"What are you talking about? The dance was five days ago, Mr. Courrier."
Emerald Sustrai, Cinder's Lackey and Professional Cheater at Hide and Seek, was leaning against a wall, listening in on the conversation this 'Mr. Courrier' was having with Glynda Goodwitch.
"It was?"
So far, she's not impressed nor did she know why Cinder wanted her to tail this bumbling buffoon in the first place, he was dressed weirdly, smelled like he was submerged in alcohol, and tracked sand everywhere he goes.
So what he almost defeated Goodwitch in combat? Emerald bet that he was all brawn and no brains anyways! Like that leggy bastard Mercury, gods she wanted to punt that silver-haired prick in the face so much. If not for Cinder being there at all, she would've gladly bloodied her hands with that smug twat's blood.
"Yes."
"Ah shit, there goes my plans."
"Plans?"
"Oh- uh… don't worry about that… hehe…"
Emerald really wanted to leave right now, listening to this weirdly-dressed idiot talk is really mentally grating.
"Ah, Mr. Courrier, Headmaster Ozpin wants to meet with you, if you were to follow me to his office…"
"Right, right, right right right, sure, let's go."
The two leave towards Ozpin's office, Emerald can't possibly sneak her way in there, nor does she want to listen to that moron speak any longer… Maybe Cinder'll accept this for now, besides, what does she want to do with some arrested White Fang thug anyways?
Courier, you fucking idiot, why didn't you do more research! Five days ago… that meant that it was happening when he arrived in this world! Fuck! He really wanted to go to that dance, and maybe infiltrate the CCTS as well but the dance was more important to him! Curse you fate! Why couldn't you have dropped him in the middle of Beacon's auditorium instead of bumfuck nowhere in the forest!
The Courier shook his head, clearing his mind of any bad thoughts while still following Goodwitch towards Ozpin's office, he's going to need to come up with a different plan now… maybe he could do it tonight and escape this wretched school… he swore that one brown haired kid with the mace stared at him as if he was some kind of animal during his fight with Goodwitch.
Maybe lying about being a Faunus was a bad idea after all… Yup, definitely, he can't wait to see how Adam would react knowing that he poured his heart out to some human that he hated.
Entering the room, the Courier was bombarded by the heavy-handed clock motifs of the headmaster's office… okay it was just inside a clocktower but who in their right minds would build an office so spacious yet empty at the same time? No decorations, only a table, two chairs, and whatever the fuck was on said table.
Which was nothing at all.
So bland…
The Courier also noticed some familiar faces there too; Qrow was there, to his surprise, having some kind of deadly staring contest with the brick wall of a man in a, in the Courier's opinion, quite gaudy white suit. He waved hello to everyone there.
"Hello Mr. Courrier, do you know why I have called you here?" Ozpin said in that usual cryptic tone of his, would it kill the man to be straightforward for once? Like that time in the interrogation room.
"Nope, not one bit."
The wall person hybrid in the gaudy suit turned to Ozpin, "Who is this, Ozpin?"
"Surprised you don't know of him, Tin Can, that's the guy responsible for the breach in Vale a couple of days ago," Qrow nudged the Courier with his elbow before whispering to him, "You got any more of that moonshine?"
The so-called 'Tin Man' then pulled out his engraved revolver and pointed the barrel at the Courier, who raised his one of his hands up while the other slowly slipped a bottle of moonshine into Qrow's pockets, "What's he doing here, Ozpin?"
"Calm down, James, he means us no harm," Qrow thanked the Courier and took a sip out of the bottle, Goodwitch glared at Qrow but that didn't seem to deter him from continuing to take small sips throughout the conversation, "Holster your gun, James."
"But-" "I will not have you shoot an ally of ours in this room."
"Wait, 'ally'?"
"Yes, 'ally', you've been exceptionally useful to us, Mr. Courrier," Ozpin did his cryptic speech thing again, the Courier really wanted to leave now, maybe host his own dance after everything's done, "Over fifteen White Fang hideouts mapped and marked clearly, you've clearly outdone yourself, Mr. Courrier."
"Does this mean I get to not go to jail?"
"No."
"Damn."
"But-" "I accept!"
The silence was deafening, Ozpin cleared his throat before continuing, "Your exceptional combat skills combined with your… let's say… 'unique' Semblance have peaked my, and many other people in this room's, interest."
