"I trust that the shipment went through?"
"Oh, it did! We received the play yesterday, and we have someone with a lingual-based semblance working on transcribing a copy as of this moment. From what we have translated, the play is not only extremely old but intricate, and unique, a magnum opus for the civilization of the past. This might be the first time in history that we might be able to recreate a masterpiece of a play long thought gone to the sands of times. Though I must ask Mr. Schnee, is it wise to give such a one-of-a-kind relic to the Atlesian Arts Guild? Wouldn't it be wise to unveil such a piece at the Atlas Museum?"
"I figure it was time for the SDC to branch out, to assist the people of Atlas and the world besides providing them the fuel to enjoy their bread and circuses. I decided to become a patron of the arts, and my first step as such a patron would be to graciously gift you a play for you to perform for the good people of Atlas. The SDC would be funding the event, and serve as a fundraiser for the families of those who unfortunately lost their lives in Southern Vale."
"Your patronage knows no bounds, Mr. Schnee. We'll use the funds you'll provide to perform a play that no one will forget."
The director of the guild opens a wine cabinet and takes out a champagne bottle.
"Champagne? I wouldn't want to leave our patron thirsty."
"Gladly."
"You know if this play becomes a smashing hit in Remnant. Maybe we can have your daughter as a guest special for the next run, along with original music composed for her. Surely would blast those arrogant theater bastards in Mistral out of the water!"
The two men chuckle before drinking their glasses in silence, all the while. A lone clock ticks in the room.
Ruby was the first to wake up, the clock in the room chiming at 6:00 AM as she stretched her body. She looks to the window beside her bed, a beautiful morning dawn is shining upon the academy, though this time there's no false moon slowly dimming in the sky. Getting off her bed, she notices that no one else is awake, not even her "team leader".
She thought of waking them up but decided not to at the moment. Ruby went to grab her assigned uniform and detached her prosthetic arm before going to the bathroom to change and clean up herself.
After 15 minutes, Ruby emerges from the bathroom fresh as a newborn azure darkborn. The clothes are tight though, it feels thin and more of a rush job than a tailored school uniform. She puts on her circlet and her arm, before realizing that her arm needs maintenance and that she needs to properly unpack. She sighed, she has a lot to do to properly get used to living in the academy. Ruby walks over to the table and checks the schedule given to her team by the Witch.
At 9 AM is…right she can't read. But luckily the language of numbers is universal, she can just follow the numbers of the rooms in the classes being held. There are also special classes marked with Ruby's rose symbol. Most likely the lingual classes to help integrate her into the academy. She grabbed Crescent Rose and walked out of her dorm.
The workshop hall is reminiscent of the Artificers' main workshop back in Twilight, the difference being that this area is entirely dedicated to the maintenance of a variety of flashborn weapons. It is barely occupied, with only a single meek-looking rabbit mutant tinkering with her device.
Ruby takes an empty seat and grabs some tools similar to the ones she used to perform maintenance back in the White Palace. She detached her arm and began to work.
Her arm was dirty and would start to have locked joints if she didn't clean them, there were also a few sticks and leaves that got caught during the initiation, and her hand is slightly stained with dried blood. There are however no damages to her arm, visible or internal. A testament to the power of the Moon Shattering God. She disassembles and reassembles her arm, making sure that every part is cleaned and maintained before finally reattaching it. The returning sensation gave Ruby a shudder.
She looked to her right and see that the time is at around 6:45, around 2 and 15 hours left before she has to leave for class. Enough of her to work on Crescent Rose. She takes out her weapon and begins performing maintenance on it. The blade remains the same, though dirtied, she wipes it clean before using a whetstone to sharpen the blade. The scope was cleaned and checked for any cracks, and the magazine was checked for any faults within. Ruby was tempted to open her weapon and see the internal mechanism behind Crescent Rose but was dissuaded by the fact that if she breaks anything inside it. Her weapon would become useless.
