I stomped out the embers of my campfire and started walking back out of the forest, working out the cricks and kinks as I went. The ground wasn't kind to people sleeping on it, but I hadn't been any less comfortable than I could recall. Better at least than trying to navigate a floor made of invisible molten rock.
There still hadn't been an explanation for that, or anything else. Frankly I was getting sick of it.
Despite my best efforts, it felt like any attempts to try and get answers about what was going on were being ignored. I couldn't be the only one who thought that all of this made no damn sense. The only one with questions. It had all happened so suddenly, there was no reasonable way to work around it. No way to just say, 'oh well, that was weird'.
We all woke up one morning and were left shrunken, the whole world with us.
How was no one else freaking out about it? They were just going on with their lives like it was no big deal. Ruby was the one who should've been complaining the most about it. Little Miss milk-drinker.
Now the floor was made of liquid fire and apparently that was a normal occurrence. That wasn't normal! I've been here for months! Weird as this place is, the floors weren't normally on fire. Unless Ren was dancing because, damn, that boy could move.
Unfortunately, the only way I was going to get any answers to my questions was if I went back and asked. Which meant navigating a floor of liquid fire, if they hadn't found their way back out by then.
Had to wonder about the floor being made of lava and not cooking them to death. Or how it didn't eat through the ceiling of the level beneath us and kill everyone the next floor down. Though I quickly stopped wondering about it when I realized it was a Sisyphean task. The floor was lava and it didn't eat through the building. Simple as that, logic clearly wasn't something I could count on right then.
Despite that, trying to get a divorce with logic was like trying to get a Marked Man to use sunscreen: pointless and painful for everyone.
All I could do was trudge forward until I could figure out things.
As I began to walk back among the paths of the Beacon campus, I stumbled onto Jaune. Miraculously, he wasn't sporting a black-eye from the other night. Shouldn't have been surprised, his Aura was insane. Considering some of the things I'd seen him do with it, I guess it was a miracle I'd knocked him out at all. Even with it being a sucker punch.
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"H-heeyyy, Weiss- uh- Schnee, this is Jaune- Arc… or the Arc family- last name Arc," he stuttered, his Scroll up to his head. "Aaanyways, I was just wondering what you were doing Saturday night- because I'm doing… Nothing!... uhm- which means- I could be doing something with you… yeah!"
I shook my head and walked past him as he suddenly tripped over a pebble and did a perfect backflip. He landed squarely on the top of his head as his Scroll flew out of his hand.
Could've said something snarky, but I wasn't going to. Poor kid had been through enough recently. Thought he'd given up on Weiss, but I guess grief makes people do strange things… yeah.
I continued a little further down the path and was rewarded by running into two more people: Blake and Yang, both of whom I was glad to see had escaped the dorms no worse for wear. Maybe that meant the floor finally cooled down. Or maybe they'd taken the window down to the ground floor, I had no clue.
As it was, Blake and Yang were hopping about on the pathway, Blake easily dodging and slipping away from Yang as the latter tried to grab her. I wasn't quite sure what they were getting at, but they seemed quite enthusiastic about it.
"Just…hold…still!" Yang growled between lunges. Blake, being catty, refused to comply, always staying just out of reach.
As they continued their bizarre dance, I casually walked up to them. Blake was the first one to notice me, and smirked as I kept pace with Yang.
"Hey Six," Blake said, dodging another grab from Yang.
"Hey girls," I replied, Yang turning and finally noticing that I was there. "Seems like you two are having-"
Taking the opening my appearance provided her, Blake suddenly backed away and shot off down the path, leaving me and Yang alone.
"… Ok then, I guess I'll just ask you," I said, turning to Yang. "This might seem like a weird question but have you-"
Yang's open palm suddenly slapped against my chest, blowing the wind out of me.
"Tag, you're it!" Yang huffed.
Both of her Gauntlets then burst with gunfire as she rocketed away, almost the complete opposite direction of Blake.
I stood there, a moment, clutching my chest.
"… Fine, if that's how you want to play it," I wheezed, angrily turning around.
I marched back down the path the way I came.
Not more than a few yards away, Jaune had returned to his feet and was still yammering into his Scroll.
"Hey- Weiss, um… I'm guessing you didn't get my call from before," Jaune said, pacing in the pathway. "Maybe the tower's messing up, or-"
Jaune cut off as he saw me approaching him, calmly.
"Oh, hey, Six," Jaune said. "What's up?"
"You notice anything weird recently?" I asked curtly.
"Umm… not that I can think of?" Jaune answered, uncertainly.
"… Really?" I asked, gesturing to everything around us, along with my stump legs. "Nothing at all?"
"…Are those new boots?" he asked.
"…"
*whap*
I struck an open palm against him and bolted the other way. "Tag, you're it!"
"… HEY!"
I didn't give him time to catch up. Wasn't going to get caught up in that any longer than I had to…
Maybe Ruby and Weiss would know something.