Okay guys, so I felt like writing today on this glorious sunday. Because I'm in a really good mood. Why? Because Autumn is right around the corner? Which means cooler weather, hoodies, pumpkin spice and apple cider, Halloween and a bunch of other good shit.
Now, when we last left our hero he had just been knocked into the portal by AJ, what happens now?
Oh also out of curiousity, I took a look at the story stats. Unsurprisingly, most of my viewers are from the US. But the second highest number of viewers was a surprise. I was expecting Canada or the UK.
Nope, the Philippines.
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one.
After Winter had knocked AJ out to prevent him from seeing anything. The whole house was in Chaos. The device Jem used was still on the ground because he had dropped it he fell through the portal. But it did not help their current situation.
"What do you mean it needs three days to recharge?!" Winter asked as Nala was also mad because her daddy had disappeared.
"We told you it needed a recharge!" Ozpin said as that was the whole reason they bought two.
"But three days?!"
"We told you the technology was still a prototype, our plan was to arrive, stay while they recharged and then prepare everyone for the trip home!" Ironwood couldn't believe this had gone so wrong so fast.
He knew he shouldn't have let Jem touch the device!
Seriously? What the hell was he thinking letting him touch it? This was like something out of a shitty movie where the writers had just said 'Fuck it lets see what happens.'
"Do we at least know where he went?" Ironwood checked the device.
"Menagerie." He facepalmed as he was literally right back where it all began.
"Oh crap." Nala felt her tail curl up in fear.
Her Dad was literally on the one place she never wanted to go back to. She was reminded of her life before she came to Earth, and she felt uneasy about her dad suddenly seeing firsthand how rough it was for her.
"So whats the plan?"
"It's simple." They heard AJ mutter in his sleep.
"We kill the batman." He said as he turned over and started sucking his thumb.
"And what about him?" Ozpin asked as he obviously was not in the know about the whole situation.
"He leaves on a plane tonight to go back to New York, we'll just say he dreamed up this whole situation." Ma said as they got ready for the trip to the airport.
"You think he's dumb enough to believe that?" Yang asked as she knew AJ wasn't the brightest but he would probably feel sore from that knockout punch.
"He thinks banning guns will stop violence, so yes."
With Jem
"Woah." Jem realized he was lucky he landed closer to the port of Menagerie versus the outskirts that was like Tatooine.
"You know this really doesn't look so bad now that I'm here." He mumbled under his breath as he was certain this place was going to look bad.
It however didn't help his current situation. He was stranded on Remnant. Worse, he was on Menagerie. He had no idea how people would react to a human being here. So far he had only met the little mouse girl. Who was struggling to catch anything off the shore.
"Mister you alright? You look confused." She said as she casted out her pull.
"Uhm, kid lets just say I kind of washed up here, and I'm far from home." He said as she was frustrated as she couldn't catch anything.
"You were a sailor?" She asked as he just decided to go along with that.
"Yeah, kid I'm just-"
"Frisby!" She said as Jem froze.
"What?"
"My name is Frisby!" She said cheerfully, but that cheer disappeared as she realized she still hadn't caught anything.
"...I know I shouldn't be surprised when their names allude to multiple stories, but that is bringing back fond childhood memories." Jem had fond memories of a book he read as a child.
He wondered what other names she could have had. He was thinking back to all the shows and movies he watched as a kid that were mice themed. But as he was going over all the fictional memories in his head, he suddenly remembered something.
"This isn't a show anymore...its real life!" Normally this would be a good thing.
How many fans had dreamed of a moment like this? Probably thousands. Thousands of fanfics were written by fans because they wanted to escape their world into a world that they could have an adventure in. But Jem wasn't feeling it. Was it cool he was in a fictional world turned reality? Yes it was, but he also felt alone. He knew nobody, he had nothing but what he came with. He had no money, what the hell was he going to do?
"AGH!" Frisby said as she again brought her fishing pole back.
"You okay kid?" He asked as he didn't understand why she was so frustrated.
"I can't catch anything!" She said as Jem realized he could probably help.
"Well what are you using for bait?" He asked as she went quiet.
"...Some maggots." Jem was confused, why maggots?
"Why maggots?" He asked as he didn't understand.
"It's the only thing I could get out of the garbage that looked like a good bait." She said as Jem felt his heart sank.
She was an orphan, just like Nala.
Immediately he felt his heart go out because he remembered how Nala had told him about her life on Menagerie, and how she was working herself to the bone just to survive. He imagined Nala in Frisby's place and he knew he had to help.
