"Why did nobody ever think to show me a globe?" Jaune muttered as he, Yang, and Blake lounged in Blake's room, kept comfortably cool by the air-conditioning technology he'd made widespread on Menagerie the previous year. "This explains soooo much of the inconsistencies I've noticed in Menagerie. I've just never thought of Remnant in 3D and I feel so stupid!"
Two and a half years had passed since the Redacted Incident in Atlas.
As much as he wanted to say that a lot had changed… things had more or less gone on as normal just with more guards. Pepper and Noire would both be on permanent guard duty only relieved in short bursts as occasionally one of the recently formed Victory Wing would stop in to keep an eye on him instead between their own operations and public events.
Juniper seemed to favor Corporal Elm a lot. Jaune thought the woman was kind too. Well, all of the four Nikke were fond of Jaune regardless. They always went out of their way to take care of him too.
The past two summers he worked at Atlas and last year Project PENNI had finally officially come online as the good doctor Polendina rejoiced at the birth of his daughter Penny Polendina.
He and Juniper did have the same question to ask, though: why the Project wasn't labeled PENNY instead, but the man insisted that it was to distinguish that the person created shouldn't be so bound to the specifics of her birth.
That seemed odd to Jaune because it was just a spelling issue and the name was pronounced the same either way, but that wasn't too important compared to the first artificial human in existence.
Penny was still being kept under close watch, as all of Mechanicus was even now still reeling from the fact that they'd been so effortlessly hacked and an old project of great magnitude stolen.
Apparently they'd first performed a patch job based off of the firewalls he'd put together for Project PENNI, reforming their firewalls and defenses while trying to maintain as much of their original OS as possible. Jaune did point out that maybe a new OS would be better but that was something they were slowly developing in the background instead.
Still, Penny needed proper human interaction, so Jaune had (secretly) volunteered a bit of time to come by daily and have some real conversation and socialize with his robo-niece.
God-robo-daughter?
Same thing, he supposed.
Penny's room itself could be monitored physically, but it was off grid, so to prevent any digital incursions.
That way he and her could keep this little secret together. Thanks to Jaune's code work she was able to keep her own secrets if she wanted to.
The way he figured, the fact she had Aura meant she was a person and was entitled to them, no matter what the personality protocols were written to demand. Honestly he'd slipped that one in pretty early into her coding and he was surprised nobody had noticed it.
He did have to add a poker face protocol in post because Penny was an awful liar. Still, Penny seemed to enjoy being able to monopolize small amounts of her Godfather/Uncle's time.
That had more or less replaced his daily visits to Emerald. After all, it would be redundant after the girl had also more or less joined the Arc family. Though she didn't as a daughter so much as a sort of personal employee.
His dad called her his personal secretary sometimes. Considering how focused he could be on work she made a better Scroll than his actual Scroll sometimes.
It had taken months to convince his parents she wasn't his girlfriend, which wasn't helped by the girl's blushes at the insinuations. Emerald kept swearing that she was merely his blade and didn't dare assume above her station or whatnot, that didn't stop his mother's teasing.
Whatever Mistralian custom that his upperclassmen Kamina had put in her head was odd. Maybe he shouldn't say this because he was technically a Mistralian citizen (with an honorary Atlas and Menagerie citizenship) but Mistralians could be WEIRD.
Still, the way Clarent, Ren, and Nora had treated her initially the first year back at Sanctum after Robin had been pulled out for a year had been… messy.
They logically understood that Emerald was attempting to replace no-one and that her acceptance into Sanctum had been in motion even before Robin had been pulled out as a result of the Redacted Incident, but they still acted poorly to her.
Jaune had been a bit upset with his siblings then. He'd understood they were on edge after Amber, but you couldn't blame Emerald for what Amber had messed up, right?
Emerald seemed to take none of that personally, instead working to what extent she could to earn their trust. Rather it seemed that she didn't care that much for their opinion at all and only tried so hard to get along because he was upset.
Nora seemed to like her a lot now though. Robin did too once she'd met Emerald for the first time the summer after that year at Sanctum when his parents insisted that he 'bring his girlfriend home to meet the folks'.
