NeoNazo356: Before we get to the FanMail Section (i.e. Review Reply Open Column), a short announcement unrelated to the story, but near and dear to me on a personal level. It's also time-sensitive, so that's part of the equation too.
The other day on YouTube, I happened upon a video for a KickStarter project called M.A.S.S. Builder, A Fully Customizable Mecha Action Game by sekaiproject. It's exactly what it sounds like, a fully-customizable mecha action game where you can customize everything about your mecha. The endoskeleton, armor, color, decals, parts, weapons, etc. The amount of customization shown on the Demo, and bound to be available in the finished project, is set to be insane, the highest level of customization out of any game I've ever played. If you like mecha games and/or customization, I'd say give this KickStarter a once-over. The shape of the mecha in-general resembles Gundam more than anything else, but considering Gundam are the "OG", it isn't too surprising that such a comparison could be made, which just makes it all the more fun.
I myself am going for the $40 Pledge that'll get me the physical copy of the game; as plenty of other extra goodies. I normally stick to Console games, but with something like this, I'd be willing to make my foray into PC games. The deadline is April 11 (2019) 12:00 PM CDT, and as of this chapter being released on March 31st, the current amount pledged is $69,490 split between 1,832 backers, well above the initial $32,000 Goal. The last Stretch Goal, $70,000, will unlock Rex and Spider-Type base frames for customization, so I figure, the more the word is spread, the better the chance there is of the final Stretch Goal being met and the cash flow not tapering off before deadline.
My piece said, we now move onto the aforementioned FanMail.
Greywing44: Oh...my...god. I didn't think Brick would be teaching anything! Ha! Oh, ohhhh I love this. And you nailed Brick to a t.
I can't wait to see what you do with Mordecai. I wonder if he's teaching a stealth class or something? Maybe a shooting one?
Are the only ones being crossed over the Borderlands one hunters? Or will the ones from pre sequal and 2 show up eventually?
NeoNazo356: Roland actually kind of answered your question in Chapter 5. At least if you read between the lines. I mean, I know that Qrow is a teacher and all, but Mordecai's a worse drunk than him, even at his lowest point in the RWBY Canon; Mordecai would not be able to handle a wholesale teaching position, let alone get the kind of tenure that'd let him drink on-duty.
As for characters from Borderlands 2 and Borderlands the Pre-Sequel... The groundwork is definitely there, it's just about finding the right situation to bring them in. Anyone specific you wanted to see more than the others?
*NEW WORLD*
"God has a sick sense of humor."
"Blake, who're you talking to?" Yang asked.
"No one. No one at all."
"Blake's probably just shocked that the boy she spent the night with is living down the hall from us now," Weiss hummed as she went over the day's material, compiling a list of reading material to stay ahead of the curve.
"How could this happen?" Blake asked aloud.
"Blake, don't you remember? Glynda explained it to us five minutes ago," Ruby hummed. "I remember it like it was yesterday…"
"Ruby, that happened today," Weiss cut in.
"Well what is today, but tomorrow's 'yesterday'?" Ruby asked matter-of-factly, causing the heiress to pause briefly. "Now, it was after class had ended. We were all coming back to our dorm when we saw a familiar person in the hallway…"
*Cue Xylophone Flashback SFX*
"Hello again!"
"V-V-V-Vincent?!" Blake gawped as they met in the dorm hallway after fourth period.
"Hello~" he greeted merrily.
"W-What are you doing here?!" Blake cried.
"Moving in," the whitette replied, adjusting a cardboard box under his arm.
"Moving into where?"
"My room, of course," he said pointing to a door at the end of the hallway.
"Yeah, Blake, read the room," Nora scolded.
"You're the last person to be casting stones in that regard," Ren sighed.
"Wh-Why are you moving in?"
"Cause I need somewhere to live?" Vincent half-asked half-told. There was an underlying- "Duh." -in his tone, but if there was, he didn't let it show on his face at least.
"Because I said so, that's why," a new voice cut in.
"Professor Goodwitch!" the students chorused as they whirled around, their previous instructor holding several boxes of different dimension and weight aloft with her Semblance. The dexterity of such a feat alone was quite impressive.
"Students. This is Vincent Valentine. He will be your new Room Advisor when he isn't attending to other side-jobs across campus," the woman said curtly as she adjusted her glasses.
"Room Advisor?" Jaune asked.
