"The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"
Weiss raises her arms to her chest as she looks at the decorations for the Vytal festival.
There's red, green, and yellow balloons, tapestries, and banners around the streets of Vale. There's a big sign that was just hung up, it had 'Welcome to Vale' painted on it.
People are walking around. Both citizens of Vale and students. Not only Beacon students as well, and some tourists are visiting for the beginning of the festival.
Blake, Yang, Ruby, Pyrrha, and Alabast stand behind Weiss.
They reached a decision to all go to Vale for the day.
Ren and Nora went and did their own thing. Nora dragged Ren down the street after they said their goodbyes on the Bullhead.
Ren had a small smile on his face. Alabast couldn't tell if he was expecting this and just accepted his situation or if he was actually happy. It was probably a bit of both.
"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss. Unless you're with Alabast" Ruby frowns a little. "It's kinda weirding me out..."
Weiss turns on her heels to face everyone else. She looks at her young leader. "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"
They all begin walking with Alabast walking behind them. "I think you 5 are breathtaking". He whispers under his breath so that not even Blake is able to hear. He remembers a quote from a man in his past life and couldn't resist. He just remembered it on the spot.
Alabast follows behind them and moves beside Pyrrha to join the group.
Yang sighs as she crosses her arms and looks at Weiss. "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring"
Weiss turns her head and narrows her eyes at Yang. "Quiet you!"
"Yang, Weiss! We just finished our Exams for the first semester, could we not immediately fight please" Alabast says in a rough tone. He barely survived the exams. Practicals he aced, but the written and theoretical? He's just happy those are over. He doesn't want to listen to his girlfriends argue.
They get to the docks in a couple minutes of walking. They hear foghorns from ships on the water coming in.
Everyone looks out on the docks and stand side by side.
Yang slumps her shoulders. "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"
Alabast is indifferent for many reasons. Even if the smell isn't pleasant to his heightened senses. One, exams are over and he's finally free after about 2 months of rigorous studying. Enforced by the strict Weiss and Pyrrha. Two, he's with his beautiful girlfriends. Three, he is just enjoying his time.
Ruby pinches her nose as she sounds kinda sick. "Ugh, they smell like fish!"
Alabast looks at Ruby. "What did you think they'd smell like? Did you expect cookies?"
Ruby's eyes sparkle as she still holds her nose but she seems completely fine now. "Cookies!? Where?!"
Alabast shakes his head. "We can get some from a shop on our way back"
"Cookies!" Ruby cheers.
Weiss was close to the railing. "I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!"
Everyone else looks at Weiss with an expression saying. 'Riiiiight'
They begin walking again with Weiss leading them.
Blake looks at Yang, Ruby, Alabast, and Pyrrha. "She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."
Alabast nods. That is something Weiss would do. She is very thorough when it comes to information gathering. It's also what makes her a good listener if she's interested in what you're talking about.
Weiss scoffs and turns to face everyone. "You can't prove that!"
Ruby looks to the side down a street. She inhales sharply as she looks at a shop with broken windows that is taped off. "Whoa"
The others follow her gaze and look at the store. They all walk closer and see policemen and detectives in and around the store. They don't cross the police tape but walk up to it to see what's going on.
"What happened here?" Ruby wonders aloud.
One of the detectives that was writing on a data pad looks up at them. "Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle". The detective then walks over to his partner that wasn't too far away. They were by the broken windows now.
Yang sadly sighs. "That's terrible"
A different detective from inside the building walks out. "They left all the money again"
Ruby turns her head. "Huh?"
"Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?" The first detective says as he continues writing his report on the data pad.
The second detective looks at the first. "I don't know… an army?" He shrugs his shoulders.
Detective No. 1 looks at the second detective. "You thinking the White Fang?"
Detective No. 2 lowers his sunglasses. "Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."
Weiss crosses her arms and lifts her chin into the air. "Hmph! The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates"
Ruby flinches and looks to Alabast who has his eyes closed.
Alabast can't dispute Weiss. Mainly because she is right.
Blake stares at Weiss and puts her left hand on her waist. "What's 'your' problem". She emphasizes the 'your'.
Weiss turns to Blake. "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane"
"Weiss" Alabast gently says. This causes her to think about what she said. But before she can say anything Blake continues.
