Dealing with People, An Artform

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Jaune despised two things, truly and utterly.

One was the Grimm in their entirety, though their purity of desire and purpose was something his attuned mind found beauty in. Bestial, powerful, cruel and wicked, but pure of intent in a way unmatched by any other single thing. Aside from Atlas' automated soldiers, of course, but they were purely artificial and entirely devoid of the purity of natural purpose. And they, unliked the black-furred, white-armored Grimm, could be tricked and used to savage their fellows or their master. The Grimm, however, savaged neither other animals or each other, outside the usual sporting bouts and succession trials when an Alpha was wounded beyond use or killed.

"Ha, feel 'em! They really are real, I told you so." Humans, though, were cruel and base, as he was seeing now. Lunch was normally something he looked forward to, the Force reverberating with the social uplifting the event always came with.

Now, though…

"Someone should teach that jerk a lesson." Yang groused, one of a literal score of students and staff, no doubt, who felt the same. In front of her, and Jaune and Pyrrha both for that matter, their trays were half-empty, and they intermittently poked at their meals without appetite for them while they watched the bully mock and jeer. "Why don't the teachers do something or… Something."

"There are no teachers chaperoning us, likely because we are, all of us, meant to be grown adults." Ren sighed, sitting next to the braid-wearing blonde and tearing his toast into smaller pieces to alternatively eat and pitch into the air across the table for Nora to snap up.

An exercise in combating her aggravation at the bully and to control her energies, he knew. Breaking the bully's legs or their table out of boredom, neither would be something they wanted.

"The staff are right over there, though!" Ruby hissed, pointing across the long, wide, tall room to where the cooks and cleaners were hard at work setting up the three long tray-lines that students collected their food from until they were full, arrayed like a buffet. "Why don't they do anything?"

"Civilians step between Aura-enabled, trained people?" Jaune asked gently, watching the man across the way grab Velvet by the hip and force her to sit between himself and the mohawked member of their group. Turning his eyes to look at the Rose sat across from him but not his head, he raised a brow, "How likely to succeed do you think that would be?"

"I don't think Velvet would risk them getting hurt…"

"No, she wouldn't, which is likely precisely why she does not cry out for their aid." It was easier for people to watch something horrible and ignore it, watching no one else take action. But if someone reached out for you, pleaded with you directly? That was harder to shirk and shrug off. "She's a tough girl, she can handle a little harassment. Else that upperclassman would have already broken his fingers off her ear."

"Faunus' ears are sensitive." Blake snapped suddenly, grimacing sheepishly and shrinking in her seat when eyes landed on her. "W-What I mean to say is that a champion fighter, able to take all manner of punishment, would balk if you grabbed their ears. Or tails, or whiskers, or wings, whatever the case."

"My father's workers-"

"Slaves."

"Workers, Blake. Workers. Slaves can't leave, and they can if they wish. That they do not is hardly my father's fault." Weiss not quite snarled, blue eyes narrowing on Blake for a moment until she was sure Blake would do no more than roll her eyes and shrugged, clearly beyond unconvinced. Finally, she went on, "My father's workers often refuse to wear the helmets they are given, saying how it hurts their ears to."

"Maybe if you would just make them specialised helmets, like the military does…"

"Blake, that is not a conversation to have with me." Weiss drawled sarcastically, "If those Faunus wanted to lodge formal complaints and request specialised equipment be purchased, they could. All they need do is form an organized union and petition the SDC properly, if it is such a pain."

"You mean like the White Fang used to be?" Blake nettled, amber eyes narrowing on Weiss while, beside the Schnee and across from the dark-haired beauty, Ruby floundered and panicked. "Because that's what the Fang did, isn't it? Back before the SDC's silence and apathy turned them to violence."

"Whoa, whoa, Blake. Girls, I mean, girls. Come on now, reel it back a bit. No need for claws, right?" Yang finally cut in, laughing awkwardly beside her and leaning on the table with her elbows, bumping against the girl jovially. Both women simply grunted, prodding more aggressively at their food, and Yang sighed. "Thank you, just chill out."

"Mhm." Blake groused after the deserved groans at the ever present Atlas puns they'd been dealing with for weeks now, Ren scooting away from her a fraction in lieu of a potential fight. After a moment, Blake sighed and offered a stiff, glassy, "Sorry, Weiss. Just… Cardin is upsetting me, I suppose."

