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I chased Pyrrha around Beacon. Just along campus in some work out clothes. It was good exercise and I needed it. She encouraged me to run faster just by staying ahead of me the whole time no matter what I tried. I tried desperately to catch her but she was just too quick. When we stopped it was time for breakfast. I ate quickly of the eggs on toast and coffee. Pyrrha made sure I drank some water and was eating enough then set about her own fast.
"East more than you usually do." Pyrrha encouraged.
"Why?" I wondered.
"You're bulking up. Not losing weight. You should eat until you are full with the amount of working out you do."
I bobbed my head along in an agreeable fashion. It sounded like sound advice and Pyrrha had yet to lead me astray.
"So what's the plan today?" Yang wondered. I wiped sweat from my brow.
"I'm enjoying a book on my scroll." Weiss lightly informed her.
"Boring," Yang dismissed. She flicked her hair over her shoulder in a bright yellow mane.
"Whatever," Weiss shot back.
"On your scroll? Not on paper?" Blake wondered.
"I'm a digital girl," Weiss shrugged.
"Paper has the edge over digital media," Blake returned.
"Don't act all superior to me just because you read on paper. There's nothing wrong with screens," Weiss leveled back.
"Hm? I wonder if that's true," Blake hummed lightly. She had this smirk on her face which was hard to place.
"Well we might go into town," Pyrrha suggested. I nodded along. "Maybe grab a bite to eat if you're up for it Jaune," she finished smiling at me.
"Sure," I agreed. "Sounds fun."
"We'll leave you two to it," Ren informed us with a slight smile.
"More and more exchange students are arriving," Ruby pointed out absently and mostly to herself.
"We could scope out the competition in the training room or by the airfields," Yang nodded. "Just spend the day people watching."
"Ooh!" Nora exclaimed. "I love people watching. It's like visiting a zoo. But with semblances."
"Nora," Ren admonished.
"What?"
"You should say things like that."
"What? People are animals. Animals also have semblances."
"Yes but the comparison is rather rude," Ren pointed out.
Nora scoffed.
"Classes don't start back up for another week or so. We have all the time in the world," Yang lounged back with her arms over her head. She stretched absently like a tired lion.
"Mind if we join you at the airfield?" Ren asked her.
"Sure," Yang decided. "If that's where we end up today."
"We should plan on it," Weiss informed her. She glanced down the table with a palm on the wood.
"It's settled," Blake snapped the book she had been sketching in shut.
"I wonder what happened to Penny," Ruby muttered. "I haven't seen her since that night with the White Fang at the docks."
"She can clearly take care of herself," Blake pointed out. "Did you see her fight?"
"Sure but she's an odd girl. Just because she knows how to fight doesn't mean she's okay," Ruby suggested.
Blake nodded. Perhaps conceding the point.
"Where did she say she was from?" Weiss wondered.
"Atlas," Ruby answered at once. Weiss nodded once.
"That makes sense," Yang agreed. "She seemed a little stiff."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss asked her with a slight glare.
"Atlas," Yang pointed out. "You're a bunch of uptight, stiff, military mules."
"Hardly a mule," Weiss disagreed quietly with a shake of her head. She didn't seem to want to argue the other points. She let it go.
"I'm off to go shower," I decided. I got up from the table. I made my way to the Beacon showers in the dorm. I soaped and rinsed off in the hot water. I just let the water pour over me for a moment, not scrubbing myself down or anything. The hot water worked on my stiff muscles in my legs and back. When I got out of the shower and dried off I pulled on my hoodie and jeans. Then I just waited around in the dorm for Pyrrha. I reclined on my bed and opened my scroll. I rubbed at where the connecting implant for the scroll was in my forearm. It connected to the scroll and allowed it to measure my aura.
When Pyrrha arrived from the showers herself I got up.
"Ready to go?" I asked.
