Chapter time!
Happy New Christmas, and Merry Year, everyone!
The poll for the pairing is currently: 7 (5 from the Poll, and 2 from comments) votes for the Weiss x Ilia; 6 (5 from the Poll, and 1 from comments) votes for Weiss x Jaune, 3 (2 from the Poll, and 1 from comments) for Weiss x Ilia x Jaune, and 1 (1 from the comments) vote for platonic friends.
The poll can be found on my profile page on this very site (You can find it at the very top of it, if you go there on the website, as far as I'm aware it doesn't work on the phone app), if someone still didn't vote here and wants to. I'll be counting all the votes until the next chapter upon which I'll close the poll and focus the story to include the results from it.
Also, I wrote this chapter mostly in between the holidays with a lot of breaks, so if the quality of my writing jumps around between the scenes it's because of that. I still hope you will enjoy it, though.
Here we go!
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Topic: What you would have changed about the game?
In: Boards Game Creation
WhiteRainbowPart (Original Poster) (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Posted On Jul 13th AW95:
As all of you have probably heard from my fellow co-developer of the ATG, we are currently making a full game out of it. The last time we talked about it Black asked all of you whether you would be willing to work with us as voice actors. Now I'm asking for something completely different.
Please, tell me all yours biggest complaints about the game, and things that you would have changed if you had the chance to do so. We don't care about how long you've played he game, or whether you think that you're good at the game or not. We just want to hear your opinions.
We want to make this project of ours as fun as possible for everyone, no matter how good they are at the game.
(Showing page 1 of 18)
KatCat-Gat
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
Huh, neat.
LonelyPlayAh
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
Are you guys asking for feedback because you haven't done anything yet?
BlackRainbowPart (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
Yes, we still are only at the beginning of creating our game. Everything we make now will have an impact throughout the entire game creation process.
That's why we want to keep in mind all the possible things we might need to change in the future.
BollyPolly96
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
It's a great idea, I hope it will work out for you. Also a new board on the site, yay!
diverseSIGHT
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
I think the game could use more characters, BlackRainbowPart.
realistic Monkey
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
The more characters there are the less balenced they would be tho.
MadScienceGuy
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
Make the tech characters stronger!
naturesbest
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
NO!
make them weaker
WhiteRainbowPart (Original Poster) (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
I believe the characters are balanced decently well for now, and there's no way to tell how the characters would fare in the game at the moment, either. We will make sure to have them easily changeable, to make sure we can keep the balance easier in the future, though.
HappyNEWby (The Regular)
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
How about making custom servers in which people can worry about balance on their own? It's always good to give people choice on how they want to play.
XX_ThaProDude_XX (Unverified Tester)
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
terrible idea
wiht custom rules present in the game it would be difficult to make sure that all yhe games were fair
eyeseawhatudidtheir
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
I think it could work.
BlackRainbowPart (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
We will probably add something like that. It will be restricted to private games only, though.
The competitive game mode needs to have a standardised rule set.
Also, we most likely won't be adding the custom games right off the bat, our team is still rather small after all, and we have to prioritise.
A_Timber
Replied On Jul 13th AW95:
Hey, are you looking for more programmers?
I would be willing to help.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 16, 17, 18
(...)
Weiss woke up with a startle.
The first thing she did upon becoming awake was panic in a silent confusion. She wasn't in her room; in fact, nothing that she could see with her eyes looked like anything that could have been found in her mansion.
Immediately, worried thoughts started to enter her mind.
Had she been kidnapped?
Had something happened to her?
It wasn't until she noticed her friend peacefully sleeping beside her in the rather large bed that she began to calm down. She even let out a quiet sigh of relief at the feeling of safety she found herself experiencing.
That's right; they had fallen asleep in the room offered to them by the cafe owner after a whole night of gaming.
It had been a memorable night, for sure.
Although she hadn't felt that tired while they were playing the games themselves, the whole night of gaming sure had taken its toll on her. By the time she had reached the room, it hadn't taken even a minute for her to instantly fall asleep.
Thankfully, she didn't need to deal with the tiredness alone.
Ilia looked just as exhausted as she was.
The girl didn't even wake up yet!
Weiss huffed.
Whether her friend was awake or not, she should probably start getting ready to return home by now. After spending a whole night on the computers and later borrowing the room to sleep in as well, she and Ilia had certainly intruded on the kind cafe owner for long enough.
It wasn't like she could waste that much more time, either.
The people working at the mansion most definitely expected her to be home. She silently feared that if she were to remain absent from the mansion for much longer, something drastic might end up happening.
