Bad Influence
“I am not convinced that this is the sort of film that Penny should be seeing,” Ciel declared.
“What?” Ruby exclaimed. “Why not? What’s wrong with Grimm 3?”
“This synopsis makes it sound rather dubious,” Ciel said, holding up her scroll on which she had brought up a synopsis of the film in question. Ruby, Ciel, and Penny were currently sitting on the front row of a Skybus taking them down from Beacon to Vale. Penny sat in between Ruby and Ciel, bouncing up and down upon her seat slightly as the airship carried them down to Vale.
“What’s the matter, Ciel?” Penny asked. “Ruby said it was part of an acclaimed series.”
“It is,” Ruby confirmed.
“Hmm,” Ciel murmured. “It is also, apparently, a certificate Seventeen.”
Ruby blinked, “So?”
Ciel leaned forwards to look past Penny. “You are only fifteen,” she reminded Ruby.
“Ah, but that’s where my fake ID comes in!” Ruby declared triumphantly. “Yang made it for me so that we could watch movies together.”
Ciel stared at Ruby, silently but with an expression of frigid disapproval clear upon her face.
“What?” Ruby asked.
“There are times,” Ciel declared magisterially, “when I worry that you are a bad influence.”
“What?” Ruby cried. “That’s… I’m not a bad influence.”
“You are certainly not going to see a Seventeen,” Ciel said.
“Why not, Ciel?” Penny asked. “I don’t understand what the problem is?”
“And therein lies the problem,” Ciel said firmly, addressing Ruby as much as Penny. “Rules exist to be observed, Penny, not to be flouted at our own convenience whenever it makes our lives easier.”
Penny was silent for a moment. “But if Ruby thinks-”
“Ruby thinks that she should be able to disregard the rules on this occasion,” Ciel interrupted Penny. “No doubt, Roman Torchwick felt that he should be allowed to disregard the laws against theft and murder during his career of criminality, but that didn’t prevent us from locking him up in a cell aboard the Valiant.”
Ruby sputtered. “That’s just…! I’m not a criminal!”
“Technically you are, if you have used that fake ID,” Ciel observed. “Certainly, you will not involve Penny in any rule-breaking, I forbid it.”
“You can’t just forbid it like you’re her father,” Ruby replied. “Penny’s her own person, and she can make her own choices!”
“Maybe Ciel’s right, Ruby,” Penny said softly. “I don’t really want to break any rules.”
“Penny, you won’t be a criminal just because you go see a movie that I’m too young to see.”
“I know,” Penny said, “but you will, and I don’t want you to do something bad for my sake.”
Over Penny’s shoulder, Ruby could get a glimpse of Ciel, whose restrained smile nevertheless radiated triumphant smugness.
Ruby herself pouted as she crossed her legs and folded her arms. “Okay,” she conceded with ill grace. It wasn’t like it was a big deal! She didn’t know what Ciel was making such a fuss about, big killjoy.
I knew I should have asked Yang to go and see the movie with me.
“Isn’t there another movie that we could see?” Penny suggested.
“I don’t know,” Ruby muttered. Somewhat reluctantly, she got out her scroll and brought up the listings for the PictureWorld nearest the skydock. “Oh, Ciel, you’re bound to like this one.”
“Go on?” Ciel said a little warily.
“Real Atlesian Hero: Retaliation,” Ruby said. “Starring The Boulder, Spruce Willis, and Ruby Roundhouse.”
Penny gasped. “Ruby Roundhouse! That sounds wonderful.”
Ruby’s eyebrows rose. “You’re a fan of Ruby Roundhouse?”
“Of course!” Penny said. “She’s so strong and graceful, and she always looks so pretty, even after she’s finished beating up bad guys or grimm.” Her legs bounced up and down. “I used to think that she was even cooler than Pyrrha before Ciel explained that Pyrrha does it all without the benefit of a fight choreographer.”
