There was not a cloud to be found in the sky today. The wind was pleasantly mild, heading north-east; windchill was at a wonderful eighteen degrees; and humidity was at a level so negligible none would ever think it was there. A perfect day, one could say.
"Kol, surely you don't mean to move our luggage by yourself!" The voice of a young lady chastised him from the bottom of the ramp at the end of the bay, beneath the sleek white aircraft. "We have servants for that."
"I am the definition of a healthy young man, Weiss, I can manage our things just fine. No need to trouble them for it." He politely returned and descended the boarding ramp of their private aircraft with a large silver trolley neatly fit to burst in tow.
The perfectly oiled bearings of the over-laden cart accompanied by his black combat boots traveled down the bright ridged metal platform in a staccato of thumps and whirs.
Part-way down, he paused to enjoy the fresh air and the warm morning light of a clear sky. Indulging for a moment, he closed his eyes letting the tension in his body unwind and expel in a gentle breath.
Across from the three landing pads and dozen aircraft; lay a massive limestone courtyard framed in towering marble pillars and granite arches. A glistening moat of crystal clear water refracting the morning sun beyond which stood their destination. A beige alabaster steeple and its entourage of towers capped in verdant aluminium tile; cast shadows across the pristine green grounds. The three tiered dormitory blocks and the looming mess hall stood rear guard at flanking positions. An imposing, modern, fictitious castle incarnate built atop a cliff overseeing the capital city of Vale.
Beacon Academy for Huntsmen.
"Like it or not, we're elites, Kol." She looked in his eyes like she would someone daft as she donned her white jacket and adjusted her ponytail. "We must be mindful of the image we present to our peers. What will they say if they see you comporting yourself in such a demeaning manner?"
"For pulling our luggage? I'm sure they'll say many things regardless, little sister. I simply think it's fair that if I bring my own things, then I should carry them." He shrugged.
She sighed, picking some unseen debris from her pristine white skirt. "When did you become so uncouth?"
"When did you start to despise manual labor?" He poked with a lilt, leaning forward. "Are you sure you're in the right place?"
"I don't despise it." She harrumphed with a turn and a flick of her waist length hair. "I simply know when to delegate."
The banter was an old familiar thing from their childhood. Even years apart after his . . . tours, and even after the initial awkwardness of reunion, it still came naturally. He let the small sense of contentment form a soft smile on his lips. He'd make up for so much lost time now that they were attending academy together. Not even something as insignificant as differing schedules or dorm assignments would get in the way.
"I still can't believe you managed to convince a studio to let you sing, Weiss. Seriously, nine years ago you shrieked like a violin on death row!"
"Kol!" She cried aghast, slapping his shoulder.
"I leave you alone and you make an entire album of that racket." He tutted, shaking his head with faux disapproval and a small grin on his face.
"Don't make it sound like you volunteered to leave." She bitterly remarked. "And I'll have you know, I am the highest selling album in all of Erde!" She poised with a tap of her heeled boot as they and a large gathering of young adults made their way to the Grand Hall.
The sounds of many voices cascaded over the air in the stone courtyard. Teenagers of every color; wearing many styles and fashions in just as many colors; made for the academy proper in a wave of bodies. Some walked alone, others with friends; some taking a moment to appreciate the fine masonry of the pillars and fountain. One individual, he noted, in a large red cloak was callously bounced and jostled around the crowd. As he tracked the cloak with a casual eye, it's wearer promptly tripped into the trolley Kol was pulling.
Or rather, they would have if he didn't intervene.
A reflexive flare of his semblance summoned a sigil in the likeness of glass shards arrayed in a hexagonal motif; gently shattering as it arrested their fall; setting them back on their feet with a twirl and a cacophony of tinkling chimes; leaving the rouge specter stumbling to regain their balance. All without disturbing a single bag on his cart or breaking stride.
Weiss never noticed a thing.
"You know sister," Kol mused, "for Erdes 'highest selling album' you don't seem to be very popular with the locals."
Despite Weiss's claims to fame, there was nary a glance spared for her. He knew there was a chance that someone knew of her, if in name alone. They were probably just too excited by the prestige of the school to notice.
"There's no doubt that they're just focused on the entrance examination. It's not as if no one knows who I am!"
"You're Weiss Schnee, heiress of the largest conglomerate in all of Reste."
Kol stilled beside his sister, blinked, and promptly pinched himself as the bearer of the new voice approached. She, like the rest of the passers-by, was their age. Straight, noir locks framed her face and curtained behind her bare shoulders. And atop her head was a most curious installment. A bow?