"What for?" Pyrrha followed.
"After the recent… upheaval, between Jack and his initially-assigned teammates…" Glynda began tensely.
"That's putting it mildly," everyone muttered lowly.
"…It was decided that the current administration wasn't adequate for interpersonal problem-solving since this incident was only resolved by student initiative. For this reason, the Room Advisor's job will be to keep an eye on their neighbors and report any suspicious goings-on to their superiors; in his case, he will be reporting to me," Glynda said adjusting her glasses. "In the past there wasn't a need for the Hunter Course to have an RA on each floor, just the other curriculum, but obviously that has to change."
"Let's all get along, neighbors!" Vincent said chipperly, an infectious smile on his face.
"Ne… Neighbors…?" Blake quivered.
"Yes. Neighbors. Is that going to be a problem, Ms. Belladonna?" Glynda asked tersely as she adjusted her glasses.
"No ma'am! No problem at all!" Blake yelped suddenly.
"Good," the woman nodded. "Come along, Vincent. Once we get you moved in, there's more I need to orient you on."
"You got it," Vincent replied happily. "See you later, Blake! See you later all of Blake's friends!"
"Well isn't he sweet on you, eh, Blakey~?" Nora cooed as she nudged the ravenette in the ribs.
"Blake must be coming down with diabetes, because that boy's so sweet~" Yang giggled.
"Yang, you leave sweets out of this," Ruby grumbled.
"Yes, Yang. Leave the sweets to Ruby's boyfriend," Weiss hummed.
"Ruby got a boyfriend too?!" Nora gawped.
"Don't act so shocked by that!" Ruby screeched self-consciously.
"Vincent is not my boyfriend!" Blake shrieked as she pointed down the hall.
"Hm? Did you need something?" the teen-in-questioned called out, poking his head out the door.
"No! Go back inside!"
"Young lady, I will not have you talk to your Room Advisor like that!" Glynda chastised.
"If he isn't your boyfriend, why are you acting so… defensive~?" Pyrrha asked good-naturedly.
"Well, other than me and Ren, and Jack who's like a brother to her, all the other guys in our class are a bunch of dicks, so it's understandable she'd want to outsource," Jaune hummed thoughtfully.
"Yes, I couldn't have put it any better myself," Pyrrha nodded.
"What did I do to deserve this…?" Blake thought as everyone ganged up on her.
*Cue Xylophone Flashback SFX*
"And that's what happened," Ruby summarized as the re-telling ended.
"Ruby, I was being rhetorical," Blake grumbled.
"Well excuse me for not being good at reading social cues!" the adorable red-head whined.
*NEW WORLD*
A few hours later after everything had calmed down, while everyone had left to get dinner, Blake found an excuse to slip away and confront he who had been on her mind since his sudden and rather jarring reappearance.
During her time in the White Fang, all she'd ever seen of Humans was the very worst of them. However, as time went on, what she saw of the Faunus grew darker and darker as well. After abandoning those she thought to be a group turned to the dark side, she learned there was an even worse enemy she hadn't seen. And almost-immediately after that, she received an almost unending shower of acts of random kindness that turned her perception of the Human species completely on its head once again.
Suffice it to say, the utter ruination of her previous worldview, stacked atop the juxtaposition of human decency she'd borne witness to, left the girl extremely flustered, and seeing one half of that duality so-soon and so-unexpectedly only made her even more off-balance.
While what she had for Adam wasn't what one would consider a "conventional" romantic relationship, deep down she admired him very greatly, and maybe once upon a time she did love him… But the fact he was so-focused on The Cause, a cause to which she only learned the true meaning of just-recently… That zealous devotion to Faunus rights that bordered on obsession only served to drive a wedge between them, and was one of many things that finally cemented her decision to leave the White Fang altogether.
So suffice it to say, she was far from the mindset of wanting to pursue another romantic partner, and the only reason she was confronting him now was so they could have a healthy, non-romantic relationship moving forward for his stay at Beacon.
After getting past her issues… Who knows?
*Knock*Knock*Knock*
"Who is it?"
"It's me, Blake. Can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure. Let me unlock the door." *Click* "Hey, Blake. What's up?" he asked in greeting.
"Do you mind if I come inside? I'd like to talk to you in private," she said as amber eyes darted left and right. Last thing she needed was someone getting the wrong idea.
"Sure, that's what the RA's here for," he said with a smile as he waved her inside.
