Alabast was standing next to the others as they wait to be called. They heard all the other teams get called up, and each time a leader was designated by Ozpin himself. They were then given a team name that used their initials as an acronym, some were clearly more thought out than others.
After a team full of idiotic looking guys walks off stage Ozpin motions for the next group to walk up. And it just so happens to be Alabast's group.
"Alabast Noir. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the gold rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team ANVL. (anvil)" Ozpin states without looking at any notes.
The crowd of students clap.
Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug. She was very stressed and worried about being on a different team than Ren, they had been together since basically forever and she would have absolutely dreaded being separated from him.
"Led by…" Ozpin continues, ignoring or simply not acknowledging Nora's antics along with the applause from the crowd that dies down.
Alabast has his arms folded across his chest as he stands tall. He glances down at Pyrrha, fully expecting her to be called the leader. He prefers to follow orders, not make them. After this he can get used to amenities he didn't have access to while constantly training or going on missions for the White Fang. Unknown to him, his tail is moving faster than normal which the others happen to see and smile.
Ozpin smirks, looking at the four students in front of him. Choosing the leader of a team is always fun and intriguing. Some rise to the challenge while others crumble to pieces under the pressure. This team could become problematic, but he hopes his choice in leader will help guide them down the correct path. Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one, while other times the least likely is the correct answer.
"....Alabast Noir!"
The clapping comes back much louder throughout the auditorium and a certain Little Red can be heard cheering through the thunderous applause.
Alabast quickly moves his gaze from Pyrrha to Ozpin, his eyes widening slightly. "Huh? Me?" He points his finger up at his face.
"Congratulations young man" Ozpin's smirk widens. Moments like this make his job fun, much to Glynda's chagrin.
Pyrrha smiles up at Alabast and gives him a friendly elbow bump that barely manages to move him. "We have your back, leader"
Alabast looks to his left and sees his teammates smiling at him, Nora letting go of Ren and giving a thumbs up with a bright smile and Ren giving a nod.
He turns away from his team as he scratches the back of his head, his semi-messy hair moving like it's a single clump. "Whatever"
The newly formed team ANVL make their way off the stage to allow the next group, the final group, to be called.
Ozpin clears his throat then continues. "And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long". he motions over the four as they stand before him. "The four of you retrieved the gold knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Weiss looks to her right surprised, where Ruby is very clearly in shock. The Schnee heiress can hardly believe that she wasn't made the leader of her team, shouldnt she have been the obvious and best choice? But instead it's Ruby, an indecisive and energetic spaz of a child.
Yang quickly walks up to and picks up Ruby in a bear hug. "I'm so proud of you!"
The crowd cheers loudly and Ozpin mutters something to himself.
Alabast is looking up at the stage. He sees Ruby and Yang as they fight in a sisterly hug, one side for freedom and the other for smothering of an adorable sister. He decided just to ignore Weiss for his own sanity. And when he sees Blake he gets lost in thought.
The girl looks happy on the stage with her team, she may not show it but Alabast can tell. Yet, when she looked at him she became cold and seemed to withdraw herself from what is supposed to be a big and happy moment that marks the start of her future as a Huntress and the first step towards her goals.
If he causes her to react this much with only his presence… perhaps it's best if he stay as far away as he can. That way she can enjoy this start of her new life.
"Maybe it's time to… lay some ambitions to rest…" Alabast whispers to himself as he looks up at the ceiling full of spotlights pointed at the stage. He's surprised when he feels his heart twist. He did his best not to get his hopes up. This was supposed to be a fresh start for Blake and himself, and he knew it likely wouldn't be with her. He just wanted something to do other than train all day, get sent on missions, and… feel alone…
Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren heard Alabast even through the thunderous cheering. They give him a sad look, specifically Nora and Pyrrha. They may not know him well, but he is their leader and they all fought together to survive the Death Stalker. Hearing Alabast say something like this is concerning. They aren't sure what would cause him to say this, but they plan on asking team RWBY in the future since they know him better than they do currently.
As everybody left the auditorium team ANVL and RWBY were the last to leave. Ruby ran up to Alabast and started jumping around him. "Ashy! We're team leaders now! Isn't that so cool?! I totally wasn't expecting that! A-"
Alabast grabs Ruby's hood and brings it over her head. "Listen, Little Red. I get it. I'm glad you are happy to be leader, but I've never had to lead. I never planned or hoped for it either, alright?"
Yang smirks and steps forward. "So what? Who says you can't learn some new tricks?"