With a tired motion, she slowly stretched before taking a brief look at herself.
She couldn't help but cringe at what she saw.
Ugh, she looked so unkempt.
It seemed that the people in her mansion would have to wait for her for just a little bit longer, because there was no way she was going to return home looking like that.
Carefully, she lifted herself up from the lying position and made her way out of the bed. Her friend was still sleeping, and the last thing she wanted to do was to wake her up earlier than necessary.
The process of leaving the bed didn't take her too long, and soon she was slowly walking towards the room's door.
She had no idea where the bathroom she could use to take a shower was—nor even if the building had such a bathroom in the first place—but she was sure that she would be able to find it without any issues.
As long as she wouldn't unnecessarily interrupt her friend's sleep, she would be fine.
"Ugh, Snow? Is that you?" Ilia mumbled out loud with a yawn, slowly regaining consciousness.
Weiss paused in her step.
Great, the only thing she didn't want to happen happened immediately anyway. There were times she couldn't help but wonder why she bothered to be so considerate of others when it appeared to be completely unnecessary.
A loud groan escaped her.
Well, there was no point in trying to not wake up her friend anymore.
"Yeah, it's me." She said.
Ilia looked at her with blurry eyes.
"Where are you going?" The girl asked, before suddenly widening her eyes and pushing herself up with her hand to shift herself into a much more alert position. "Wait! Are you leaving already?!"
Weiss winced a little at the sudden increase in volume.
"I'm not leaving yet." She assured her friend. "I'm going to take a shower first. I feel terrible right now. I hope it will help me get better. Do you know if there's some bathroom I can use to take a shower in this cafe?"
Ilia let out a breath of relief.
"It's to the left of here; I'm sure you will find it." The girl said, pointing at the room's exit.
Weiss smiled.
"Thank you."
She couldn't wait to take a proper shower.
The whole night of gaming with her friend might have been fun, but she wasn't going to pretend that it was without flaws. Her body most certainly wasn't thanking her for that decision right now.
With the prospect of a comfortable shower, she briskly made her way towards the door.
"Hey, Weiss?" Ilia said all of a sudden.
Weiss turned to her friend, who once more interrupted her before she could leave the room.
"Yes?" She asked.
"Thank you." Ilia said.
Waiss raised her eyebrow in slight confusion.
"What are you thanking me for?"
Ilia smiled with a content expression on her face.
"For proving me wrong, yesterday."
Weiss could only look at her friend in confusion for a moment or two before giving up and shaking her head a little. She had some ideas about what her friend might have been talking about, but she didn't bother voicing them.
They could talk about it some time later; right now, a morning shower was waiting for her.
After all, they were friends for good now.
There was literally nothing stopping them from simply talking about it at any point in the future, especially not when both of them wanted to talk to each other.
With a wide and satisfied smile on her face, Weiss left the room and headed for the bathroom to take a shower.
The day was already looking great.
(...)
There were a lot of emotions Ilia had expected to feel the day after she confronted Weiss about their friendship. Before the whole meeting, she expected to feel happy, disappointed, or maybe even angry in the aftermath of all of it.
Situations like these didn't tend to end up without strong feelings following them, as far as she was aware.
As it turned out, however, after a whole night of playing video games and sorting out their issues, the only thing she could feel was tiredness. It might have had something to do with the lack of sleep, though.
A yawn escaped her as she walked through the door leading to the cafe's exit.
Weiss was still in the shower, so Ilia figured that she might as well wait for her near the cafe's exit. From what she could tell, it was already midday, and she doubted they would have the time to really do anything else at this point.
Her friend needed to return home at some point, after all.
It was only a pity that it had to be that early.
"Your friend is really someone important, isn't she?" The cafe owner asked while lazily browsing through his Scroll.
Ilia shook a little at the sudden question before immediately calming down.
Right; it was an ordinary day for everyone else; there was no reason why the older man shouldn't simply work in the cafe like always. Just because the previous day was a big deal for her and her friend didn't mean that it was an unusual day as a whole.
It didn't really explain what the older man was talking about, though.
"She's somewhat important, I suppose." She said, slightly confused at the question. "I have no idea what brought that observation, however. Did something big happen when we were asleep?"
The cafe owner stretched a little before turning the Scroll in his hand towards her.
Ilia had to frown as she tried to read whatever was written on the device from the other side of the room.
"The Schnee family issues an official government-backed search of the whole Atlas city." The older man said calmly. "To be honest, I'm surprised they are even allowed to do such a thing in the first place."
