Discord Writing Prompts Chapter 3: Busywork Bro, a rwby fanfic

Busywork Bro

Writing Prompt: "Hey, use this phrase in a story."

O-okay, notanan0n. I'll do that.

It had all started with a detention. Go figure, right?

Jaune had openly fallen asleep in Professor Port's class; but when Port got sick shortly before the time came for his detention, he wound up in Headmaster Ozpin's office to serve his sentence. Not knowing what to expect, he was a bit relieved when Ozpin pointed at a desk sitting near his own. That didn't seem threatening.

"Your assignment," began Ozpin, "is to assist in grading the most recent test papers of the second year students. These are all multiple choice tests, so you need only put a small X on the incorrect answers and calculate the final grade with the calculator. The answer keys are on top of the stack. Do you have any questions, Mister Arc?"

"Yes, uh, are the tests I'm grading in a certain order, or…?"

"They should be grouped by the professor who gave them, but naturally you should verify each one before you begin." Ozpin glanced at his watch. "I expect you to be able to get through all of this within the hour. You're fortunate that the amount here is less than average."

"Yes sir." Jaune was perfectly content with this arrangement. He'd keep his head down, get this done, and go back to his team. For a brief moment he contemplated trying to copy the answers for tough looking questions (he was going to be in second year soon, after all), but squashed that thought when he realized he was going to be right in the Headmaster's sight. Talk about a dumb idea.

Taking his seat, he did a quick count of the materials:

Two red pens, calculator, a small stack of sticky notes, pencil with eraser, and, of course, a large stack of papers that nearly came up to his chin. This was less than average? He definitely didn't envy their workload. Finding and setting aside the answer keys, he grabbed the stack and got to work.

B, A, B, A, A, A, A, that's a lot of back-to-back As, C-

Methodically he worked, such that he fell into a smooth rhythm of sorting it all. The tests were not, in fact, in order by teacher, so he organized the answer keys so that he could see all of them at once. It stopped the need to shuffle them around, and slowly but surely the graded stacks rose in height.

Suddenly, the words "Budget Approval" caught his eye. Instead of a test, it seemed to be an official form used by the staff. It had Professor Peach's name on the second line, so he made a new stack with the paper. It was followed by a similar form from Oobleck, then Port, then Miss Goodwitch. Then a letter from the council of Vale.

All-in-all there were twenty pages of important looking materials, so he sat that stack away from the rest and got back to work.

Eventually he finished up with the tests, so Jaune stretched a bit as he glanced around. How long had he been at that? Twenty minutes? Fifty? Placing the answer keys onto the appropriate stacks, he pulled over the miscellaneous papers and started to go through them. He wasn't sure what compelled him to do so, but as he read the first one over he began writing on one of the sticky notes; not a whole lot, just little details he couldn't help but notice.

He wound up doing this for every document, feeling weirdly unsettled about a few discrepancies. Once he was finally done, he rose from his chair and called out, "Professor Ozpin, I'm done."

The Headmaster glanced up from his own paperwork. "Good, bring the papers over here."

Jaune complied, setting each stack apart just a little. "The tests are separated by teacher, but there were also a bunch of non-tests there. I've organized those by topic and date, and wrote on the sticky notes some details I saw, like Doctor Oobleck's budget still needing you to sign."

"Ah, I apologize. Thank you for separating…" Ozpin trailed off, quietly giving more of his attention to Jaune and the papers. "You did what?"

"I made notes, uh, like on this letter from the council." Jaune handed him the top sheet to review. "They opened with those requests but then contradicted themselves in two different spots. It stuck out to me."

Ozpin was eerily silent as his eyes flicked between the sticky note and the page. Jaune couldn't help but worry that he'd massively overstepped, until the professor finally spoke up without his eyes rising to meet him. "I appreciate you bringing this to my attention, Mister Arc. You're dismissed."

"Thank you, have a good evening sir." Heading straight for the elevator, he pressed the lobby button and breathed a sigh of relief. If all of his detentions were like that, he wouldn't mind at all.

Jaune blinked. Wait, did he have fun doing that? How weird. Kid him would never have believed it, that's for sure.

Back in Ozpin's office, the headmaster was carefully examining every paper that was returned to him. The notes on them were concise, which made sense given how small the sticky notes were, but they conveyed exactly what was needed. Sitting back in his chair, he took a look around his office. The bookshelves all looked neat and prim, but he knew better than anyone (with maybe Glynda being the exception) how unorganized the papers in them were outside of the most important materials.