"I guess globes are uncommon?" Blake mused as she rested, still recovering a bit from her newly updated second set of Nikke type prosthetic legs, this being the second time she'd gotten them replaced. "There really isn't much need for them, after all. A good map is usually all you need."
She was busy sketching what she was contemplating for a new Huntress weapon in a notebook to the side instead of the basic standard array of weapons she'd been given the fundamentals for.
At least she had been at it after dinner as Yang had quickly fallen asleep in her lap, apparently enjoying the feeling of the recoil gel thighs as a pillow, already knowing how it felt with Summer. Yang who was supposed to be doing the same, getting the foundation for her Huntress weapon down for her to elaborate, tweak, and develop for the future.
It was a sight he'd gotten used to in both Ilia and Yang, both of them often snoozing away on Blake much to the ravenette's light chagrin.
"But I don't understand why you're suddenly freaking out about it. It's not like you didn't know Remnant was a sphere. You're not a flat-star believer… right?"
"Of course not. Plus, I wasn't thinking about it last year when I was helping set up for the trade deals with Vacuo."
Blake smiled fondly at him, making his heart flutter for some reason, like he'd suddenly run a marathon.
"Yeah. You've been… so helpful. It really means more than you know. But, uh," Blake coughed as she shoved her nose into her sketches, "I, uh, still don't know why the globe matters so much."
"Look, Menagerie is so far south compared to the Kingdoms that it really matters! Somehow it skipped my mind, but that might even be why your crop cycles are out of wack! We're south of the equator! That means winters to the Four Kingdoms which are all North of the equator are summer down here South of it! That's why I always thought it was weird how hot your winters got and how long the days were."
Blake just still looked confused as her notebook lowered just enough for her amber eyes to peek over it.
"That doesn't make any sense."
"Gosh, ok, how do I simplify… AH! It's because of Remnant's tilted axis, just like the globe you see here!" He held out a fist next to it as he moved the globe around it. "If my fist is the sun and summer is when one side, upper or lower, gets more light and heat from the sun, the other hemisphere gets less therefor winter. If one side is summer, the other side-"
"Is winter. Wait. Isn't this a huge problem!?"
"Potentially, yeah! I always thought it was weird how much more the 'winter' months generated more energy at the Solar Farm on the metrics, but this all makes so much more sense. Kuo Kuana and the rest of Menagerie was always so focused and distracted by fighting for equality and legitimacy, making sure everyone could even eat properly and be kept healthy that nobody stopped to think and wonder why the 'winter' days were longer and the 'summer' days were shorter! People here just think that's normal!"
Blake groaned as she closed her notebook.
"Oh my gods. We're going to have to talk to dad. Yang. Yang get up."
Yang just let out a small snore, her teeth coated in a faintly clear plastic that she'd been wearing for over a year now. They were very straight now, almost perfect. That was good. Yang seemed very self conscious about it for a while.
"I got it." Jaune grinned, "I'm told my fingers are very ticklish."
Blake let out a chuckle as she rolled her eyes.
"Knock yourself out." She replied. "If she punches you, it's your fault."
"She'll punch me for something at some point anyways. Better that I get to control when."
He walked over to where Yang and Blake were sitting and laying on Blake's bed, squatting over Yang with an evil chuckle and wriggling fingers like sea anemone. He let out a brief cackle of indignant laugher as Blake cheekily reached out to tickle the inside of one of his knees.
At that moment Emerald walked into the door holding a tray of sugary pastries and a pitcher of water with floating slices of cucumber, a few cups stacked on top of one another for easier transport.
"Master. I have brought dessert and refreshments." She stated bluntly, barely lifting her tray up ever so slightly, her thin mint green cotton gloves lifting slightly to show the skin of her wrists against her neatly cuffed sleeves.
Emerald was dressed (as usual for her nowadays) in a white dress shirt with a collared white wing that hung over a neat green tie. She'd chosen to not don her normal coat, only keeping on her light gray pinstriped armor-lined vest. A pair of black slacks with twin vertical emerald lines down the sides completed the ensemble over neat black leather 'dress shoes'.
