carrot cake, "They're so good!" the genuine praise from a pretty girl had Jaune turning cherry red, much to both Whitley and Coco's amusement.
"Yep. Everything on the menu here is one of Jaune's recipes." Whitley continued to talk up his friend, playing 'wing man' was a friend's duty from what he understood. 'Bro Code' and all that.
"That's amazing!" Velvet was starry eyed as Jaune grew redder.
"So, is it just drinks and tasty treats that wonder boy there makes?" Coco smirked as she sipped her latte.
"No, he's a good cook all around." Whitley met her eye with amusement "He's even making a cookbook."
"Huh, found yourself quite the useful little boyfriend there Bun." Coco grinned as Velvet let out a flustered squeak.
"COCO!" the red faced faunus started smacking her cackling leader's arm.
"Do we have to give him the shovel talk now?" Fox asked Yatsuhashi as Velvet hid her red face behind her hands, Jaune trying to comfort her and accidentally making the fluster worse.
"Wait till they actually start dating boys." Coco ordered after a moment's thought.
"I must ask, Whitley Schnee, what other businesses have you and Jaune Arc begun within Vale?" Yatsuhashi asked, the gentle giant surprisingly formal as he sipped at a cup of hot tea.
"The other ones are both Jaune's idea. One was actually his creation." Whitley grinned, "Something he and his sisters made up when they were kids called 'Mini Golf'." Using his Semblance, he snagged a pamphlet by the door and showed the brochure with pictures from the Mini Golf course they'd created. It was admittedly a lot of fun designing the various holes.
"Oh, it looks so fun!" Velvet was quick to latch onto the change of topic, flipping through the brochure that explained more about what Mini Golf was and what else the location had. The place was still being updated admittedly as he wanted to expand eventually with a couple more courses to give variety, and maybe make a mascot for the family friendly potential franchise.
"And the third?" Coco accepted the ceasefire on teasing for now.
"An 'Arcade'." Whitley tossed her the second brochure that showed the large single game systems "I had one of those original video game booths." Whitley explained "It was a bit of a splurge item admittedly, but I wanted it. Jaune saw it when he moved in with me before Beacon started."
"I'd never gotten the chance to play on one of those before and it was a different experience than playing on a scroll or one of the new gen consoles." Jaune picked up seamlessly, waving down one of the baristas for a refill, "The controls felt different and having someone standing by the booth cheering you on was fun. So I got to thinking, most of those booths are just sold as collectibles or antiques at this point. People didn't care about them as they were too big for home use. So why not buy a bunch of them, and the rights to more, and make a place where people can come play these games."
"A lot of the game makers were eager to sell the rights if they got to make more." Whitley nodded, "I've been letting them have pretty much full creative control over the games made and they're enjoying the freedom. They've even made some new games and new styles of game play. The latest one they had installed at the Arcade was something they've named 'Dance, Dance, Revolution'."
"Oh, now this I've gotta see." Coco grinned as she finished her drink, "Alright boys, you've got my attention. Let the tour begin."
-Blake-
Hearing her Scroll go off from some unknown number calling her for the third time in a row, Blake gave an annoyed huff and snapped her book shut, knowing she wouldn't be allowed to read in peace till they stopped calling her "What?" she snapped as she opened the call, not happy about her de-stress reading time being interrupted.
"Blake Bernadette Belladonna don't you dare take that tone with me!" the voice of her mother came from the other line as Blake paled, ears drooping beneath her bow as she almost dropped her scroll from suddenly slack fingers.
"M-Mom?" Blake stuttered, eyes dilating as she had to suppress her fight or flight urge…mostly flight.
"Yes Blake, it's me. Your father is here as well." Kali Belladonna answered, sounding both relieved and annoyed at the same time.
"H-h-how did you?" Blake gulped, silently thanking whatever gods existed that her annoying partner Yang wasn't around right now.
"Get your number?" her father's deep rumbling voice answered, "someone we know in Vale contacted us saying they saw you and got your number." Which left several questions unanswered.
"Blake…why?" her mother's sad disappointed tone honestly hurt more than if they'd yelled at her.
"I…didn't think I was welcome back." She admitted, "After…after our argument and why I left. I didn't think you, either of you, would want to see me again."
"Blake, you're our daughter." Her dad's voice was gentle despite the iron resolution behind it, "We love you, and always will love you. We didn't agree with the changes our organization wanted to take so we stepped down, but we held no ill will for those who chose to remain. We just wanted you to wait until you were older before trying to make such a decision for yourself."
"What?" Her eyes widened at that statement, she'd always assumed her parents had hated the change the Fang took, the actions done, the monsters that Sienna and Adam had wanted to turn everyone into.
"We didn't call to talk about the organization Blake." Kali interrupted before that line of discussion could continue, "We called to talk about you. To catch up with you, to…to try and be a family again."
"Mom." Blake refused to admit her voice was watery at that.
-Ozpin-
Calming sipping his coffee, Ozpin looked out through his office window, having a wonderful view of Vale in the distance below. He heard the elevator ding open a moment before his guest began talking.
"You wanted to speak to me?" Glynda sounded tired and wary, likely thinking this was him feeling lazy or mischievous again.
"Yes, I wanted to ask if you'd finished writing up a report over the cafeteria incident yet?" he turned towards her, the tired frustration in his eyes evident as Glynda straightened, noting that this wasn't what she'd first assumed.
"Mostly, why?" Glynda frowned as she tapped a few items on the screen of her large heavy duty Scroll, the tablet sized device letting her pull up the incident records.
"Because it would seem Mr. Winchester wasn't willing to let things be." Ozpin sighed, filling up his cup again, "It would seem the Winchester family are accusing Ms. Scarlatina of terrorist activity and Mr. Schnee of aiding and supporting said terrorist activity." He knew Mr. Winchester wouldn't take his detentions and suspension hearing well but was he asking too much to hope that the stupid boy wouldn't dig his grave deeper?
"They what?" Glynda narrowed her eyes in displeasure. She already had a poor opinion of the Winchester family after having attended Beacon with Cardin's father, but this was clearly a step further.
"Yes, and Mr. Schnee found out." Ozpin turned his computer around to show her an email "His lawyers are going after the Winchesters and are requesting that we act as witnesses of the true nature of the incident should it go to court. They did see fit to 'helpfully note' that they already have a copy of Mr. Schnee's recording of the incident and won't therefore need us to send ours."
"Subtle." Glynda deadpanned at the barely veiled warning to not side with Winchester on this.
"It could be worse." Ozpin shook his head as he sipped his drink.
"We have an assault case that took place in our cafeteria, one student spread slanderous rumors out of spite when he faced a punishment hearing, and now another student is suing the first one. How could this situation get worse?!" Glynda demanded, not nearly as calm about the whole situation as he was.
"They could be suing Beacon." He answered happily before wincing at the look his Deputy gave him.
AN: Alright, so the Arcade business. We know that technology advanced rapidly in Remnant. The Great War had people still using swords with a folding shield as the pinnacle of technology and that was less than a hundred years ago. Then we get to modern Remnant with lots of high tech Scrolls and such. Video games also clearly exist meaning they had to go through various 'generations' but I figure with that rapid growth, certain generations were a blink of an eye.
Large Arcade style game booths likely would have been made and but be replaced within a year or two by much more compact game consoles at that rate. I figured that the big booths would be just stuff for collectors at this point leaving this opportunity for Whitley and Jaune.
AN2: Next chapter is more bonding and I'll have (most) of the various shipping candidates show up to start seeing who's chemistry sparks.