Prelude to the Showdown

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To say Jake McClary-Tripp was not the easiest person to along with was an understatement. Perhaps even the word "understatement" could not begin to describe that last statement. Jakey tended to behave much like a stark raving mad wolf which hasn't been treated for rabies since heaven only knew how long. As such, most everyone--whether in White Castle or out in public anywhere--avoided him like the freaking plague. Even his father--well, step-father anyways--handled him as if he were a live hydrogen bomb. A fairly apt description, some said (out of Jakey's earshot, of course), of what happened when he lost his wafer-thin patience with people.

Only one person, however, stood out for hanging out with him rather than running away from him. That person was his half-sister Weiss Schnee, who herself had much the same issues with other people Jakey did. As such, the half-siblings (even though they didn't look a thing like each other) actually got along together. And that was a rare feat indeed. Ever since he came back from a five-year-long trip he made Jakey and Weiss became even closer. And NO we're not talking about incest here (how gross); they were more like brother and sister than they ever were before. Of course Jakey didn't talk much about his trip: he could never remember exactly what went on during it. Weiss for her part never asked about it. And a good thing too: one of their cousins, Nora Valkyrie by name, made that very mistake once. Suffice it to say she didn't make that error again. (And no, not because Jakey killed her either.) That incident also told everyone else not to bother asking. Which  was just the way Jakey liked it.

Besides, even if he were willing to tell, he couldn't. There was some massive void in his memory, almost as if someone had gone in and deleted the information. All he knew was that when he came home his father had declared him a war hero worthy of a massive party.

That party was three weeks ago. Now Jakey and Weiss were on the bullet train to Beacon Academy, the prestigous Huntsmanry school in Vale. The reasons for their attendance, however, were much different. Weiss was going to become the Familiga Schnee's (Jakey's words, not anyone else's) first-ever Huntress. Jakey was going for a twofold purpose: to protect Weiss, and to see in greater detail just how handy in a fight he was. During the party Mr. Schnee had forced him to put on a demonstration of what he was capable of. He'd apparently killed a full-grown male Ursa with a standard-issue [non-Dust-operating] sniper rifle some hundred miles away, thus giving everyone the impression that Jakey had picked up some massively specific skill set. Because of this, Mr. Schnee wished to see just how deep that skill set was. To which his step-son, upon hearing his announcement, shot off an unusually eloquent (for Jakey, anyways) Gatling gun-style tirade punctuated by a volley of cuss words his own mother would've butchered him for and--most notably--a double dirty-birdy* salute that let everyone in the room know precisely what he thought of the lot of them. While Weiss didn't approve of those two items, she was still happy to know that Jakey hadn't changed all that much: at least he still spoke his mind about any/every subject.

It was, in part, because of this that Mr. Schnee had made Weiss the heiress of SDC, in spite of the fact she functioned in much the same manner as Jakey did. The family figured he would be better off as the head of SIA, their internal security force. Because Jakey and Weiss both had extremely low tolerance levels for bullshit, the family thought they would lead SDC to a brighter future. At least, that was their hope.

Jakey glowered at the window, steel blue-grey eyes taking in the speed-warped landscape with a snarl permanently plastered on his face. Weiss was attempting to savor whatever liquid she had with her in the pale blue thermos she carried around. Myrtenaster, the big-ass rapier that served as her weapon, lay, very much in the nude, across her lap. Neither of them had spoken a word throughout the trip, but the prospects of yet another brand-new place, his bottled-up stress over dealing with new people (which he wasn't good at even at the best of times), and the ever-lingering resentment he felt towards the Messer Schnee--still going strong even after all these years--were more than enough to put Jakey in a nastier mood than usual. In his present setting, even the most inconsequential move risked dicing recklessly with near-certain death. Weiss's evident enjoyment of her drink, therefore, was the slightest excuse Jakey needed to lose his razor-blade thin temper.

"For god's sake, Weiss, will you stop sucking that shit down?!"

Weiss merely arched an eyebrow. "What's the matter, Jake? Are you feeling anxious at all?"

"Who the hell said I was?! And I thought I freckin' told ya never to answer a question with another damn question!"

She only sighed in response. "We've been together a long time, right?"

"Yeah, definitely."

"Don't you think I know precisely makes you tick?"

Jakey stared out at the scenery. He couldn't deny that last point no matter how hard he wanted to try.

Weiss, correctly seeing a weakness in her step-brother's defense, pounced on it. "So stop worrying about it so much, you dunce! You're not gonna live another hour longer by doing that."

Jakey rolled his eyes in a derisive manner. "Yeah, yeah, yeah..."

Weiss gave him a miniscule smile. "Who knows? Perhaps even a dummy like you will make some friends."

The young man fixed his eyes on his stepsister. "Only one way to find out, right?"

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