The Next Step

"Just get to Beacon…", he thought to himself; "It can't be THAT hard….right? Airships are a normal thing, you can do this….." Jae would keep repeating to himself, after the impromptu call from Glynda that he got after his training; he had received a similar text message in the morning to detail everything that he needed for his trip up to Beacon.

It was a tall order for someone who had worked odd jobs and scrimped on every lien he could but he managed to get it all; including the necessary textbooks, some new patchwork for the armour on his clothing and a ticket to the airship that would take him to Beacon, granted the books were pretty expensive but he was thankful that some of them were on sale or second hand so that cushioned the blow a little, but what he wasn't expecting at all was the sudden lurch in his stomach as the ship lifted itself off the ground. With the excitement of starting Beacon and not having to worry about being stuck in a store job or a foster home anymore, he had forgotten that this was the first time that he had actively taken an airship before and now motion sickness was starting to churn in his guts.

The sounds of people talking, the TV showing the news in Vale including the most recent robberies by Roman Torchwick and some very loud girl gushing about her baby sister had helped little with settling his stomach when he heard someone walking over to him; "First time flying?" a chipper voice would break the haze in his mind as Jae glanced up to see a girl with short red hair and wearing a pink skirt skipping over along with a quieter dark-haired boy standing nearby, "Y-Yeah, I've not exactly been on an airship before and it looks like my stomach's more suited to keep on the ground then in the air." he would say awkwardly to the two as they seemed unfazed by this.

"Don't worry~ it's not super shaky, I remember one time me and Re-Oh that's Ren by the way and I'm Nora!" she would start chattering, rattling off their names as she began detailing a more rocky ride that the two had been on and from his first impressions….it looked like she would be able to stretch that time out. "Anyway, I think what Nora's trying to say is that it's not uncommon to be motion sick but you can't get any safer then this." the boy named Ren would explain to Jae; "Oh uh…thanks, I'm Jae by the way." the formerly queasy boy would say to the two as he smiled a little; "you two are going to Beacon too?" he would ask before realising it was a dumb question anyway; "Heck yeah we are! we're gonna kick so much monster butt, they won't know where to start!" Nora would say enthusiastically as she grinned to no one in particular but he did seem to appreciate her bouncy mood taking his mind off of any impending vomit.

As he was about to answer one of Nora's many, many questions about him, there was a chime going off in the ship as a hologram of Glynda appeared to greet the new batch of students and to welcome them as they approached the school; Jae had to admit that the view of the school and of the rest of the city was pretty enough, he opted to keep his focus back on the ship in case his stomach decided to fight back; though the sudden shift in weight and the hissing of the doors opening quickly made their point as he stumbled a little while walking out….internally thanking whatever was up there that he could stand on solid ground again. Taking a deep breath to steady himself; he started exploring the school grounds to hopefully find Ren and Nora but the mood quickly changed when he noticed that the two who had talked with him on the ship had somehow managed to vanish into the crowds.

Jae sighed a little to himself as this wasn't anything new, but before he could make his way to the auditorium; he heard two people in the distance with a loud girlish sneeze followed by a loud KABLAM!. Jae rushed over to see who it was and to see if everyone was okay, but quickly noticed that this was less of a friend thing and more of a chewing out as he saw a classy looking girl clad in all white glowering down at a young girl wearing red and black; he immediately recognised her as one of the girls that was being fawned over on the ship and was about to step in and help when he saw a third girl come over and call the girl out as Weiss Schnee. A name that Jae seemed to recognise as one of the stores he had worked in had the famous Dust Company's logo branded on all of their deliveries and practically ingrained in his head. But almost as quickly as they showed up; Weiss stormed off in a huff after grabbing her cases, the black haired girl had started her exit towards the school, leaving the last girl slumped on the ground; "Welcome to Beacon…." he would hear her mumble dejectedly before deciding to try helping her out by holding a hand out to her.

"Hey….I'm Jae, you want a hand?" he introduced himself and was surprised to see that this girl was a lot younger then anyone else in the school that he had met so far; "I'm Ruby….though I guess you can just call me….actually let's just stick with Ruby." she would say before recognising him; "Wait, weren't you that guy who was about to throw up on the ship?" she would ask as she stifled a snicker. "Hey, it's been my first time on an airship, gimme a break here...plus motion sickness isn't exactly rare." he would grumble a little; feeling both embarrassed and a little surprised by her rather blunt remark as the two walked together, "Look I'm sorry but you were white as a sheet back there." she would mention as they walked, he wasn't the easiest to keep up with as he was quite a bit taller and little legs can only carry so fast but he at least was easier to talk to then the last two people he met.