He glares down at Yang, clearly not amused. "Ha… Ha…. Very clever and original Blondie"
"Cant blame a girl for trying" Yang half-heartedly shrugs her shoulders.
"I'm sure you'll be a fine leader… Ashy" Pyrrha tries encouraging him.
Alabast looks over to Pyrrha and it dawns on him that he is now going to be called Ashy by these people. Coming to terms with this and that resisting would lead to a lot of wasted effort and discourse between them, he simply sighs in resignation. There are significantly worse things to be called.
Nora jumps into the conversation. "Are we giving each other nicknames?! Are we?!"
Now Nora and Ruby are jumping around trying to think of nicknames for everyone. Then they look at Alabast since he has the given the most nicknames out so far.
"No" Alabast denies whatever they were going to ask. He doesn't even want to know.
"Awwww. Cmon~, please? You didn't even hear what we were going to ask…" Ruby tries giving her best puppy-dog eyes.
Alabast looks at her from the corner of his eye, which twitches slightly upon seeing Ruby. "… What do you want…"
Ruby beams at Alabast's answer, ignoring the reluctance of it. "Give us all nick-… I mean code names! You've already given me Little Red which I like, and Yang is Blondie!"
Yang jumps in the conversation again. "Very clever and original Ashy"
Alabast can only sigh as the others look away. Nora whistles, Ren pretends to fiddle with his sleeve, Pyrrha holds her hand behind her and rocks on her heels.
There is a brief staring contest between a satisfied Yang and an unhappy Alabast.
"Fine, but your still Blondie" Alabast turns away. "I'll think about them while we go to our dorm rooms"
"Let's also go check out our dorm room! This'll be the best sleepover EVER! Cmon team!" Ruby cheerfully says to Yang, Blake, and Weiss. She then runs ahead and walks beside Alabast while looking at her scroll to find their dorm room.
After Ozpin left the stage a text was sent to the leader's scroll of each team with their dorm room and team schedule attached. Along with any necessary information they will need for the time being.
Alabast pulls out his scroll as he pushes the doors to the auditorium open.
"Which floor are you guys on?!" Ruby exclaims, holding herself back from getting more excited.
"We are on the….Xth floor" Alabast has a feeling this won't end the way he expected it to.
"Really?! Now way! We are too! What's your room number?!" Ruby jumps in front of Alabast and stops.
Alabast shows his scroll to Ruby, praying that it's not what he thinks it is. He literally just said he will try to stay away from Blake, and by proxy her team.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" Ruby squeals.
This causes Alabast's ears to flick in annoyance and Blake's bow on her head to twitch.
"We're dorm neighbors!!!" Ruby shouts, informing both her team and Alabast's.
Yang puts her hands on her hips. "Isn't this a happy coincidence"
Pyrrha stops next to her. "Perhaps this is fate"
"It must be!" Nora says next to Pyrrha before grabbing Ren. "First Ren and I were able to partner with each other in the forest! Then we grabbed similar chest pieces to each other! Now we're neighbors! This is definitely fate"
Ren grabs his chin with his free hand. "Actually, it's more likely that they gave the dorms out in order of which relic each team grabbed or in the order that the teams completed the objective and returned to the cliff…"
Before he continues Ren looks at the others and gets a particularly sad look from Nora. "… or it could be fate?"
Nora ignores Ren's nervous smile and gets back into her hyperactive mood.
Alabast closes his eyes. 'If fate exists… fuck it. So far it's done nothing but screw me over'
If fate had him get eaten alive, thrown into a kids body, killed his mom, had him tortured, had him train endlessly for over a decade, had him murder innocent people, and did so many other things, fuck it. Alabast wouldn't do what fate wants if it is a real thing.
——————
After a while both teams begin to walk to the dorms.
Ren and Alabast stay behind the group of girls happily discussing various topics. Blake tries to stay out of it but still listens in. Ruby tries to stay in the conversation but ends up being a tad bit awkward which nobody points out, but Weiss does get annoyed by a few other things Ruby does. The others get along and begin getting to know each other.
"So Ashy, huh?" Ren decides to try and get to know Alabast a bit. They are on the same team and will spend the next four years together after all.
"It's better than Wolfy or whatever else Ruby was going to go with" Alabast rubs his forehead.
"We didn't get to officially meet yet. Lie Ren" He held out his hand and Alabast shook it.
"Alabast Noir" Alabast let's go and doesn't intend for the conversation to continue.