"Look kid, I know a bit about fishing, how about I help?" He asked as she looked at him with hope in her eyes.
"You mean it?" She said as her mouse ears twitched with joy.
"Yeah, first what are you fishing for?" He asked as she thought about it.
"A menagerie sea bass!" She said as Jem nodded.
"Okay, do you know what they like to eat?" He asked as she tilted her head.
"Huh?" She asked as Jem decided to think about fly fishing.
"Well, sometimes you can't throw in any random thing and expect the fish to bite, you have to observe them in their habitat, what do they like to eat? Where do they stay? What is their environment and what kind of food is in that environment?" Jem knew that this wasn't fly fishing, but those rules remained the same overall.
"How do I find that out?" She asked as Jem looked around.
"Well first, based on the fact you're doing shore fishing, I'm gonna assume these are closer to the shore?" He asked.
"Yep."
"What do they look like?" He asked as she thought about it.
"Long and silver with bug eyes." She said as Jem thought about it.
"Okay." He walked up to a rock and looked off into the shore.
The good thing about sea water was it was clear and easy to see through. Jem started to scan the shoreline for any fish. And sure enough, he saw what looked to be the fish she was talking about. Almost looked like a largemouth bass, but bigger and the eyes were more buggy. He tried to get a closer look at what they were eating. He saw one go for what looked to be something akin to a hermit crab. Another one went for some tiny looking shrimp grubs with orange spots on them. He took a mental note that the color pattern on those was an almost translucent skin with orange spots. The sea bass seemed to be going for those.
"Okay, so right now I noticed they were going for two types of thing so far. That doesn't necessarily mean its the only things they eat, but it could be something they enjoy." He said as he looked around the beach.
"So, the little grubs they were eating were translucent with orange spots. And they were also going after little hermit crabs, so we should try to make something that imitates those two things." He said as he looked around the beach.
He found some dried up grass on the edge of the beach where the sand met the palm trees and vegetation. It was a burnt orange color so that would work for the spots. But he still needed something to use for the translucent skin. His prayers were answered when he saw a molted shell of some kind of insect sitting on a tree. It reminded him of a cicada. He grinned, usually he wouldn't enjoy seeing the molted skin on a tree, but it was just what he needed.
He peeled the dried up carcass off the tree making sure not to harm the shell, while it wasn't a shrimp by any means, it certainly would look the part to a fish. He walked over to Frisby and got ready to show her what he was going to do.
"Okay, now forgive me because I'm trying to find a way to make this work. Since I don't have any of my fly fishing gear with me." He said as he brought her over to a stone slab.
First he slowly slid the dried up molted skin onto the hook, head first curving up to the base of the hook, and only stopping so the barb was sticking out just enough to be noticeable. He then took some of the dried up grass and stuck it in some of the holes that had formed in the skin. He knew he was doing a sloppy job with this, but he was doing what he had to do. He could catch hermit crabs, but he only had one set of clothes on him, and he needed it to stay dry because he had no money, so he would have to sleep outside.
He paused for a second as he thought about what that implies.
"Wow, infantry really did prepare me to be homeless." He thought to himself as suddenly it was all coming back to him.
He shook his head of the thoughts. Back to baiting the hook.
He got the improvised bait looking as close as he could to the shrimp he saw.
"Okay give that a shot." He said as Frisby nodded and casted off the beach.
Within a few minutes she saw the tip of the rod bend.
"I GOT ONE!" She said as she started to reel him in.
Jem at this point took notice of her rod, and that was how he knew she had to have been living on the streets. The rod itself was old and disheveled. The reel she was using was covered in a blue buildup of corrosion, not enough to make it useless, but it had obviously seen better days. She must have picked it out of a dumpster along with the maggots she was using for bait.
"I GOT HIM!" Frisby said as Jem turned to see the sea bass on the beach.
"Good job kid." He said as he got the hook out of the mouth.
The fish was a good enough size for her. And luckily there was still enough of his improvised bait left on the hook for her.
"I don't suppose you got a stringer do you?" He said as she looked at him confused.
"I guess thats a no..." He said as he should have figured but didn't want to assume.
"How many do you want to catch?" He asked her.
"I need at least seven!" She said as Jem looked confused.
"Seven? One for each day of the week? Well, at least she won't be starving..."
Jem knew she didn't have a stringer, so he looked around and he saw a stray bucket on the beach. Usually he was not a fan of trapping fish in a bucket, but this time he would have to make an exception. They needed to stay fresh until a time when he could bonk them and prepare them. He didn't want to risk them going bad if he killed them and they sat in the sun for who knows how long.
