Arcs of the Multiverse Chapter 77: Playlist: Whale of a Tale, a rwby fanfic

King: 77 of these things...

Knox: It's so awesome~

King: We're only this far because of our viewers.

Knox: Don't get sappy now. Save it for 2 million views or chapter 100.

King: No sap. Just facts. Anyway, today we're getting musical. Two for one since these song's are just songs and not part of a larger musical with set choreography. I hope you enjoy.

Inspiration 1: The Mariner's Revenge Song by the Decemberists

Inspiration 2: The Beast of Pirate's Bay by Aurelio Voltaire

The world was dark when it opened. The only sounds were the beginning of a song, played on an accordion. It was similar to a song one would hear among old sailors.

Jaune turned to someone, hoping they'd know what was happening, "What's going on?"

Velvet turned to the blonde, "Some of these are musicals or based on songs. I think this is one of them."

Jaune nodded. "Fair enough."

Then, a single match lit up in the center of the screen. They saw Jaune's face looking down into the flame, singing. "We are two mariners…" He was dressed in a striped shirt similar to lower shipmates.

The scene flipped around to show Watts sitting opposite the standing Jaune within some strange area. Watts was dressed more like a ship's captain in maroon.

"Our ships' sole survivors. In this belly of a whale."

The camera pulled away to show the usual folklore depictions of the insides of a whale, surrounded by the flesh supported by its bones.

"We got eaten?!" Jaune was a little disappointed at that. He hoped for something a bit better off.

"Its ribs are ceiling beams. Its guts are carpeting. I guess we have some time to kill."

Jaune grabbed a candle on the 'ground' and lit the candle with the match.

"You may not remember me…"

This got Watts to raise an eyebrow.

"I was a child of three. And you a lad of eighteen."

The crowd would have done a collective spit take.

Yang winced, "And I thought eight kids was crazy…"

"But I remember you. And I'll relate to you, how our histories interweave."

Ironwood's eyes narrowed, "Okay… The two know each other. How?"

The scene changed through the candle's flame to a scene of Watts leaning against a bar counter.

"At the time, you were a rake and a roustabout."

Ruby's head tilted, "A what?"

Ozpin sighed, ready to explain, but Jaune beat him too it, "A well-off, but destitute man and an unskilled worker." Eyes turned to Jaune. "My grandfather is very old fashion."

"Spending all your money on the whores and hounds!"

Qrow took a swig from his flask again, "That explains the destitute part. Spending everything on girls and gambling…"

"You had a charming air, all cheap and debonair, my widowed mother found so sweet."

The mother's face was deliberately hidden on the screen.

Salem rolled her eyes. The Watts she new certainly fit this man to a T, save for that last part.

"And so she took you in, her sheets still warm with him, now filled with filth and foul disease. As time wore on you proved a dead-ridden drunken mess."

Winter glanced toward Qrow, but he just shrugged. He knew he wasn't that bad.

"Leaving my mother a pour consumptive wretch."

Yang groaned, "This is just disgusting. How could he get worse?"

"And then you disappeared. Your gambling arrears, the only thing you left behind."

Yang went cold. Not in fear or pain, but in anger. It was a cold fury, very rare for Yang. She hated this man now, projecting anger for her mother as well.

"And then the magistrate… reclaimed our small estate. And my poor mother lost her mind! Then, one day in spring my pour, sweet mother died…"

Jaune felt hurt. He felt anger. He felt the beginnings of hate. This man came into his home, at the kindness and care of his mother, and he just used them. He felt them with only the debt and forced them to take the punishment. Then, his own mother lost it and died, likely soon after. His aura flared a moment in an intense white heat.

"But before she did, I took her hand as she dying cried… Oh, oh…"

"Find him. Bind him. Tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters. Drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave…"

The mother died soon after. Jaune's face covered in tears and he let out a silent wail for her death.

Aura heated the room from two sources. Yang's anger in a cold fury and Jaune's in a burning hate. It was rare to see Jaune angry at all, so this was jarring. Many saw some previous versions from the screen in his eyes. It scared them.

"It took me fifteen years, to swallow all my tears, among the urchins in the street. Until a priory took pity and hired me took keep their vestry nice and neat."

The scene showed Jaune with a broom, sweeping up in a church. His eyes looked up to the stained-glass window above the pulpit. It was a circular design of a cross in mosaic glass pieces.

"But never once in the employ of these holy men… did I ever once turn my mind from the thought of revenge. One night I overheard the prior exchanging words with a penitent whaler from the sea."

