Quoth the Apricot 2 - (RWBY AU, OC!I)
The fucking first day as a student at Beacon Academy was atrocious.
I don't blame the standard curriculum, but no one could have prepared me to the sort of bad luck I got stuck with. It was almost ironic that our homeroom teacher was the twin sister of the one with that sort of Semblance!
Raven frigging Branwen was supposed to 'help us grow up as a team'. It was so ridiculous to imagine that someone of her level would be put in charge of us - I didn't doubt her abilities as a fighter, but I could firmly say she was far from capable as a teacher.
I was given the 'good news' of her role right the very morning of our first day at Beacon. At 4 AM, the door slammed open and the scary figure of Raven Braven in her usual armor stepped inside.
"You four will be under my guidance from now on. Don't disappoint or disobey, and you should be fine."
That was not exactly a good way to wake up from a nice dream about having a normal school experience and be hurled into a nightmare of a reality.
First thing first, how!? I mean, shouldn't Raven be raving about reviving her old tribe after going through a mixture of 'mid-20s' crisis and healthy paranoia over Ozpin's plotting? So, how the fuck did she end up staying around and become a fucking teacher with her lack of educational skills?!
I couldn't ask her, but I could only assume some random shit that further cemented that we were not dealing with the RWBY timeline I was familiar with.
The second question to ask is... why? Not 'why' Ozpin had hired her as that was already implied in the first question, but rather 'why the hell are we so bad-lucked'?
After that sudden wake up and being ordered to be all ready at 5 to go through some 'warm up exercises'. So, we had to rush the turns at the nearest bathroom, get all clothed and geared up, and then had to go through two hours of fucking hell.
It was less about our Aura being stressed due to the chilling weather, and more about the fact our bodies were hardly awake as we did some running, pushups and basic exercises that, in a proper daily occurrence, are good but- the bitch had us to do it so early on.
We were all sweaty and tired by the time we turned up to Professor Port's lessons. Luckily for us, the old man was busy with his tales of the past, something I was barely taking notes about as a 'sacrifice' for my team. The rest had fallen asleep in quite the unique ways.
Ciel was her face burrowed on her book, her attempt to keep up failing before her brain sudden shut-down mid note-taking. At least she made an effort as Thomas was slouched on his chair, appearing to have a serious expression on his face if not for the fact he had sunglasses hiding his closed eyes.
Rea pulled the worst in that disheartening sight, having somehow got a pillow from the team room and used it to outright rest her face on it while slouching on the desk. The scene didn't get Port's attention (or, if it did, the old man seemed to take pity on us by ignoring our current state of self), but the other students were quick to pick up our state of disorder.
"Psst," A girl called out quietly. "What happened to you four?"
"Homeroom teacher," I managed to muster, huffing as I put the rest of my energies in the note-taking. "She is a monster."
No further comments were made, and I endured until it was time for us to get a break by the cafeteria. At this point the rest of the team was almost bowing at my grace and sanctifying my notes as they copied those down on their own papers. I used this chance to eat two sandwiches and get a proper nap myself.
No one in the team disturbed my slumber, Rea even offered me her used pillow which I promptly refused because... Well, pretty girl offering a sweaty pillow felt like a very wrong thing to accept if you want to avoid being labeled in a certain way.
The cold and sturdy surface of the table was enough for my elbow and chin.
Sadly, however, I didn't get much of a chance to sleep beyond a few minutes that someone approached out table.
"Apologies, is this table available?"
I opened my eyes and... I blinked. In front of me was indeed a less-edgier and cooler version of Adam Taurus. He was actually wearing a Beacon Academy uniform, but what caught my attention was that his mask was replaced by a cloth around his eyes as he didn't seem to bear a mere branded sign on his eye - he was indeed blind from the looks of it.
"Sure."
He offered a diplomatic smile, then turned around and gestured someone behind him. I saw a few individuals approaching, but I swear I saw something else move towards us and-
"Boo!"
I jumped back, standing up from the bench and staring at the oddly familiar girl that suddenly appeared out of thin air beside Adam. Dark hair pulled in twin-tails, and... heterochromic eyes, one pink and the other brown.
Gods no.
"Dude, your face is just-"
"Trivia, enough," Adam muttered, causing the shorter student to pause and huff. "We need to be respectful of our fellow students."
This- this was Neo. Neopolitan. You know, the mute girl that had some of the craziest backgrounds possible due to some of the last additions to the lore via the books. Yet, here she was, instead of going 'full Neo' as she should have, she seemingly retained her original name and most of her appearance.
Neo, or rather 'Trivia Vanille', was indeed another surprise to the list. And she wasn't the only one to add in that encounter.
"Yeah, yeah, listen to the boss-"
"Who says that you two should behave as Adam just said."
