Ch. 10 Team dynamics
It was later that evening when an unexpected visitor came knocking at the door. At first Ruby assumed it was Yang coming to visit, but it turned out to be a fellow team leader begging for asylum from the aforementioned sister's shenanigans.
"Please Ruby! I need help. How do I stop your sister and Cardin from fighting constantly? The two have been at each other's throats for the whole day and Pyrrha isn't much help in this."
"Ok… uh, come in for now. Explain what's going on and how it started."
Sky was a bit baffled when he entered the room and saw an actual blanket fort, but quickly focussed himself on the task at hand. He sat down on one of the pillows and started explaining.
"They're not violent yet, but with the amount of arguments it's just a matter of time before they get to that point. As I see it, it's mostly Cardin's fault but Yang keeps escalating things. Cardin is being rude and keeps trying to assert his dominance over our team. I originally thought I would be the one clashing with him the most, but your sister keeps insulting him every time he tries. Now not to be ungrateful, but it isn't helping at all since now I have to deal with two hotheads instead of one."
Jaune listened quietly. He knew Cardin was a git, that in itself wasn't new information to him. He did want to help with this situation since RNJR's formation was directly responsible for forming team SWNY. He remained quiet though, he didn't know Yang nearly enough to help anyway.
"Well, if I know my sister, and I do, the only way you're getting through to her is violence of some sort."
"Yeah, that's not very helpful in the situation where I want to prevent violence from happening."
Jaune had a thought then and immediately let it out in the open.
"Well, you're specifically trying to prevent violence within your team right?"
"Oh, that's a good idea Jaune. Sky, why don't we stage a team fight? You know SWNY vs RNJR or even better make it Yang and Cardin against me and Jaune."
"So, they'd have to work together?"
"I mean it makes sense. Cardin doesn't exactly like me and I imagine Yang wouldn't like to lose to Ruby."
"Ok, sure… let's say we're doing this. How do I convince them that they should pair up for this? They're not even partners."
"Call it a teamwork exercise. Done."
It was then that Nora interjected into the conversation.
"Ooh! How about you and Pyrrha go against me and Ren?"
"That's… not a bad idea actually. I mean, I need to be able to work with her as much as Yang and Cardin do. Again, while Pyrrha isn't making things any worse, she isn't helping either. Maybe this will help her out of her shell."
"Great! Now shoo! I need to strategize with the team."
Sky almost started to protest, but realised that he was outmatched by the combined might of Ruby and Nora manhandling him out of the door. He was almost out the door when he managed to interject.
"Wait, when are we doing this?"
"That's what the meeting is about, silly. You want us to win against Yang… oh and Cardin I guess."
"Do I? I thought I wanted Yang and Cardin to work together to beat you."
"No you don't, trust me." responded Ruby with a smile.
And with that the door slammed closed in his face.
"Ok people! I'm calling for a second team meeting."
There was a moment of silence before Jaune broke it.
"Ok, I'll bite. Ruby, what's the strategy?"
"Well I figured, since we worked pretty well as a team during initiation, we might as well work on other aspects. Like your semblance Jaune, or more like your equipment. You still need more armour. So the question is, how long will it take you to make more?"
"Well, that depends. I can make myself more armour fairly quickly. But if I want it to work with my semblance, and I do, I'll be hard pressed to make a single piece in a week. Hell, it'll take even longer now that classes have started."
"Ok, what if I help?"
"I… don't know actually. I'm pretty sure I need to make the weapon myself for Arsenal to recognise it… I'm not sure how much help I can get from you without… well, messing with my semblance. And if my semblance wont recognise it, I won't know how to use it."
"Then I say we should get as much done as soon as possible. I'll help in any way I can, without actually touching the piece if I can at all help it. Do you have any idea of what we'll be making?"