Blake crosses her arms and gets serious. "The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus"
This causes Weiss to want to refute but she checks herself and then responds. "Misguided? They want to hurt humanity and cause problems"
Blake continues pressing her view on the situation. "So then they're 'very' misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"
Ruby looks between her teammates and friends. "Hmm... Blake's got a point" She looks at the store. "Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him"
Alabast looks at Ruby. "I can almost guarantee you that Roman had something to do with this"
Ruby sends a weak smile to Alabast.
Weiss closes her eyes. "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." She gets a bit mad while she talks. "Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal"
Yang decides to throw her 2 lien in. "That's not necessarily true…"
Weiss looks to Yang and points to Alabast. "If they'd all be like Alabast it would be different"
Alabast hangs his head down slightly and sighs.
Blake is trying to hold her anger in at her teammates words and blatant disrespect of her previous organization.
"Stop that Faunus!" Somebody shouts down at the docks.
They run over to the railing that overlooks the docks and they see a person around their age running.
The guy had short blond hair. A monkey tail that matched his hair. A white unzipped jacket with its sleeves rolled up, and no shirt underneath revealing his torso and a necklace. Blue jeans rolled up to just below his knees revealing his legs that are partially wrapped. He had red and black fingerless gloves that matched his bracers that covered his forearms.
The monkey Faunus crouches on the side of the ship he is on and looks at the people chasing him. "Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha"
He jumps off the ship and lands on the wooden dock below and starts running again.
"You no-good stowaway!" One of his pursuers say out of breath.
The stow away jumps and uses his tail to hang on a lamppost while he peels back a banana. "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!" He shouts back.
One of the detectives throws a rock lightly up at the Faunus before he can take a bite from his banana. "Hey! Get down from there this instant!"
The stowaway drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives.
As he runs past Team RWBY and Alabast and Pyrrha, he winks at Blake and smiles.
Alabast sees this and isn't very happy.
*SLAM!*
"Gaahk" The monkey Faunus gets slammed to the ground by his throat by Alabast.
Alabast looks down at the monkey Faunus who is trying to get his hand off his throat. "I don't think you should have done that" he says as his aura activates. His black aura rolls off him and his red eyes glows deep red.
The monkey Faunus's eyes widen and he frantically tries to get the hand off his throat but is surprised he is completely pinned down. "R-relax man. I just winked at the pretty lady"
Alabast leans over the Faunus more and allies more pressure. "That 'pretty lady' is my girlfriend"
The guy stuck to the ground by his throat seems to realize his mistake. "My b-bad" He then takes his legs and moves them around Alabast and puts him in an arm-lock. But Alabast still held his throat even when he should be in pain.
Yang looks on amused at the situation. "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition. Alabast is giving a demonstration"
The stowaway nervously laughs. "Haha…. I swear this hardly happens... Shouldn't you be on the ground in pain right now?"
Alabast looks at the monkey on his right arm that is forcefully being stretched out to his side.
Weiss looks the Faunus duo fighting. "Trust me, I'm watching"
Blake watches in a daze. She likes that Alabast got jealous. But is a bit worried with the amount of people watching.
The stowaway looks at Alabast. "You have a name? You can call me Sun"
Alabast sighs and shakes his head. "It's good you already know your place"
Sun has a confused look on his face before his head is swung down at the cement. He can't get away because of Alabast's hold on him and hits the ground hard.
Sun blinks his eyes a few times and releases his hold on Alabast's arm. Then he swings his legs and plants both his feet on Alabast's face as he kicks off of him.
Alabast let's go and Sun jumps away. His aura goes away as he tries to calm down. He just wanted to enjoy his day with his girlfriends.
Sun turns to Alabast. "See you never Big Bad Wolf!" And then he proceeds to dodge a policeman who tries to catch him and runs down the street.
Weiss points at Suns figure as it turns a corner. "Quick, after him!"
Ruby, Yang, and Weiss immediately go after him.
Alabast just stands in place for a few seconds and Pyrrha grabs his hand. "Why'd you let him go?"
Alabast looks at the redhead. "I didn't want to turn him in because then it would ruin our date. And if I held onto him he'd only keep trying to attack me"
Pyrrha smiles at him and let's his hand go. "Just making sure"
Blake then moves to the other side of Alabast. "Thank you" she whispers before running after her team.
Alabast and Pyrrha follow behind her. They turn the corner in time to see Weiss collide heavily into a girl and they both fall.