The rest of the team further threw me off the loop. The first one to yap was none other than a younger Roman Torchwick that looked close to his canon self but wasn't smoking cigars.
The other was what really broke any sense of 'respite' I may have planned to have during my stay in Beacon. In charge of what would be defined as 'Team CART' or Carnation, was none other than Cinder Fall- no, Cinder Rhodes.
"My apologies for Trivia's behavior. She is a very... excited girl."
"You know you love me, gurl!" The chirpy and chatty 'Neo' rebuked giddily.
Cinder sighed, yet still smiling and appearing happy. And not murdery. And not tied to Salem, thus potentially depriving me of the chance of using my knowledge in the name of good.
I couldn't help but smell a decisive pattern in this 'AU'. Instead of a broken system, everything seemed to be lining up in a better environment. Adam was not an edgy stalker, Neo was not the result of 'the other side' of psychopathy winning, Roman was not a thief, and Cinder had been adopted by Rhodes.
Then there is the fact that Raven was our Homeroom Teacher, and that... Willow Schnee had divorced from her husband five years ago and entrusted the company back to her father, Nicholas. Oh, and Willow is Team CART's homeroom teacher.
...
It was sinking in as we were befriending this fellow team that I was no longer capable of predicting what was to come in the next few years. Salem existed, no doubt about that as I heard rumors that Raven had planned to leave but ultimately remained for familial reasons.
So, the threat was the same, but I could no longer rely on my meta-knowledge to save me some hassles. I was handling almost uncharted lands here and... that was scary. And it made my chill attitude drop drastically over the notion that...
I may be in need of a more paranoid attitude from now on.
Ciel Azul was a good friend, so she knew that Percy was going through something.
It wasn't too unusual for the boy that was her first and only childhood friend to behave the way he was, but this time it felt... more intense than usual. He would always bounce back from anything that truly worried him, but it was clear something was truly nagging at him way more intensely compared to those he faced in the past.
The worst part was that Ciel could not deduce what it was. She first thought that Professor Branwen was to blame - she literally hurled a new level of difficulty that Ciel just dreaded to face. All the more since she was born with a rather limited physical potential compared to the rest of the team.
That didn't stop the caped girl from going forward and... making friends in the process. Team CART was awesome. As much as it pained her to admit it, the playful girl that was Trivia had one of the best Semblances that Ciel had ever heard about. And the rest of the team was not without some interesting chemistry to each other.
In a way, this was similar to her own team. While Percy was a powerhouse on his own with his electric semblance, Ciel was not that far in terms of general capacity. Her Semblance was, after all, tied to her 'Aria' attacks.
Using her voice, Ciel could use 'Songs' to either bolster her team's awareness or dull the senses of her foes. It was all a matter of focus and context. And she had hardly lost a battle thanks to that useful ability.
Thomas wasn't that far off with the way his Semblance worked. His Revolver-Grenade Launcher was something that he created just for the ability of manipulate bullets through the use of his Aura but also the content within said bullets.
The grenade's explosive content could be redirectioned so that the blast would strike at the target even if the shell missed its intended destination. Bullets thus turned into 'foe-seeking' projectiles, and it all depended on his capacity to see where said bullet was meant to go.
Rea instead had the most straightforward, but she was the other 'Frontline Fighter' in their team. She was a 'Cryomancer', which had been an useful skill when she started to train it by helping her family back in Vacuo. Ice was just a luxury in a kingdom born on deserts.
Alas, Rea's experience was less about combat and more about practical use of the Ice-based Semblance, thus, in a fight between her and Percy, the latter would easily win.
Still, that brought Ciel back to her current plight: what was she supposed to do with Percy's current unease?
They were not kids anymore. She just couldn't have a sleepover, cuddle up in bed with him and tell him that 'they were all there for him'. Hell, would that involve the rest of the team too?
Rea would jump at the chance.
While the one-eyed girl was hardly a sultry lady, she had a tendency to be hotblooded and open around those she found 'as close as family'. And while they knew each other for a little while, it would be fair to say that Rea would not mind 'sharing bras' with Ciel - if she could fit her chest in those huge cups.
Ah yes, the struggles of growing up and... not knowing if she was ever going to match up with the knockers of her teammate.
Nonetheless, Ciel hoped that, even withou an immediate intervention, everything was going to be fine with Percy and... that Professor Branwen was not going to be as harsh as the rumors about her told them about.
AN
Team Carnation joins the battlefield! And this utterly fucks with any potential plot-planning and derailing any SI may try to enforce. In this story, the SI is not the one fucking with the Plot, it is the Plot fucking with itself (and then with the SI due to collateral damage).
Next time, Raven Branwen is called by Ozpin to answers some... complains from her fellow teachers regarding her 'strong students-in-training'.