"My Semblance?"
"Yes, that and your lack of Aura…"
"…" Quickly Courier! You must bullshit your way out of this situation! Unfortunately for the Courier, he did not take any alcohol or Mentats beforehand, as he was saving them for the dance, "…Do you mind me using your table, Ozpin?"
"Go ahead, Mr. Courrier."
"Alright…" the Courier reached into his duster, 'James' pointed his revolver at him again but was stopped by Goodwitch's mag- Semblance, "In my hand are two decks of cards, one of them is rigged and the other is normal."
"The rigged deck only has sixteen cards, all of which are five of hearts. The normal one is the average deck of cards, no difference there."
The Courier pocketed the normal deck and spread the rigged deck over Ozpin's table, two rows of eight five of hearts laid on the wide table surface, "Fancy a game of Blackjack, gentlemen?"
"I don't see how this is relevant to your Semblance," Goodwitch crossed her arms, eyeing the Courier with distrust, "After the fight, you said that your enhanced regenerative abilities are your Semblance."
"I didn't said anything, you assumed it, my increased regeneration of lost tissue is a… compensation for my lack of Aura, so to speak," the Courier then shuffled the rigged deck and placed it on the table, "Qrow, if you would so kindly deal me and Ozpin a hand of Blackjack, please."
"Sure, if you don't mind losing that is."
"I won't."
Qrow dealt out two cards for the Courier and Ozpin each, the Courier's cards were exposed while one of Ozpin's cards were placed face down, "Ozpin, assume that I will draw only once while you draw twice, by your predictions, who will win this game of Blackjack?"
"It will be me, my twenty to your fifteen, seeing as how the deck only has five of hearts."
"That would be the case wouldn't it?" the Courier turn to Qrow, "Qrow, draw me one card and place it face down."
"Sure."
"Now draw two and give those cards to Ozpin's hand, draw them face up."
"Alright," Qrow places more two five of hearts next to Ozpin's only card that was facing up. The table was now set.
The Courier has two five of hearts and one card faced down, while Ozpin has three five of hearts with one card also faced down.
"Qrow, please reveal Ozpin's faced down card." The Courier said, mentally controlling himself from bursting into laughter as he felt the intensely heavy and serious air surrounding this game of Blackjack, Qrow flipped over Ozpin's singular face down card to reveal another five of hearts.
Ozpin's hand now has four five of hearts, totalling up to twenty, the others think that Ozpin's initial prediction might be correct after all but withheld their thoughts as they think that there must be some reason as to why the Courier would do something like this.
"Okay Qrow," the Courier pushed down his urge to burst out laughing as he directed Qrow, "Now flip my face down card over."
Qrow grabbed the card and flipped it over.
Ace of spades.
Qrow furrowed his brows, "The fuck?" "Language." "Wasn't the deck filled with fives?"
The Courier was just as surprised as Qrow, what was supposed to happen was that Qrow would flip over another five and the Courier would laugh at their faces for thinking that someone without an Aura would have a Semblance!
What was supposed to happen was that the Courier would reveal that his regenerative abilities actually came from Stimpaks, something that he would then patent and sell to become a millionaire in this world!
Not… not whatever the fuck just happened here!
The Courier composed himself, "You can check the deck again if you want…" he prayed that maybe Qrow had accidentally slipped an Ace into the deck while he dealt the cards to Ozpin and the Courier, maybe the drunkard decided to play a little prank! The Courier really hoped so…
"Fourteen, fifteen…" Qrow furrowed his brows and counted again, "You said that there were sixteen fives in the deck right?"
Fuck. "That's right."
"There are fifteen here, including that ace of spades would be sixteen…" Qrow rubbed his stubble, no doubt thinking about something, probably more alcohol, "Your Semblance… it's related to luck isn't it?"
"…" Sure! Whatever! Keep lying Courier! You'll never see these people again anyways, "How'd you know?"
"Back then, out in the woods, I was tailing you during your mission," he was?! "My Semblance's a passive one, Misfortune, things go wrong around me."
"Your Semblance is that… you radiate an aura of unluckiness around you?" And this shit isn't magic?! Why did those kids laugh at him when he said it was?!
"Hit the nail on the head there," Qrow glanced at the ace on the table, "You should've noticed it, how many White Fang goons tripped over themselves while you were visiting the hideout? Stuff like that."
