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“Oh crap! I gotta run!”
Sun stood up, nearly banging his knees on the table. Cinder looked over with a mix of confusion and amusement. “I guess I can have your character make an exit… is there a reason for this rush?”
The blond was pulling back on his shoes. “Stupid- made a promise to Scarlet I'd see if his blind date was a dick. Shit, I'm going to be late, Neptune, either I'm hotwiring your car or you're driving me!”
“Dude!” Neptune threw up his hands. “You are not hotwiring my car again!” He flashed an apologetic look at Weiss, their characters were really starting to hit it off. “It's not a battle scene, guess I'll be out the door before he actually does it. See you in a week or two?”
Cinder waved them off. “Fine, fine. Better hurry, Sun's already out the door.”
“DON'T HOTWIRE MY CAR!”
Ruby was nearly falling out of her chair with giggles. Team JNPR had already left five or so minutes before, Nora and Ren had another competition. Neptune just took off, Ruby could see his shadow against the wall- wait a sec, who was that? Roman was in his room studying, he was the only other guy in the house, right?
“Whoa, did I miss the a party?”
Not Roman. The guy sauntered in with an aura of smugness, smoothing back his spiky gray hair. Cinder glanced up. “You're early.” She remarked dryly.
“Emerald's right behind me. Soooo, let me see, if I can guess who's who around this table...” The gray haired boy put his hand to his chin thoughtfully. “… Well, the tiny one with the red hoodie is Yang's baby sister Ruby, right?”
Ruby laughed a little nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. “That's me, yeah.”
“One down, four to go. The other tiny girl is probably Weiss.”
Weiss looked mildly offended. “Hey!”
“And I'm right, who's shocked. The cutie with the black bow is Blake.”
Blake just arched an eyebrow.
“That just leaves you, Goldilocks, you're Yang.” He stopped by her chair, looking down. Yang looked up, casually smirking back.
“And judging by your attitude, I think you're Cinder's friend Mercury.”
The correctly named Mercury looked impressed. “I think we're gonna get along.” He took a seat by her. “Soooo, what's going on right now?”
Ruby brightened up. “We're about to do emotional plot stuff involving Blake!”
“I'll try not to doze off.”
“Okay. All in favor of becoming the youngest huntresses to singlehandedly bring down a corrupt organization conspiring against the kingdom of Vale, say aye!”
“YES! I love it when you're feisty.”
“Well. I suppose it could be fun.”
“None of you said aye...”
“All right then, we're in this together!”
“Let's hatch a plan!”
“Yeah!”
“… I LEFT MY BOARD GAME IN THE LIBRARY!”
“We're doomed.”
Mercury snorted. “You were playing a game, inside a game?”
“It's for roleplay points! Roleplay points!” Ruby insisted.
Cinder sighed. “Ruby just threw that at me. She… tends to throw things a lot.”
The gray haired boy smirked. “Ah, the amazing Cinder, best game master of all the world… keeps getting thrown for the loop by a fifteen year old girl.”
All Mercury got for that was a glare. “You're verylucky I can't kick you.”
“You can pinch me- ow!”
Yang looked up in surprise behind her, to see a green haired girl. “What? He said I could pinch him.”
“Not my arm, Emerald…” Mercury rubbed his upper arm with a pout. Emerald glanced around before her eyes landed on Ruby. Wow. Emerald looked cool.
“Soooo, any chance we can get a brief introduction?”
Cinder smirked.
“Oh, sorry. Are you okay?”
“I'm fine. Just. Watch where you're going.”
“Oh, right, sorry. I'm Ruby! Are you new?”
“Visiting from Haven, actually.”
“Oh, you're here for the Festival! But exchange students have their own dormitory!”
“I guess we just got turned around.”
“Don't worry, happens all the time! Your building is juuuuust east of here!'
“Thanks. Maybe we'll see you around.”
“Maybe! Oh, welcome to Beacon!”
“… I can't believe I blew that perception check. So. Badly.”
Mercury was shaking with repressed laughter. Cinder shrugged. “All you see is your… average huntress in training.”
“You're like, in your twenties! You're old! There is no way you pass for a teenager!”
That did it. Mercury fell off his chair with a loud 'clang', roaring with laughter. Emerald lost it then too, burying her face into her arms and giggling. The laughter just filled the entire room, even Blake was shaking her head and chuckling. The only one who kept it together was Cinder, and she had to hide her smirk behind her hand.
Finally, Mercury recovered, wiping some tears off his face and grabbing onto the table to pull himself up. Ruby glanced at him with curiosity. “… Wait- why do you clang?”
There was the brief awkwardness that crossed Emerald's face but Mercury just snickered. “Right, here.” He rolled up his pant leg, revealing the shiny metal of a prosthetic. “Both legs, knee down. It's why we haven't met yet, I was busy getting used to these babies.”
Jeez. That was heavy. Ruby's eyes widened in surprise, but before she could stop herself, she scooted closer and poked one of them. “… Cool.”
Dead silence.
“No wait! Not cool that you lost your legs! Cool that… you got really nice… fake legs?”
Mercury lost it again, and the whole room ended up dissolving into laughter once more. Finally, when order had been reestablished (and everyone had refilled their sodas), Mercury and Emerald introduced their characters.
“My character is Mercury Black. His weapon is his boots, his semblance is a secret.” He put his finger to his lips in a 'hush' motion. “He's cocky, he's confident, no one can fuck with him. His secret? His dad was a jackass, but it's all good, he killed him anyway. His weakness? He's an asshole, but hey, who cares?”
“My character is Emerald Sustrai. Her weapons are revolvers that transform into sickles, and have an impressive reach with their chains. She acts friendly, but she's… got a darker side. Her semblance is individual mental hallucinations. Her weakness? She might actually be more friendly to the 'good guys' than it seems. Her secret? Her semblance. Oh, also-”
A loud, very irritated shout from upstairs jerked everyone from conversation.
“OKAY, WHERE THE HELL IS MY LIGHTER?”
Emerald snickered before she pulled something out of her pocket- a custom lighter with a jack o' lantern on it. She stuck her tongue out.
“She might also have sticky fingers.”
Heavy footsteps sounded down the stairs and Roman poked his head down. “Oh, joy, it's you again. Cinder, I swear to god, if my things constantly go missing again...”
“I give them back! Jeez, he's such a drama king.” Emerald flicked off the lighter and threw it up to Roman, who nearly fumbled but managed to catch it.
Ruby gave an understanding nod. “Tell me about it. He stormed out of a game once because Penny kept rolling twenties. Completely. Murdered them all.”
“I have to meet this Penny. Maybe some of her mojo would rub off on me.”
Yup. Their little 'family' just got bigger and bigger.