Could you really call them dress shoes when they had steel-capped toes and held hidden blades in the soles by the toes AND heels? They could also be fired out like thrown blades with a pneumatic launching mechanism. He'd made them for her as a Jubilee Bond spy joke, but Emerald loved the overkill.
Her Thief's Garnet Oaths were tucked into white leather holsters that gently rested against the bodyline of her vest to have as minimal an outline as possible when her green-trimmed black morning coat normally rested over it, held closed by a single button. Even though it was night and Aura could help, it was hot tonight.
It had taken but one year with Robin back at Sanctum for Emerald to declare herself officially both his blade and butler.
One year to declare herself a butler, but Robin had somehow convinced Emerald to make the change to make an armored butler uniform her Huntress outfit after a month into meeting her. A month!
That summer in Atlas the year after the Redacted Incident had been weird.
Emerald's blunt honesty, general lack of shame, and earnest desire to stay by Jaune's side had made his family trust her enough to keep Robin company on occasion. They'd hoped that her lack of interest in coddling any of Jaune's siblings would help Robin from relapsing into any truly poor decisions. Plus there was fact Robin seemed merely to have some fun with Emerald around, rather than the way she'd obsessively clung to Amber was healthy, they said.
Sure he'd agreed with his sister that Emerald looked good in the rough first ensemble that would be developed further into her current outfit, but that was honestly besides the point. Emerald looked more or less good in anything. Most of the girls he knew were pretty and could wear a paper bag and still be pretty.
But either way things sort of snowballed from there and Jaune still had no idea what that had all been about, but both Robin and Emerald seemed happy enough so eh. Jaune didn't like asking too many questions. Considering he didn't like having to explain his bullshit that his Gacha did, he felt that was fair play.
"Good news, Ems!" Jaune grinned as he turned, having been spotted by his friend in stranger situations at this point than hanging over Yang with wiggling fingers like a madman. "I've figured out why it's so hot during these so-called winters!"
"That's great, master." Emerald smiled prettily, "It feels such a waste of Aura to have to keep the heat away."
"I mean, that's going to sadly be inevitable. Turns out winters up in Mistral are summers down here and that's why things have been shit."
"Jaune, language." Blake groaned. "Gods, I still can't get used to her calling you master. It's so weird."
"Yes, as I recall you've stated last year as well." Emerald smiled with a brilliant smile, her eyes closed by the force of it, trying to shield them from Jaune so it would be harder for him to read her intent, as it was nowadays rather skillfully absent in the tone of her true feelings. "One would think that a Huntress in training would be much more adaptable!"
Jaune rolled his eyes. Even if Emerald was hard to read for others she was still an open book to him.
Emerald was just defensive when anybody had issues with her calling him master or owner. At this point he didn't know or care what the deal was and had accepted it as some sort of weird Mistralian nickname.
Who even cared as long as it made her happy?
"Either way, that's quite the discovery, master. I'm sure that Chieftain Belladonna will require this news. Shall I deliver this detail to him or call for his presence?" Emerald met his gaze with intent.
She really was better than his actual Scroll.
Also her time and tutoring with Robin had her polishing up her manners and behavior quite a bit as well, though she was still plenty crass and rough when it was just him and her in private. All Jaune knew was that he was flattered that she felt she could be her normal self around him and not always be in full 'butler mode'.
"We got it, Ems." Jaune chuckled as he turned down at Yang's sleeping face, barely seeing Blake glaring daggers at Emerald. "Get ready for a wake up call, Yang-a-rang, cuz what goes around, comes around."
The punch he'd received across the jaw from an angrily blushing Yang was completely worth the two minute merciless tickling he'd delivered to her sides.
Trivia sipped at the cup of tea, enjoying the cold breeze as she saw the sun begin to set.
It tasted of victory.
Neo flashed her a twin peace sign as she twirled about silently.
Her teacher, Aurelia, sat in the small chair across the little tea table from her, smiling wonderfully at her.
"I still can't believe the full splits on the ground into a backflip." She chuckled, the light tanned skin around her eyes wrinkled slightly, "That really took me by surprise. Could have taken my head off."