After a minute the awkward silence is noticed by the girls who looked like they were about to drag the guys into their conversation.
"So how long have you known Nora Valkyrie for?" Alabast asks before Ruby, Pyrrha, Yang, or Nora can attempt to rope them into a conversation.
Ren gives a small smile, appreciating the fact Alabast didn't let them let them get roped into a long and exhausting debate between the girls. He remembers how he met Nora and his smile fades away. "Since we were kids, actually. She just kinda stuck to me like-"
Alabast cuts him off. "Like syrup to pancakes?"
"….Yeah. How did you know?" Ren is concerned, but more curious about how Alabast knew what he was going to say.
Alabast looks down to Ren who was trying to figure him out. "Saw you both this morning. Nora seems to really like… syrup… and pancakes… and talking"
"Yeah….." Ren remembers how Nora had three tall stacks of pancakes and nearly two bottles of syrup. He wonders how Nora didn't throw up after being launched through the air for initiation.
Both guys look over to see Ruby and Nora practically bouncing off the ground and anything near them as they become great friends.
"At least they get along and can handle each other's energy" Alabast says, happy that he won't have to solely deal with either of them.
Ren nods, alrwady exhausted for the day. "Yeah. Nora is good at making friends, but not so good at keeping them. It's hard for people to handle her super positiveness with her over talkativeness. But it seems that this group will be nice to her"
"I have a sneaking suspicion that Ruby also has the same problem. I only met her yesterday but she hardly ever shuts up. I don't think I've ever had to talk this much in my life" Alabast thinks back on his life so far in this world for what must be the sixth time today, and he really did rarely talk.
"You alright man?" Ren asks. He's barely heard Alabast talk, so it begs the wuestion of how little has Alabast talked in his life and why.
Ren understands not talking much, but he responds more often than not. With Alabast… it depends on the question.
"Just mentally preparing for the next four long years" Alabast mutters.
——————
Everyone eventually makes it to the dorms, the girls turn and look at Alabast before anyone opens a door to look at the rooms.
"Are you guys serious?" Alabast was hoping they would have forgotten. "Fine, whatever…"
Ruby high-fives Yang while Weiss rolls her eyes. Nora waits impatiently, she wants a nickname but also wants to see her new room she will be sharing with Ren-… her new team.
"Gods…" Alabast puts his hands on his hips, straightening his back. "Left to right"
It's basically the girls facing Alabast and Ren, so this part is easy. Alabast takes a breath as he prepares to get this over with.
"Princess-" Alabast starts.
But before he can continue Weiss complains. "Hey!"
Alabast rolls his eyes. "Would you rather it be an ice pun… Princess?"
"Hmph!" Weiss closes her mouth and looks away. She would really rather not have to deal with more ice puns, and she's been called worse things.
With that situated he starts again, deciding to give a reason for each code name from here on out.
"Pyrrha is Amber. Partly because of her name, and partly because a few other miscellaneous such as her having a fiery will" Alabast just wants to get this over with.
He looks at the next girl in line. "Nora will be called Umbra, like the Ursa she rode on. And her giant personality and strength"
"Ehehehe" Nora giggles as she remembers how she tried playing with the Ursai in the Emerald Forest but they all ended up passing away before she could have any fun.
Alabast heard the girls talking about how and why Nora reached the temple on the back of an Ursa. But before anyone can comment on it he continues.
"Ruby is Little Red and Yang is Blondie" Alabast says uncaringly since they already had theirs, but when he sees the next person in line he decides to skip them for now.
"Ren is Nero" There isn't really a big reason behind this code name. Ren's name is already short and Alabast doesn't know much about the guy.
"And lastly Blake..." Alabast hesitates when he sees the girl stiffen when he said her name. He's about to make something up when his mind blanks. "…Kitten"
This causes Blake to narrow her eyes and she almost hisses at Alabast.
He isn't sure what possessed him to say that. Not only is it stupid, it's also a little too familiar of a code name than their relationship would allow.
Ruby pops in before a fight breaks out. "Her bow does look like cat ears. Plus she likes to sit and read books, so I guess you can….. i don't know, draw a line there… somehow? Kitten is a cool nickname" Ruby was trying to come up with a reason why to call her kitten and to calm Blake down. But she was stretching for an answer.
"Alright, it's late. I'm getting to bed" Alabast takes out his scroll and is about to open the electronic lock when Nora and Yang grab his shoulders. "Where do you think you are going furball?" Yang jokes
"What did you just-?" Alabast calms himself and asks before getting cut off.