"Of course. I could say the same, and such would be true." The woman's response was icy, but as cordial as Jaune suspected he could expect.

He spared Ruby a glance, turning away from the bully's harassing antics even to see her, and she just shrank in her seat, head leaning against her hand while her hand hid most of her face for shame. That only furthered his curiosity and, if he were honest, concern for the young woman across from him. Normally she was such a beacon of Light that the Force around her seemed to, at times when she was her most ecstatic, quake, but now? Now it was still and dim, like a sun yet, but more akin to one hidden behind a darkened, overcast sky than the bright, warm, sunny day he would compare her to at other times.

"I think that the problem at hand is Cardin, and I believe we are in agreement there at the least." Pyrrha, saint and font of patience and charity that she was so helpfully chimed in. Nodding her head towards the man, she pushed her plate back an inch and turned her chair, glaring balefully - for Pyrrha, at least, so less 'baleful' and more 'motherly scolding' - at the man. "I've a mind to intervene myself, and to the Grimm with the consequences I might receive."

"You'd get a mark on your record." Weiss sounded affronted at the idea and Pyrrha grimaced, likely considering her sponsors and, with them, her tuition at Beacon. Leaning on the table when the Mistralian didn't answer, Weiss went on in a hissed, hushed voice, "Your tuition here is from your sponsors, I know that because the SDC is one of them. If you start fighting, and it seems you are going down a troubling path-"

"What, they'll yoink her enrollment?" Nora asked, rolling her eyes when Weiss blinked and nodded, arms spread for a moment like she was presenting that very fact. Grinning, Nora stood, pushing her chair back and leaning over the table, "Then maybe I can break his legs? Then Pyr isn't in trouble, and the jacka-"

"Nora."

"Jerk," she amended, giving her partner's shoulder a pat and squeeze, "will leave the Bunnygirl alone."

"A mark on you record could reflect on Pyrrha as well." Weiss pointed out, the ginger's eyes narrowing in question and turning to the Mistralian with it. Pyrrha nodded in answer, but it was Weiss who explained, "If you go around flunking classes, or bad mouthing teachers, or, yes, fighting other students, then that reflects on her as a team member. Tabloids make a living off reading into invisible lines."

"'Mistral's champion's team a bane on Vale's most prestigious Hunter Academy', eh?" Yang intoned dramatically, the more famed members of their group nodding knowingly. Jaune was unfortunately a member of that group, though the tabloids had thankfully had little time to devise more vile stories. "Yeah, figured that was the case. Else I'd have taken him for a one way ride on the Yang express. Xiao Long do you think I'd let that-"

"Stop!"

"No!"

"Not my sister…"

"Please, kill me…"

"You are all party crashers, and not the fun ones." Yang sighed, drowning her sorrows in a can of Grape and then slamming it down like the alcoholic beverage it definitely was not. Shaking her head and, in a darker, lower sort of tone Jaune suspected more meant for murder plotting than lunchtime complaints, went on, "Any of us go up there, we're going to have a fight. And… That's not worth it, not unless she asks for help, at least."

"Oh if she asked, then I would damn the black mark and freeze him where he stands." Weiss' tone was cold and sharp, like she was, but surprising in a way. She caught the not quickly enough hidden looks and growled, "What? Because she's a Faunus, you think I would not care for her? Just wow, you guys. Thanks for the faith…"

"In fairness-"

"Bad, Blake. No." Yang cut in, thumping the woman on the nose with a spoon and grinning at the shocked face that earned. Shock that turned first to hurt, and then was bottled away as the woman stood, Yang blinking in surprise as she turned to stalk away stiffly. Stunned, the blonde stood up and called out, "Blakey, what did I say? What's wrong?"

Hearing no reply, the blonde tossed a 'See ya, guys' and took off after her, practically sprinting in her hurry to catch her partner and address whatever she'd done to set the other woman off so badly.