"He got away!" Weiss pushes herself up.
"Uh…. Weiss?" Yang points at the girl under her teammate.
Weiss looks under her and notices that she is on a smiling girl. She gets startled by this since she didn't know there was a girl there and hastily gets up.
The girl on the ground has short, rather curly orange hair that came down to the back of her neck with a small cowlick on top. She wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She also had bright green eyes, pale skin, and freckles. She wore an off white old-fashioned styled 'off the shoulder' blouse with frill detailed trim and frill flared cuffs that half covered her hands alongside copper button detailing on the lower parts of her sleeves. She sported a short gray pinafore dress with golden trim on the hem alongside four light green stalagmite styled stripes on the lower half of the dress, two on the front and two on the back. She also wore a pair of black thigh-high leg pieces that seemingly were attached to black shoes. The leg pieces had a single green stripe up the sides that appeared to light up.
"Sal-u-ta-tions!" The girl widely smiles and greet them, still on the ground.
"Um… hello?" Ruby awkwardly greets the girl.
Yang looks at the girl not getting up and gets concerned. "Are you…okay?"
"I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking." The girl says not moving at all.
Yang, Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Pyrrha look at each other in bewilderment. Alabast just looks at the girl's green eyes. They look… different than normal eyes but he can't tell for sure.
Yang is the first to speak. "Do you... wanna get up?"
The looks up at the clear sky as she thinks about it for a few moments. "Yes!" She jumps to her feet as Yang, Weiss, and Blake take a step back leaving Ruby to talk with the surprisingly cheerful girl.
"My name is Penny! It's nice to meet you!" She says enthusiastically after getting up.
"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby"
"I'm Weiss"
"Blake"
"Pyrrha"
Yang points two fingers at her head. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"
Blake nudges Yang with her elbow.
Yang gets a light elbow to her side. "Oh, I'm Yang"
Alabast says with a flat and neutral tone. "Alabast"
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Says Penny as she looks at everyone in front of her.
"You already said that" Weiss points out.
Penny looks down and to the side for a few seconds and then looks back at the group. "So I did!"
"Well, sorry for running into you!" Weiss apologizes.
Team RWBY turn around but Blake bumps into Weiss and Ruby bumps into Pyrrha.
Alabast is confused. Why would they try and leave. Couldnt they just say goodbye and then leave? This is uncharacteristic…. for Ruby at least.
Blake motions for Alabast to start moving. Both Pyrrha and Alabast shrug and begin walking away.
Ruby turns to wave at Penny. "Take care, friend!"
They turn the corner back towards the docks.
As they continue walking Yang is the first to speak. "She was…weird…"
Weiss sighs. "We didn't get to see that Faunus do anything else. All we know is that he's flexible and agile. He's decently strong…" She looks at Alabast. "…and he has a death wish"
Alabast can't disagree with any of those assessments.
"What did you call me?" Penny suddenly appears before the group, surprising most. Pyrrha and Alabast weren't too surprised. But Weiss and Yang nearly jump back.
Weiss points back where they left Penny and looks at the others for an answer for how she got here.
"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!" Yang tries to apologize.
"No, not you." Penny then walks through the group and gets right in Ruby's personal space. "You"
This causes Ruby to lean backwards and get slightly startled. "Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..."
Alabast grabs Ruby's shoulders since he was behind her and pulls her towards him. This helps stop Ruby's mumbling and let's her stand up properly. "Ruby, you called her a friend". He then lets Ruby go.
Penny stands up as well instead of trying to lean forward to be level with Ruby's face. "Yes! You indeed called me friend. Am I really your 'friend'?"
"Uuuuum….." Ruby looks past Penny and sees her team makes various motions to tell her to deny it. Even if Alabast already confirmed what she said.
Yang makes an x with her arms. Blake moves both her arms trying to tell her to stop. And Weiss uses her right hand and moves it next to her neck to tell her to stop. They all shake their head NO.
Ruby looks back to penny. "Y-yeah, sure! Why not?" She says, unsure about her answer.
Yang, Blake, and Weiss all comically fall to the ground in an exaggerated manner.
Penny's eyes light up with joy. Her smile gets wider. "Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"
Alabast looks at Penny. "Oh my gods….It's another Ruby" He was sure there wasn't another person that can act like Ruby, but he was proven wrong. But Ruby was still better. Her silver eyes were much nicer to look at than Penny's weird green ones.
