King: Next time, we're back to the main theater. I have too many ideas and I can't just wait on this one for too long. ALSO, we have a vote on our hands. Jaune's harem shall increase. Who will that be? You decide! Sort of. No one too old or young, no unrepentant villains, and no one in a relationship. Other than that, you're free to vote for whoever you want. Keep in mind that I'll need to write it happening and they can't all be a few chapters. Usual voting rules apply.

Inspiration: N / A

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The group's return to Remnant felt less special this time. This was likely because, unlike last time, there was no vacation on the horizon. It was business as usual for the week. Unfortunately, for some, business as usual meant having to deal with people you really rather not. That was Coco's day today.

Some context. When they got back, Jaune and the girls decided it would seem weird if the circle went from five people to eight in the blink of an eye, one of which didn't go to Beacon. People would ask questions and the Theater might come up, rendering them all sounding insane. They decided to be careful instead and take the week to set up the numbers increase. Plus, it gave time for Ilia to reach Vale within the next few days. Yesterday was Yang's time to hang out and sow seeds for people to get used to things. Coco was going to hang with the group tonight and officially rejoin tomorrow. Something to look forward to.

But Coco's mood rarely lasted when she was involved.

"Aw, come on, Coco! You have to admit it's a great idea." The girl sitting next to Coco in their shared Study Hall with Celia Peach was the bane of Coco's existence, or at least her sanity. Crystal Cleary looked like a normal girl. Her bright blue hair hung down her back and crossed over her shoulders. Her eyes sparkled like a beautiful pair of diamonds. She was easily one of the hottest girls in the year on top of that. But that only made her worse. Crystal was a total bitch. A special kind of bitch that thought she could get away with anything off the back of her looks and skills. She was smart enough to know where and when to use these skills and strong enough to remain at Beacon without issue.

How did Coco know this? Simple, Crystal is Coco's ex. Coco caught her cheating on her. Coco could forgive a simple mistake. A fuck up here or there. That wasn't a mistake. That was just the latest fling and the first Coco caught. Crystal was cheating on her the ENTIRE TIME they were dating. Understandably, Coco dumped her fast enough to leave a crater. Unfortunately, Crystal had an undeniable charisma and used Coco's public dumping as a way to push the blame back on Coco, making her look like a controlling girlfriend that got irrationally jealous. It took months before things died down enough that people would approach her again.

Insult to injury, they were stuck in the same classes. And when Celia Peach was in charge of Study Hall, they could do whatever they wanted. So long as they didn't get too rowdy or do anything untoward, they had free reign. And Crystal always used it to taunt Coco in some way. Usually by acting friendly in a way that if Coco pushed her away, she'd look like an asshole.

Coco sighed, socially forced to reply, "Yeah, I guess it's a sound idea. But I don't know how you're going to get Grav Dust to mix well enough with Wind Dust to do what you want. I'm not saying it's impossible or anything, but it's not exactly easy."

"Which is why it'll be even better when I pull it off~!"

"Weren't you working on this with Jamie?"

"What's your point? I'm footing most of the bill anyway."

"And he's doing all the work," Coco grumbled. Sadly, though, Crystal wasn't wrong. She was stupid rich. Not Weiss rich, but maybe around Pyrrha's level. Crystal was likely paying for the materials, even if she wasn't paying for Jamie's labor. Coco knew the boy was just doing this to get on a hot girl's good side. He wasn't subtle. Coco gave up on trying to save him from her at this point. "All the same, I wish you luck."

"Oh! Speaking of luck," Crystal reached into her uniform blazer's pocket and pulled out her scroll. She opened an app and turned it to Coco, "check it out!" On the screen was a selfie of Crystal standing among Achieve-men, a boy band Coco was vaguely aware of. "I got a pic with Achieve-men! Lucky me, right?"

More like daddy's connections. Coco internally remarked. Crystal was the daughter of a current Council member and thus had quite a bit of influence. To Crystal's credit, however, she seemed unaware of this and didn't use it against others.

But she was still a bragging bitch who had to one up everyone, "Maybe you'll get to meet someone super famous too! You know, besides Pyrrha Nikos and Weiss Schnee. Other students don't really count, right?"

Coco felt her eye twitch. She wanted to be the bigger woman here. But at the same time… "Funny you should mention that." Coco tried to avoid letting smug satisfaction seep into her speech, "I actually met someone pretty famous as well during our time off." She pulled her own scroll out and showed her own picture. Courtesy of Velvet, Coco had a picture with Cleo Patricia Philopator.

"Oh wow!" Crystal actually seemed impressed. "That's that Cleo woman right? From Gilded Lily?"

"That's right." Coco was more than a little proud of this. Even if Crystal didn't know Cleo's works as well as Coco did, it was nice to have that as a counter to Crystal's usual bragging.

"Oh cool! I'm happy for you." Crystal noticed the style of the picture and had to ask, "Who's taking the picture?"

"Velvet." Coco returned her scroll to her pocket.

"Ah, that makes sense." Crystal chuckled, "I almost thought you found a new girlfriend or something. Oh right! Or boyfriend. You never know."