"My team is a mess…" Ruby whined, folding her arms on the table and laying her head on them, face hidden by her arms. "I'm the worst leader ever…"

"You're fine, whatever Blake's problems with me are, you are most definitely not to blame for her poor attitude, Ruby." There was a softness there, Jaune noticed with a slow, contemplative blink, busying himself gnawing on a piece of toasted bread topped in cheese. It was a good replacement for the shouting and arguing of their first week, he supposed with a small shrug, so he let it go.

"I should be able to keep my team together right, though… You and I are, you know, good now, but…" A hand rose, waved vaguely the way the other partner-pair of their team had gone, and then flopped across her head in the same motion. "Blake is being I don't even know, and Yang is being Yang and… I don't know."

"She was being rather catty." Ren nodded with a grimace, pitching a fry into the air for Nora, standing still, to lash out and catch with her mouth in their game. "Is this normal?"

"Yes, it's-"

"Force damn it!" Jaune snarled finally, slamming his fist down into the table hard enough it smarted as, again, Cardin grabbed her ears and Velvet cried out, bent practically over his lap from his tugging. Rising, Jaune took one step towards the problem and Weiss' hand landed on his stomach, mouth open to warn him, but he already knew her words. "No fighting, I know. I won't start anything, he can swing at me if he wishes to. I presume self defence is allowed in these ridiculous contracts?"

"...Even the tabloids would enjoy her having a restrained hero over one who lashes out, yes. They would run that for the sales it would get." Weiss nodded, offering him a small, wan smile as he strode away, Pyrrha's eyes locked on his back.

"I think she likes you, dude." The mohawked man nodded, leering at the Faunus' rear as she bobbed dangerously, crying as she was tugged along. Grinning, the man added, "Or maybe she likes me, huh?"

"Animals like these, she might, yeah." Cardin caught him coming from the corner of his eye and turned, years of training warning him before Jaune could quite reach him. He let her ears go and she receded, the green-haired one wrapping an arm around her shoulders before she could truly escape. Instead, she stared to him, hoping for help and, he could tell, hoping for not a violent rescue.

Cardin turned, sneering with his arms crossed, and grinned at the newcomer to the table, "What's up, Arc? Come for dinner or the show?"

"I came to tell you to let the woman go and eat her lunch in peace, you asinine ape of a man." Jaune sighed, the man's smile evaporating into a sneer before he flexed through the Force, sending waves of foreboding sensation and intent washing over the man. Cardin paled at that and, seizing it, Jaune closed with him, leaning down into his face with his hands on the back of the chair, ignoring his teammates standing and jeering at him for it, "You see, Winchester, you are going to let her go. Or I am going to be angry. Look at my table, tell me what's not there."

"I-I…" He did, and Jaune saw the gears working in his head as he realized their little group was lacking members. "The, uh, the blonde bimbo and that Belladonna bitch-"

"Blake and Yang, you base bigot." He snapped shortly, sending another flex through the Force to wash over the man. They did to him as waves over one treading water did, wearing down their endurance and, eventually, pulling them under. Drowning to death or, in this case, panicking, the end was almost inevitable. "You ruined my lunch, and theirs especially, with this trite shit. So you have your green-haired fuck buddy there let Velvet go before I ruin yours."

"You mother-"

"L-Let her go, Russ." The large man stammered, hands gripping the bottom of his seat.

"But-"

"Do what I Brothers damn say, Russ, and don't fucking argue with me." He snapped back, never once looking away from Jaune. Not even as Velvet stood, her tray of cold food in her hand, and stepped behind Jaune. Swallowing through a no doubt dry throat, the man stammered, "T-There. We done here?"

"Yeah, we're done." Jaune grunted, pushing off the chair and effectively shoving the large man back against Russel's legs. Turning, he laid a hand on Velvet's shoulder and steered her away, towards his table, "You eat with us, from now on, Velvet."

"But-"

"No buts, unless it is to tell me you enjoy that abuse." She didn't speak and instead nodded with a small, nervous sigh. She sat beside him, between Jaune and Weiss, at his insistence and the blonde leaned forward to point at the Schnee with raised brows, "You behave, Weiss."

"Wha-"

"You wouldn't want a mark on your record, would you?" Ruby teased, sitting up and offering Velvet a sheepish smile while the Schnee spluttered insults and denials. "Hi, uh, Velvet. Welcome to the table! We're all nice, here, so you don't have to worry about those booty heads. Or, well, we're nice, 'cept Weiss."