"You see?! Recognition!" Beamed Weiss as she looked to him.
"A company known to extort faunus for cheap labor." The stranger accused sharply.
"EXCUSE ME?!" Weiss' turned; flabbergasted.
And thus ensued an argument he, if asked, would admit to not recalling in its entirety.
The newcomer, he noted, wore a white crop top, and an interesting black reinforced tail-coated vest with white shorts below.
"-such slanderous accusations against my family's company were disproven in court, and all inquiries were transparent and thorough!"
The new girl took a gracefully harsh stride; towering over Weiss. Looong long legs clad in nightshade-black and small, heeled black boots…
"Tell that to the slaves dying in your mines." The beautiful stranger bit out with a growl.
"I just told-you know what? I'm done. I will not entertain this poppycock any longer." Weiss finished; crossing her arms and turning away.
Yes. Those legs could not possibly be any longer.
The bowed girls eyes narrowed. Turning on a heel, she retreated across the school courtyard. The tension in her shoulders, white knuckle grip on her pack, and the change in her gait betraying the true feelings underneath her cool demeanor. In short; pissed.
A most tantalizing derrière.
Weiss let out a huff, reeling from that irksome encounter. Her brother had been unusually silent during the whole exchange. Once upon a time he'd have been right behind her with a witticism on hand to unbalance the fiends at fathers galas. With which she'd follow up with an innocent smile and piercing words to dismantle their facades and courage. It was their niche. Their modus operandi. Yet during that entire exchange he'd left her on her own!
Inconceivable!
Turning to regard her vertically blessed twin, she found his face seemingly glazed over in a cast of thoughtlessness. Still as a grave; eyes widened by a hair and mouth parted minutely. A most shocking expression that no Schnee would be caught dead with!
"Kol!" Her harsh voice cut through his fugue.
He flinched. Albeit barely. "Wha-? Oh! I'm sorry Weiss. What were you saying?"
One slow blink and her eyes went wide. Her unbothered, cool as can be brother was stammering?! When did Wüste freeze over?!
"Where were you?! You should've been defending our family's honor!"
"I apologize, Weiss," he lowered his head, "but…"
Looking up again, his ice-blue eyes gazed out towards the school.
"I do believe I've just met the most beautiful girl on the face of this court." He breathed with a foolish grin.
"Who?" She turned to follow his gaze. Everyone was too far away for proper appraisal. Meaning said girl had to have been nearby-
A head of straight black hair and a bow stood out. Still marching along towards the vaunted doors of the greatest of the Huntsmen Academies.
Now, Weiss considered herself to be a healthy young lady, but she swore in that instant that her blood pressure could have crystallized her!
"HER?!" She shouted; finger raised as she rounded on her brother incredulously.
"You can not be serious!"
"You can't blame me!" He gestured a gloved hand to his sleek custom armored jacket, "She's wearing my color!"
Kol let out a groan atop his bedroll, uncrossing his left leg, satisfied with his now thoroughly stretched torso. Taking in the venue of the night as he adjusted the top of his sleepwear.
At the entrance to his left stood an arched, heavy oaken double-door five meters tall. Wide enough for four large men to enter abreast with room left to spare. The accompanying wall bore no windows; a duet of curved stairways at either side led to an encompassing catwalk. A dozen load bearing columns divided both the adjacent walls, and each held an LED torch in a trapezoidal case that bathed the dark hallway and the teenagers gathered beneath them in warm light. Interposed between them were large picture windows framed in homely red curtains. A banner welcoming the 'new bloods' hung across the ceiling. And it was a curious ceiling. Five arched rows ran parallel to the hall, with cross sections barely visible in the night lighting. And along the inverted peaks were glass chandeliers, flickering like candlelight.
The Grand Hall was the best and the worst place to house the Hunter candidates for the night. Logistically best, as it was the best place to fit hundreds of teenagers with room to spare.
On the other hand, however, it was also a room full of hundreds of loud, chatty, teenagers.
Crude. Hollering. Posturing. Teenagers.
Initiates had spread into cells and social groups across the hall in various states of dress. Nothing socially untoward or necessarily awkward. However, that didn't seem to to matter. All across the room there were wandering, juvenile eyes from both sexes taking in the views as surreptitiously as amateurs could muster. Not even the upperclassmen stationed in the balcony like sentries were so obvious in their gazing. Well, save one gal. That one in particular either had no self-awareness, or just did not care for subtlety.
Damn hormonal cesspit.