Looking around, Blake noticed that the room was the same size as her own, it only looked larger because the furniture was only intended for a single occupant. Queen-sized bed, night stand, ceiling-high bookshelf, study desk, an old steamer trunk, a mini-fridge, coffee table and couches, and even a workshop for weapon maintenance. Other than that, there were a few cardboard boxes scattered throughout the room, still in the process of being unpacked.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked taking a seat on the bed, going through a smaller box of odds and ends set between his feet.
"I… wanted to thank you for last night… You really got me out of a bind, so I wanted to say my thanks," she said, stalling for time as she tried to get her thoughts together.
"No problem. I was happy to help."
"Yeah… I appreciate it."
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
" . . . "
"Is that all you wanted to say?" Vincent asked after a couple moments of silence.
"No! I mean, no…" she said calming herself down. "What I meant to ask was… Am I not attractive?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Complete honesty…?" Blake groused aloud. "My pride got a little wounded when you didn't make a big thing out of that kiss, so I wanted to know the reason behind it," she admitted. 'I'm not vain like Weiss, but even I take pride in my appearance,' she mused to herself.
"Why would I make a big deal out of it? Like you said, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing you didn't really think through. I'm not even sure what a kiss even means," he admitted shamelessly.
Were this an anime, the background behind Blake would've cracked like glass at the utterly mind-blowing revelation she was just subject to.
'Of course he wouldn't make a big deal out of it. He doesn't have the context that'd allow him to make a big deal out of it!' the raven-haired girl realized. 'Man, this amnesia's really hit him like a freight train,' she said lifting up his bangs a bit, briefly exposing the scar on his forehead before she brushed his hair back down. "I'm… sorry I expected so much out of you."
"Hm?" Vincent hummed with a tilt of his head.
"Something I want to ask you… Do you like girls, or boys?" she asked aloud, her curiosity getting the better of her.
Blake then wondered if he remembered that much, or if he'd have to re-discover it.
"Girls, obviously. Girls are so much prettier than guys," Vincent answered with a nod.
"That… isn't necessarily what I meant."
"Ohhhhhh…" the whitette said with wide eyes. "Wait. Is this one of those sex things?" he asked, causing Blake to sputter. "Well, I mean, I guess I can say objectively whether or not a guy is attractive, but on a personal level, I won't be attracted to them the same way I'm attracted to girls. You get what I'm saying?"
"That's… actually a more-enlightened answer than I was expecting out of you," Blake admitted. "When'd your vocabulary get so big?"
"Glynda wanted me to know more words, so she asked me to skim a thesaurus whenever I had the time," he said gesturing to a pocket thesaurus on his nightstand.
"I see," Blake hummed, before realizing his hands had been far from idle as they talked. "By the way… What've you been looking at this entire time?" she asked pointing to the object he'd been turning over in his hands.
"Oh this? It's one of the things I had on my person when Old Man Wok found me bleeding on his garbage," Vincent said holding the item out for Blake to see.
The object in question looked like a circular walkie talkie with yellow casing and black accents with four buttons along the bottom and one on the side, the face of it bearing a black emblem with white trim and a white T in the middle. The device of course was far from pristine, as the outer casing was covered in cracks and dents with the smallest bit of melting, the antennae sticking out of the top busted in half. A moment later and the front plate popped open like a compact mirror, revealing a busted screen in the center.
"What is that?" Blake hummed as she looked the device over. Her time in the White Fang allowed her to spot military-grade plastics at a glance, and busted-up as it was, it was definitely made of military-grade material.
"Don't know. Some kind of communicator maybe," the whitette hummed as he held it up to his ear and shook it, before closing the lid and looking at the logo. "I keep thinking that if I hold onto all my old stuff, someday I'll be able to remember everything I forgot, but all I found out was that my arm was made by the same person."
"Your arm?" Blake hummed confusedly, the teen rolling up his sleeve to above the shoulder, revealing a similar emblem similar to that of the device but without the trim on the edge stenciled into the metal. "Yeah, that's definitely the same logo. And you're telling me you couldn't use that to figure out who you were?"
"Not in the slightest," Vincent said rolling his sleeve back down. "When Wok first found me, I had a torn-up outfit and a busted-up sword, but no ID or anything like that," he inclined his head toward the box at his feet, which he laid the walkie talkie-like device into before kicking it under his bed. "Wok, Glynda, and Ozpin think it might be better if I start focusing on the present, instead of a past I might never be able to get back. Given how-little I've found out about myself from my personal effects, I'm beginning to agree with that sentiment."