After finishing maintenance, Ruby looked at Crescent Rose and realized that it was still unpainted. After pondering on it for a moment, her face lit up and she decided to give it her favorite color scheme. She rushes to the paints section and grabbed red and black from the shelves, before fervently painting her weapon.
It's been a while since she had tinkered with a weapon such as this. She painted and painted, making sure that every spot was at least red or black, folding the weapon into its several forms to cover every base. After a long time of painting, she turned her silvery unpainted weapon into a beautiful red black killing machine, fit for a princess. Ruby was filled with joy.
"Look, mother! Art thou proud with what I've done!"
She stood up and happily shouted to no one, drawing attention to herself by accident. A feeling of melancholy hits Ruby as she faces reality, though she is sure her mother will be overjoyed had she been here, and noticed that people are looking at her. She leaves and hurries to get her notebook for class.
Ruby entered her dorm to find the rest of her team decorating the room with what they brought to the academy. A painting of the Forever Forest hangs upon a wall, nearby a poster of a group of lightborn men. The room is a complete mess.
"Where have you been?! We've been setting up our room and you've been wandering around Beacon like a child! Why do you even have your weapon with you?"
Ruby looked at the Snowflake curiously, before looking at the clock in the room. It was 8:45. She pointed at the clock to gesture to her to get ready, before going into her sack, leaving her weapon, and grabbing her notebook.
"It's 8:45?! Ugh, why did none of you say anything about this?!"
"We've been unpacking and decorating our room remember? We still haven't figured out how to deal with the beds you know."
The Snowflake huffs before grabbing her class supplies and quickly leaving the room. She was followed by Ruby, and then eventually Black and Yellow.
"We have to meet Professor Port in hall 157, he will be the teacher of Grimm Studies here at Beacon."
"Uhh, does this Port happens to be slightly fat, grey hair and a mustache that substitutes for a mouth?"
"Don't speak of him like that Yang, he is our teacher and must be treated with respect! But to answer your question: Yes. Why?"
Yellow gave out a long, tired sigh.
"Is he one of those teachers Yang?"
"No Blake, all I can say is that you better bring something to keep you distracted."
"Monsters…Demons…Monsters of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I simply refer to them as prey!"
Ruby was struggling to stay awake. Guessing by the diagrams of the darkborn behind her teacher, this was darkborn studies. How can a single man make darkborn studies so…boring…sleepy.
Ruby hit her head on her desk, waking her up from boredom and also leaving a small red mark on her head. She rubs her head in pain and hears Yellow chuckling as the professor continues his story-driven tirade instead of teaching the class. Ruby wonders how this man could get a job at a prestigious academy if all he does is babble on and on. What's worst is that due to a new policy most likely done by the headmaster to ensure her stay at the academy will be as smooth as she can speak her language.
He has pictures displayed of him now. Very, very horrific and fake pictures.
If she remembered right, committing psychological torture upon the Dusk Princess is an act punishable by Timeless Redemption. Luckily the class reaction to this abomination upon Remnant persuaded him to replace the picture of him with darkborn…and he proceeded to immediately go back to his stories again.
She can tell because his voice carries a tone of longing for the past and haughtiness, and he looks to the ceiling as if gazing into a window of his youth. Ruby decided to scribble past the time, especially given that she doesn't see anything being worth taught to her…Well. Mother did emphasize learning certain character traits of people you're negotiating with, and how to exploit that to your advantage.
Well, she can do that another day. Ruby finishes a scribble of the professor and shows it to Black and Yellow, who laughs at the unflattering scribble of their professor. Ruby then closes her notebook, puts her pencil on her nose, and balanced her notebook on her head. Black and Yellow laugh even more as Ruby for some reason feels a sudden surge of negative emotions.
Ruby then hears the Snowflake suddenly shout. Looking to her side, she sees her hand raised and looking at the professor. She can feel a darkborn's presence inside the cage that's now beside the professor. Where in the hell did a cage appear in the first place?
