Hey Guys! Welcome to five of To Be Human!
In this chapter, we meet some new characters, some that were actually created and graciously donated by a good friend who shall go by the name of Croe, since he also helped create that character for Heroes Of Rune. In return for his donation, I’ve agreed to keep his characters as close as humanely possible to how he created them. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do. His characters are absolutely a blast to write for.
So without further adieu, chapter 5 Ladies and Gentlemen!
Two days later, Daniel woke up to his watch alarm beeping faintly. He rolled off of the bunk he had been assigned in the guest room and blearily stood up. Around him, other teens and preteens who had also been accepted to beacon and arrived early were getting up as well. They were nice enough though like the rest of the world, save perhaps Ozpin and Professor Glas, they kept their distance.
Daniel dressed himself and made the bed, gathering his few personal belongings as he cleaned. Having completed his duties, he and the others filed out of the guest room and made their way into the mess hall. As usual, Daniel sat alone. As usual, he didn't care.
To his surprise however, he wasn't alone for very long. As he ate breakfast, he heard a sliding noise and another teenager slid the length of the table, coming awkwardly close before finally stopping. "Hello!" he said in a cheerful voice. "Lovely day to become students at Beacon, isn't it?"
Daniel grunted.
"Oh come on, don't be so glum. It's only the first day of the rest of our lives."
Daniel finally looked up from his breakfast and nearly choked. The guy before him was dressed in a bright green plaid coat with a bowtie that seemed to be in a contest with the coat to find which was the ugliest. His hair was completely pink and poofing out from his head like a pink puffball. But what was craziest about him was that he was absolutely covered in dirt. Daniel didn't think that he'd ever seen anyone with as much dirt on him than the guy in front of him. Even on the streets he had managed to keep cleaner than this. To top the ensemble off, a flower rested in his chest pocket. With the amount of dirt on his body, Daniel wouldn't have been surprised if it was growing out of the pocket.
The boy stuck out a grubby hand. "I am Ryler Merriweather! You may've heard of my mother, the legendary Huntress Veridian Greene."
"No, I can't say I have," Daniel said, gingerly shaking his hand before wiping his own hand on his jacket and returning to his meal.
Ryler gasped in shock. "But how could you not? She's the legendary Plant Huntress. The one that specializes in using the very earth to fight the Grimm. Why, you're even wearing her special perfume that's specifically designed to make the user smell just like the beautiful earth of the sustainable farms she has successfully campaigned to be created all over the kingdoms!"
"I hate to break it to you bud, but seeing how I haven't washed this jacket in about two weeks, you just told me your mother's perfume smells like the back alleys and dumpsters of Vale."
Ryler gasped again, this time in outrage. "How dare you! That perfume is taken from only the best farms; the ones where the surrounding cities' sewage is processed into compost that promotes over fifty percent increases in crop yield!"
Daniel looked at the oatmeal resting in his spoon and suddenly felt very ill.
"I came over here in hopes of conversing with another lover of the garden, but I can see that I was mistaken," Ryler said, standing up abruptly. "Goodbye, whoever you are."
"It's Daniel!" Daniel yelled at him then angrily slammed his spoon into his oatmeal, his appetite ruined. And it had been some good oatmeal. Irritated, he picked up his tray and was moving to the dishwashing station when hidden speakers chimed and a voice spoke up.
"Attention students; The airships containing entering freshmen will be arriving in the courtyards in ten minutes."
Daniel pondered the announcement. Like it or not, he would have to become part of a team with other students at Beacon; that was an unavoidable fact. His best option was to mingle with the rest of the students so he could find someone who might not slow him down. He placed his tray down at the wash station and hurried to join the crowd that was streaming out of the mess hall and into the courtyard. Being given a small berth, Daniel found it relatively easy to get through the snarl and to the near front of the crowd so he could see the students arriving.
The first thing he saw was a swaying tower of suitcases tottering towards the crowd. It was being pushed on a trolley by an aging butler following behind a boy in an immaculate white suit and a blue tie. Undeterred by the wall of people in front of him, he marched directly towards them. He had just reached the line when a chord from a guitar sung out from behind them, creating a wall of green energy that caused everyone stumble. It was the proverbial final straw for the overburdened trolley. The butler gave a cry of alarm as he vainly rushed to keep the suitcases balanced. It was no use. The trolley crashed to the ground, throwing suitcases everywhere. One struck near Daniel and burst open, scattering metal scraps everywhere.
Angrily, the boy turned around to see what had caused the accident. A blond long-haired teenager in sandals, brown leather vest, and a green and yellow tie die shirt was standing with an electric guitar his fist pumped in excitement. "Play on dudes!"
"Must you continue to play that infernal device?" The boy in the suit said irritably. "As if we didn't hear enough of it on the airship here. And now you continue to torture us with your horrible music?"
"Man. You need to calm down a bit" the guitar player said. "Take a break from it all and take a ride on the smooth psychedelic waves of life man."
The boy rolled his eyes. "Hippies. Where does he think we are?" he looked back at his butler. "Dunham! Save what you can and meet me in the main hall. Leave anything you can't."
The butler bowed. "Of course Master Blanc. At once sir."
The boy pushed his way through the crowd and continued on as if the incident had never happened. The butler stayed behind long enough to collect several suitcases that were 'salvageable' and followed after his charge. Surprisingly, he left several perfectly fine suitcases on the ground, including the one that split open where Daniel stood, despite looking at them multiple times. Frowning, Daniel bent down and picked up one of the metal scraps that had fallen out. Turning it, he discovered they were clips full of fire dust enhanced bullets. He pulled one out and inspected the back of the casing, finding that they were .45s that his own gun accepted. Grinning, he grabbed several handfuls and dropped them into the inside pockets of his jacket for safe keeping. As he stood up, he felt a hand tap him on the shoulder. Curious, he turned to see a bespectacled teen about his age in a long black trench coat. ".45 fire enhanced automatic cartridges aren't they?" he asked.