"I can understand Wok and Glynda, but what does Ozpin have to do with all this?"
"Oh, Ozpin's the one who gave me a job here after the old man brought me by for a visit. Apparently they're old friends or something, but Ozpin looks way younger than Wok."
"That's… good to know," Blake hummed. It seemed a little odd that a humble shopkeeper had personal ties to one of the most-influential men in the Kingdom, but maybe the two just went really far back and stayed in touch. "So… How do you like Beacon so far?" she asked.
All that stuff about him "focusing on the present" instead of "a past he might never be able to get back" was a bit too depressing for her tastes. Especially since it was something she could probably never be able to say- "I understand what you're going through." –to.
"Oh, it's been great!" Vincent said with a smile. "Admittedly, I only got part of the tour in before the mess hall needed an extra pair of hands and Glynda had to postpone, but from what I've seen of the campus so far, it's a beautiful grounds."
"I do admit, the school grounds are quite scenic," Blake said glancing out the window towards some of the old buildings in the distance. "If all you focus on is classes, it's easy to miss all the beautiful scenery and architecture off the beaten path."
"Yeah. The groundskeepers must work really hard to keep everything looking nice," Vincent nodded in admiration as he glanced toward a colorful flowerbed in the distance. "I'm not really sure what I want to do in the future, but I figure if I make some more friends, walk around Beacon some more, it might come to me," he hummed enthusiastically.
"I'm really happy for you. It would be a shame if you spent the best years of your life behind a convenience store counter. No offense."
"None taken, and that's exactly why Wok pushed for me to start working here," Vincent said with a smile. "I'm still not sure about this RA thing I got assigned to, but I'll tackle it one day at a time, I suppose."
"Vincent, I've been meaning to ask… How can you be so positive all the time?" Blake asked aloud. "I get that you don't really feel bummed out about memories you don't even remember, but there has to be more to it than just that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean… You're in a foreign land with no memories of your past, no way of knowing what kind of person you were, whether or not you'll be able to get those memories back, or what even caused you to lose your memories in the first place," Blake summarized. "How can you still smile like that when there's so much you don't know about yourself?"
"I'll admit…" he paused, wringing his hands. "Not knowing anything about the world around me, or even myself for that matter, I really was scared out of my mind when I first came to. Everything seemed so new and strange to me that I could hardly wrap my head around it all, and not being able to look back and know who I was, or how the past me would've responded to all this, it… It terrified me," he answered. "At first I felt so alone… so helpless… But… Old Man Wok took me in, he clothed me and fed me, even when there wasn't much I could offer in return. After I could stand on my own two feet, I wanted to repay the kindness he showed me, especially when he might not have much time left…" he said as the room grew silent. "For a while I was content to help him out for as long as he was still around for… but then he took me here to Beacon, wanting me to make friends so that even when he was gone, I wouldn't be left alone," he said as his somber expression slowly brightened. "With so many nice people around that care about me, and want me to be better, how can't I smile?" he asked, his eyes closed with a serene smile gracing his lips.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense," Blake nodded. "The world's a lot less scary when you have good friends at your side," she said smiling softly, thinking of her own friends, feeling like she could draw strength from them, even when they weren't around. "I'm glad for you, I really am."
"Yeah, I really am blessed," he said with a smile before his expression fell. "Hey Blake… Is this really okay?" he asked after a few moments. "For someone that can't give back to be given so much?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean…" he said wringing his hands again. "I've been given so much by such wonderful people… But all around me there are people who have so little, and even still, others try to take what little they have away…"
" . . . You're thinking of those Faunus you helped last night, aren't you?"
Cue Naruto OST - Sadness & Sorrow
"Yeah…" he nodded. "I know the two of them are complete strangers, but I can't help but be worried sick about them," he said clamping his eyes shut.
The next moment, Blake's own eyes of amber went wide as fat, ugly tears suddenly began streaming down the young man's face.
"How is it fair that someone like me is so blessed… while people with so little are hurting so much, even now…?" he sobbed, shoulders trembling. "I… I hate this feeling… This cold, ugly feeling festering inside of me…" he said clutching at his chest. "What is this...? How do I make it stop…?" he whimpered as he bowed forward, a pained expression on his face like a knife was being driven into his heart.