He sat back as he saw Frisby cast and catch another fish. He smiled as he realized that little tip he learned fly fishing was really paying off.
A few hours later
"Thanks mister!" Frisby said as she had a bucket full of fish. She meant to catch seven, but she caught eight instead.
"No problem kid." He said as he wasn't sure what to do next.
"So Mister..." She started as she slung her fishing pole over her shoulder.
"If you really did wash up here, do you want to come back with me and meet the others?" She asked as Jem processed that.
"Others?" Jem thought as he decided to see what was going on.
"Yeah sure kid." He said as he decided to follow her.
Normally he would assume this was the part where he got mugged by a gang using a kid as bait, but if that was the case they would have gotten him by now. Why wait until after they had caught a lot of fish? Jem was certain he was just being overly paranoid. But could you blame the man? He just fell through space and time, and for all he knew he was screwed.
The fact he didn't have a way home wasn't helping.
"Wait a minute..." He stopped to think about it.
"Huh, so this is what it feels like." Now suddenly he understood why Winter freaked out so much when she appeared in his trailer.
He followed Frisby to a rundown shack just off the beach.
"Damn, is this the kind of thing Nala had to go through?" Jem suddenly was really glad Nala appeared when he was camping. Because he couldn't imagine her in these conditions.
Frisby walked up and Jem noticed there was nobody else.
"Where are the others?" Suddenly his paranoia was coming back and he was thinking maybe she was baiting him.
"Oh, sorry, its just, you're the first human we've ever seen." Jem relaxed a bit at that.
"Oh yeah Dumbass, you forgot you're on an island for the faunus, they're probably hiding." Or at least that was Jem's thought process.
"It's okay guys! He's friendly!" Frisby called out as Jem saw movement.
He saw a set of eyes.
And then another set of eyes.
And then six sets of eyes.
Only to see a bunch of other faunus kids with mouse ears come out and look at him.
"Holy shit, this is adorable...or it would be if the circumstances weren't so sad."
"Did you catch anything Frisby?" Another little girl asked as she looked a bit nervous to see Jem.
"Yep! Eight fish! One for everybody!" She said as the children all looked excited.
"And one for you too!" Frisby said looking at Jem.
"Uhm, thanks." Jem felt a bit awkward.
He didn't really want to feel like he was stealing food from obviously hungry kids.
"I'll get a fire going!" One of the boys said as he grabbed a magnifying glass and some dried cocunut husk for Tinder.
Jem looked as Frisby beckoned him into the small shack. he saw that it had a basic frame and some walls, but there were plenty of holes and cracks in the wall allowing light to shine through. He saw that there was one room that they must have used for sleeping, because he saw some makeshift bed rolls on the floor. He felt himself feeling bad for these kids. Sure he always dreamed about living off the land in a cabin in the woods, but these were children. He was an adult.
He walked it to see that Frisby was trying to prepare the fish. But Jem stopped her.
"Kid, I'll handle this." He said as he knew how to do this.
He started by bleeding the fish. These were a pretty fat fish, so he wasn't worried about them not getting enough meat, so he decided to go for the whole filet. He picked the smallest fish for himself, that way the kids would get the bigger portions. He then made a note that he may be able to use the fish guts for bait, or at the very least he could make a small shrimp or crab trap and use the leftover fish guts and parts for bait. Suddenly he was really grateful for his backwoods upbringing and his dad teaching him how to make prawn traps.
"I know this is a stretch, but I don't suppose you guys got any seasoning?" Jem joked as they shook their heads.
"Nope." She said as he looked over and saw that one of the boys had gotten a small fire going in the fireplace of the shack and had a small grill over it.
"Well, good thing we're grilling it, makes it less cleanup than if we were to pan fry it." He said as he got all the cuts of meat ready.
"Now Frisby, you gonna introduce me to everyone?" He asked as he didn't want to keep calling everyone kid.
"Sure! That one over there is Desperaux!" Frisby said as the boy waved.
"Holy shit you got to be kidding me!" The tale of Desperaux? He remembered reading that book as a kid.
He recognized Frisby from the rats of NIMH, so that was cute, but now they had a Desperaux? That was awesome!
"Those two over there are Bernard and Bianca!" And again Jem felt Nostalgia bubble up.
"This just keeps getting better and better."
"That one over there is Roquefort." Bianca said as Jem again felt a wave of nostalgia building up.
"This seriously is one of the coolest things ever." It was like getting a slow dose of childhood back again. Even though the situation was depressing.