She nodded. We left for the airship to Vale. I turned a few shades of green on the flight. Pyrrha reached out and rubbed a small circle into my hand as she looked at my face and complexion. I didn't throw up but it was a close thing.
I groaned as we heaved and landed at the airfield at Vale.
The airfield was built into a mountain in the middle of downtown vale. All sorts of airships were taking off and leaving. A mistrali ship with tassels and wings like a butterfly perched on the edge of the cliff. Three Atlas cruisers were settling in. I eyed the ships warily. They were built around their main guns with plenty of soldiers scurrying about the field.
They were gunmetal gray, like Weiss's weapon. The bridge didn't have windows or weak points. They probably relied on cameras for sight. The guns on the starboard side listed aimlessly. That was the side closest to us as we made our way to the shuttles.
"That's General Ironwood's ship, the Indefatigable." Pyrrha observed.
"Oh?" I wondered.
"Yes. He's rather famous. Some hunters are like that. I recognize the name of the ship on the side."
I glanced at where the word was written on the side of the ship. I let out a shuddering breath. None of the other kingdoms had arrived as in force as Atlas. I suppose that was the nature of General Ironwood. It seemed like serious business. The Mistral ship was brown and easy on the eyes. It didn't have big guns like the Atlas cruisers. There were no soldiers about it. Just civilians here for the festival and hunters in their bright colors.
"The soldiers make people nervous. Shows of force like this are awful in times of peace between the kingdoms," Pyrrha eyed the moving men. "Such a shame."
"It draws the Grimm," I observed. She nodded.
"It's not so bad but the fact they felt this was necessary probably rubs people the wrong way. Vale can take care of herself. It's not as military as Atlas but it still has its weapons. Back home in Mistral, weddings, celebrations, firework shows, tournaments, and hunters are used to combat the Grimm. The tiered gardens help with the peaceful atmosphere. It's just interesting how different cultures handle the Grimm. I suppose on the one hand the soldiers are reassuring. On the other…" she trailed off and glanced at me. I nodded along.
Weddings and celebrations were a great way to combat the forces of darkness which were drawn to sources of negativity. They had to be timed right and go well but they worked.
We got smoothies and walked around downtown Vale. We talked as we walked and ate our food.
"So when do you think I'll get my semblance?" I asked her. "All of you have such interesting powers. I'm just left wondering what I can do."
"It's impossible to say. All souls are different. But I don't think you have to worry. I'm sure your power will be interesting when it manifests," Pyrrha answered.
I stopped outside a museum. There were artworks on display. Something caught my eyes. There were splashes of color to geometric shapes outlined by stars and the two moons opposite each other. It was a gorgeous painting. Pyrrha stopped by my side at glanced where I was looking.
"Are you an art connoisseur?" She wondered. I sighed.
"Not really," I answered. "I don't know how to interpret it. I just like what I like. I can't create on my own. I'm not much of an artist."
"I think you could do well. Part of my instruction at Sanctum was painting and literature studies. It's important to be a well rounded person as well as a fighter."
"I suppose…" I stammered off. "Want to go inside?"
"Lets," she decided.
We walked inside and paid a small fee to enter. We had to finish our drinks before we were allowed to enter. I examined a painting with a man and a balloon carrying him away. I looked at the brush strokes. He was a faceless man hanging suspended on a blue and white background with the bright red balloon.
"What do you think?" Pyrrha asked me when she noticed I was enraptured.
"I think it's a touch silly," I answered after a moment and a glance down at her. She met my gaze and glanced back at the painting.
"It's likely postmodern. Meant to be absurd," she pointed out. I frowned a little.
"I'm not much of a philosopher…" I trailed off. "I don't really get the themes well."
"Well, consider the bright red of the balloon in contrast to the gray, brown, black, and green of the man. Those are dull colors. Then he is suspended by the brightest object in the sky."
"What does it mean?" I asked her.