“Yeah, that’s always an advantage in the movies,” Ruby remarked. “That and special effects, I guess. But it still looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?”
“Very cool,” Penny agreed. “Can we go and see the Ruby Roundhouse movie, Ciel? Can we?”
“Let me see,” Ciel murmured. “The title sounds promising, I must admit. Real Atlesian Hero: Retaliation. Miss Roundhouse is only the third billed, but I suppose that’s to be expected at this stage in her career relative to Mister Willis and… The Boulder. Now, let’s see… the sinister organisation KOBRA have killed the Atlas Council and taken over the kingdom; now a small band of Atlesian specialists must join forces with the legendary General Joseph Colton – they do realise that he’s been dead for the last seventy years?”
“It’s a movie,” Ruby replied exasperatedly.
“It does sound like reasonable hokum,” Ciel agreed, “and despite the ridiculousness of his name, The Boulder is one of the finest actors of his generation. Yes, this should be enjoyable.”
“Yes!” Penny cried, throwing her arms up into the air.
Ruby couldn’t help but smile. It was impossible to feel disappointed about not getting to go and see her first choice of movie when Penny looked this excited about the second choice. Personally, she hadn’t thought too much of the first Real Atlesian Hero movie, but that might be because she wasn’t familiar with the comics or the toys.
Or maybe she just wasn’t impressed by all the ‘Go Atlas’ stuff; still, the fights were pretty awesome, and Penny looked like she’d enjoy it, and with all of the ‘Go Atlas’ stuff, even Ciel might have a good time.
She could probably do with it.
“But the first showing isn’t for another hour,” Ruby said, checking the times. “So, do you want to go for lu-…? No, wait, we, um…”
Penny looked at her, her green eyes intense as she leaned closer to Ruby. “Ruby? Is something wrong?”
“Penny,” Ciel said. “Give her some space.”
“Oh, sorry,” Penny gasped, hastily leaning back again so that she wasn’t so up in Ruby’s face.
Ruby laughed. “It’s fine, Penny; it’s just that… you know… how do you…? I’ve seen you eating, but…” Now it was her turn to lean forwards, so that she could whisper conspiratorially. “How does that work with the whole robot thing?”
“Oh,” Penny replied. “I have a bag in my throat that collects all of the food I eat, and then at the end of the day – usually, obviously not when we’re on mission – Twilight opens up my chest and replaces the bag with a clean one.”
Ruby couldn’t help but wince a little. “That sounds…”
“A little disgusting,” Penny agreed. “But my father thought that it was best that I should be able to eat and drink to help me pass for human. The only real difficulty is that if I talk with my mouth full, I could end up clogging up my vibrators, and then I wouldn’t be able to talk until Twilight had cleaned them out.”
Ruby shrugged. “At least you know you won’t choke.”
“No, but cleaning the vibrators really would be disgusting, and I don’t want to put Twilight to that much trouble,” Penny said.
“That’s really nice of you, Penny,” Ruby said.
“All of which is to say that if you wanted to go to lunch before the movie, that would be fine by me,” Penny declared.
“Thanks, Penny, but I don’t want to make you sit there pretending to eat.”
“And I don’t want you going hungry, Ruby,” Penny insisted. “Did you know that if the human body doesn’t get enough food to eat, your vital organs will stop functioning? Why, if that happened to you because of me-”
“I don’t think my body’s going to shut down because I skipped lunch one time, Penny,” Ruby assured her.
“As Twilight explained to you, starvation is a slow-acting process, Penny,” Ciel said forcefully. “But, if you have no objection to lunch-”
“I don’t,” Penny said. “After all, we can still talk while we eat, right?”
“So long as you don’t clog up your vibrators.”
Penny chuckled. “I’ll be sure not to,” she promised.
Ruby grinned. She leaned back in her seat, the smile remaining upon her face. “Hey, Penny?”
“Yes, Ruby?”