Of course it did, she'd gotten Neo to help pull her up while invisible to the world.
"It's the first time you've beaten me without resorting to your Semblance. Truly well done."
Ok, so Trivia might have cheated a little. But just a little. Jaune did often say that in a real fight if you weren't cheating, you weren't trying.
Her teacher's golden hair, pulled up in a casual and messy bun, glimmered in the light of the setting sun.
Trivia tapped on her Scroll expertly with her non-dominant left hand.
I've had good teachers.
"Plural? You've picked up another mentor than me, Trivia? My, I'm hurt."
She rolled her eyes.
Aurelia had one day suddenly begun to feel like an aunt to her.
Last year she'd lost one of her students in a training accident to an Ursa and for some reason latched onto Trivia for comfort. And maybe whatever nonsense that Jaune always droned on about empathy and such might have rubbed off a bit on her. Just a smidge, as she'd weirdly found herself helping comfort her teacher.
Though really, all she'd done was pat her back awkwardly as she held Trivia and cried.
She'd happily stab a random person in the streets and couldn't care less (unless Jaune was nearby), but Trivia had definitely opened up her circle of liked people by one.
Which was funny because her parents weren't exactly included in that. They were still more just tolerated than anything. Her father still would get frustrated that she didn't, couldn't, talk and her mother was oddly trying to push her into going to a finishing school for young ladies that she'd been to when she was young. That was especially gross and Trivia wanted none of that. It almost made Aurelia's suggestions she try out for Beacon appealing.
Typo. She wrote. I'm right handed.
"Oh you and I both know that's a load of bollocks. I'm jealous of your ambidextrousness. It astonishes me that your parents have an old fashioned view on 'the right hand' being proper. You know I'm convinced they'd have tried to train left-handedness out of you if you had been a southpaw."
Probably.
"Have you considered giving any more thought in applying for Beacon? Honestly, you'd do well at my alma matter. I trust you still have the recommendation letter I've written for you? You're sixteen and will be seventeen by the summer before a new term starts. I think it'll be good for you."
She nodded.
Yup.
She'd read it, too. Jaune had taught her how to lift wax seals with a hot knife without breaking it or causing damage to the paper. It was simple enough, but still required a gentle hand. Neo was better at it than her, but that's why Trivia was the one allowed to keep Jaune's Auto-Pick once they'd both learned to pick locks.
The letter was actually… sweet. She'd even gotten just a little emotional.
"Applications are coming up soon. I would really recommend you begin to send it in earlier rather than later."
The expectation is just a bit heavy, is all. I hadn't ever actually considered going to Beacon or anything.
"Oh, Trivia." She felt Aurelia reach over to tuck a dark brown lock of hair behind her ear, gentle and motherly in a way her own mother had never been. "I just believe in you, is all. You don't have to do anything you're not ready for. Nor do you even have to become a Huntress. You just need to find out what it means to be yourself."
Trivia gave a little nod, feeling ever so slightly choked up.
She didn't really care about defending humanity or whatever tripe that people were always on about. All she knew was that Jaune had been super jealous when she'd shared her letter with him.
And that he'd been so proud of her.
That was… exhilarating. Aurelia and Jaune were the only people that had ever been proud of her like that and it was different when it came from Jaune. More… important. He was special. Different, like her. Neither of them were crazy, of course, but they were… what was the saying?
They were like jigsaw puzzles. They looked like they fit into the world on the surface and sometimes could squeeze to adjust, but only truly fit right with each other.
They, at least, weren't normal. They had curvy edges and you had to piece the two of them together to see the image on top. They were made for each other.
She strummed her fingers in thought against the table before she typed again.
What's curfew like at Beacon?
Aurellia laughed.
"Excited for the potential to be properly allowed out of the house? Well there's technically no official curfew, though usually on weeknights students are expected to be back in the dorms by ten. It's not that strictly enforced, however. At least it wasn't when I was studying there. I don't know about the other Huntsmen Colleges, but Beacon is pretty lax as long as you're not on the verge of failing."