"Yeah, they are," Daniel replied, both surprised and impressed that the guy had been able to make that out from a distance.
Without waiting for permission, the teen pulled Daniel's sword off of his belt and unsheathed it, examining it. "No attached firearm which suggests that you have a secondary weapon, most likely tucked away in the back of your jeans facing so it can be drawn with the left hand." Without waiting for permission again, he reached behind Daniel and pulled his pistol from the waistband. He pulled the slide off and inspected the insides. "Fired quite a few times, though not recently. Innards seem to be in good shape, though you'll want to oil it relatively soon. You should also invest in an actual holster instead of just tucking it in the back of your pants. It would greatly decrease the risk of the weapon falling out." Without warning, he reassembled Daniel's gun and placed both the pistol and the sword back into Daniel's hands. "Apart from the lack of a pistol holster, it appears to be an excellent combination for short range combat."
Daniel blinked. "Uh, what just happened?"
The teen blinked and pushed his glasses up his nose, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry. Force of habit. I feel obligated to inspect any weapon that I come across. Otherwise, they might fail you whenever you least expect it." He stuck out a hand. "Lunare Nacht."
Daniel shook his hand. Like Ryler's it too was dirty. But unlike Ryler's his was covered in machine grease instead of dirt. "Daniel Grigio. Thanks for looking over my weapons like that."
"Don't mention it; I'd hate it if Nieh Mehr was damaged from neglect, I can only assume that any responsible Huntsman or Huntress would feel the same," Lunare said, patting a square package underneath his long coat that Daniel could only assume was his weapon. "So tell me, how is life at Beacon?"
Daniel wiped his hand off on his jacket once more. "I actually don't know. I'm new like you and haven't been assigned a team yet."
Lunare's eyebrows raised. "Really. Well then, in that case, I hope we get to be on the same t-"
"Oh hell no."
Upon hearing these words, Daniel felt blood rush to his face. He had heard that voice only once before. Turning, he saw a guy with dark hair cut militarily short, dark wash jeans, and a black leather jacket. A lead pipe hung from his belt and a chain was wrapped around his right arm. He hadn't managed to get a good look at the guy, but he knew from the voice that he was one of the thugs that had mugged him in the alley; the one called Dakota.
Dropping his sword, Daniel thumbed the safety off on his pistol and raised it to firing position as he stormed towards Dakota. As he neared him, Dakota lashed out and grabbed Daniel's arm and twisted it so that the gun was pointing harmlessly away from anyone before dropping the magazine out of the grip and racking the slide so the bullet in the chamber was ejected.
"Really? You pull a gun on me and walk right to where I can take it from you? Really?"
"You. You bastard," Daniel seethed, struggling to free the gun.
"Ummm Daniel? Who is this guy?" Lunare asked.
"This bastard is part of a gang that mugged me this week." Daniel said furiously. In response, Dakota hit him in the gut and let go of his gun at the same time. Daniel sailed backwards and skidded to a stop.
"I would appreciate it if you forgot about that time." Dakota said with a hint of anger. "It would make my life a hell of a lot easier."
He turned to leave and Daniel scrambled to his feet, gathering speed to tackle Dakota. Before he could take even two steps, two guys broke from the crowd and grabbed his arms. One of them was a Faunus with a bushy black wolf tail wearing a leather jacket similar to Dakota's. The other was in a brown duster and a Stetson.
"Slow down," Brown duster ordered. "You rush that stallion, you're gonna get kicked flat on your back."
"Let, me, go!" Daniel grumbled. "I can take him."
The wolf Faunus let out a bark of laughter. "You? Take him? He'd have you down and out before you took two more steps."
Daniel continued to struggle. Dakota stopped and cocked his ear, hearing him struggle. "They're right you know. Unless you want another dent on your head, I'd suggest you stop."
Daniel's eyes narrowed. "So you were the one who hit me in the head," He growled.
"You stabbed a guy in the side. I didn't like him, but he didn't deserve to die, which he would've had we not rushed him to the hospital and instead stayed to fight you. Trust me- I was stopping you from doing something you would've regretted."
He resumed walking and was soon absorbed by the crowd. The two holding Daniel held him for a moment longer before finally releasing him. "Sorry partner," The one in the duster said. "I was only tryin' to keep you from doin' somethin' stupid. Name's Nick."
Daniel looked at the wolf Faunus, but all he got out of him was a twitching of the tail before he bent down to pick up a duffel bag he had evidently dropped to stop Daniel. He walked over to join Lunare, and the two of the disappeared into the crowd.
Nick bent down and picked up the slide for Daniel's pistol as well as the magazine and bullet, which he slid back into the magazine. Handing them to Daniel he asked "What beef did you have with that guy?"
"He and a bunch of losers mugged me because I accidentally ran into their boss."
Nick whistled. "Sounds like a piece of work. But y'now, it didn't sound like he was riding with them no more."
Daniel raised his eyebrows. "You think?"
Nick shrugged. "Well, I didn't hear much 'till you got hit, then I started listenin'. What I did hear suggested that he'd left them."
Daniel grabbed his sword from the ground and belted the sheath back onto his belt. "Gang or not, there's going to be hell to pay for knocking me out."
So, Daniel just got an enemy. I'd say this is shaping up like a high school fanfic, but let's face it, RWBY already has high school problems. Also, Just read Ryler’s voice as Donut’s. It’s how he was designed.
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