162

Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_Jolyne

Chapter 162

Chapter Text

"The tournament seems to be going… about as well as we could expect, given Team CMNE and Team RWBYP's attendance," Glynda stated idly as she watched the proceeding matches from the screen being projected in the Emerald Tower, sipping on a cup of tea as she watched Team CFVY (who had all gotten last minute weapon upgrades from Ruby during the weeks before the tournament) completely annihilate a team from Atlas with contemptuous ease. "I think we may have to call your niece's upgrades an unfair advantage at some point… I don't think Gianduja was capable of causing that much devastation before…"

"Eh. 's just Ruby's napalm rounds. It's not that bad," Qrow shrugged, not really seeing the problem in Coco completely splattering half the field with explosive, burning, sticky liquid that blazed blue hot from the sheer amount of extra Dust accelerant thrown into the mix. "Least she's not aiming at them."

"I think if she aimed at the Atlas team, James would have our heads for letting a team get turned into charred meat," Glynda deadpanned. 

"Yeah, probably. He still being a stick in the mud or has he actually been getting worse?" Qrow asked, rubbing at his stubble and thanking his lucky stars that he and Glynda had actually managed to finally swap positions in the intervening time- given that Glynda was the better of the two at seeming like a responsible adult and being capable of diplomacy, it was probably better that she be the headmaster of Beacon while he just kept going around doing the same shit Oz told him to do, but with Oscar there instead of Oz.

"I don't know. I hope for everyone's sake that he hasn't actually gotten worse than how he was when I was there, but Team JNPR's loss may have driven him into being even more draconian than before. Whatever the case may be, I've been hearing news that Sienna Khan might be heading up to Atlas for that purpose, to fight on behalf of the workers instead of just for the faunus. Chieftain Ghira also seems to be gearing up for that as well, if speculation online is any indication," Glynda hummed quietly, leaning back in her chair as she continued watching her screen while Qrow sat there, watching on his scroll instead just to be contrarian. Oscar, meanwhile, was with Team RWBYP at the moment, and seemed to be having fun if Ruby's social media feed was any indication- all of Team RWBYP's social media feeds, in fact, including Oscar's. 

She hoped they didn't actually adopt Oscar into their team the same way they did Penny- even after a good few months of accelerated combat training, Oscar was still barely at a level fit for a young teen's combat school, and even the worst of Academies would have called him a rookie in need of heavy remedial combat lessons. His form was sloppy, he was still hesitant, his conditioning was weak, and his grasp of Aura was a bit fuzzy. 

All things that could be trained out with time, but not really time that they had at the moment. Once the next school year started, though… maybe. 

"God I hope Ghira and Sienna put a boot up his ass. Jimmy was a fuckin' hotheaded pig of a military man from the start, but at least he used to pretend he cared, even if his first and only options most of the time were to throw jackbooted thugs into every minority building he saw in order to quell rebellions and seditions against a unified city," Qrow grumbled, rolling his eyes as he sarcastically paraphrased parts of Ironwood's justifications while he spoke. "If he's gone full dictator in all but official title… shit, he might actually think his insane plan has a chance of working. That's not good for anyone."

"No, it wouldn't be," Glynda huffed, crossing her arms as she continued watching her screen, which had since gone back to Port and Oobleck's commentary. There seemed to be no issues at the moment, with the amount of security and the amount of people everywhere, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be able to cause problems during the festival- always a good thing, albeit, still stressful to keep track of. "If he actually goes through with his insane plan to lift Atlas into the upper atmosphere after the tournament, I'm going to personally fly up there and kick him in the balls myself."

"I'll join you," Qrow snorted. "He needs a good kick in the dick to get his head back on straight anyway- he does know that mental semblances aren't supposed to be turned on 24/7 right? That they make you slowly go insane the further your soul drifts from your baseline thought?"