"Hey!"

"She can be rather crabby at times, I am afraid, yes." Pyrrha added, leaning back to mouth an 'I'm sorry' while Velvet snickered and started to, more visibly to Jaune than anyone else, relax. After a moment's silence, aside form Weiss' (ignored) complaints and protests, Pyrrha asked in a gentle voice, "So, Velvet… How are you doing?'

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"Blake!" The secret-Faunus ignored her partner's call, beyond speeding up her fast-march towards the library, hoping for books to distract herself, shelves to slip between and shadows to lurk in. "Come on, let's talk about… Whatever this is!"

"I do not want to talk, Yang." She snapped back over her shoulder, not turning to look at her bubbly, overly protective and kind partner. She wouldn't dare, couldn't dare for that matter.

Familiar comforts was what she wanted, that she'd grown more than just used to in her less savory past. A perfect escape for a coward like her, wanting a place to wallow in her own inequity and anger. She reached the doors that lead out into the walkway that then lead to the library building proper and got a hand on it, just in time to feel a hand on her shoulder and hear a loud, ecstatic, "Finally, got you, Blakey. Now let's talk about all-"

"Yang, this is not something I am going to talk about. Why can't you get that?" She met the blonde's surprised face and fought to keep hers blank.

"Blake…?" Yang recoiled, if only just, eyes and face flashing through confusion and then hurt, and Blake's hand folded. Yang sad was not something, it turned out, Blake was equipped for. Adam was one thing, that mask hid his face-

She cut that train of- Line of thought off before it could gain purchase and pulled away from Yang. Not enough to distance them, she was certain of that. Just enough to get her hand off her, let her run if she needed to. Yang let her go and took a half-step back, hoping to give her the space she wanted or still hurt from her snapping a moment ago. The look alone…

"I-I'm sorry, Yang." She rushed to fold her hand before the dealer had even so much as reached for the deck. Sighing, she explained as best she could short of taking her bow off, though it as always itched and ached desperately. "It was just… Velvet, and what was happening, a-and Weiss being a bit of a… I don't know."

"A frosty bitch?" Yang offered cheerily, the Faunus rolling her eyes but nodding regardless. Seeming to recover, the blonde leaned against the wall of the wide hallway, watching Blake closely as she spoke, "It's just Weiss being Weiss. She's defending her family."

"Her family has thousands of Faunus-"

"I know, I… Gods, Blake, do I know." Yang nodded, smiling sadly but resignedly and then shrugging. Not the usual flippant, almost flirty kind of shrug either, this one was… Sorrowful, in a weird way. "Weiss has a lot on her plate, Blakey, lik… Like a lot. But controlling her father's corporation isn't one of those."

"She could try-"

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't." Yang shrugged and pushed off the wall. Then she turned and looked down the hall for a long moment, watching a teacher vanish around a corner before turning back to Blake. "We all have skeletons, Blake. Weiss has a company to, probably, fix one day. But she has to get there. And you… You have your own, don't you?"

"I don't know what you-"

"Maybe two specific ones?" The blonde pressed, stepping closer to her, eyes crinkling warily as she watched the Faunus in front of her. Only too late did Blake realize she was in Yang's guard, now, and if she ran Yang could catch her easily. Her shoulders tensed instinctively at that and what the woman was implying and, of course being the trained fighter she was, Yang noticed, asking simply, "I know what's under there. Weiss doesn't, I can tell, she'd… Have words."

"I don't... I don't doubt it, Yang." Blake murmured, ears twitching in agitation freely now that the veil was broken. Listening, searching for anything from ambushes to strangers coming and going who might hear. "A Schnee team with a Faunus? Unlikely, to say the least."

"Weiss wouldn't care about your… Horns?"

"Ears." Blake sighed, shaking her head dourly, "I have… Ears."

"...Dog?" Yang guessed with a small grin, pointing a finger at the crown of her head curiously.

"No!" Blake shouted in surprise, blinking after a second and listening for any attention that brought. When no attention came, she first question Beacon's not investigating a woman screaming 'no' and then relaxed, shaking her head. "They're… Cat ears."

"Can I…" A hand half-reached up towards her head and Blake glowered, before it dropped and Yang nodded. "Okay, not okay, got it. Didn't know, sorry."