Jaune Arc's attention to detail was exactly what this office needed, but relying on detentions would surely be insufficient for his needs.

Taking a sip from his coffee (decaf) mug, he smiled.

A few days later…

Bzzt!

It was Sunday. Sitting on his own bed shortly before it was time for dinner, Jaune glanced at his scroll as it alerted him to an incoming call. Seeing that it was Headmaster Ozpin calling, he held up a finger to his lips to politely ask his teammates to quiet down. "Hello, sir, this is Jaune."

"Ah, I'm glad you picked up Mister Arc. Are you available to speak right now?"

"Uh, yeah, is everything okay?" Was he in trouble again?

"Everything is just fine, thank you. I'd like to discuss an opportunity for you, and am on the way to JNPR's dorm room. Is that acceptable?"

"Sure, I'll be right here." As the call ended, he looked up to see his team's full attention on him. "Ozpin is coming to talk to me. Doesn't sound like anything bad, at least."

Pyrrha put a hand to her chin in thought. "If it's not bad, does he need you to do something?"

"Maybe? He called it an opportunity, so it could be a type of job."

They bounced some ideas around, but it wasn't long before there was a knock at the door. Jaune opened the door and stepped to the side to let Ozpin in. "Hello, Professor. Having a good day?"

"I am, and I hope you all are as well." The headmaster met the eyes of each member before focusing on Jaune. "I shall be direct, Mister Arc. I was very impressed with how you handled the paperwork earlier this week. I've a desperate need for an administrative assistant, so if you're willing to dedicate some time throughout the week to the job, I would be more than willing to make it worth your while."

Oh! Jaune smiled a little at the blunt praise, even if Nora and Ren raised their eyebrows at it. "If you think I'm up to the task, sure. What would I be doing?"

"You would primarily be organizing all of the paperwork on my shelves, but I shall also need you to find discrepancies the way you did before." He pulled out one of the sticky notes to showcase his point. "If you can dedicate, let's say, five hours a week to this, you will earn extra credit points towards all of your classes."

Nora's back straightened at the sound of that, and she started speaking before Ren could stop her. "Any chance we can get in on this, too?"

Ozpin let out a sagely chuckle. "I suspect having all four of you there will be counterproductive; however, it is true that I'll be taking some of the time he would be spending as your team leader. As a compromise, we can add a few extra credit points to your weakest subject provided you all stay out of detention. How does that sound?"

Two thumbs way up from Nora. "That sounds perfect! Knock that paperwork dead, Jaune."

"Glad to be of service," Jaune responded dryly. It was a great deal, honestly, so he couldn't complain about being used by his team for free points. "Sir, I accept. When do you want me to start?"

"Come tomorrow after your final class."

Well, tomorrow came, and he found himself examining the many binders on the shelf. Pulling one down, he flipped it open and surveyed its contents.

Oh, he thought. This is bad. No wonder he was willing to give extra credit points for this.

The order made no sense. Why was that page even here, it's from three years after the date on the spine! Was that a hand-drawn portrait of Miss Goodwitch? It was probably taken from a student, so why was it in the tax forms?!

His skin lit up with goosebumps, and he felt a deep frustration unlike any before. Was every binder on these shelves like this? Oh no, this was unacceptable! He ran to the supply closet, which was blissfully without issues, and brought out as many empty binders as he could carry.

Jaune. Must. Fix!

And so his daily routine began. He'd come in, pop open the next set of documents, and get to work sorting everything while verifying that they had no issues in them. Any papers with problems would be given sticky notes and handed to Ozpin, who was perfectly content to leave Jaune to his job without questions. The Vytal Festival was coming up, too, yet all Jaune could think about was getting this mess cleaned up.

It was now Wednesday of the week after he started. Great progress had been made, and he was happy to see that one whole bookcase had been completed. Several more to go, but hey, it was something.

Only one set of papers had problems today, all related to one of the transfer teams from Haven. Setting the transfers binder back into its slot, Jaune brought the short stack over to Ozpin. "We've got some problems with this team, sir, but that's all for today."

"Thank you as always." Ozpin smiled, but noticed something in his new favorite student's expression. "Are you okay, Mister Arc? You seem unsettled."

"Well sir, it's…" Jaune stalled for a moment. "Seeing these transcripts reminded me of mine, and there's… there's something you need to know, professor."

Ah, it was time for this talk. "Young man, the unique problems with your paperwork have long been known. Any concerns surrounding your admission have long been dismissed, Mister Arc."

He blinked for a moment. "You knew?"