"Well, how would you feel if I called you shorty?" he would ask, trying to retort and get her embarrassed with some success as pink tinted her cheeks with a huff; "Hey, I'm still tall enough to kick you in the shins!" she would fire back but it seemed to come off as more adorable then anything; "Sorry…" he would apologise but she seemed to rebound by twirling her scythe; "So I got this thing." she would say as Jae flinched a little at seeing her pull out such a large weapon; "Whoa…that's a…." he would say, trying to find the right words; "It's also a collapsible high impact sniper rifle with multi dust rounds…aka it's also a gun." she would explain as she doubled down on the subject she felt the most comfortable with.

"I gotta admit, that is a pretty awesome combo….though how do you wield that if you don't mind me asking?" he would curiously ask as it seemed mind boggling that Ruby could swing around a weapon this big without either falling over or struggling to lift it; "Oh, well my uncle back at Signal actually taught me how to use it and turns out swinging your body weight helps the momentum." she would explain, she may have been bad at socialising with new people but weapons were her element and she could go on for days. "So what about you? you got anything cool?" she would ask, curious about him and what kind of weapon he would use, "I-uh…" he would reach behind his back and then pulled out a sword; "I got this sword." he would mention as he held it out for her to see; from a basic glance, it looked like a typical longsword: a silver blade with a hiltguard that looked like a bird's wing coil around the handle to protect his hand.

"Oooo….so what's it do? does it do anything else?" Ruby would ask, the sword was a basic design but well made from the looks of it; that was until he reached into his jacket and pulled out a revolver style hand cannon; it was similarly silver along the barrel with a white flame pattern etched into the side along with a brown wooden handle; "This gun more makes up for it, I'm a bad shot but this uses some big bullets so it kind of evens out….it's no combo like your weapon but it gets the job do…..wait we should probably get to the auditorium before we're late." he would remember as Ruby got caught up in weapons talk; luckily they weren't too far away as they reached the main hall and Yang called Ruby over to a spot she saved for him.

"So….care to explain all that?" Yang would ask playfully as she noticed the boy that her little sister had come in with; "Yang it's not like that…he helped me out back when I exploded." Ruby would sigh as she remembered how Yang ditched her to go meet up with her friends before the whole…."Weiss" thing came about, "You exploded? did you have a meltdown already?" Yang would ask with an almost amused sounding laugh but then relented when she saw Ruby start venting about how she tripped over Weiss's luggage, got yelled at..sneezed and caused a dust explosion followed by more yelling up until "YOU!"

"Oh god it's happening again!" Ruby would wail as she jumped up into Yang's arms as Weiss was glowering at Ruby specifically; "You were lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff thanks to your little skew." Weiss would say haughtily before handing a pamphlet to Ruby that said "Dust handling for Dummies." and began to rattle off what was clearly a disclaimer for her company, "You really want to make things right? then read this and don't you EVER talk to me again." the Ice Queen would say as she watched Ruby climb out of Yang's arms. "Look, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot…why not start over and try to be friends?" Yang would say to try mediating for the two.

"Hi Weiss, I'm Ruby…maybe we could try being friends? we can go shop for school supplies before our cla-" Ruby offered before Weiss started to sarcastically answer; "Oh yes, we can try on clothes, paint our nails and talk about cute boys like tall, dark and…." she would then look to her thumb pointing directly at Jae; in all honesty, Weiss would've called him scraggly but his mane of messy dark brown hair, hoody and his less then uniform appearance answered it for her "wild over there." she would finish, Jae raised an eyebrow as his eyes made contact with her's; "I can hear you, you know….I'm not deaf." he would say sarcastically, people talking less then favourably about him may have been a regular thing in the past, but now he got into Beacon and earned his spot…he wasn't going to start letting some prissy snob badmouth him.

"Good, then you'll understand that I'm not interested in a messy looking riffraff like you." she would snipe at him, making both Yang and Jae roll their eyes at her comment but a clearing of the throat and the ring of a microphone quickly broke what would've turned into an argument; "I'll keep this brief, I look among you all and all I can see...is wasted potential and energy amongst yourselves….you've all earned your place at this school and you've ensured your place to become future huntsmen and huntresses, though education will take you so far…it is up to you, to determine where you go from here." Ozpin would say in his speech to all the new students, leading to Glynda explaining how all of the new students would be sleeping in the ballroom until their dorm rooms are ready.

"That was….something, it sounds like he wasn't exactly all there." Yang would say as everyone dispersed for the evening; "Wait, did he say everyone in the ballroom?" Ruby would ask as she finally clicked with what was mentioned from before.