Ilia widened her eyes in surprise.
It wasn't a secret that the Schnees were incredibly powerful in Atlas—there wasn't a single person in the Atlas kingdom that didn't buy something from them at some point in their life—but issuing a search like that wasn't something Ilia thought that they were capable of doing.
The implications of such ability were frightening.
Did this mean that the Weiss's family had contacts in the Atlas government?
Ilia couldn't help but shiver at the news.
It seemed that the moment she finally managed to come to terms with Weiss, the universe itself somehow decided to show her just how different were the worlds she and her friend lived in.
A single day of absence meant a whole city being professionally searched for one person.
She didn't even want to imagine what would happen if her friend were to go missing for more than a week. The whole kingdom would have probably been searched if that was the case.
Her friend was basically handled as if she were some sort of a princess!
Would the search spread to Mantle if her friend wasn't found in the next couple of hours?
Her disappearance probably wouldn't even have been mentioned in the local news if she was the one who was presumed missing.
Ilia paused for a second.
Wait, if the entire city of Atlas was being searched for Weiss, then how was her friend supposed to return home unnoticed!?
"It's a disaster." She couldn't help but murmur upon that realisation.
The cafe owner grunted in agreement.
"What is a disaster?" A familiar voice asked from behind her.
Ilia sighed as she turned around to face her friend.
Of course, it was the time her friend finally finished showering.
Weiss looked far better right now, at least when compared to how she looked just after she had woken up. If it weren't for the subtle bags under the girl's eyes, she wouldn't have suspected that she had spent the entire last night playing video games at all.
Although the situation wasn't the best, and they really shouldn't have been wasting any more time, it was obvious that the shower must have been really necessary for her.
It was only a pity that it might have complicated their current situation a little.
"Your family has issued an official search for you." Ilia said in the most calming tone she could manage. "It appears to focus on the Atlas city for now, but I suspect it won't take long before they start searching the Mantle, as well."
Weiss blinked in response, stupefied at the information.
"They are doing what?!" The girl asked.
Ilia winced.
Yeah, it probably was an even bigger news for Weiss than it had been for her. In the end, no matter how close she was to her friend, she was still separate from the whole Schnee family drama.
It was something that she couldn't help but feel glad for.
Sadly, it hardly made the situation for her friend any better.
"Did you not expect your family to do something like that?" The cafe owner asked with genuine curiosity. "Sure, it seems quite a bit like an overreaction, but I'm sure that any parent would do the same for their child if they had such resources."
Weiss scoffed.
"Mine wouldn't." The girl said with venom clear in her voice. "My mother is far too drunk to care for my siblings and me, while my father treats me like a valued employee at his company, at best."
Ilia looked at her friend with mellowed eyes.
Every time she learnt something new about her friend's family, she couldn't help but grow more and more concerned about her. The girl's opinion about her parents only further grew her concerns.
"Weiss." She reached out to her friend.
Her friend sighed.
"I will need to find a different way to get back home, since sneaking in appears to be out of the question at this point." The girl murmured in annoyance. "I wish I could have prepared for it beforehand."
As Ilia listened to her friend complain to herself about the situation, the only thing she could do was stand near her with a wry smile on her face.
It was technically her fault that Weiss didn't have a plan for returning home prepared. If she hadn't insisted that her friend meet her so quickly to salvage their friendship, Weiss would have had more than enough time to plan for such a thing.
In hindsight, she really should have been more understanding of her friend's family situation.
Nevertheless, it was what had happened, and she had been quite mad at her back then, so right now they could only deal with it.
"Why not just come clean about the reason you were away?" The cafe owner asked. "Although you would probably end up with some punishment for sneaking out, I'm sure your parents would forgive you once you properly explain it to them."
Weiss shook her head.
"I can't do that. The real reason behind my absence wouldn't fit the image I have as a Schnee." The girl said with a grumble. "The Schnees don't waste their time on things like games. My father won't allow something like that to happen."
Ilia nodded her head absent-mindedly.
It did sound like a problem.
That wasn't exactly an issue she could relate to, but it was certainly an issue she could see the Altesian elite having. If she understood it right, then image was probably more important for those rich folks than almost anything else, aside from money, of course.
Although, it also meant that if her friend didn't do something against her image, then she should probably end up fine from the whole ordeal.
"I think it could actually work if you do it right." She said.
Weiss looked at her.
"What do you mean?" The girl asked
"You don't need to tell your father about us playing video games for the whole night, but you can tell him about some other things." Ilia paused for a moment in order for her words to stick. "You know, make our night seem more important for your position as an heiress than it actually was."