Ruby watched as the Snowflake prepares herself, in front of her is a caged darkborn, the professor himself acting nonchalantly about this. She wonders how the flashborn are able to even cage a darkborn, from her knowledge. Darkborn are near impossible to cage due to the rage and desire to get through the cage to attack their prey causing them to overwork beyond what their body could handle. They would overwork themselves to death just for a chance to sink their claws into duskborn flesh.
The fact that the flashborn managed to capture one, and then would proceed to use it for darkborn studies speaks of the level of advancement the lightborn have over Ruby's kind.
The professor hefts his strange-looking ax, before breaking the lock on the cage. A borbatusk appears and charges at the Snowflake. Her teammates gave the Snowflake words of encouragement while Ruby just watch silently. A borbatusk is a…mediocre choice for darkborn training. Unlike the beowolf, borbatusks are extremely simple creatures, they only have armor on their front side and can only ram into their opponents.
Sure the charging ram is devastating and has some applications in clearing rubble or mining, but you can just simply sidestep it. It also causes the darkborn to be extremely disoriented for a time. The borbatusk is overall a poor choice. You had to be a complete moron to be able to lose to one in the first place.
Then the Snowflake attacked the borbatusk…on its skull…and got her blade stuck between its tusks.
Ruby resisted the urge to laugh. This is basic darkborn knowledge, yet the daughter of the most powerful family on the surface got her blade stuck on a borbatusk of all things. How pathetic…she wants to see more.
The borbatusk throws the Snowflake and her blade. It then tries charging her but she dodges, and the boar darkborn crashes into a desk. She rushes and grabs her rapier as the borbatusk reorientated itself and charges her, the Snowflake responded by creating a wall of fire in front of her and dodging the charge. The borbatusk squeals in pain as its hide was scorched by the flames. It then jumps and curls into a ball before rapidly spinning in place.
This got Ruby's attention, and a self-satisfied smile grew on her face. She hoped to see her getting crushed by the borbatusk's charge ram, at least some vindication can be delivered for the pains her wretched family caused her mother. The borbatusk then charges the Snowflake, but she reacted by creating a light blue glyph to block the attack, she then jumps into the air to another glyph that was in the air behind her. The glyph turned black, and then back to blue as she drives her rapier deep into the exposed belly of the borbatusk, killing it.
The professor congratulated her as a bell rang out in the room, signaling the end of the class. The Snowflake looked up and sees Ruby's dissatisfied face before Ruby got up and walked out of the room.
Ozpin watches Rose and Oobleck from a camera inside the lecture room. Oobleck is using basic child-level language lessons in order to teach Ruby basic Valean, a royal such as her would most likely be insulted by this way of teaching. However Rose shows immense enthusiasm with the language lesson, and Doctor Oobleck is also extremely enthusiastic, more so than usual. In a bin containing several writings Rose has performed in her native language, most likely he will ask Ozpin to approve the studying of Rose's writing system to better communicate with her.
This Silver Rose is an enigma despite what she has shown to the world. Unknown language, culture, and kingdom, the only link to her and the rest of Remnant are her silver eyes and her shape-shifting scythe. He watches as Oobleck congratulates Ruby for learning how to say hello.
And there's the fact of the accent. No matter how hard he looks in the archives of Beacon, he never heard of an accent that sounds so…alien. Inhuman. Grimm. Every time Rose speaks, it's akin to an ancient mimicking the voice of a human so it can either taunt or lure its prey to its doom. Perhaps this is a trait of a once-long-dead tribe, forced to exile beyond the hinterlands of the kingdoms because the way they speak is akin to Grimm mimicry. It would certainly align with Ruby's backstory, though he wonders how a primitive society could craft a huntsman weapon. Given her hatred towards Weiss, perhaps SDC encroachment on her kingdom's land? A medieval society could view the arrival of mining vehicles and miners as an attack on their lands. So many questions, just from this one girl.