The scene zoomed in to show Jaune turn his head to see a man in a maroon coat and hat.

"The captain of his ship, who matched you toe to tip, was known for wanton cruelty!"

It was Watts standing in that church. As he left, the screen changed to a zoom in on the lower half of Jaune's face. A grin started to form as the screen blacked out again. The scene changed to show Jaune standing on the bow of a boat at sea.

Neptune went stiff seeing the depiction of his phobia.

"The following day, I shipped out with a privateer."

Nora's head tilted, "A privateer?"

Oobleck explained it to his student, "Think a pirate that works for a kingdom instead of themselves."

"Woah! That's a thing?!"

"Not anymore."

"And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear… Oh, oh…"

"Find him. Bind him. Tie him to a pole and break his fingers to splinters. Drag him to a hole until he wakes up, naked, clawing at the ceiling of his grave." The scene showed a spirit of the mother on the salty winds of the sea. "There is one thing I must say to you, as you sail across the sea. Always your mother will watch over you, as you avenge this wicked deed." The song went into a form of instrumental as the ship rocked on the ocean waves.

Everyone was on edge. They saw the end of the story, but how did it happen?

"And then that fateful night! We had you in our sight! After twenty months at sea! Your starboard flank abeam, I was getting my musket clean, when came this rumbling from beneath."

The scene showed Jaune, once with a smirk of anticipation, now showing confusion and concern.

"The ocean shook, the sky went black, and the captain quailed. And before us grew the angry jaws of a giant whale!"

The whale was gigantic, able to snap its jaw around the ship, knocking the other apart with its tail.

The fact that this wasn't a Grimm, but a normal animal, shocked everyone. Shocked enough to break Yang and Jaune out of their seething and jump in surprise.

The scene returned to Jaune and Watts within the whale.

"Don't know how I survived,the crew was all chewed alive, must have slipped between his teeth."

Jaune was looking at the candlelight, a manic grin spreading across his face.

"But, oh what providence! What divine intelligence! That you should survive as well as me~!"

Watts, whose leg was injured during the whale's attack, tried to stand, either to run or defend himself. But Jaune's foot slammed onto the bad leg and forced him back down. Jaune leaned over the man he hated so much, his grin going from manic to psychotic.

"It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes filled with fear! So lean in close and I'll whisper the last words you'll hear! Oh, oh…"

The screen went black as Jaune snuffed out the candle. the song continued as the chorus, but no lyrics followed. The world ended there. Jaune had his revenge, but how was left to the imagination of the viewers.

Jaune took a breath, as if to remind himself that never actually happened. "This is seriously messed up…"

"No kidding…" Ruby was still a bit scared from the scene of Jaune's anger from before.

Knox appeared again. "That was kind of short."

King popped in soon after. "What did you expect? It was just a song."

"Ooh! Can we get another song then?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"Um…" Coco raised her hand to the fireballs. "Can I ask it not be as messed up as that one was?"

Knox bounced around a bit, "Sure. Something a little more normal then?"

King shook his head, "Those are boring. We need to go big."

"Okay… then what?"

"The beast?"

"The beast? The beast of wha- Oh… OH~!"

They both chuckled before disappearing.

The canvas lit up again to the outside of a seaside tavern. The camera seemed to walk into the tavern and approach a man sitting at a table near the back. With tankard up, it was hard to see his face, but his hat bore his symbol on the front face, two golden parallel arcs on the white surface.

"Let's hope this one isn't as… emotional." Coco could hope.

Velvet nodded, glancing toward Jaune in concern.

When the tankard slammed back on the table, Jaune sighed in satisfaction. This also revealed his attire. He wore a white eyepatch, golden coat, and dark clothing beneath. He seemed to notice the camera and grinned. "What brings you by, stranger?"

Jaune paused a moment, "Can… can he see us?"

Pyrrha shrugged, "Some can, but's more likely that the camera is just representing someone for us."

Jaune chuckled, "You're new around here, ain't ya? Sit down. I make it a point to make sure you know something…"

Violins started to swell in the background. It was a shanty of a different nature.

"Gather weary traveler, I have a tale to tell. It might just save your life, but only if you listen well. There before the breaker, and just along the way… There's a sign that says, Beware the beast of Pirate's Bay!"

Nora got a little excited again, "Pirates~!"

Weiss groaned, "Let's hope they're more… traditional." The scene of the pirate Jaune standing over her and her sister as Winter bled out still haunted her.