"I'm not sure what the artist intended but it likely represents the fragility of civilization. That's what it represents to me. Aren't we all suspended on islands in the sky? Aren't we plagued by the same questions as the man? 'Will we make it?' 'Is rescue coming?' 'What are we even doing here?' It's a tale of survival in the modern age. We are thrown by biology, and chemistry and physics into these bodies during these times. Sure the world is at peace at the moment but there are undercurrents of stress. Take for example the White Fang. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. And the multiple genocides throughout history committed against the faunus are evidence of that. There is a thin veneer. A facade. Is civilization as stable as it seems? Is reason and success really not devoid of chance? I'm a champion and I did it by being talented and skilled but most importantly lucky. My powers make it difficult for an individual to contest me conventionally." She frowned and glanced at the painting.
I nodded along. It seemed reasonable enough. It was a good interpretation of the painting, at least to me. "It's interesting isn't it?" I asked rhetorically. "We can build all these machines. The towers, the airships but we don't really know how to be happy. The way out isn't up but down. Into the self. If you showed someone an airship, the wings, the frame, the engines, and they said 'yes, yes, but where is the airship?' You'd think they were a few screws loose. But it's the same with us. How much of what goes on in our minds is context dependent. I remember things which couldn't have happened in my childhood."
"Yes," she agreed. "Memory doesn't provide truth. It provides context. Pain, emotion, thought, all of it exists just to provide context. And the brain does so automatically. It recalls who, when, where, and what we are. Even fine motor skills like fighting or driving become automatic with enough practice. Typing on a keyboard or playing the violin is much the same. You don't need to think about where your fingers are. They just are. Fighting becomes second nature with practice."
"I can't imagine fighting becoming second nature…" I trailed off. She smiled at me gently.
"Give it time. You will get used to the weight of your sword and moving your body. Eventually you won't have to think. You can just act."
"What about the soul?" I wondered.
"The soul is everything else which remains when body and mind are stripped away."
"It doesn't sound like much…" I confessed.
"Does it?" She wondered. "Or is it everything? Maybe we aren't here for divine reasons, but that's interesting because then we get to choose our own purpose. The soul represents the ability to choose one's place in the world. It represents a defining characteristic. It is unique. The semblance is an expression of that. No two are exactly alike. It isn't that we can't step in the same stream twice. But with our bodies, minds, souls, and the river in flux we can't even step into the same river once."
I frowned. "What's that mean?"
"A great deal," she shrugged. "It isn't the body to which aura is applied but the spirit for all that it makes us stronger and faster."
"Because of the semblance,"I observed. "The soul is our ability to choose and our choices make us who we are more than our bodies and minds do despite the pattern of brain tissue and dna. Every cell in the body has different dna. Every mind is different moment to moment. The only thing which remains is our choices."
"Indeed. Who are you when nobody is watching? When nobody can stop you?"
"I don't really know," I decided. "I don't have that kind of power. I wouldn't want that kind of power."
She smiled up at me. "I think that speaks well of you."
"Maybe," I frowned. "I suppose when nobody is watching I'm a cheater and a liar."
"Is that all?" She asked me.
"I cheated my way into Beacon. I wasn't cut out for it. I have you helping me now and I'm doing better but still not great."
"I think you have potential. I wouldn't follow your lead if I didn't," she disagreed with my implication.
"I suppose," I sighed. "I haven't had to prove myself yet. I haven't had to lead or to make decisions."
"You did in the emerald forest," she pointed out with a raised eyebrow. I chuckled darkly and Pyrrha frowned.
"I almost died like a dozen times," I murmured at length. "I have you to thank for my still being here."
"You are quite welcome. You should see the strides in progress you've made. If only you could observe yourself from the outside."
"I suppose we're all limited by our perspective. We're all fish in the ocean. We can't see the water. We don't know why the water is there."
"I think, in time, you will surprise yourself," Pyrrha informed me warmly. I smiled at her.
"Come on," I decided. "We've looked at this painting long enough."
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-WG