"I can't believe this!"
And Weiss was ranting…again.
"The Headmaster expects us to sleep in the grand hall," she emphasized with the stroke of her hairbrush atop a white family branded bedroll, her legs tucked beneath her like a proper lady, "on the ground," stroke, "with all these riffraff as if we were vagrants on the street?!" Stroke. Stroke. Stroke.
She had a habit of such; as he'd remembered. A means for her to let her hair down, so to speak. Most would have found it difficult to put up with at best, or outright unsightly at worst. Yet, he'd come to accept it as one of her endearing traits. Her doing so near him was a sign that she trusted him; that she was still comfortable enough to speak her mind freely around him.
She turned a look over her shoulder, fixing the light shawl she wore over her silk cornflower nightgown. A new addition, in light of the sleeping arrangements.
"Is there not a modicum of dignity amongst Valeans?!" She posed to him, aghast.
However, it seems she'd found the courage to speak so regardless these days.
"All these boors strutting around exposing themselves in public. God above, do they derive some perverse form of pleasure from it?!" She hissed to him.
She also had a strong view of what was and wasn't acceptable, and was quite vocal about it. Shirtless teenage 'dudes' showboating made the list.
"Now now, Weiss," the young man pat her shoulder in hope of placating her temper, "while it's arguable whether or not they're indecent, the boys are merely doing as boys do. Tarring themselves and flaring their feathers in vain hope of attracting the fairer sex."
Some of the nearby, eavesdropping, would-be peacocks had grimaced or glared at him for that assessment. But then again, there would be those who would contest the truth anyway.
"They could not attract a starving Nym in blood frenzy whilst stark nude in a fit of raging lust!" She snapped.
Ouch. But alas, he could not contest it.
"Alright, alright," Kol raised his hands in surrender, "settle down. You don't want to start a monkey show."
Weiss gave him a small glare, but complied. Taking a deep breath and letting out a sigh; she recomposed herself. Her tense shoulders unwound slightly as she reached to tuck away a loose lock of snow-white hair.
"That was unsightly; I apologize." She said softly.
"Ah," he waved her words away with an easy smile. "yesterday's snow."
She replaced her hairbrush and assorted toiletries in the small bag beside her. Taking time to adjust her nightwear once more and look around the surprisingly open hall despite the numerous candidates.
"It just doesn't seem right that we're all roughing it on the floor when there must be beds available in the dorms. Surely being the most prestigious of the Academies would afford them the resources to house all of the candidates properly?"
"It does," he conceded, "however, you know as well as I do that said annuities would be better spent on actual students and not the hopefuls. In a way, they're letting us know we're not accepted yet. Until we prove to be worth the expenditures, creature comforts will be withheld."
Just like back home. All the money in the world wasn't enough for dear old dad to spend his oh so precious time with his children. Mother became too enamored with inebriation and self-pity to make room in her heart for anyone else. And of course it didn't help matters when elder sister decided tha-
"Hey there, wassup?" An accented voice called out.
His train of thought was hijacked by a pair of newcomers. A bodacious, well toned, blonde girl in a nigh scandalous orange tank top, black shorts, a suspiciously friendly smile and her bedroll tucked under one arm. She did not seem to bother with any form of footwear for the evening despite the floor having been traversed by a veritable battalion hailing from who knows where. God only knew what manners of microscopic dirt, grime and bacteria she'd be bringing into her bedroll tonight. The heathen!
Her shorter brunette companion, also female; wore a modest black top, printed cream pajama pants and held her own roll tightly in both arms. She at least wore a simple pair of felt red slippers.
"Yang!" The short one quietly pleaded as she ducked her face behind the pillow in her arms, "Thisistoomuch!We'reprobablybotheringthem!"
"Pardon me?" Said Weiss.
The smaller girl shrunk into herself and ducked behind her bedroll. A grin split the blondes face as she stuck a pose, extended both index fingers, pointed at Weiss, and opened her mouth.
"Consider it par-done!" She declared.
Huh?
"Was?" Came the automatic Atlesian response.
"Bless you." Said the small one.
"What?" Bless you?
"Bless you!"
"Why?"
"What?"
The younger girl finally seemed to realize she misheard his query as she ducked her head and tried to hide behind the taller girls mane.
"Geez, tough crowd. Anyway," said the blond, unfazed, and with one arm, wrestling the small girl back into view, "Name's Yang, this is my li'l sister, Ruby!" She held the smaller girl in front of her like he imagined a proud parent would. "Say hello, sis."