Smoke started to form around him from the candles on the table. Jaune's face obscured by the smoke as his shadow morphed into a giant sea monster. The creature was like a giant angler fish with a pair of clawed hands.

"Some say he's guppy, a kid threw in the sea. He ate so many sailors, now he'd bigger than a tree. His teeth are sharp as scissors, his claws they are like knives. And you think he's ugly? Wait till you see his insides!"

The smoke cleared and Jaune's face returned to the screen.

"Oh! Don't you sail and don't you row and certainly don't you swim! Cause if you aren't careful, you'll end up inside of him. He'll eat you up! He'll spit you out! So you better stay away! Heed the sign that says Beware the Beast of Pirate's Bay!"

"So, it's just a normal tavern song?" Qrow raised an eyebrow.

Jaune grinned and the smoke surrounded him like a snake, the candle seemingly forming the snake's eye.

"Some say he's a serpent that came straight from Hell! To eat the souls of pirates and other ne'er-do-wells! Some they don't believe it, but for me I've got a hunch… Cause we used to have some pirates here~ But he ate them all for lunch!"

Jaune swiped the smoke away, and the false snake seemed to scream through a trick of light.

Ren crossed his arms as he watched this reality play, "This is rather impressively structured. Good use of light and effects as we see them."

Jaune grinned and picked up a large fish hook from his belt, holding the hook toward the camera.

"Captain Hook, you've heard of him? He came to Pirate's Bay. It seems his little nemesis had nearly got away. He reached into the water, to grab at Peter Pan… There was a crunch! And a scream!"

Jaune flicked his wrist and revealed the hook was actually two hooks, tossing the other to his free hand.

"And now that scurvy Captain's got hooks on both his hands~"

Nora chuckled, "I like this version. It's a lot funnier."

Jaune nodded. He preferred this version. He'll take the lack of depth perception over the last song's world any day.

Jaune slammed the hooks into the table and grabbed his tankard in their place.

Jaune's grin continued as his took a long swig from his drink. He slammed his drink and started to rub his chin.

"Blackbeard the Pirate, you know for what he's feared? It's mostly for the dark, imposing color of his beard. He saw the beast and now nobody's scared of him because… His beard turned white, and all agree, he looks like Santa Claus!"

"Who?" Mercury raised a brow.

Knox appeared to explain, "Big, fat, jolly man that comes around during Christmas to give gifts. Basically, the opposite of the cruel, hellish man that laced fuses into his beard to look more like a demon."

Mercury paused and fell back in his seat, "Damn…"

Jaune looked down toward his drink for a moment, holding it up to find it empty.

Qrow sighed. "Hate it when that happens. You think you still have some drink left and go to take a sip, but there's nothing left…"

This served a second purpose, allowing him to scan the tavern around them. The music slowed down as Jaune's face fell from its grin.

"Well, now the tavern's empty, and it's only you and me… And if you'd care, I'd like to share how this song came to be."

Blake's ears twitched under her bow, "So, we get the backstory then?"

Sun nodded once, "Looks like it."

"So, come a little closer, if you really want to know. This very sad and woeful tale happened to long ago…"

The scene faded to show a still image of Jaune as a child, no more than 10. Every part of the flashback moved in still images, denoting the past as if through old photographs.

"Well, I was just a little boy when I went to Pirate's Bay. And there I saw a creature, that was very much dismayed. With a harpoon through his dorsal fin, and a hook stuck in his side… This mighty whale was in such pain we both began to cry."

This tugged at the viewers' heartstrings. Most of them, anyway. But no need to name names. She knows who she is…

"I pushed! And I shoved! But he didn't give way. Into the deeper waters of our shallow Pirate's Bay. All I could do to help him, was to keep people away…"

The screen returned to the present to show Jaune's smirk slowly reforming.

"So I wrote a sign… That said Beware… THE BEAST OF PIRATES BAY~"

Jaune's friends all smiled to themselves. This was something they could see Jaune doing. Keeping up an act just to protect someone or something, even if it lasted for years.

"What did it say?! Oh! Don't you sail and don't you row and certainly don't you swim! Cause if you aren't careful, you'll end up inside of him. He'll eat you up! He'll spit you out! So you better stay away! Heed the sign that says, Hell I should now, I put it there! Heed the sign that says Beware the Beast of Pirate's Bay!"

The screen blacked out as this Jaune's story came to an end.