"Guilt... What you're feeling is guilt," Blake clarified. "It's… something I'm pretty familiar with myself," she said reaching over to grab his trembling hands, the girl throwing her free hand across his back, drawing him into a gentle embrace.
At times he seemed so-mature, despite the amnesia he was suffering through, but at others, because of that amnesia, he was as innocent and vulnerable as a child.
Deep down that may've been why he could get her to let down her guard that much.
Because who could keep their guard up around such an honest, simple soul?
"I… haven't always done right by people. I've made mistakes, even hurt people, and I feel guilty about it every day. But…" she said reaching up and wiping the tears from his eyes, causing him to look up at her through tear-bogged eyes. "You can't let your guilt stop you from living… Can't let it stop you from moving forward. All you can really do… is have faith that everything will work out in the end."
It only took Blake a moment to realize she blurted out something idealistic like Ruby would've, and in a weird way, Vincent had a youthful innocence similar to Ruby's own. Without any sort of ego or bias, Blake didn't find it hard to imagine that Vincent and Ruby would probably share similar philosophies on how the world should be, instead of how it is.
Of course, the sentiment was a bittersweet one, since his seeming purity of character came at cost of whomever he had once been.
And maybe that was why both halves of The Man with Two Souls struggled so much for control; because the alternative was a true death even if the body remained.
"Blake…" *Sniff* "What'd I ever do to deserve such a great friend like you?" he asked as he sat up, the previous fit of sadness bleeding out of his features.
"You were just yourself," Blake answered. "Sometimes… That's all it really takes," she said with a small smile.
END OST
*Sniff* "Thank you. I feel much better," he sniffed. "For some reason, my heart feels a lot clearer too."
"Well, that's what happens when you bare your soul to someone. All that weight you'd been holding up all by yourself… drifts away," she said with a soft smile. "Always remember… Whenever you feel hurt, or alone… don't hesitate to lean on your friends. As-corny as this might sound, friendship can help you endure just about anything."
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Vincent replied. "You know, you're really easy to talk to," he said brightly.
"Is… Is that so?" Blake asked nervously, since from the perspective of her team it was quite the opposite.
"I'll tell you what I've been telling you. The only one you're hurting by wearing that thing is yourself."
'God, dammit, Jack. Even when you're a vegetable, you're still fluttering around upstairs,' Blake grumbled to herself as the older Faunus' words bounced around her head. "Twist my arm why don't ya?"
"Hm? Okay," Vincent hummed with a confused shrug, his chromed hand clamping down around Blake's left arm.
*NEW WORLD*
"How the heck was I supposed to know you weren't talking to me?" Vincent asked a minute later as Blake nursed an ice pack on her bruised arm.
"Given your amnesia, I guess you really wouldn't," Blake answered as she flowed an extra bit of Aura into her arm, the bruise steadily beginning to vanish. It wouldn't do if her teammates got the wrong idea about the amnesiac ex-shopkeeper, let alone on his first day at Beacon, because of a misunderstanding she'd caused. "Remind me to get you a book about reading social cues. You and at least one other person I know would greatly benefit."
"Okay," Vincent nodded. " . . . Blake, I'd like to remind you that-"
"Not now!" Blake bit out, realizing she'd have to find that book sooner rather than later. "So… What's it like? Having this big room all to yourself?" she asked looking around. Compared to her own dorm, this space felt enormous.
"Well, this is a bit nicer than my apartment, but I've only been here for a couple hours, so it's hard to say," he answered with a shrug.
"Yeah. The place does look a little bare," Blake hummed. 'Does having amnesia stop you from accumulating tons of worthless crap?' she wondered, thinking back to how-cluttered Team RWBBY's room used to be before Jack came into the picture and they needed to redecorate. "A decoration or two wouldn't hurt. Maybe a potted plant or something."
"Ooh! I just remembered something!" Vincent said getting up from the bed.
"What?"
"Wok gave me a bunch of antiques before I moved out of the apartment, said they were taking up space in his own place and he wanted me to have something nice to furnish my new place," Vincent explained as he walked over to a large cardboard box stuffed to the brim with packing peanuts he had yet to unpack.