“Would you like me to make you a dress for the dance coming up in a few weeks?” Ruby asked. After all, she had already decided to make dresses for Sunset and Pyrrha – she probably ought to speak to them about that before they bought dresses from somewhere else – then why not Penny, too?
Penny stared at Ruby, her eyes widening even more than usual. “You… you want to make me a dress? For the dance?”
“Yeah,” Ruby said softly. “I mean, only if you want me to.”
Penny was silent. “Did you meet Rainbow Dash’s friend Rarity when she came to visit Rainbow Dash?”
Ruby nodded. “She said some nice things about my outfit and told me that I should become a fashionista if the huntress thing didn’t work out.” She laughed. “I hope it won’t come to that.”
“She’s making dresses for Rainbow Dash and Twilight,” Penny said, “because she’s their dear friend, one of their best friends in the whole world.”
“I’m not too surprised,” Ruby said. But she was surprised when Penny suddenly grabbed her in a headlock and pressed her close against Penny’s chest.
“Thank you, Ruby!” Penny cried. “This… this means so much to me, I can’t tell you!”
“Penny,” Ciel instructed. “Let her go.”
“Oh!” Penny gasped, releasing Ruby immediately. “Ruby, I’m sorry, I-”
“It’s fine, Penny,” Ruby said, even as she rubbed some feeling back into her neck. “I don’t see why you’re so… oh,” she murmured. “Penny,” she added reproachfully. “Did I have to offer to make you a dress to prove that you’re one of my best friends?”
“Um… should I have known already?” Penny asked. “It’s one of the only things I know that best friends do for one another.”
Ruby smiled as she reached out and took Penny’s hands in her own. “Penny, being someone’s best friend isn’t a question of what they do for you or what you do for them; it’s just… it’s something that you feel.”
“I feel like you’re my best friend, Ruby,” Penny said. “But… how could I know that you felt the same way? I can’t know what you feel, only what you do? Although I suppose you have already done a lot. I’m sorry, can you-?”
“You don’t need to apologise,” Ruby said quickly. “It’s fine. But you do like the idea, right? Of the dress?”
“I do,” Penny declared. “I really do.”
Ciel leaned forwards and past Penny. “There are times,” she said, a slight smile playing upon her face, “when you remind me that you are a very good influence.”
“I try my best,” Ruby replied. She hesitated for a moment. “Ciel, I know that we’re not best friends… or even friends at all, but would you like a dress-?”
“Please, save your generosity for those whom your heart truly cares for,” Ciel instructed her. “It is kind of you to offer, but you shouldn’t waste the treasure of your time upon mere acquaintances. We wouldn’t want you to neglect your studies because you have suddenly become dressmaker to half the school. In any case, I already have a dress for the dance.” She flicked her finger over her scroll, opening up what appeared to be a photo album, through which she continued to flick until she found a picture which she showed to Ruby. “There, that’s what I’ll be wearing.
Ruby stared at the picture. It was not what she had been expecting, to be perfectly honest; the gown was a pale blue, so pale, in fact, that when she first saw it, Ruby thought that it was white, with a long, floor-length skirt that pouffed outwards in an A-line shape. The neckline fell off the shoulders and was ruffled with white and a deeper shade of blue, the colour of Ciel’s eyes. That same shade was visible in the sash that was tied around the waist into what looked from the front to be a bow at the back. A cape of so fine a weave that it was practically transparent fell down the back of the dress, fastened to the shoulders by a pair of sparkling white gemstones.
“Plus, I will be wearing gloves,” Ciel said.
Ruby looked up from the picture. “Gloves?” she repeated. “Like opera gloves? Really?”
“Actually, they’re below-elbow length, but why not?” Ciel asked. “Pyrrha wears them all the time.”
“Pyrrha wears them to fight,” Ruby countered.
“Some might say that is stranger than wearing them to dance,” Ciel pointed out.
“All the same, I don’t know if anyone else is planning to wear gloves,” Ruby said.