Weiss contemplated the idea for a moment or two before nodding her head in agreement.
"That sounds like it could work." The girl said, before quickly glancing at the way she looked and grimacing. "If I looked a little bit more professional and elegant, that is. I don't suppose you have any better-looking clothes here that I could borrow from you for this?"
Ilia smiled.
"I might find something that would work in the clothes I store here." She said, as she began heading to the bedroom she tended to borrow from the cafe owner. "It might not be good enough to compare to your usual items, though."
"Don't worry, I won't be complaining." Weiss said with a brief laugh.
"Of course, you won't!" Ilia shouted as she led her friend through the building. "You don't have any other choice at the moment, princess!"
Weiss huffed as she followed her.
"It's heiress, not princess!"
(...)
Jacques Schnee was a busy man.
Some people said that he was cruel and heartless, but he didn't see himself that way. At most, he would consider himself to be a bit more pragmatic than what an average person would think necessary.
Sure, his pragmatism might have made him appear colder and more distant from his family than he really was, but it was merely an appearance.
In reality, the only thing he was doing was properly taking care of his priorities. The fact that the safety of some insignificant workers or his family's pointless vices didn't matter as much as profit was only a result of that.
He was running the world's biggest and most successful corporation, after all.
The SDC wasn't something that could simply be allowed to function without growing or becoming better every year. He couldn't simply let it run its course and then disappear into obscurity because he focused on other things.
He was the one who was entrusted with the company, and he will ensure its success, no matter what it takes.
That success was worth so much more than Willow or his three spoilt children were.
It would ensure that he would leave a legacy in this world, and if he organised everything correctly, it could even make the world itself his legacy. The SDC could have that much power in the future; he was certain of it.
Sadly, he was the only one who could see it.
There wasn't a single person, be it from his family or employees, that he could entrust the company to.
None of his employees were capable enough to run an entire company like he did. There was no way he would risk entrusting his life's work to any of them, especially not when any one of them could be a spy for one of his many competitors.
Of course, that wouldn't have been a problem if there had been a single person in his family worthy of inheriting the company like he had back in the day.
Unfortunately, none of his children seemed to treat the world's biggest corporation with the respect it deserved. In fact, he could even say that those brats didn't care for the thing at all, with how flippantly they treated their positions as potential heirs to the company.
That was why he rarely put them above SDC when setting his priorities.
They simply didn't deserve a higher importance.
Jacques scoffed as he read all the reports on his desk.
There were, of course, times when his family forced its way onto the top of his priorities despite it all.
When his youngest daughter was nowhere to be found the previous day, he thought that the foolish girl was once again hiding away from her lessons. He didn't expect it to be any different than the time she had done that with her younger brother a couple of weeks earlier.
It wasn't until he couldn't find her this morning, and he learnt that his only son didn't know where the girl was either, that he became invested in the issue.
Had his daughter been kidnapped?
If she was, and some lucky bandit thought they could ransom her back to him, then they were severely mistaken. He had contacts in both the Atlas government and its military; if someone really thought that they could take hold of the Schnee family, then they would have to deal with practically the entire country as their opponent.
Although it certainly was quite an overuse of resources, it was necessary to show that the Schnee family wasn't one to mess with.
People couldn't think that a Schnee family member could go missing without it being a big deal.
A low grumble escaped him as he thought of all the favours he had to waste to issue that search of the city.
Naturally, it wouldn't have been an issue at all had his daughter's sudden disappearance been kept quiet, and he could have sent his own private search parties to deal with it. Sadly, it was impossible to keep it quiet when all the servants and teachers had noticed his daughter's absence as well.
He tightened his fists as he heard a lot of his servants hurrying from one place to another on the other side of his door.
That girl couldn't even disappear without being a bother.
Silently, he really couldn't help but quietly hope in his heart that his daughter was actually kidnapped this time, however.
Kidnapping was something he could deal with; the military would simply find the kidnapper, bring his daughter back to him, and he would end the day by giving a public speech about how worried he was and how he was going to increase his security as much as he could.
If that girl decided to disappear of her own volition, on the other hand, there were scarcely a few things he could do in response.
Even if he were to find her and somehow bring her back, the damage his image would take upon the world realising that his very own daughter ran away from him would be astronomical.
No matter what the reason behind his daughter's disappearance had been, that girl better hope it was a good one in the end.
The punishment he would give her upon her return would be the coldest he could give if it turned out to be not.