"Let's go brush some of that hair out before you start shedding in your room, yeah?" As Yang says this the others agree.
Ruby takes out five brushes from nowhere.
It takes Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha to drag Alabast to a common room balcony shared by the entire dorm residents.
Ruby passes brushes out to Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, a reluctant Weiss, and walks up to Blake. "You can have my brush, I'm not really good when it comes to long hair, yours looks like you take great care of it"
Blake crosses her arms. "Thanks, but no thanks. I was actually planning on going to the-"
"If you're just going to read, you can read here! Ren isn't gonna help 'tame the beast' but he's still gonna be here" Ruby states.
"Huh?" Ren turns towards Ruby, quickly putting a brush away and magically finding a book. "Right…"
Blake closes her eyes for a moment. She doesn't respond but walks over to the opposite side of the balcony.
Weiss tries to hand her brush back to Ruby. "If I don't have to-"
Ruby shakes her head and points at Alabast who is sitting down on the ground. "This is an 'all hands on deck' sorta situation. So we need all brushes to be used if we want to finish tonight. And we are helping a friend, so… please?"
Weiss gives a semi-disgusted look at Ruby's pleading face. "Alright, alright! I get it! Just detangle the-" She stops herself from saying 'mutt'.
"-guy's fur... Let's just get this over with" Weiss walks over to Alabast and gets started along with Yang and Nora.
"Must this be done tonight?" Alabast asks as his hair gets pulled on repeatedly and eventually feels like he's being scalped.
Pyrrha puts a hand on Alabast's shoulder. "We don't know how busy we will be from tomorrow on, so isn't it best to get this over and done with tonight while we have the chance to? And this is a good joint-team project for team RWBY and ANVL"
Yang detangles another knot of hair. "And it would drive me crazy seeing your hair like this. It's like you didn't even TRY to maintain your hair"
Ruby walks over and starts brushing Alabast's tail, she likes watching it moves.
"I didn't" Alabast flatly responds as he tries to ignore the pain.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Weiss immediately drops the hair she was holding and about to brush.
"My hair isn't dirty! I wash it with shampoo!" Alabast angrily shouts.
Ruby just ignores their fight. She doesn't really know how to take care of hair beyond what Yang has taught her.
"Did you brush it? Have you ever gotten it cut? Or used conditioner?" Yang asks with great concern.
"Tried, no, and didn't really have the choice due to living circumstances for a while until I ended up forgetting about it" Alabast answers as his eye twitches from Ruby's actions.
"Oh no…. Poor baby~" Yang says and goes back to brushing. "Don't worry, I'll help take care of you from now on~"
"The hell you will! Gah!!" Alabast goes to stand up but ends up falling right back down due to Ruby on his tail and Yang who went back to brushing his hair.
"Wha? Oh! You thought I was talking to you? Hahaha! Sorry, was talking to your beautiful hair" Yang smirks and looks into Alabast's right eye. "Unless…"
Alabast doesn't appreciate Yang's joke innuendo. "Just finish this already, you can tell me how to properly take care of it later"
"I already have a schedule all planned out Ashy, just need to write it down for you~" Yang chirps as she goes back to brushing.
"I swear… if I find something living in here I'm SO done!" Weiss begrudgingly goes back to brushing. The faster she goes the sooner she can be done with this. The though that she would have to brush a Faunus is dreadful enough, but actually doing it is much worse.
Nora just silently continues doing her brushing. She appears to be lost in her own little world until Pyrrha begins talking with her after a little while.
——————
Ruby finishes with what she can do on Alabast's tail and stands up. It's been over an hour and she's ready to help out with his hair, but since there are already four girls working on his hair she decides it would be a good idea to start on Alabast's hair covering his face.
So she walks around Alabast. She sees he has his eyes closed and is silently sitting there, so she kneels down and reaches towards his bangs. "Hey Ashy, I'm gonna get started on-"
Alabast's eye suddenly opens and he grabs Ruby's wrist. "I can handle this much"
"O-Okay…" Ruby holds the brush out for Alabast to take after he let her hand go.
Once he takes the brush she goes back to his tail and begins admiring her work. She enjoys how soft and fluffy it is, she did learn how to take care of hair from the best after all.
Pyrrha and Yang exchange glances when Alabast took the brush from Ruby. Neither of them know why Alabast doesn't want Ruby to brush his bangs, but a few reasons are theorized based on how many scars he has. They've only seen his forearms and right side of his face but the scars are clear as day.