“A lady is never embarrassed by being too well-dressed,” Ciel declared.
Ruby’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure about that?”
“I will have the chance to find out first-hand, apparently,” Ciel said.
Ruby snorted. “It is a pretty nice dress,” she admitted. It might look a little old-fashioned, but she wore a cape almost every day, so who was she to talk?
“I am aware that it would look rather modest at a true high society gathering,” Ciel continued, taking back her scroll from Ruby’s unprotesting hands, “but this is not a high society gathering.”
“What happened to a lady never being embarrassed by being too well-dressed?” Ruby asked.
“At a certain point,” Ciel allowed, “wearing a ballgown becomes counterproductive if everyone around you considers it too odd to ask you to dance.”
“Makes sense,” Ruby said. “Do you already have your partner lined up, too?”
“No,” Ciel said. “In fact, I was… ahem, hoping that I might pick your brains about that.” She hesitated for a moment. “How well do you know Dove Bronzewing?”
“Dove?” Ruby repeated. “You want to ask Dove to the dance?”
“Ideally, he would ask me,” Ciel replied. “But, yes, if need be, I am prepared to make the first move. It is the current year, after all, as they say.”
“I…” Ruby hesitated. The truth was that, despite having eaten lunch opposite him nearly every day for several months, she couldn’t really say that she knew Dove that well. He’d been nice to her, he’d given her his copy of The Song of Olivia to make up for something that he almost certainly hadn’t actually done, and he’d done that in order to protect Lyra and Bon Bon; she knew that he spent time with Lyra, training her, a bit like Pyrrha spent time training Jaune. That made Ruby wonder if perhaps he felt about Lyra the same way that Pyrrha felt about Jaune… but then, Sunset seemed to think that Lyra wouldn’t be interested in Dove, and she’d known Lyra since Combat School, which meant that there was still a chance for Ciel if she was interested. Overall, Ruby thought that Dove was a nice, decent guy, and Yang could have done a lot worse as far as a partner was concerned… but she didn’t really know him. They hadn’t had a single deep conversation that Ruby could remember.
Or even a single conversation.
He was… a little bit uptight, but then, the same thing could be said about Ciel, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
“I think you could do worse,” Ruby said, “but I don’t really know him well enough to help you.”
“That is a pity,” Ciel said. “He seems gallant and courteous, but I confess I was hoping that you might have some deeper insights.”
“Sorry.”
“Is there anyone that you’d like to ask to the dance, Ruby?” Penny asked eagerly.
“Uh, no, Penny, no, there isn’t,” Ruby said, a slightly wistful tone entering her voice as she imagined what might have been. “You?”
For a moment, Penny looked as though she wanted to say something, but then she shook her head very rapidly and quite emphatically, keeping her mouth closed and saying nothing.
“That’s okay,” Ruby told her. “There’s still plenty of time left anyway, for both of us. So, what kind of dress would you like?”
Penny hesitated. “I… I don’t know,” she admitted. “Isn’t that for you to decide?”
“It’s your dress, Penny,” Ruby reminded her. “You have to like it enough to wear it.”
“I’ll be glad of anything you give me, Ruby.”
“Don’t say that; it sounds like I’m going to give you a sack or something!” Ruby cried. “I’m actually pretty good at this. Do you know I made this outfit myself?”
Penny gasped. “Really?”
“Yeah, that’s why Rarity said I should think about going into fashion,” Ruby informed her. “Do you have any idea of what you might like?”
“None at all!” Penny said, with more enthusiasm that was called for.
“After the movie, we could go take a look at some dresses,” Ciel suggested. “To give you an idea of what you might like.”
“Really?” Penny asked. “That sounds wonderful!”
“Yes, it really does,” Ruby agreed. “Great idea, Ciel.”
“This day,” Penny said, “is going to be-”
“So much fun!” she and Ruby said in unison.
Their laughter rang out in the airship as it carried them to Vale.