Trivia nodded as her teacher poured the both of them another fresh pot of tea.
So in theory she'd not have to give up her Friday nights. Huh. Considering that meant she'd still be able to have Jaune that might… even be fun. She might even be able to teach him a thing or two.
She wondered how she'd look in a school teacher's outfit. It'd be fun to see him sputter.
Neo suddenly changed her outfit into a clean white button-up blouse and a black pencil skirt and strut around as she swung her hips slightly, gazing over a pair of half-moon glasses. Hmm. Yeah that would be fun.
I'll put some more thought into it. Might need you to fill out some of it for me, though.
Trivia smiled as she saw Aurelia roll her eyes.
"If it makes you more comfortable with the idea, I'd be happy to fill the whole thing out for you, Trivia." Her teacher smiled back, backlit by the soft reds and orange of the setting sun. "Whatever you choose, I'll support you."
The crazy thing was… that Trivia believed her.
Juniper gazed at the Glacier.
Menagerie had changed so much in the four years since the Glacier Incident.
A few research institutes had been placed around the frozen form of The Burrower, alongside even a small theme park, making light fun of what should have been a fearful monster into some little light of hope for the people of Kuo Kuana, Menagerie.
Pyrrha's favorite was the giant ice slide that incorporated one of The Burrower's frozen bone rings.
Heck, it was technically incorrect to say that now, as a separate settlement was now newly formed and based around the Solar Farm and the Glacier that the locals now called La Hau, the Frozen Sun.
Officially Menagerie now had two settlements.
Kuo Kuana had even grown exponentially, the glow of lights at night from electric lamps that were almost fully powered by solar energy lighting the town at night.
It still held a bit more of a tropical feel, its roads still mostly packed dirt and sand, but a few important and big roads were now laid down with asphalt and led to actual industry. Luckily no heavy pollution had become an issue yet like the bigger Kingdoms had and they maintained a rather idyllic coastline as a result.
It still looked more like an advanced village than a town, but things were looking up here on the surface.
He just hoped that it was enough. Originally in Juniper's own timeline the White Fang had changed leadership when Blake was around twelve which was coming relatively soon. In fact there were already talks of Ghira staying in Menagerie to become Chieftain full time and focus on the management of the La Hau and Kuo Kuana.
At least in this instance it was out of necessity and not because he was being forced out of the role.
In about a year, maybe a year and a half they'd choose a new leader for the White Fang organization.
And Sienna Khan was in the running.
Juniper gazed at the bay from a distance, spotting the Crimson Comet, the lightly armed dual purpose Light Guardian Class armored Atlasean diplomatic vessel. Ever since Jaune's kidnapping, Ironwood had replaced the Defiant Blue for one with some firepower to keep Jaune better protected.
There were some people that recalled the Glacier Incident plenty freshly, and weren't entirely opposed to the idea of having the Comet around. Others on the other hand were livid. Especially since the change of vessels had followed the loss of the Glacial Ferry when it was sunk from a Grimm attack just over two years ago during the fall season right after Jaune's kidnapping.
There were plenty of pointed fingers and accusations of Atlas of being the ones to do so, regardless of the fact that a lucky (or unlucky) traveler had caught the image of the Ferry being sunk from a distance by Grimm.
It wasn't as if tactics to lure Grimm to overrun an enemy wasn't a tactic that had been historically used almost a century ago in the Great War. In fact Mistral had been famous for it and Atlas had once been their ally during that time before Mistral had stabbed them in the back.
Even Atlas's attempt at lightening tensions by gifting some old cargo ships and an armored combat transport ship to replace the Ferry had been viewed with some distrust.
As much as things got better, people still found reasons to fight and argue.
Juniper just considered it lucky that despite his ties to Atlas, most of Menagerie seemed to like Jaune.
He'd ended up being no longer on speaking terms with Adam, however.
Jaune had, logically, elected to not discuss his newfound friendship with the scions of the Schnee household to the older boy, knowing what horrors the SDC had inflicted upon him. For a while that was fine and the two got along well enough. Juniper had even been relatively confident that he might be pulled off of a darker path.