Coco felt her eye twitch. To others, it was innocuous, a simple statement of confusion and correction. But from Crystal? That was deliberate. Coco was sure that Crystal was making fun of Coco's relationship status. Or what she thought was Coco's status. A part of Coco wanted to throw reality at her, but she chose to keep quiet. There was a plan and just dropping that might get people talking in ways they didn't want.

But as the bell rang, Crystal gathered her things and had to get one last jab in. "You'll find someone someday. Maybe you won't run this one off, either~" Crystal said low with a smug grin.

Coco grit her teeth, grabbed her things, and stormed her way out of the room. Crystal always got her like this. Always tried to tear her down in a subtle way. Her mood was terrible and a terrible mood was solved through a trip to her favorite stores. Coco growled as she stomped through the halls, causing some students to part and avoid her wrath.

As she turned a corner, Velvet was leaving a class on Dust. She noticed Coco's mood and sighed as her leader approached, "Crystal?"

"Just couldn't avoid getting under my skin." Coco calmed a little now that a friend was nearby. Still in a bad mood, but not about to skin someone alive.

Velvet knew where this was going. "Well, classes are done for the day. I can go with you to your stores if you want."

"Thanks, Bunbun." Coco sighed and dragged her hand over her face. "I need it." She sighed, knowing it would mean throwing a wrench in their plans, but she really needed to let her blood cool.

But Coco forgot something about Velvet, she's a caring soul and an observant mind. She already had an idea forming on how to help the situation.

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The end of the day couldn't come fast enough. Classes as Beacon can have widely differing end times, so it took a bit for Velvet to join Coco at the air docks. Coco looked at her scroll for the time, 16:45. "Her class ended fifteen minutes ago. Where is she?"

She didn't have to wait much longer. "Coco!" Velvet called out to her leader and ran up to her. However, she wasn't alone.

"Hey, Coco." Jaune was with her.

Coco raised an eyebrow, "Sup? Didn't expect to see you here."

"Yeah, Velvet invited me. I didn't think I should just pop in on your trip, but she didn't give me much of a choice."

Coco nodded, understanding Velvet's plan. No need to have Coco feel bad for ruining the group's plans. Plus, she gets her hang out with their boyfriend. Win-win. "It's fine. Great, even. I could use some extra hands~" She teased that this would be one of her famous hauls. But, truth was, 'feel better' runs rarely brought home more than one bag. It was a distraction tool more than anything. Their trip to the city and to one of Coco's favorite stores, at least one still standing. As they entered the store, Coco set about looking around, hoping to find something to distract her. What they found only made it worse.

"Coco!" Crystal was there. She ran up to the group acting like a friend who crossed their path. "What are you doing here?"

Coco felt her eye twitch. "Shopping."

"Oh cool! I was actually looking to update my wardrobe as well. Maybe find something nice to add to my uniform."

Coco tried to put up a happy face. "No reason not to improve your look."

Jaune leaned to Velvet, confused and whispering, "Who is that?"

Velvet sighed, "Crystal Cleary. Coco's ex that cheated on her."

Jaune looked between the two, as if trying to connect dots on separate pieces of paper. "Why would…" Something clicked in his brain, as if it all made sense to him now. "Oh. She's like that."

Crystal noticed them both at that moment. "Oh Velvet's here too! And…" She noticed the blond among them, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Jaune Arc." Jaune's tone was neutral, not giving away anything.

"Nice to meet you~" Crystal seemed to consider Jaune for a moment before having a realization. "Oh hey! You're that freshmen that rumors have been going on about, aren't you?"

"What rumors?"

"The ones that say you're dating a bunch of girls at once. At first I thought you were a two-timer, but people insist that they're in on it. I think it was like… your team and a couple others from RWBY, right?"

Jaune nervously scratched his cheek, "I guess rumors always lose details, but it's only been a couple days."

"What do you mean?"

Velvet sneaked over with a light glare toward Crystal.

And said blue-haired girl seemed to get it there. "Oh right! I heard Velvet was part of that. Pretty crazy, but I guess that's not too weird. They all seem to be from outside the kingdoms, after all."

That got Jaune to pause. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that you can get away with more when you don't live in a kingdom, that's all." Crystal sounded pretty innocent in her tone, like she believed this was a normal outlook, "People in the kingdoms are always holding each other to higher standards. It's not putting down people from outside the kingdoms, they seem closer, but you can't deny that they get too close sometimes." She was skirting around the topic, but clearly referencing an old jab about 'close families' outside the kingdom.

Velvet grit her teeth in annoyance. She remembered meeting Crystal before initiation, and the blue haired girl basically suggested Velvet would commit incest because she was from outside the kingdoms. Velvet nearly cried at the time. But she's now gone through a year and half of huntress training, made friends, gotten a boyfriend, and pooled her confidence among the other girls. She'd gone through a lot, and now could stand up, "Okay, I've heard enough from you." Velvet stepped forward to challenge Crystal, "You need to stop talking like that! People outside the kingdoms are no different than those that live in them! You're not better than them because you got to grow up behind a strong wall."