Jaune felt… conflicted. On one hand, it felt all too familiar to be rushed into making something. On the other hand, he could appreciate Ruby's earnestness in trying to get this done seeing as ultimately she was doing this for his benefit and was even willing to sacrifice her own time to help.
"I have some ideas for more gauntlets. Actually there is one I wanted your help with anyway."
Jaune dug through his school bag to take out his sketchbook. Flipping back through the pages he found the one he sketched shortly after Qrow helped him with the Hidden Blade.
"This one. It's based on the Occultus Ferrum." Jaune spoke the name with intent and presented the gauntlet to Ruby, for her to compare against the drawing.
"I see, this one is gonna be a gun then."
"Yeah, the problems I have are twofold. The inner workings and materials. I had someone help me with designing the internals of Occultus Ferum, but I don't know much about firearms, so I'll need all the help I can get with this one."
"That's fine. I have some ideas on how to make this work. I am partially responsible for Ember Celica, Yang's shotgun gauntlets."
"Great, thank you. Now to the second problem. The high dust alloy I used for my weapons so far is pretty bad for this application. I can use it for the armour part of the gauntlet, which will also function as the receiver, and possibly the slide if I can file it down to fit. I'm pretty sure it would be absolutely impossible to make a barrel with it and the small parts and springs are probably a no go too."
"Alright, that may work to our advantage though. I can turn down a barrel for you and make the other internals for you from standard gunmetal. Then you can assemble it, see if your semblance takes to it. If not I'll guide you through making the parts yourself with my parts as an example."
"That sounds like a plan. Now then any glaring issues with the sketch before we get to designing individual parts?"
"Lots! First of what calibre is that supposed to be in? Cause you'll want a way bigger slide if you want to hurt grim with this and not have it explode in your face. Magazine capacity will be limited with this design so going with a small calibre is pretty much a no go. Also, the magazine! Where is it? Cause I don't see one. You'll want to curve it around your forearm here and probably make it fixed and feed the ammo into it through the gun itself. With how much it curves you don't want to risk it jamming. Still I think we can get it to go all around your forearm…"
Jaune was furiously scribbling notes as Ruby sped through her list of grievances with his admittedly lacklustre design. But overtime the firearm was beginning to take shape. Heavily inspired by the Vacuan Eagle, featuring fail-safes on top of fail-safes in order to prevent misfires due to being used as armour. The pistol was chambered in .50 beowulf as opposed to .50 ae the Vacuan Eagle was chambered in. Sure, .50 beowulf wasn't really a pistol cartridge, but with hunter grade dust propellant would work well enough in a shorter barrel with the additional advantage of burning targets at close range.
Though he did not realise at the time, it felt nice to see Ruby so confident and in her element. Especially after the anxiety attack he bore witness to in Grim Studies. Jaune was enjoying his time spent with Ruby, despite the harsh criticism pointed at his design.
On the other side of Fort Ranger, Nora wasn't enjoying her time at all. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, she was spending time with Ren so it wasn't that bad. Even if he did make her work on her homework for doctor Oubleck's history class. And she did try to pay attention in class and work hard on the homework, it's just…
"Ugh, history is so BORING! Can't we do something else?"
"Not unless you want to start on the readings for Grim Studies?"
"Why can't we study for combat class?"
"But professor Goodwitch didn't give us any homework."
"We could go to the gym, or go blow up the firing range?"
"Nora…"
"Come on, we should give those two some space, they haven't noticed us since they started talking with each other."
"Fine, we can go to the gym, but no firing range and we continue with homework after we get back!"
"Yay! Let's go!"
And so Nora practically dragged Ren out of the room, not that either Jaune or Ruby noticed.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
This week is a nightmare. I won't bore you with my personal life, just know that it shouldn't affect the posting schedule. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and aren't too offended by my disregard for real life properties of .50 beowulf (I mean come on BEOWULF). Then again we're dealing with literal magic here so...
Anyway hope you look forward to next weeks chapter: Ch. 11 Putting the pieces together