But maybe Jaune and Clarent's friendship with Winter had been too valuable for Jacques to ignore. In the summer of the previous year while Jacques didn't reinstate Winter as heiress, he'd revoked her disinheritance and had announced that he was officially declaring Winter a part of the family again.
Naturally that had made headlines the world over.
Winter hadn't been pleased at the attention and the headline photos included Winter and Clarent together next to Jacques and Weiss at a public space. After seeing that, the boy simply elected to not show up around the Belladonna Estate during the weeks of December and early January when Jaune came and stayed for holiday. Wordlessly and suddenly.
Their disconnection worried Jaune more than it should. But for Juniper it was borderline nerve wracking, sometimes he'd even go off floating to look over Adam, often finding him training or getting closer with Sienna's faction of more aggressive lobbiers.
At first Jaune would occasionally try to go out to find the older boy, but whenever he got close to him, he'd be stopped by some of Adam's other friends where Jaune would become stonewalled as he never forgot Juniper's words about using force on innocents.
The one time he'd finally gotten so frustrated that he Shadow warped straight to Adam it had ended in an intense argument and both boys had walked away from it unhappy.
Juniper had comforted Jaune when he'd cried, assuring him that he wasn't a traitor like Adam accused him of being. While they weren't the closest of friends, Jaune had actually liked the older boy. Thought of him like a sort of distant cousin.
And for Jaune who didn't have a lot of male friends that had meant a lot.
Juniper had stepped in then, to tell him to prove his commitment to better the lives of the Faunus by action. To prove Adam wrong.
That maybe one day he'd understand that they were both on the same side and be able to be friends again, praying that Adam wouldn't fall into the shoes of the man that had helped cause the Fall of Beacon. The man that took Yang's arm. The man that tried to kill members of Team RWBY time and time again.
Since then Jaune had a fire lit in him, more actively introducing technology to Ghira and the rest of Menagerie.
Air conditioning and public bathhouses were the first bits of Earth Culture that Jaune had introduced last year.
Why pay for Ice Dust for cooling when Menagerie had energy to spare? Clean energy at that?
How about cutting that out of the equation further, bringing cooling (and heating when occasionally necessary) to every home in Menagerie?
Jaune even secretly donated one of his Multi-Fabricators to the cause and they were even beginning to ship some portable air conditioners in small quantities out of Menagerie and into Vacuo and Vale using its insane output.
Menagerie was already cooperating often with Vacuo as the two Kingdoms (though Menagerie was still not fully recognized) as they had similar desert troubles and had been helping sell them some Solar Panels just above production costs in an effort to gain trust enough to potentially get legitimacy as a Kingdom through them.
At least for now Menagerie had signed onto some favorable trade deals with Jaune's name as a not-quite guarantor, more of a witness. It was coming to the point where people were saying that Menagerie would get recognition via Vacuo before Atlas.
Vacuo also were also ordering the small portable air conditioners by the hundreds, bringing more valuable income to Menagerie.
And while bathhouses also existed in Mistral, they were more private locales, meant to be for the crust of upper society. For the rich to socialize and schmooze with each other as they embraced every luxury imaginable as the people starved in the streets.
In Menagerie, Jaune had installed a SSR Rarity Consumable: Peak Quality Hot Spring Source by one of the asphalt paved roads that connected La Hau to Kuo Kuana, paying out of his own pocket to construct the Green Laurel Bathhouse (in a nod to Juniper and Pyrrha's combined Saber form, making both of them feel warm) using a multitude of Gacha items to speed up the process.
By manning it with AI powered BOLT units (mechanical dogs from the ARK meant to help with anything from construction to tracking on a battlefield) that were now dressed in little artsy haori tops with attached backpacks containing mechanical arms, most of the busywork, cleaning, and servicing was handled nicely.
Blake definitely took some time to adjust to those, although she actually eventually got along with the BOLTs unlike Zwei who she insisted was evil.
Jaune set no price to entry, but instead charged for refreshments and amenities at just a bit over base cost just so that he could use whatever minimal profits it could to pay people to man reception desks and deal with human relations inside the bathhouse itself. Hell he even offered free housing and meals to orphans that were willing to learn and work to manage smaller bits of work inside. The way he figured, somebody had to and it might as well be himself.