"But you… you don't seem to be affected by my Semblance, even when you were betting and playing card games with the White Fang."
"You saw that?!"
"I was tasked to tail you wasn't I?" Qrow chuckled, taking another sip of the moonshine that the Courier gave to him, "You ever noticed how they kept losing to you?"
"No, not really."
"That's the thing; I thought my Semblance was playing favourites or something, not affecting you while making everyone else lose? But now? Now makes more sense."
Ozpin eyes widened by a small margin, Qrow continued, "Hilariously enough," Qrow took another gulp of the moonshine, much to Goodwitch's displeasure, "Your Luck Semblance somehow negated my Misfortune one! But only for yourself."
The Courier cleaned the cards off the table and pocketed them, he glanced at the people surrounding him, Goodwitch had an unreadable expression on her face, 'James' had his eyes narrowed, Ozpin was still observing him intently, while Qrow was getting ready to knock himself out with the moonshine that the Courier gave him.
The Courier thought about the implications of this… had he developed some kind of supernatural power by just being here for too long or was he just genuinely going insane from not taking his Mentats today? Was that ace of spades a hallucination that his drug-starved mind just dreamt up? It can't be, they all saw the damn card. Maybe he misplaced a card? Accidentally used sleight of hand to slip one into the deck? Not possible, Qrow was the one that dealt the hand; the Courier's own hand didn't even go near the deck bar from when he first took it out…
But seriously, out of all the superpowered bullshittery that was in this world, he got the lamest one? Just luck? He was already naturally lucky! Why did he need more luck for?!
Then again, this did make his argument about having no Aura and an overcompensating Semblance true… maybe it was possible? Semblances are like magic anyways so there must be a case of this happening once in history, right?
Never in his thousands of years of being alive had Ozpin saw something like this. Luck Semblances were nothing new, Ironwood's Ace Operatives had an agent with one, Clover, Ozpin remembered his name was.
But Clover's Semblance worked off of logic, luck was inherently illogical but everything that happened to Clover as a result of his Semblance made sense in some way or another. Luck can be explained with probability, there was always a chance of something happening, and that's what Clover's Semblance worked off of, this chance, this probability that was always already in place…
Mr. Courrier's Semblance did not work like Clover's. It was impossible! Utterly impossible! Qrow couldn't have slipped a card like the ace of spades into that deck without someone noticing nor could he have picked up and hid one of the five of hearts at the same time…
Courrier's Semblance somehow did the impossible, instead of increasing his chances or probability, his Semblance elected to change the very nature of the game itself to suit his favour.
John Courrier… a man with no Aura and a Semblance that defied the very nature of Semblances themselves. Semblances were not quite magic just yet, they had limitations and restrictions put in place by the logic of the world, by laws that dictate how things can move, interact, or tampered with.
Clover and Qrow's luck-based Semblances worked off of probability, something that's logical, unlike Courrier's Semblance, their Semblances worked by 'fudging the dice roll', so to speak, to achieve the probability that they want or don't want respectively.
But Courrier's Semblance didn't do this, it did not fudge any dice rolls nor did it rely on the preset probability already there… no… Courrier's Semblance added on to the preset probability with another probability that benefitted him always!
Imagine chance as a table of ever shifting rows and columns, Courrier's Semblance didn't do what Clover and Qrow did, their Semblances messed with the dice but still had to fall into the rows and columns that were already there, making it so that sometimes being lucky wouldn't change anything substantial…
But Courrier's Semblance… it's like he added another row and column altogether! One that would always work in his favour and one that he will always fall into.
This changes things… Ozpin cannot let this man fall into the hands of Salem's minions…
The Courier did not know what the fuck was going on.
Qrow and that 'James' guy was back to arguing with one another, Goodwitch just stared at them tiredly while occasionally throwing glances back at him, and Ozpin… something about Ozpin just freaked him out, prolonged eye contact, it was like talking to Vulpes again back at Nipton.
That cold and calculating gaze… the Courier shuddered.
Vulpes is an interesting character. The best of Caesar's Frumentarii for a reason.
Don't worry, the White Fang's not done, things will change now, especially when Adam is now taking Mentats.
Gone will be the days of him being just a violent and jealous ex, Adam have ascended to a new level thanks to the Mentats.
He can make better decisions now, the Mentats are very smarty after all.