"Antiques, huh?" Blake hummed as she walked over. "Sure, I guess that would add a bit of class to this place," she said as she looked around. The closest thing to "class" in her room was the painting Weiss saw fit to bring with her; the candelabra she herself had brought counted too if you wanted to push the definition of "class". "So… What all did Wok give you?"
"Don't know. Let's find out," Vincent said with a smile as he enthusiastically dug into the packing peanuts, looking very much like the kid on Christmas morning digging into a tantalizing present.
*NEW WORLD*
"Thanks for helping me set this all up. This went by way faster with a friend around," Vincent hummed one move-in montage later, complete with musical score and timelapse. "And more fun!" he added brightly.
"I'm glad I could return the favor," Blake replied as she returned his smile, looking up at the antiques scattered across the room and feeling quite satisfied with the new furnishings' placement.
Dangling from a hook above the bed on a length of braided twine was a brass rhombus-shaped pendant with a faceted six-sided ruby in the center. Angled in such a way as to resemble an eye, the edges of the rhombus and the ruby itself had black lining, with two small bars connected to thin crescent pieces of metal connected to the sides and bottom of the pendant.
Situated atop a stack of stationary on the desk was a turquoise-colored rabbit with adorable sapphire eyes. The statuette, large enough for a person to hold comfortably in one hand but small enough you didn't need two, was rounded into an egg-like shape, the four limbs, ears, chin, and tail tucked into the body, making for the perfect paperweight.
Nestled atop the bookcase and more intricately-designed than what was now serving as the paperweight was a brass-colored statuette of a big cat crouching. Its eyes had two rounded rubies set into them, its feet were squared, its hind legs rounded with spiral engravings, and a curving tail arcing up from the rear. It was far from realistic, but then-again, art was meant to be subjective, and not model-accurate.
Situated on the nightstand next to the bed was what appeared to be an old Chinese comb. The base composed of lacquered wood with a small amount of gold ornamentation, attached to the bottom of the base was a curved piece of wood, whereas the five teeth of said comb looked more like fangs, brownish-green in color with bevels that made it look far too unwieldy for anything more than parting hair in one direction or the other.
The last item to be formally incorporated into the room's décor above the desk was a goldish-bronze scimitar with a rectangular black guard featuring small crooks with brass trim, a red rectangle with goldish-bronze lining, a simple grip, and a golden-bronze crescent-shaped pommel with a red tassel dangling from the end. The blade however made it clear that the blade was not meant to be used as a conventional weapon; thinner at the base than in the middle, a curved bevel was cut out of the forward half of the blade, the rear of it divided into two curved halves meeting in a point, a tear-shaped hole resting near the tip of the blade. The ornamentation on the blade itself was quite simple, an engraved diamond shape at the base of the blade which would serve only to weaken it, and a long black line on each side of the blade ending in a small spiral.
"All we've got left is this antique coin, and this weirdly-shaped pauldron," Vincent said holding up the last two items, nestled in the bottom of the box beneath everything else.
Aforementioned coin was quite a bit larger than a quarter, colored red with golden trim and rectangular patterns symmetrically spread throughout, radiating from a rectangular hole in the center. It looked nothing like any kind of currency Blake had ever seen, so maybe it was meant to be a commemorative item.
Aforementioned "weirdly-shaped pauldron" had a highly irregular shape reminiscent of a bird's skull with a crooked hook-like beak, the only real ornamentation being a silver fin jutting out the top and a similar band of metal attached to where the lower jaw was. However, the pauldron itself was so small it didn't look like it would protect much of anything, once again leading Blake to believe it was meant to be an artistic piece rather than an actual functioning piece of armor.
"Hmmm… You have any string?" Blake groused as she looked at the old coin.
" . . . Well that sounds like an odd thing to ask for," Vincent shrugged after a moment.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Blake admitted. String wasn't something you just had on you unless you used it on a frequent basis. "Wait right here. I'll be right back."
"Okay, see you soon," Vincent hummed as Blake vacated the premises. Bouncing on his heels and whistling a tune, the white-haired teen was only left alone for a single minute before Blake rushed back into the room, a plastic case with a clear lid in her hands. Held within said case were a multitude of rolled-up ribbons of varying width, all the same glossy shade of black as the ribbon in her hair. "Ribbons? You certainly have a lot of them," he hummed, counting more than a dozen rolls.
"I like to keep backups on hand," Blake hummed. "I have one attached to my weapon too, so they get worn out pretty quickly when I'm out in the field."