"I'm not saying they are." Crystal shot back, sounding like she was confused at Velvet's accusation. "I'm just saying they're more likely to get a little too close." There was a drop in Crystal's voice, something no one else could hear. But now, this close, Velvet could pick it up with her better hearing, "It's not my fault your mom didn't give you a brother to fuck."

Velvet was just stunned into silence. There was no way she heard that, right? Crystal's a lot of things, but she was never so blunt in her words.

Coco raised an eyebrow. Why did Velvet lock up? She didn't know why, but she looked toward Crystal. With narrowed eyes, she glanced to Velvet's ears and decided it had to do something with sound. She must have heard something. She pulled out her scroll and moved quietly to keep it hidden but closeby, "If you're done, Crystal, maybe you should get moving. You wanted to update your wardrobe, right?"

"Totally!" Crystal turned back to Coco, "But I don't mind hanging out with you while I do. Maybe you can help me out. You're so fashionable afterall." Then the low tone followed, "Besides, blondie is nice on the eyes. I might try to grab him for a night. I bet I can grab him from those brother fuckers."

Coco used an app on her scroll to let it go off as if being called. "One second, I have to take this." She pulled the scroll to her ear and listened to the recording, the better mic of her scroll having picked up Crystal's low speech. Coco pulled her scroll from her ear and turned back to Crystal. "Two things, Crystal."

Crystal's head tilted, confused by the sudden shift.

"One, keep your claws away from Jaune. And you'd never be able to take him anyway."

Crystal froze up, being smart enough to realize that was a little too on the nose after her last whisper.

"And two!" Coco stomped forward and grabbed Crystal by the collar and lifted her off the ground. Coco wasn't the strongest person in Beacon, but she did still lift her minigun on a daily basis and Crystal wasn't that heavy, "I'm done playing nice. You cheating on me was one thing, but you can't weasel your way out around me anymore. You can have your opinions, but I can voice mine at the end of my gun in training."

Crystal shook, never seeing this side of Coco before.

"Newsflash, bitch. I'm from outside the kingdoms. And I distinctly remember what I heard you said to the guy when I caught you cheating on me," She lowered Crystal to whisper, "playing a good princess for daddy."

Crystal wasn't sure what to imagine, but Coco was pushing against her buttons with a vengeance.

Coco pushed her away, causing Crystal to fall to a seated position. "Now, get lost."

Crystal grit her teeth before making her way through the store, no doubt to get them all kicked out.

Jaune looked at Coco, "What was that about?" When Coco handed him her scroll, he listened to the recording before returning it to her, "Fair enough."

Sure enough, staff came over and asked them to leave. Coco explained things and let the staffer listen to the incident from her scroll. While not banned, the staffer had to at least do her job and ask them to leave while things settled down. They could come back tomorrow. As they left and decided to get some food, someone ran in front of them and came to a stop, wheezing.

"I… I'm here!" Ilia folded over slightly, her hands on her knees. "I made it!"

"Ilia!" Jaune moved to catch her girl as she was about to collapse.

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Ilia took a massive sip from her drink before popping her lips off her straw with a sigh. "I needed that."

"Clearly." Coco tapped the outdoor cafe table as she looked toward Ilia. "I thought you were still a couple days out."

"I got lucky and found an old Fang system I could use to cut some time. It was… stressful." She looked down at her drink. "Some of the old, more violent members were still using the systems. I had to lay low to get here early."

"That was stupidly dangerous." Jaune challenged her, but more so out of worry.

"I know. But I couldn't stay out there any longer." Ilia shook in her chair, "I couldn't stay out there right now, with Grimm and bandits around every corner."

"It's fine." Velvet brought her hand to Ilia's to comfort her, "You're here now and we can focus on that."

"Speaking of which," Coco had to be the one to point this out, "Where are you going to stay? I don't know if Beacon will let you on campus yet."

"I can find something if I need it." Ilia looked determined again, "I'm sure there's an apartment I can pick out and get a job to pay for. Hopefully."

"Well, that depends," Jaune spoke up, "Did you want to be a huntress?" Eyes turned to Jaune, who held up his scroll. Said Scroll showed an official news bulletin from the Vale Council, "If she does, she can use the same program Roman and Neo used."

Ilia considered it, but had to think it over. In the end, she nodded, wanting to use her talents for a better purpose. If nothing else, she could at least have a place to stay and learn something new. "I'll try at least."

When they returned, Ilia put herself at the mercy of the staff and asked to take part in the program. They explained she made it on time to take part and had everything explained. She was allowed to join team CFVY as a secondary member thanks to her increased knowledge on tactical work and field experience. Rumors ended up spreading again as the count on Jaune's harem increased from four to seven.

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Meanwhile, back in the Theater, King was looking over a series of worlds. As Knox flew into the main room, he sat up in the balcony seats, "So, what now?"

"We'll just have to see, won't we?"

"Cryptic." Knox looked up the screen, "We going to bring them back early?"

"Yeah. Not much else will happen from here for a while. So, we'll skip ahead. Get the screen ready for a new round."

"Alright. What's the plan for this one, then?"

"I have a few ideas." King smirked as he turned to Knox. "But let's start with something interesting, shall we?"