"And those two over there are Fievel and Olivia."
The two waved but Jem was confused by the plain name for Olivia.
"Olivia? That seems a bit out of place considering everyone else is named after a cartoon ch-" He was cut off as Olivia spoke.
"Nice to meet you boyo!" She said in a thick scottish accent.
And then it clicked.
"Ooooohhhhh, Olivia Flamersham!" Now it made sense.
"Its nice to meet you all." Jem tried to hide his giddiness at all the names by focusing on the meat.
After some time had passed, he checked them to make sure the meat was cooked al the way through, and he was certain they were ready for consumption
"Now, I would like to apologize for no seasoning but-" As soon as Jem pulled the newly grilled fillets off of the grill. The kids attacked them like it was their last meal.
"Its okay!" Frisby said the kids tore into the meat.
Jem almost facepalmed. Of course they were hungry, the kids were homeless. He could have burnt the meat to charcoal and they would have eaten it like it was a five star meal. But that still made him ask the question. Why were they all alone?
"Look kids, if you don't mind me asking, what are you all doing here?" He asked as they all looked down.
"Well, its a long story." Frisby said as Jem sat down.
"I've got time." Jem said as he sat down with his own morsel of fish and took a bite.
The fish itself wasn't very flavorful and was kind of plain, but Jem was expecting that. He couldn't expect every fish to taste as good as Trout or Salmon. But considering he was effectively homeless right now, it was a miracle that he had anything. When he thought about it, he really hoped the recharge time for that device wasn't too long, because Jem was worried about Nala. But as of right now he needed to focus on the kids in front of him.
"Well, we were all at the orphanage, but it was destroyed by a fire." Bianca said as Jem remembered Nala telling him about that.
"I'd heard about that, but I would have thought it would have been repaired by now?" He asked as they all looked away.
"They were only recently able to get the funds for it, its still being repaired, even so, the orphans are scattered all over the island." Fievel said as the whole situation was messed up.
"And you've been living here?" He was surprised nobody took them in.
"Theres a lot of us, we can't ask someone to take all of us in and besides..." They all looked at each other.
"We prefer to stay together." They all said as they shared looks.
"Its cute, but something isn't adding up." Jem thought to himself.
"How did you survive this long? The orphanage has been burnt down for weeks, but you all look like you're eating regularly." He said as it didn't make sense that they weren't starving.
It was terrible to think that, but he didn't understand how they didn't look emaciated.
"We used to be able to find work around here, but Menagerie has signed child labor laws into effect that are much stricter than before, we used the last of our money up." Okay that made a little more sense.
"Okay, the gods have a sense of humor, because it is nuts I showed up JUST as they ran out of food? This seems way too convenient." Jem couldn't help but feel like some god was having fun with his life.
This all seemed way too perfect. AJ accidentally knocks him into the portal. He ends up on Menagerie. Just HAPPENS to help a little mouse faunus find food, who just HAPPENS to be part of a band of orphans, who just happened to need his help in the nick of time? Seriously this was way too plot constructive. And if this was a movie, he would be calling the main character out for being a Mary Sue.
Then Jem got freaked out.
"Oh fuck, I don't want to be a Mary Sue!" Or was it Gary Stu for him?
He enjoyed being a lovable asshole. Then again, even an asshole would stop to help orphans. So he just let it go. Its not like he was going to say 'Hey screw you kids, hope you starve.'
"Remember Jem, this could have been Nala, just let go of all the random bullshit going on in your mind and help them out. Don't be a dick." He reminded himself.
"So this was your first time fishing?" He asked as Frisby nodded.
"Uh huh." She said as Jem scratched the back of his head.
"Well." He thought about it for a second.
And then it clicked.
"Wait, do you guys know the belladonna family?" He asked as they looked around.
"Well, we've never met them, but they're just up the hill in the big mansion." Jem sighed in relief.
"Okay, I know what I got to do." He said as he stood up.
"Okay everyone, listen up, get some sleep tomorrow, but tomorrow I think I can get us a place to stay better than this shack." He said as he had a plan forming.
Only to see the seven mice jump up in excitement.
"REALLY?!" They all were practically bouncing on their heels.
"Lets just say I have an idea." He said as he shooed them off to their bedroom.
Jem took a deep breath. He needed some time to think. But so far only one thing was coming to mind.
"Well, I know that Ruby said they were from the part of the timeline from when the Vytal Festival hadn't happened yet. So it should be before the fall of beacon, which means Blake's parents haven't been in contact with her yet." He thought to himself as he put a hand up to his chin.
"I got it!"