"Who all knows?"

"Just me, really. Ruby's a dolt, probably just thinks your bow is like her cloak and Weiss is… Weiss." She shrugged unsurely, "Jaune might, he's perceptive, but… I dunno. I only know because I'm a big sister full time, mom part time thanks to Ruby and… Stuff I'll explain later about home. Point being," she sighed, "I always notice when people are hiding things. Stolen cookies, Dust rounds, checking if people are looking when you adjust your bow…"

"You noticed…?"

"You think I make so much of a scene in the mornings for the fuck of it?" Yang asked, smiling roguishly and crossing her arms. "No, I'm distracting Weiss and Ruby. Covering for you, Kitty-Cat, because we're friends. S'why I made that joke, too, and I won't do that again. I know it bothers you now."

"Thank you…" The gratitude was genuine and deep in a way that Blake couldn't have possibly explained if she'd tried. "You didn't- I didn't even ask you to do that. Why didn't you even ask me why I was doing it?"

"Your business why you're hiding it, not mine." Yang shrugged simply, as though Blake simply wanting it hidden was reason enough to act all in its own. After a moment of Blake gaping at her like a dumb fish, she asked, "You want to tell me why you're hiding them like that?"

"No, I'm not… Ready." Blake swallowed, staring at Yang's neck to avoid her eyes. "I-I'm sorry, but-"

"S'fine, Blakey. I don't mind you keeping what's yours to yourself, and I will keep flashing my tits to fluster Weiss and annoying Ruby in the morning to cover for you, don't you worry about a thing." The blonde shrugged simply, stepping by to grab the handle of the door outside and beaming a smile at her. "Come on, now, let's go hide long enough for you to have reasonably sulked your problems away."

"I don't… Sulk." Blake groused, the blonde chuckling but not answering, letting the other woman duck through the door and following behind her while Blake insisted, "I don't silk, Yang! I… I brood at the worst."

The blonde woman laughed brightly and, for once in months with Adam and weeks with Beacon, Blake started to relax. Yang knew some, but trusted her implicitly and openly, and that… That was new and good, and Blake was happy to have it.

"Seriously though, can I touch them? I bet they're soft~!"

"Yang!"

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"You don't have to keep doing this…" Velvet finally spoke in something other than 'okay', 'sure', or 'yeah' two lunches and a weekend later, sitting between Yang and Blake, the blonde lounging against the rabbit-Faunus' side with a cocksure smirk, dressed in her combats as they all were ahead of Monday sparring class. A smirk that turned quickly to confusion as she pulled away, Velvet explaining as fast as she could before Yang could leap to conclusions Velvet didn't necessarily want, "Winchester is leaving me alone now, so you don't… Don't need to babysit me. I'm fine."

"We're-"

"Oh I'm quite sorry, but I didn't know we were babysitting you." Weiss cut across Jaune, smiling thinly in that cold, clinical but still somehow friendly sort of way she did. "If I had known, I'd have sent a bill along. How's twenty Lien an hour sound to you, then, now I know the situation to hand properly?"

"I, uh, I don't understand what you…"

"She means we aren't babysitting you, or keeping you." Ren offered calmly from down the table, pitching fries up its length for Nora to catch, still stuck on that game she'd made the week before. In the same always calm voice, the man explained simply, "You needed help, we helped you, and now you are our friend. Or rather, we consider you as one, albeit a newer one."

"You're welcome at our table, and with us." Pyrrha added gently from beside Jaune, giving the woman a warm smile. Velvet seemed to respond to that marginally more than their conversations thus far, "We here don't care about your ears, and enjoy your company. You are welcome here, and just as welcome to leave, if you wish."

"Got like, five minutes to pick, though." Yang pointed out, waving a hand up at one of the large clocks lining the interior wall, each the size of a man and alternating so that all students had something to check the time on. "Combat class starts in fifteen, and we need to start heading there. So, what do you wanna do, Vel?"

"I-I wanna be friends, so you should stay!" Ruby added in her own clumsy attempt to keep Velvet on side. Velvet blinked and looked at the young woman and, flushing, Ruby hid her head in her hood and murmured, "Sorry…"

"I don't want pity…" Velvet glanced to each of them quickly and then, finally, sighed and finished, "But this isn't pity. This is all just you being nice to me, and inviting me to be your friend, and I'm being a stubborn cunt for no reason. Aren't I?"

