A la Mode

Writing Prompt: The Danger of Too Much Information

X

Mercury was bored.

It was only natural, given the assignment at that moment. "Stay close to teams RWBY and JNPR and glean anything useful you can from them." All well and good, but the teams in question were so normal and teenager-y that even the pleasure he got from seeing Emerald in pain from acting like their friend wasn't helping. The only bonus to this particular lunch period was that Neo, currently disguised as Mint, also had to sit with the group today, so he couldn't help but crack a smile at her being completely zoned out.

He was as well, but could you blame him?

Mercury tuned back in as Fem-blonde- uh, Yang, turned to address the other Blonde. Jean? John?

"Jaune, did you do that thing I talked about?"

Ah, Jaune. That was it. The kid nodded. "The workout song list? Yeah, I've set one up. I've only got six songs on it right now, though."

Jaune paused, then brought out his scroll from his pocket. "Make that soon to be seven, I just remembered a song I wanted to add. Lemme just write myself a note here…"

Redhead leaned over Jaune's shoulder to peek at what he was typing. Wait there's three redheads, so he was gonna have to remember her name. Nora! Damn he was good at this. "Ooh, what songs do you have…"

Nora trailed off for a second as she looked at his screen. "Why is my name next to that song on the list? And Ruby's there?"

"Ah, well," Jaune shrugged lamely. "I decided that these songs should remind me of each one of my friends here, so I'm handpicking the songs so that they match you guys. Nora, your song is the Electric Boogie, and Ruby's is City Escape from that Sonic game."

Silver eyes began singing under her breath. "Follow me, set me free~"

Pyrrha leaned over, an eager light to her eyes. "Do I have a song yet?"

"Yep!" Came the chipper reply. "Yours is You've Got a Friend in Me."

Mercury blinked twice as he processed that. Toy Story? As a workout song? What is this guy on about? Pyrrha seemed equally numb, falling back into her seat. "I…see?"

The blonde seemed oblivious to the reactions. "Weiss is Angel Wings, the one by Mike Ault, and Mint's is-"

Jaune full-stopped his words, suddenly not wanting to elaborate. Neo began glancing around, having just come back to Remnant at the sound of her fake name being called out. "So yeah," finished Jaune. "Gonna just find some more songs to fill this out-"

Tap tap. All eyes turned to Neo as she knocked on the table, pointing to herself with her free hand. The intent was pretty clear: What was that about me? "Ah, sorry Mint, we're just talking about music."

"And," followed up Emerald as she held up a scroll, "Jaune was about to tell us what song reminded him of you."

Jaune's eyes snapped to his now empty hands, then back to the scroll she possessed. It was his, naturally, and Mercury felt a grin creeping onto his face. Boredom was no longer an issue. "Nice grab, partner. What's that little notepad of his say?"

Emerald was smiling herself, probably just as happy as he was to see this kid floundering. "It says… A La Mode. No artist listed"

Jaune's breath seemed to catch in his throat as he eyed the other people at the table. Recognition didn't seem to spark in anyone's eyes, though. "I get the dumb joke," said the Schnee heiress. "Mint ice cream and all that, but I can't say I've ever heard a song with that title."

"Same here," answered the cat.

Mercury slid his own scroll out of his pocket and rapidly typed away. He wasn't familiar with most music, but this seemed too good to ignore. His eyes slid rapidly across the screen. Jazz band, no not that. This one's a childrens program, that wouldn't be embarassing much to a guy. I think.

Then his vision landed on a Schneetube link, and his grin expanded further. "I think I've found it: A La Mode, by Mindless Self Indulgence."

The eyes of all present fell on him, most of them simply curious; Jaune, however, gave his head a minute shake, his gaze pleading as he softly said, "Mercury, no."

"Mercury, yes." He pushed the play button and set the scroll flat on the table so everyone could see and hear it evenly. "Here it is."

I like my girls like my women,

and my women like my girls:

With ice cream on that ass, and my di-

Smash!

The scroll broke into pieces as Jaune slammed on it with the full force of one fist. Mercury wasn't even mad at his destroyed property, instead hiding his maniacal grin behind a closed fist as if he were coughing. Jaune's team had very complicated expressions, but Nora at least took a second to pat him on the shoulder in pity.

Team RWBY, though? Well, Weiss and Blake had already stood up and begun walking off, the former giving the boy an absolutely scathing look. Yang and Ruby met each other's eyes awkwardly, both saying quiet 'Later's as they went off to join their teammates.

Emerald was openly chuckling, which meant that she finally shared an opinion with him for once, and Neo was… quickly searching something up on her scroll? Huh.

Jaune cleared his throat before saying, "Mercury, I'll, uh, pay you back the money it costs to replace that."

"No problem man, I'll bring you the receipt later. Sorry that happened." Except he wasn't sorry, naturally. "Emerald, go ahead and give his back."

"Right, here you go. Well, we're going ahead to the next class. See you guys later." Mercury and Neo rose with her, the mute nodding to herself as she found what she wanted. Mercury glanced at her screen, and was kinda surprised to see that she'd pulled up the exact same song that just got his scroll crushed. Was she curious about it?

X

Cinder Fall was walking to her team's room in the dormitories. She didn't appreciate having to spend extra time with Beacon's teachers, even if it was just to fill out a few forms that hadn't been done yet with their transfer in, so hopefully her minions would have productive reports to give-

Her feet stopped as she got close to her door. Was that loud music coming from her room? What the hell were they doing? Opening the door slowly, her ears got blasted with some insipid "rock" as Roman's pet Neo… well, not sang along, more aggressively lip-synced in time. Mercury was laying on his bed, metal foot bouncing on beat while Emerald was covering her ears with pillows. None of them noticed her.

Want it! Need it A la Mode!

Serve that shit fucking co-o-o-old

I can't stand it when it's all alone,

cause everything is better when it's A la Mode!

Cinder quietly closed the door as Mercury participated in a call/response section with Neo, evaluating every life decision that led to this point.

Clearly she needed to wipe the slate clean, murder the two children and find two more to take their place.

Hm. Those Jaune and Neptune boys seemed highly susceptible to female wiles. Maybe she'd take them on as grunts. It could hardly go worse than this batch was.