The elevator in his office dings and Glynda steps out.
"Ah Glynda, is there something on your mind?"
"It's about Weiss and team RWBY."
"I thought I made my decision clear Glynda."
"But we still don't know of the potential ramifications! We're essentially putting two people that hate each other on the same team, one can't even speak and the other views the former as a barbarian who doesn't belong to this school. We don't even know why they hate each other. The files from the SDC provided to me don't hint towards conflict with an unknown tribe or society of humans."
Glynda takes a sigh before looking back at Ozpin.
"You also named the team RWBY instead of WBRY, despite Weiss being the team leader. Not to mention including the first letter of her last name instead of her first. Why?"
Ozpin takes a long sip from his mug, before standing up and looking out from the window, the sun is setting.
"Glynda, do you know why we train huntsmen and fight against Salem?"
"To protect humanity against the darkness. To be the light against the encroaching dark. To stand as a bulwark against those that would seek to divide and destroy us."
"Yes, the Beacon motto does contribute to that, but it is not the only reason why we train huntsmen, humans, or Faunus. We train them so they can fight their inner hatred and prejudice, towards the Faunus or their fellow man."
"Hatred is something that exists in all of us, it is a corrosive, damaging malignant that can absolutely destroy a person, and leave them a shallow husk of the person they once were. Hatred is the tool Salem employs, to divide us, turn us against each other, lose trust against friends and family, and while our hatred keeps us blinded, she will be the one opening the gates for the Grimm to come pouring in and slaughter us all. Hatred prevents us from seeing our fellow man as man, instead makes us see them as "it", the enemy that must be oppressed or destroyed."
"I stand by my decision to let in the Faunus when this academy was opened, I made many, many mistakes in my life, some I still regret to this day, and oh do I wish I can turn the clock once again and prevent those mistakes. But I do not regret introducing Faunus into Beacon, even when the council was threatening to replace me with another headmaster. And because of that decision, we have made great strides for the Faunus population in Vale. Though conditions could improve, the Humans and Faunus in Vale overall see each other as friends and family rather than "other". Though sadly there are still those that view their fellows as "lesser", whether they be Human…or Faunus."
"I have Rose and Weiss in the same team for the exact reason. For those two to grow past their hatred, realize that they share much more in common than they think, and become proper teammates. The same can be said for Miss Belladonna, and how she will learn to stop hiding and accept herself as a Faunus working towards a better future for everyone, working alongside the heiress of the SDC. And for Miss Schnee to set aside her prejudice towards the Faunus and work alongside Blake for the betterment of the Faunus in her company. Only then, by discarding their hatred and prejudice will their team reach their fullest potential."
"I plan for Rose to take the position of team leader, but that day will come when the relationship between her and Weiss has improved to the point they see each other as friends, alongside her ability to speak Valean. But I do agree with the team naming, I'll see it changed to Wolfberry, and justify it as a technical error on the screen on the day of the initiation. And to answer your other question, Miss Rose is a royal, one of the last few on Remnant. I doubt she would like it if she found out she was being referred to by her first name on official documents. That was considered a grave insult back then, it's possible that her kingdom still follows that custom."
Ozpin turns back to Glynda.
"Is there anything else you need Glynda?"
"The archeologists are preparing to explore the ruins in Central Vale. They're waiting for James to send his vanguard to ensure their safety, besides the Ace Ops, a contingent of marines will be there to assist them and help deal with the White Fang situation. Until General Ironwood arrives, they will be under your command."
"I'll be sure to send James my regards."
Glynda nods, before leaving the room. Ozpin sips his mug before going back to work, the clockwork above containing the CCT system being the only thing making noise in his office.
Then his scroll pings, a message from Qrow.
"Possibility of a group connected to the Queen. Will investigate. Also, Vacuan underworld spooked by something, an unknown group. Lead by a "Black and White Queen", will investigate connection between them and Queen."
"Hmmm…"