"I see," Vincent hummed with a nod. "Still though, why bring the entire stash?"
" . . . Maybe I felt like showing off to a good friend," Blake answered awkwardly after a minute.
" . . . Sounds like as good an explanation as any," Vincent nodded as Blake set the box down on her desk, rifling through her collection of ribbons until she found the roll with the thinnest width, followed by a measuring tape. Walking over to him, the girl formed a loop with the measuring tape around his neck, adjusting it until she found a length she was comfortable with, and went back to the desk. Cutting the length of the ribbon she was looking for, the girl looped it through the center of the red-and-gold coin in a Lanyard hitch, forming- "A pendant?"
"Don't you like it?" Blake asked nervously.
"Of course I like it. It's way awesome!" Vincent said with a smile, eagerly holding out his hands. The moment the aforementioned coin was returned, the teen eagerly slipped it around his neck, the ebony band a stark contrast to his snow-white hair as he rested the now-pendant in the middle of his chest. "I didn't know you were into arts and crafts. You're really good at this."
"Just a few decorative knots and ribbons," Blake admitted, blushing a little at the praise.
"Well, if you ever have some free time on your hands, I'd love to learn what you can do with a bit of rope," Vincent said with a smile.
Of course, the way he'd worded it, at the mention of rope a rather embarrassing set of hobbyistic memories appeared in the forefront of her mind, the girl whirling around to hide her blushing face as she imagined Vincent in certain… situations after being on the receiving end of aforementioned rope.
'Dammit, Blake! Keep your shit together! You just met this guy!' the girl berated herself as she tried to clear her thoughts. With just what was going through her head at the moment, it'd be impossible to face him with a straight face. Especially since he obviously failed to recognize certain… connotations rope could be used for other than arts and crafts.
*NEW WORLD*
"So where do you think Blake ran off to?" Ruby asked. "I didn't see her at dinner."
"Oh… I might have an idea where she went~" Yang said waggling her brow as Team RWBBY looked down the hall.
"Where might that be?" Jack asked, having returned to full cognizance halfway through their meal; most of which they spend debriefing him on everything he'd missed after their… altercation with their new homeroom teacher.
"Speak of the devil and she shall appear," Weiss hummed as Blake stepped out of aforementioned room on the far end of the hall.
"Thank you for letting me bend your ear. It really helped clear my head," Blake said, giving a small bow of thanks.
"Hey, no problem. That's basically my whole job description. Bending an ear and helping people out," Vincent waved off with a smile. "Anyhow, you all have classes tomorrow, so you should probably get to bed. A good night's sleep is the most-important thing for a growing girl. And boys. It's equally important for both genders," he tacked on before disappearing back into his room.
"I'll keep that in mind," Blake said with a smile. Turning back toward her own dorm, the girl froze mid-step as a pair of knowing lilac eyes locked with her own from down the hall, aforementioned blond smirking like the cat that ate the canary as Blake begrudgingly made her way toward them.
Every other door on that end of the hall was locked after all.
"So Blake, have a bit of fun while we were out of your hair~?" Yang asked with an eyebrow waggle.
"Nah, Blake doesn't seem to be glowing enough for that to be the case," Jack shrugged dismissively.
"Not the way I would've put it, but you're right, the two of us talked. And nothing else," Blake said flatly. The next moment she was about to brush them off, get in some quiet reading time before bed, but memories of the conversation she'd had minutes ago made her reconsider. "Hey… Yang?"
"Yeah?" the blond asked, unused to the bookish girl actually initiating a conversation.
"So… If this doesn't sound weird… would you… maybe like to get a drink later? Hit up a club?" Blake offered. Her voice was strained, evident she was stepping out of her comfort zone, but at the very least she was trying to open up to her friends.
She'd be a bit of a hypocrite if she didn't.
" . . . Wait, are you for real?" Yang gawped, doubting if she heard what Blake said right. "Holy shit! One day living here and the RA already has you opening up this much?" the blond awed. "Man, we should've gotten an RA up here sooner, because this is progress!"
"I'm surprised you didn't make a 'he sure works fast' joke," Jack chuckled.
" . . . Dammit! You're right! That was the perfect setup and I blew it!" the blond realized. "Hey, think we could step back and do that scene over?"
"Real life has no re-takes," Blake said curtly as she walked in, leaving the blond to moan at missed opportunities.