Over the course of the last year he'd been away he and Chieftain Ghira had to discuss and arrange expanding the Green Laurel already, surprising the man when he occasionally 'snuck out' and Shadow warped over to him just to help arrange some additional expansion details in secret.
Adam still wouldn't approach, but Jaune held firm that he could still prove himself and reconnect with his friend. Juniper really hoped he was right, as spying on Adam left a poor taste in his mouth, regardless of how necessary it might become.
Juniper returned to the Belladonna Estate to see Jaune and Ghira pouring over the currently sparse agricultural map of Menagerie. It was sort of funny to Juniper that like Team STRQ and the Arcs the older Faunus had learned more or less to take every explanation Jaune had for something at his word and deal with less headache.
Blake sat quietly in a corner, sketching something into a notebook as she smiled softly at the sight of her friend and father working together for a better tomorrow.
"This is going to cause some ruckus." Ghira marked a few locations with dry erase marker over a layer of glass that had been placed over the map. "These fields here, here, and here are already almost ready for harvest."
"Can't we trade our next lithium shipment to Vale and Atlas for just more food in bulk? Vale's had a bumper crop this year and would be happy to offload it and Atlas will just pay Vale for their side of the costs."
"Skip the Lien entirely and just convert it straight to its value in food at purchase cost? That shouldn't be impossible." Ghira rubbed his chin. "Some people will be unhappy about the loss in income for the city, though. How do you figure we manage that, Jaune?"
It was somewhat rhetorical. Juniper could see that the older man respected his little brother's zeal and goal-oriented nature, training the boy's critical thinking. He wondered if Ghira was actually attempting to groom Jaune as his successor sometimes.
"The mining operations are city managed anyways, what does it matter? If they complain I'll pay them out of pocket." Jaune just pulled out dufflebag after dufflebag of Lien from gangbusting with Trivia and Neo and dumped them in the corner, making Juniper laugh at Ghira's face as stacks of Lien spilled out.
Jaune just brushed the dust off his hands as Blake also stared wide-eyed from her corner of the room.
"There. They get paid. Everyone eats, we're all happy. I don't even get why money matters when there's so much at stake. The sooner we get plants we can harvest in what's actually late fall and not late spring like everyone thinks the better. Tomatoes, beans, zucchini, spinach, eggplant, radish, cucumbers. We'll have way more variety than just corn now too. We could actually be less dependent on importing produce here in Kuo Kuana. We can't neglect that because a few people get ornery about making sure their paycheck is in Lien and not food."
Jaune turned to see him laugh, receiving a wink from Juniper as Pyrrha flared with warmth at how cute his younger self looked as he smiled happily.
"Corn's become a bit of a staple. Hard to say that we give that up entirely."
"Then leave one field? The rest we need to mulch and repurpose. Heck give me all the unripened stalks and stuff and I'll run it through my tech and turn it all into compost and fertilizer so it doesn't go completely to waste. I'll need some spare hands for that though."
"Alright. We'll do that. Do you think we might be able to germinate wheat now that we understand the seasonal issues?"
"Hopefully. Heat's still an issue, but there are some strains that were bred to be grown in Vacuo, right? Next shipment we send to them we could trade for some extra seedlings to test. Maybe we'll get lucky. I should look into getting some apiaries set up for the fall harvest plants too. Not everything self pollinates like wheat does. Actually I think I have something for that somewhere in my Inv-Semblance. My Semblance."
"Master. Chieftain Belladonna. I have brought some tea as requested. Madam Kali sends her love and requests the two of you don't stay up past midnight again."
Juniper watched as Jaune gave the mint green haired girl a quick side-hug as he took a mug of hot chai before turning back to continue deliberating with Ghira who just gave the girl a quick nod and word of thanks.
"You're doing good, Jaune." He chuckled, patting him on the shoulder as the sight of his hair being ruffled invisibly might be odd to those around him. "Real good. Keep it up."
He could feel Jaune vibrate with excitement and joy under his hand.