"I mean, wouldn't call you a cunt…"

"But yes, in a way at least." Jaune rolled his eyes, ignoring Yang entirely and speaking to Velvet instead. After a heartbeat he sighed, grabbed a fry and twirled it in his fingers idly, watching it while he went on. "I would argue paranoid more than stubborn, though, even though even that word doesn't quite work right. Thinking that people wouldn't want to just be your friend, I mean."

"I understand, and… Would like to be friends?" They nodded and, after a moment of moderately awkward silence, they all chuckled and started to eat again, nibbling at the last of their food until the bells chimed to alert the students to the changing of class. With resigned sighs and only a few words, they started packing up their stuff and began making their way to the training arena for spars.

He caught Cardin glowering as they left and half turned to him, head cocked to the side in challenge, flexing his threat through the Force like he'd done several times now to cow the man into submission. The young bigot balked immediately, shot a glare and sneer at Velvet's back, and turned to leave without a word.

"What was that all about?" Ruby asked with her hands clasped behind her head, the two leaders trailing behind their team, letting them make a wake through the students for the less inclined members of their group to use to navigate. "You went all scary face… But when I do that to people, they just laugh."

"Scary face?" He asked, the girl cocking her head to the side and grinning in what he supposed was meant to be be feral, eyes crossed while she did. He snorted and laughed, earning a pouting glare from the girl he waved off, "It's… Part of my Semblance, I can intimidate people if I want to."

Not to mention making them angry, or ignore things, or calming their nerves… But better not to touch on that, lest he earn questions he didn't feel like dealing with.

"Sounds like a fun- I mean, useful Semblance, not, you know, not fun… I wouldn't say that, haha, I'm all grown up. M-Mine just helps me go fast… Kinda, I mean." He'd seen it in action, during training, and though it took a lot out of her right now he had seen the potential in it. Not to mention the lack of credit 'I go fast' gave her, or her Semblance. "Yours can do a lot, though. Moving things and affecting emotions?"

"It's… Just how it works, I guess, Ruby. I don't know everything about it, really." That part, at the very least, was true. Still only in a way that was synthetic and sterile, keeping his secret and only technically being true in looser terms of the words. "You know how Semblances can be, sometimes. They're weird."

"Yeah, I guess…" A little shrug of small shoulders, "Semblances are funny, so yeah. Wonder what else yours can do."

"Maybe we'll find out, one of these days." He had a few ideas of what he could do with the Force, to say the least.

The texts detailed everything from healing capabilities to construction applications, and even into more… Fantastical areas, like elemental control and the ability to, apparently, fly to some extent. Theoretically, at least, as the texts detailed only two instances of it working in a 'the user didn't die right after' sort of way. He'd only been declared not dead a scant few months prior, and spent more than enough time underground. He didn't fancy trying dangerous, deadly Force experiments just yet.

Shaking the ideas off, he asked in a light, airy way, hoping to hide where his mood had gone with his thoughts. "Anyway, ideas on who you want to spar with today? I'm thinking of challenging Yang, but I don't want to have to go easy on someone."

"I heard that, Loverboy!" The blonde called back over her shoulder, turning and walking backwards so she could meet his gaze with a cocky grin and raised brows. With hand, she waved up her length and teased, "You think you can handle all of this, do you?"

"I do, actually, yeah."

"Oh we are going to have fun in class today!" Yang crowed, turning and throwing an arm around her partner, who sighed sufferingly but didn't try and escape. Grinning wide and sure, she asked in a loud voice, "Gonna be rooting for me, Blakey? I could use a cute cheerleader, you know~!"

"I am not a cheerleader." Blake sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically and then grinning, raising a tiny 'team RWBY' flag for them to see, "But I did make this over the weekend- Yang, no, don't steal my flag!"

"It's cute! Gimme! I want!" Jaune laughed at the proclamation, alongside their entire little group, and settled back to enjoy the day. Another good day, part of a relatively good week - unpleasantness with Winchester aside - down and through with.

What, he wondered, would tomorrow bring calling?