"I'm disorganized, not blind. Your skills were absolutely below par for initiation, but you demonstrated a mind geared for tactical excellence and strove for success despite your critical experience handicap."

Was that enough buzz words? Yeah, that worked. "You've long earned your place in Beacon as the leader of Team JNPR. Hold your head high. I shall see you tomorrow."

Jaune Arc beamed with pride and relief. "Thank you, sir! See you tomorrow."

Ozpin gave him a polite wave as he disappeared into the elevator. There was no way he'd let something as silly as some forged transcripts get in the way of him having an assistant. No no, Arc was much too valuable for that. Grabbing the paperwork, he gave it a thorough look over.

Hm. Hm? That certainly didn't add up. How unusual for Leonardo's paperwork to be so unprofessional. What stuck out the most was the information related to the team's performance prior to joining Haven. Ozpin grabbed his scroll and dialed the CCT, where he was then patched through to the prep school of Blisters in Mistral.

"Hello?" Answered an elderly woman on the screen; it was Miss Swan, the secretary of Blisters Academy. "Ah, Headmaster Ozpin. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I've found discrepancies relating to former students of your school, and was hoping you could help me rectify this."

Some typing on a keyboard was heard off-screen. "Certainly, what are their names?"

"Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, Mint Blanche, and Emerald Sustrai."

Click click click. "What? That's… one moment, sir."

Some more typing. "Headmaster, there seems to be something wrong. All four of those students are missing large swathes of information in our system. In fact, the only thing popping up are their final transcripts, and these documents were only created a few months ago according to the log."

Ozpin leaned forward, growing more concerned by the moment. "Miss Swan, are you suggesting what I think you are?"

"By all accounts, Headmaster, it looks like these four were never really students of our school."

Emerald stirred to life in the dorm room they shared. It was past midnight, so she groggily looked around to make sure nothing had disturbed her. Mercury was softly snoozing on his bed, while her savior Cinder was…

"Mineminemineminemine." Breathe in. "Mineminemineminemine."

…dreaming of everything she deserved, like always. Neo was absent, as per usual. She didn't trust them, and they didn't trust her not to kill them in their sleep. Her sleepy mind pondered the double negatives in that previous sentence, before deciding to ignore it as unimportant and lay her head back down. Nothing was wrong; no, nothing at all.

Crash!

The window shattered into countless pieces as the room was barged into by what her sleepy mind felt was a hundred people. She brought her Aura up, but as a set of feet dropped directly onto her chest and took the air from her lungs, she was forced to witness her boss and future lover(?) Cinder get slammed into the wall by a fucking ghost or something- oh it was Glynda Goodwitch-

As Teams RWBY and JNPR made their way to breakfast, there was an unmistakable excitement in the air. They hadn't sat down for even a moment when Sun and Neptune came running up to them. Sun, usually a chill guy, was almost buzzing in his claimed chair. "Guys, you won't believe what happened last night. We saw three Haven students getting arrested last night!"

Ruby was the first to react. "No way! Did they get into a fight or something?"

"Not sure," answered Neptune. "We heard a loud crash from down the hall and jumped to our feet. When we poked our heads out, us and another team got to see that Mercury guy and Emerald chick pulled out by Atlas soldiers, and their team leader held in the air by Miss Goodwitch. General Ironwood and Ozpin were there, too. It was crazy."

That part got a shocked reaction from everyone, but it was Weiss who responded with, "That's absurd. What could three students have done that would require a joint effort from two nation's most powerful people?"

"Yeah," followed Jaune. "You'd think they were criminals or someth-"

He stopped in his tracks as he remembered the paperwork from the day before. "Wait, there's no way…"

Nine pairs of eyes fell on him. "What is it?"

"...There was some paperwork I was looking at for Ozpin yesterday, and one of the Haven team's stuff was really weird. I showed it to Ozpin and- yeah, yeah! It was Cinder Fall's team!"

"Wow," said Yang. "To think that Jaune got some guys arrested just by working as a sexual pencil-pusher."

Jaune choked on empty air. "A WHAT?!"

"Look, Jaune, we all know how much you've been enjoying this assistant job. Nora says she caught you sleep talking about it."

Nora pretended to fall asleep where she sat. "Zzzz the tax forms sir…"

He felt his skin grow hot in embarrassment. "Shush, Nora! Anyways it's my job right now, so of course I'm thinking about it a lot!"

The Y of RWBY leaned over the table, a grin spreading across her face as everyone else began laughing. Yang's voice dropped into a loud whisper. "You're sorting papers and having a good time with it. Sexual. Pencil. Pusher."

"Noooooo!"