It takes a while longer until Alabast finishes brushing his bangs but he eventually does and passes the brush back to Ruby.
——————
"Look Ashy!" Nora cheerfully says from behind Alabast.
It's become night and they girls have brushed his hair the entire time. After a certain point Ren and Blake went back to their respective dorm rooms. While Ren took his time leaving Blake couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Alabast turns around for the first time in hours.
Nora holds out a ball of fur. "You have a fur baby!"
"Hilarious" Alabast turns back towards his front and sighs.
After a moment he stands up and begins walking towards his dorm room. He gives a short wave over his shoulder before turning a corner. "Thank you girls"
As he walks down the hall he hears Nora shout: "OMG! Yang! You made Alabast's baby into a wolf! The resemblance is uncanny~!"
When Alabast turns a corner he saw some black hair at the opposite end of the hall.
There was a curious kitten that was more than a little concerned about her team and new friends. Blake isn't sure when Alabast will show his fangs and true colors, so she'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to her friend's safety, even if they just met.
"Good night, Blake…" Alabast whispers ever so quietly. Then he continues walking towards his dorm room.
Making it back to his room, he sees Ren laying down on the bed. "Meant to ask you earlier Ren, how did that ancient wall feel?"
"Enlightening" Ren grumbles out, it was muffled by the pillow his face was in. He's reminded of the wall he was thrown through back during the fight with the Death Stalker.
There were four beds in the room in each corner, next to each bed was a desk and a nightstand. There was one bathroom for the entire team to share and a door that led to a small common room. Attached to the common room was a very, very, small balcony.
"The girls will eventually lose interest in my...…..'fur baby', as they called it, and return later. It's already pretty dark out" Alabast informs Ren.
"Fur….what?" Ren lifts his head from the pillow to see Alabast. His hair looked smoother and less crazy.
"They took my hair they brushed out and made a ball with it. It was Nora who called it my fur baby. After that I left and they started playing with it… and made it into the shape of a wolf, or something" Alabast sighs and wants to collapse on his bed but knows he should change first.
"Oooookay….. should have figured it was Nora" Ren's head falls back onto the pillow.
Alabast goes into the bathroom and changes into his sweatpants and long sleeve compression shirt. He's about to decide which bed he wants to fall into when the door opens.
"I can't believe Weiss made us throw Wolfy away!" Nora complains with a huff as she walks in. But her attitude immediately switched as she waves energetically at Ren. "Hey Ren!"
Pyrrha walks in and shuts the door. She then gives a brief greeting to Ren and Alabast before turning back to Nora. "We weren't going to keep it from the beginning"
"I know! It's just… it was so cute…" Nora can picture the small fluff ball and then imagines it thrown into a trash can by Weiss.
Pyrrha smiles and shakes her head. She walks over to Alabast and looks around the room. "Which bed are you going to take?"
"That one" Alabast points towards the bed across from Ren.
If you look at the room from walking in through the door you will see a bed in each corner. Ren was in the back left bed, meaning that Alabast chooses the back right bed. Nora jumps into the bed also on the left side, leaving Pyrrha with the bed on the right side.
Across from the main door leading to the hall is the common room door, between Ren and Alabast's beds. In the middle of the left wall, between Ren and Nora's beds, is the window. Between Alabast and Pyrrha's bed is the bathroom door.
Pyrrha watches as Nora leaps onto her bed and rolls around on it, giggling. "I suppose that leaves me with this one"
Alabast grabs his small bag with everything he own and sets it in his desk chair. He grabs his headphones and lays down on his bed. "Ren. Nora. Try to keep it down for those of us not in a relationship"
"Wai-! Woah!" *Thud!* Nora falls off her bed and lands with a thud. She jumps up to her feet with a blush on her face. "W-We aren't in a relationship! Well, we are sorta! We have a friend-relationship! That's it! A friendship! A close friendship!"
Ren sits up, deadpan at Nora's antics.
Alabast squints his eyes while laying in his side looking at the wall next to his bed. "So you two aren't together?"
"We-" Ren gets cut off.
Nora's eyes begin darting side to side. "Were together, but we aren't 'together-together'! We're really good friends who have known each other since, like, forget. But we aren't together-together"
"Whatever…" Alabast puts his headphones on. "If you two start a relationship, just let me know"
And before anyone can say anything else Alabast begins playing some music. He wants some sleep before classes start the next day.