"H-hi." The girl could hardly meet their eyes. Poor thing looked like she'd rather be anywhere else.
"She's a little shy." Yang supplied with a shrug. "She just needs to get out of her shell and meet new people, y'know?"
"I…see." He spoke with a hum. Sharing a glance with Weiss, she raised a brow before giving a nod to continue before he turned to the brunette. Hmm, silver eyes.
"Good night, Ruby. I'm Kol and this is Weiss. It's good to meet you."
"Yes, a good night to you, Ruby." Chimed Weiss, politely nodding with a gentle P.R. perfect smile. "A pleasure."
"Oh! Uh-um, good morni-night! Good night! Ohmygodi'mhopeless…" Ruby stammered out, mortified.
"So!" Yang began, seating Ruby and herself before them, "I couldn't help but notice you two form across the room. There aren't many people who came here as a pair, so what's the story?"
"What do you mean?" Weiss asked as she shifted to sit closer to her brother. It was something she'd done as a child. So much so it was a subconscious motion.
A motion that the blonde picked up on with another grin.
"Oh come on, don't play coy!" She tittered with a lilt. "How long have you two been dating?"
Kol felt his the blood disappear from his face and his eyes go wide, poor Weiss sputtered and choked on air. Valeans, God save them, were infamous in the other kingdoms for their chutzpah in all matters of intimacy, but to insinuate such taboo to one's face was absurd!
Sure, his hair was coal black to Weiss' snow white, but they had the same face (mostly) doggone-it!
"W-what the devil are you on about?!" Kol yelped, mouth agape.
Little Ruby 'eep'ed with a squeak. Yang flinched, surprised by his outburst and brows drawn high, leaned back with her hands raised.
"H-hey, chill man, it's just a simple questio-"
"You literally asked if I'm dating her!"
The ambient conversations were silenced as the gossiping rabble tuned in to the ensuing debacle.
"Yeah?" Yang challenged, squaring her shoulders. "What's wrong with that? She not your type or something?"
"Not my-? Are you blind?!" Kol shouted as he leaned forward, gesturing to Weiss beside him. "She's clearly my sister!"
"…"
"…"
The silence in the hall was deafening.
"Oh." Was all a wide-eyed Yang could say.
"I knew that…" Ruby sighed dejectedly.
"W-well," Weiss cleared her throat, trying to force the embarrassment from her features. "Now that you've been informed, please, never again insinuate that I would ever…" she grimaced as her body let slip a shudder, "court my brother."
"Yeah…sure. My bad. You both look so dif-"
"Incest is win-cest!" some she-git shouted.
The statement was met with groans and coarse retorts from the peanut gallery; telling off an upperclass supervisor.
And then those retorts were in turn retorted with answering shouts of agreement.
That caused Weiss to take her headrest and bury her shame in it.
Kol closed his eyes and tried to count to ten, failed, and huffed.
"Excuse me," he bit out flatly; slipping into his house shoes, "but it appears someone is in dire need of a glossectomy, and I happen to be a most generous surgeon."
He'd make certain beret and sunglasses would rue this night.
Coal made his way to the second floor with the haunting grace of a panther. Stepping through and around the mosh pit of heated arguments and intense debates and disappearing like a ghost in the crowd.
"Sooo…that happened?" Yang offered, having to call out over the commotion.
"Unfortunately…" Wise bemoaned into her fancy pillow.
Yang checked the balcony where the upperclassman girl was shouting down, trading insults and barbs with the initiates with a cat-like grin. Coal stepped out from behind a pillar, his face stoic, and with two extended fingers jabbed the girl once in the throat, turned and disappeared behind the column. Leaving his victim choking and crumpled on the floor.
Yikes! Brutal.
"Does-uh…does that happen a lot?" Ruby, bless her, asked quietly.
The girl groaned through the pillow into her hands, her long white locks cascading over her shoulders in an admittedly mesmerizing silky manner. "Less than you'd think, more than I'd like."
Welp, time to be a big sis and distract her from her problems.~
"What's your hair care routine?"
AN: This started as writing exercise to describe characters without breaking into a two paragraph essay for everyone in the scene, as well as a desire to write an OC Schnee Twin that was NOT this 'Bleiss' nonsense. It was also about mid-way through writing this that I discovered delet now's A Superflous Schnee. I swear, it felt like we had the same ideas for the first chapter events but chose the opposite options for the OC's character. I promise no consistent updates at this time, but please do offer any constructive tips and or criticisms or what have you. It would be appreciated.