Out of nowhere, someone frantically knocked on his door.
"Mr. Schnee!" The voice called out from behind the door. "We've found your daughter! She's safe and already in the mansion! Please come out and talk to her; I'm sure she can't wait to see you!"
Jacques instantly stood up from his desk.
It seemed that he would learn that reason very soon.
With the certainty that his daughter was back home already, he slowly made his way to meet his daughter.
There was no need for him to hurry; the girl was already in the mansion, and rushing to see her would only ruin his image. He couldn't let all the servants working for him see him so agitated about something as trivial as this.
Besides, after missing for more than a day, his daughter surely could wait a moment for him to see her.
In the end, it took him almost half an hour to meet her.
The girl was waiting for him in her room, quietly grumbling to herself after being forced to stay there for the last thirty minutes. She was also wearing some cheap-looking clothes—when compared to the clothes usually worn by their family—that he had never seen her wear before.
He looked at her with slight curiosity.
He didn't remember buying them for her.
Were these the types of clothes that his daughter bought on her own?
If they were, then he certainly needed to teach the young girl how to dress properly given her position in life. There was no reason for any member of his family to ever wear such cheap-looking clothes.
His family couldn't let themselves be seen like that.
"F-Father." Weiss greeted upon his entrance.
Jacques couldn't help but note the tone of his daughter's voice; it was shaky and slightly afraid.
Whatever the reason was behind Weiss's absence, the girl was feeling guilty about it. Apparently he was going to be deciding her punishment today; the girl better not complain too much about it later.
"Daughter." He said, his voice stern.
His daughter shook a little at his voice.
He let out a sigh.
It was time to find out what happened.
"May you please tell me why I couldn't find you anywhere in the mansion yesterday?" He asked. "I needed to search through the entire city to find you, and I would like to know why I was forced to do that."
His daughter shifted a little in place.
"I-" The girl hesitated, like the terrible Schnee that she was. "I was increasing the range of my social network by visiting an acquaintance. They are an important person for me, and I needed to visit them in order to keep our relationship intact."
Jacques almost laughed at his daughter's words.
There was no way that girl had any friends. She barely attended any of their social events, and she certainly wasn't organising any such events on her own. If it weren't for her etiquette lessons, she probably wouldn't even know how to talk to people.
If the girl wanted to lie to him, she would need to try better than that.
"I see." He paused for a moment. "If you really were visiting an acquaintance, then may I ask why did nobody know about this mysterious associate of yours beforehand? I'm sure this issue wouldn't have escalated to this point if we actually knew about the friend that you supposedly have."
His daughter tightened her fists, undoubtedly furious at her lie being found out.
"That friend of mine is real! People do know about it; just ask Whitley or Winter; they know her. If you had bothered to care for me even a little bit, I'm sure you would have known about her as well!" Weiss shouted.
Jacques slightly raised an eyebrow at his daughter's outburst.
He didn't expect that reaction from her.
It didn't necessarily mean that she was telling the truth, however.
The girl could still be trying to fool him, and he wasn't an easy person to fool.
"What is their name, then?" He asked.
His daughter looked at him with eyes full of spite.
"It's Ilia—" The girl hesitated for a moment. "-Iliana. Her name is Iliana. She's from a family that does business in mining and the interactive video entertainment industry. She's my age and my dear friend."
Jacques looked at his daughter for a minute, trying to find any falsehood behind her claims.
He couldn't find one.
A tired sigh escaped him.
"Alright, I will believe you this time." He said. "You will receive punishment for not informing anyone of this or asking for my permission to visit her beforehand. I also expect you to be on your best behaviour for the foreseeable future, or I will take away your heir position and give it to your younger brother. It will happen whether either of you agree to it or not, understood?"
The girl answered him with a silent nod.
He didn't bother waiting for a vocal confirmation.
With the matter resolved for now, he turned around and left, completely unaware that behind him his daughter was sighing in relief. In his mind, this matter was as insignificant as any other family matter he dealt with.
In the end, the only important aspect of his family was having an heir that could continue the SDC legacy without any obstructions.
If he needed to force his children into that role, then so be it.
And Cut!
Here we are, Ilia and Weiss still friends, Weiss back home, and Jacques knowing some truth of the issue.
I think that's about all the ideas I had for Weiss's life in the mansion.
The next chapter, there'll be a time skip most likely up to Beacon, already. It will also probably be the time when the game the crew is making will be finished as well, so that we can start that story arc nicely.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the story up until now, and I hope you will stick around for more.
For now though, see ya later!