Ruby looks at Weiss and groans: "Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?"
Weiss stand up and moves beside Ruby as she dusts her clothes off. "No - she seems far more coordinated"
Yang and Blake stand up.
Yang tries to continue the conversation instead of Ruby and Weiss talking to eachother. "So... what are you doing in Vale?" She's already used to her sisters attitude, so she doesn't mind talking with Penny.
Penny looks to Yang. "I'm here to fight in the tournament" Penny sounded much less enthusiastic.
Weiss moves her head to the side and looks at the weird girl. "Wait, 'you're' fighting in the tournament?"
Penny salutes on the spot. "I'm combat ready!"
Weiss can't believe it. "Forgive me, but you hardly look the part"
Blake looks to Weiss. "Says the girl wearing a dress"
Weiss crosses her arms and seriously responds. "It's a combat skirt!"
Ruby runs over to Weiss, her skirt sister. Ruby also has her arms crossed trying to mimic her. "Yeah!"
Weiss holds out her palm to Ruby for a low five, which Ruby smacks with her own hand.
Pyrrha also joins them, but stands behind them with her arms crossed under her bust.
A few seconds later Weiss seems to realize something. "Wait a minute". She walks over to Penny and grabs her by her shoulders. "If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"
Penny has a confused expression. "The who…?"
Weiss pulls out a piece of paper from nowhere that has a very poor and crude drawing of Sun on it. "The…..Faunus from the boat!" She catches herself and doesn't call him filthy.
Blake doesn't seem to realize that Weiss is attempting to reel back on hating Faunus. "Why do you keep saying stuff like this". She's getting very irritated by Weiss's comments about Faunus.
Weiss turns to Blake and let's Penny go. "Huh?"
Blake walks up to the heiress. "Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"
"Oh, I'm sorry" Weiss motions to objects around her. "Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"
"Enough!" Alabast shouts as he walks to Blake and Weiss.
He looks to Weiss first. "We know he broke the law and came here illegally. Even if he isn't caught right now he will get caught soon because he's probably also joining the tournament. He will get punished by the law at that point. Now, that's not an excuse to rip into him because of his race, I'll get payback at him when I see him next anyway, does that work?"
Weiss slouches her shoulders. "Yeah…"
Alabast then looks to Blake who calmed down and had a mocking smile like she won. "Now Blake. Weiss is trying to hold back on Faunus. She could have been really rude to Faunus and put them all in the same category like everyone else. Now Sun actually broke the law, and also tried to fight me. It isn't like he is an exemplary Faunus. And Weiss hasn't technically been wrong"
Blake clenches her fist and gets angry again. "Why are you defending her?"
Alabast points to Weiss. "I'm defending her like I'd defend any of you" He points to the rest of the group. "She may not have been right, but that doesn't make her wrong. I see your point of view Blake, but Sun doesn't deserve the defense you're trying to give him. He hasn't earned it"
Blake stays angry and looks at Alabast. "Ok, yes. Sun may not deserve it, but what about the rest of the Faunus that didn't break any laws? What about the White Fang?"
Alabast puts a hand on her shoulder. "Weiss is trying to get better Blake. She tries to not lump them all together. But it's not like the White Fang are proving her wrong. Let's just forget about this for now. Fighting here isn't going to do anything but ruin our Friday afternoon"
Blake turns around and walks away. Alabast stays in place and watches her go. 'What the hell am I supposed to do? I agree withWeiss on this one… maybe I'm missing the bigger picture… Why did there need to be 5 exams on a Friday?' He thinks to himself as he sighs.
Yang moves beside Ruby and seems uncomfortable. "Um, I think we should probably go..."
Penny pops up behind Ruby. "Where are we going?"
Weiss walks behind Blake but doesn't say anything. Ruby, Yang, and Penny follow them.
Pyrrha stands beside Alabast. She nudges him to start walking. "I know you tried to handle that as best as you could. But you should have reprimanded Weiss a little more. And Blake is just lashing out, she seems to have been holding back for quite some time and she can't keep it inside anymore"
Alabast looks at Pyrrha. "You're right. But Weiss 'is' actually trying. And I think Blake is done trying at this point. We just have to see how this goes. I love them, even if they're so stubborn"