Jaune Arc, The (Non)-Gamer
It was beautiful day in Jaune's rural hometown of Dorimi of the Fasoladido Province.
The birds were singing, the hens were crowing, and the sun was shining bright in the sky.
Yes, Jaune thought to himself, today was truly a wonderful day.
The only strange thing about about it, was the semi-transparent screen that had suddenly popped up before him when he had awoken. It had all sorts of weird terms and numbers on the screen, here and there. But Jaune didn't know what exactly it all meant.
It had his name at the top of it, though, so it was probably something that referred to him, right? Or so Jaune would guess, at least. It was really quite the strange occurrence, though, especially as apparently only he himself could see it.
He had asked his dad, mom, and all his many sisters about it, but they hadn't seemed to see anything at all.
At first, Jaune had thought it might've just been one big elaborate prank, or something of the sort. But the confusion on his parents' and siblings' part, as reflected on their faces, seemed very genuine, and so did the bepuzzlement in their voices. So if it was some sort of elaborate prank, it didn't seem to be from them, at the very least.
Not that Jaune really ever doubted his own family, but being family, they did tend to play pranks every now and then, every so often.
That having been said...
The holographic screen thingamabob really was quite annoying. It seemed to be following him around everywhere!
Jaune didn't even know that such advanced holographic technology had started to exist yet - or that if it had, certainly not to the point where it would be this advanced this early. Well, that was one of the downsides to being a country hick - information would flow in and out of the town on occasion, but always somewhat late and of questionable accuracy.
If Vale had been a more technologically advanced society, like Atlas (or at least, his impression of Atlas - according to what he had seen on news and such) was, they might not have had that problem, but it was what it was and there wasn't much helping that.
Still, though, Jaune was quite stubbornly still half-convinced that this all was some sort of super-elaborate prank set up by somebody. Not by his family members, probably. But likely by somebody in the village. Somebody with too much time and/or money on there hands. Jaune could name a few people who might fit that description.
"Jaune, are you sure you're feeling alright?" His mom had asked. He had been feeling fine, of course, and told her as much, but she hadn't seen quite convinced. Not that he blamed her for thinking so, given how he was acting.
Jaune was thinking it was probably a prank being played on him by one of the richer villagers in the small town. He wouldn't put it past them, though he wouldn't know why exactly they'd want to play this kind of prank on him.
But, everyone knew everyone in Jaune's small village, so maybe somebody just figured it'd be a funny thing to do.
Jaune would go around and ask about it, and finally just happen to stumble upon the right person, and they'd go "Haha, gotcha, Jaune!", and Jaune would just laugh with them right back, "Haha, yeah, you get me. You really did. Good one, that."
Or so Jaune was hoping, at least. He really did not want to consider the possibility that he might actually be going crazy, especially not in these few days right before he was planning to run away from home, off to Beacon Academy.
Still, the possibility couldn't be ruled out per say, but Jaune was really, really, hoping that was not the case.
And so, Jaune set out on his quest to ask everyone he knew.
Jaune's quest had not gone well.
He had asked just about everyone who he knew in their small village of about 1200 people, which amounted to just about 140 people or so.
Still, not a single one of them seemed to know what Jaune was talking about, even when Jaune tried to lure something out of them with his usual "haha, you got me!" response to any of their pranks. Instead, all of them seemed genuinely puzzled, and a few them concerned for Jaune's state of mind.
Jaune had start worrying about his own state of mind, in fact. Of course, there was still the possibility that it still was an elaborate set-up by somebody he knew, and they had just gotten really good at acting.
Or that it was a prank by some rich villager that didn't know him, though the possibility of that seemed increasingly slim. But, without any way of confirming such a hypothesis, Jaune really was starting to worry about himself by now.
The screen had also changed a little bit while he had gone around asking.
Apparently, something entitled "CHRS" had gone up from "17" to "21" in the time that he had spent going around the village, and his "Vil. Aff" (whatever that stood for) with his hometown had gone from "Friendly" to "Very Friendly".
Jaune sighed.
He had no idea what any of it meant, but why did something strange like this have to happen just days before he set out for Beacon?
Was it an ill omen? Or maybe even a good one?
Jaune didn't know.
He could only hope that it wasn't a bad one, at least.
The Trip to Beacon
Ooof, that had not gone well at all.
Upon setting foot on steady dry land once again, in the plaza of Beacon Academy's courtyard, Jaune hurriedly rush to the nearest trash can to empty out the contents of his stomach.
It might not have been the cleanest mess, but at least it made him feel better after riding on that mechanical monstrosity to get to Beacon. Jaune felt sorry for the poor trashman and/or janitor who'd have to throw it away later, though.
It didn't help that the holographic screen also seem to be labelling him as "Vomit Boy" under his "Title" (though at least it was better than what it showed before, though, "hunter wannabe" and "fraudster").
Jaune couldn't help but wonder if the "Title" thing was something that reflected his own opinions about himself. Maybe the whole holographic screen thing was something like that, in fact.
Luckily, at least he managed to make a friend.
Ruby, her name was.
She seemed very enthusiastic about weapons, and just when Jaune was thinking he'd like to get know her better, some kind of strange supplementary screen also started to suddenly appear out of nowhere.
'Wha?!'
The screen (which was strikingly scarlet red, almost like a rose - a stark contrast to Jaune's own yellowish, jaundice-like screen) had these words on them:
"Register Ruby Rose as your friend?"
There was also a "yes" and "no" button right under that screen.
'Whoa, is this like one of those Facetome things?'