"He should, but then again… James was never all that measured about addictions and substance abuse. Regardless- while he's here he can't do anything that stupid. Probably. For now, we should just make sure that he doesn't start trying to annex Vale into Atlas or something." Glynda paused, then grimaced as she looked out of the window to the even larger fleet that James had brought to protect the newly remodeled and upgraded Amity Colosseum. Honestly, did he think that actually did anything but make him look like a boorish jackoff who couldn't even pretend that he wasn't, effectively, the most well armed politician at the international peace conference? Glynda used to think Ironwood was actually a good man, a better tactician, and a man who absolutely could help them win the war against Salem… but with the level of overzealous, over the top enthusiasm that Atlesian soldiers had for their job sometimes…. She had to wonder just how much James actually cared about the people he was defending in comparison to how much he cared about the illusion of peace through martial force. "... He wouldn't actually try to annex Vale would he?"

"Probably not. He's stupid sometimes, but he's not that stupid."

"Fair enough. You've known him longer than I have."

They sat there in silence for a moment, watching the replays of the event bit by bit- the highlights from the first sets of team based matches ranging from Penny's Shining Finger to Coco's ridiculously overpowered Gianduja shots, to Scarlet David's frankly painful to look at knockout via flaming coconut to the crotch. Even Glynda shuddered a little at that, though she reacted less than Qrow, who had a full body shudder and crossed his legs with sympathetic pain. Poor boy.

There were also highlights like Team NDGO getting annihilated by Team ABRN's Arslan using her rope dart to deadly effect, followed by Reese Chloris running over and immediately kissing Nebula Violette on stage for everyone to see. Plus Team CRDL surprisingly managing to win 4-0 in their fight, and a few other teams pulling off skillful maneuvers or doing team formations that Glynda thought were actually very impressive.

"So… aside from the tournament and James' possible rising instability, what else do we have going on?" Qrow asked, putting his scroll away and focusing on Glynda again, his eyes taking on a slightly more serious cast as he turned towards her. "Any big plots? Mysterious movements? Any news about Leo's replacement?"

"No, no, and yes actually. Professor Tora stepped up in Leonardo's place, and is… hopefully… more of a safe choice than Leo was. Though, for now, probably for the best to not trust her with too much sensitive information," Glynda answered, pulling up a side screen of reports for Qrow to peruse over while she continued watching the tournament- at the moment, they'd apparently decided to hit today's halftime show, which in this case involved some Valean boy band or another singing the official anthem of the Vytal Festival.

Very poorly.

One would think that a bunch of singers would be better at singing , but they put their own spin on the entire thing and it seemed like they would likely be out of a job soon if the boos from the crowd were any indication.

Sigh.

Glynda remembered when they'd managed to get the (now long defunct) metal band Steel Princess out to do the Vytal Festival halftime show when she competed. So much better than what was going on now. Ugh. Time to mute the stream then.

"Yeah. Dunno much about her, she keeps to herself… think she's got a reputation for being a glutton, though? Something like that. We'll probably have to bring her into the fold slowly, I think. If circumstances conspire for it," Qrow muttered, rubbing his chin as he read over the reports Glynda received from all over the place concerning just about everything that Oz ever kept a finger on. Companies, stock prices, the world economy, political news, so on and so forth. "Hmm… looks like there's a surge of grimm activity coming not too far south of Valorance town… gonna have to send a mission out there. Plus some stirrings about weird migration patterns in the Kujira pods out in the wider oceans… that's not good. Nothing good ever happens when the Kujira start moving weird."

"Nothing good ever happens in relation to the Kujira pods at all, Qrow. Those grimm cost the lives of hundreds to thousands every year depending on their migration patterns," Glynda deadpanned. "Regardless, if their migration pattern is atypical this year, that means something is disturbing them. The last time that happened…"

"A decade ago. New kinda leviathan class thing came crawling outta the depths- took nearly an army of Huntsmen to bring it down. I was there," Qrow shuddered, grimacing a little at the thought- it was one of the hunts Ruby hadn't gone on with him, because it would have been so, so much more dangerous than a normal hunt could have possibly been and he needed Harbinger more than she needed the extra training. "Lotta people died that day."

"... Well. Ominous."

"Mhmm."

They sat there for a little while longer, silent as they perused over reports and the halftime show ended.

And then…

"... Alright, I'm gonna go get lunch."

"... Alright, then. See you later, Qrow."

"Later, Glynda."