Some Over-Arc-ing Advice

Sapphire POV:

I wander in the general direction I heard the voice from and find a young man struggling to put on some armor. He has slightly long blond hair, but I can't see his face as he is turned away from me. He is wearing blue jeans and a black hoodie.

"You need help?" I call out.

He jumps at my voice and turns around, allowing me a look at his face. He has Dark blue eyes and a fair complexion.

"No need. I am perfectly capable of doing this myself," He quickly denies my help, but his struggling doesn't end.

I just lean on a pillar and wait.

After a long few seconds of him awkwardly trying to reach around and tighten the straps on his armor, he relents and says, ".... Your help will be much appreciated."

I chuckle a little and pull my weight off the pillar. I walk over to him and say, "Hold still."

I take a look at his armor. It is mostly white with silver outlining the armor plates, and it consists of seven pieces: two armored gloves, two elbow pads, two shoulder pads, and a wrap-around chest plate. He had already put on everything but the chest plate.

I double-check everything he put on, as a precaution, and it seems I was right to do so. The vambraces attached to the gloves weren't tightened enough. This would cause them to rotate with the wrist, and be ineffective in blocking strikes. The elbow pads were too tight and would limit the movement of the joint. The shoulders seemed fine but were poorly fitted.

After I finished with the double-check, I moved on to tightening the straps on his chest plate.

"Deep breath," I instruct.

He complies and takes a deep breath in, so I quickly get to work on the left side.

After I finish with that side, I move to the other side while instructing, "Hold it."

"Done," I say, and the blonde-haired young man lets out his breath.

"How does it feel?" I ask as a final confirmation.

He does a few light stretches and exercises before drawing his sword and doing a few practice swings, which I frown at. He is very obviously untrained, but I leave that alone for now. Training can be fixed with time, but mentality is more complicated.

His words that lead me here were not of one willing to put their all into improving. He seems to have already given up, which is not good.

"Oh, it feels great, thanks! By the way, you're Sapphire, right? The new member of team RWBY?" He asks, and I realize we haven't introduced ourselves.

"Oh, sorry. Yes, that's me, and you are?" I ask the young man.

"The name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls of the tongue. Ladies love it," He recites what sounds like a rehearsed line, causing me to chuckle.

"I'm sure they do, but, Jaune, I need to tell you something," I say with a serious voice.

"W-what is it?" He speaks, suddenly nervous.

"Relax, I'm not here to beat you up or anything. It's just, I heard your complaints from earlier," I try to ease his tension, but it just gets worse, I wonder why?

I sit down on a bench, and I gesture for him to do the same on a bench opposite to me. He does so nervously, and since he doesn't seem to be calming down. I start.

"Listen, you don't feel like you belong here, is that right?" I ask for confirmation in case I am wrong.

"What do you mean? Of course, I do!" He stands up and blurts out with false bravado.

I just stare at him incredulously and say, "Don't lie to me, I can tell from you're voice."

He immediately deflates and sits back down with a dispirited, "Yeah."

"Why?" I ask.

"I don't know. Haah, everyone in this school is so strong and skilled while I'm just nothing. I'm not strong. I'm not skilled. I'm not even smart," He seems to deflate more and more while pushing out those words.

I feel like there's more to it than that, but I don't push it. It's already surprising that he has told me this much. Normally people in similar situations react in anger at being questioned.

"You're tired of being the fool in a world of geniuses, huh? Well, I hate to break it to you that's not going to change," I state unsympathetically.

I see anger form on his face, and I smile. That anger means he has at least some drive left.

I continue my statement, "Easily. You are very obviously lacking in training, while everyone here has been training most of their lives to get to where they are at now. Making up that difference is not easy if it is even possible."

He seems to deflate even more at my explanation, but I don't stop there.

"But you will never know if you don't give yourself the chance. You can't expect yourself to be at the finish line if you never even start the race," I say before getting up.

I look at his face. It seems my words got to him, but he still needs another step. That step, however, is not something I, a stranger, can make him take. No, that is something he must do himself. All I can do is give him a place to start, and that I shall.

"Here's some advice, Jaune. This is a combat school. I'm sure the library has a few books on wielding weapons and effective combat. Read them," I advise him.

Jaune nods his head with newfound motivation.

"For now, however, you have to go out there, and get your ass handed to you," I say with some humor evident in my voice.

"Hahaha, Yeah I better go before Professor Goodwitch come and yells at me," he replies with a chipper tone.

He gets up and starts to walk toward the exit, but before he gets too far, I call out to him again.

"Oh, yeah, Jaune!" I yell.

"What?" He questions back.

Now that I have his attention again, I say, "For future reference, be careful when saying things. This time it happened to be a pretty girl, but you never know who might be listening ."

His face goes red with embarrassment, and he hurriedly makes his way out of the locker room.

"Hahaha," I laugh at his reaction.