Naturally, Jaune pressed "yes".
And then, a whole other screen popped up (although, thankfully, the first two had vanished), this time with a screen similar to Jaune's own.
Huh. It was showing a bunch of stuff similar to Jaune had on his own hologram, but Ruby's numbers definitely seemed a lot higher. And her title was "Crater Girl".
'Wait, wasn't that what I just called her?'
Jaune's theory about the hologram being based off of his own thoughts seemed to be getting stronger by the second.
Interestingly though, she had some stuff on her screen that Jaune didn't have on his own.
For one, she had something called a "Class", under which she had been labelled as a "Reaper", whatever that meant (Jaune hoped she wasn't actually some sort of secret assassin or supernatural embodiment of death under a human guise, or anything like that. Maybe he was just reading too many comic-books, though - that was extremely unlikely to actually be the case).
For another, under all the other things and numbers, she had something labelled an "Aura" with a full bar, that showed a number, "1500/1500".
'Huh...' Jaune though to himself, 'I wonder what that is...?'
Before he had too much time to ponder, though, another holographic screen popped up. This time, it was saying "Ruby Rose registered as Friend. Share Information screen?"
Jaune shook his head. On one hand, it might've a good chance to see if he was really crazy or not.
But honestly, Jaune didn't really want to find out and break through his illusion of normalcy. Jaune would be devastated, really, if he pressed "yes" and asked Ruby if she could see anything, only to find out that she couldn't.
And even if it turned out Jaune wasn't crazy, and Ruby could see something, then he wouldn't want to bother her with seeing such non-sensical stuff. She'd probably get really annoyed at him with all these screens following her around too, and stop wanting to be his friend. After all, who would want to stay for friends with someone who spread inter virus, but like, with holograms?
Jaune quickly pressed the "no" button as a result.
Luckily, Ruby's screen also had a red "X" button towards the corner, like any other old internet browser did, so Jaune quickly pressed on that.
Now, if only his own holographic screen had been nearly as convenient to close...
"Jaune, are you alright?" Ruby asked.
Jaune quickly snapped back to attention. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, why wouldn't I be?"
"Well..." Ruby started, looking at Jaune with concerned eyes, "I mean...You've been kind of staring into space, and pointing your fingers at nothing for a while now..."
"Ha, hahaha? What, oh, I didn't notice, I must've zoned out, or something. I was probably just trying to figure out where to go for the ceremony and stuff." Jaune quickly covered for himself. He was actually a little bit impressed by his own flexibility in excuse making. Elsewhere, unknown to Jaune, a quick noise went off as his WIS and CHRS rose by one point. "Sorry to worry you, Ruby."
She didn't seem entirely convinced, but she didn't push the issue any further, thankfully.
Jaune breathed a sight of relief.
'Great, my first day here, and I'm already worrying other people and making a bad impression.'
Jaune took one last look at his screen before heading off, though. Interestingly, after adding Ruby as a friend, some things on his own screen had changed, too.
Now, his screen had a "Class (Locked)" to it as well, showing it as "Knight (LVL. 0)".
At the bottom of his screen was also a descriptor titled "Aura", though unlike Ruby's, which had a bar underneath it, under his it only had a black screen with chains wrapped around it diagonally and the word, "LOCKED" over the picture of a padlock.
'Wonder what that's all about...?' Jaune wondered. Besides that, though, there had also been another interesting change. At the very bottom, there was now a "Friends" section. Only Ruby's name was there at the moment, occupying one line of the screen. But there were two buttons to the side of her name, as well. One of the small buttons at the side of the line, the first one, said "Share", but the other button had a heart on it.
Jaune pressed it.
It pulled up another small screen which said "Compatibility".
Ruby Rose
Compatibility: Very High
Current Affinity: Friendly
'Huh, I wonder what this is about? Is this saying we'd be good friends?'
Jaune clicked on it again, to close the screen, but then accidently clicked on another button off to the side of his holographic screen, one he didn't even know existed.
Another screen popped up:
Enable Harem Option?
Jaune only had one thought, in reply to that:
'What's a harem?'
Author's Notes:
Jaune's Stats VS Ruby's Stats, by the way
STRG: 22 VS 129
AGLI: 25 VS 311
CHRS: 23 VS 35
INTL: 38 VS 45
WIS: 15 VS 12
Aura: LOCKED (3600/3600) VS (1500/1500)
Compatibility: (Jaune) Compatibility with Ruby - Very High; (Ruby) Compatibility With Jaune - Very High
Affinity: (Jaune) With Ruby - Friendly; (Ruby) With Jaune - Best Friends
If Jaune just shared and talked it out with Ruby, he probably would've been able to figure out what all this meant with Ruby's help, lol. But then the journey wouldn't be nearly as fun, would it?
O-ma-ke: The results of pressing "Yes" on the harem option
Some undefined amount of time later
Ruby (Pyrrha) had done it. Now, every other girl was dead. Now, she, and she alone, was best girl. She giggled softly to herself.
"I don't blame you Jaune," She said, "All those other girls, those succubi, they must've been very charming to you, Jaune. Poor, poor Jaune."
She smiled at Jaune. "But now, now that they're out of the way, you'll be all mine, Jaune."
Jaune didn't reply. He couldn't, after all.
But now, Jaune's love was hers, and all hers, alone.
"We'll be together forever now, right, Jaune?"
Jaune was silent, but she nodded his head yes.
Now, the two of them could sail off into the horizon, happily ever after.
Ruby (Pyrrha) and Jaune (Jaune's decapitated head), together, forever.