Nora calls up a full-blown beach party

“Hey girls!” Ruby called jubilantly as she and her sister came out of the water to greet their friends properly. “You enjoying the beach too?”

“Hey little red, and yeah.” Coco returned the greeting as she and her fellow newcomers set their supplies out. “We may as well right? Between the Academy administrators relocating the Vytal Festival out here at Shade after the Breach, and the delay to actually set-up their arena and fortify its security after we made the trip, there’s nothing for us to do but treat this like a proper summer vacation until it’s finally showtime.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ruby concurred, mood slightly dampened by the reminder of their circumstances. “It still kinda sucks that all this happened. We were just weeks away from the tournament in Beacon and then they pulled the rug out from under us, even though the Grimm were already under control. All the work that we put into preparing for the tournament, just kicked down the road to do over again half a continent away...”

Ruby trailed off despondently, before abruptly bouncing back. “Oh well! At least they’re working double-time to set everything up here ASAP and make sure nothing goes bad again, and we can relax in a fun new place in the meantime! Ain’t that right Cindy? Can I call you Cindy?”

The tall, womanly transfer student in question seemed at first not to hear her, staring fixedly off to the side as an odd grimace split her face and her eyes gleamed almost unnaturally brightly, before she sucked a breath through her teeth and turned her head to face Ruby.

“Don’t.” Cinder answered in a slightly strangled voice.

“Alrighty then!” Nota suddenly blurted out, “So now that we’re all here, let’s get on with the beach party!”

“Beach party?” Velvet interjected curiously, “But Nora, we don’t really have enough people and certainly no supplies for a beach party.”

“Don’t worry, that what I called people for!”

“You did what!?” Pyrrha asked sharply, regretting not keeping a tighter leash on her notoriously erratic teammate.

“Yeah, I collected some other teams’ contact information and told them to come down here to have a good time.” Nora suddenly turned to the side and pointed. “Look, here comes some now!”

“He~ey! Is this the place for the party!?” Reese Chloris called out as she trotted down in a navy blue one-piece, waving hands filled with bags of meats, buns, and plastic utensils.

“I should assume so Reese.” Her partner Arslan Altan, clad in a yellow bikini and red sarong, said as she hefted a pack of water bottles and box of cola cans stacked in her arms. “There’s that energetic Valkyrie girl. And my, what a collection of ravishing ladies. Missing out on this will serve the boys right for blowing us off on this little grocery run. Can we move this group back up to one of the gazebos girls?”

After a quick look at each other, the initial nine girls shrugged and joined the two newcomers and the already bouncing ahead Nora on a trek back up the dunes, where they all walked up to a large gazebo with a gaggle of girls already milling about under it.

“Oh hey!” Nebula Violette, clad in a gray and purple bikini, called from where she sat setting up some floats and other water toys with her team. “You brought food.”

“Good.” Dew Gayle muttered as she stood up in her elegantly gold-trimmed green one-piece. “Someone else can muck with these.”

“Oh come on Dew!” Octavia Ember, in a simple cut deep blue bikini, admonished her teammate, “You and Gwen have been making May do you parts anyway.”

“Well, if she’s the one who insists on always lingering around us,” Gwen Darcy muttered as she stretched in her black one-piece on a bench at one of the two tables, “She can make herself useful.”

May Zedong, in a red and white bikini, blushed guiltily and returned to blowing up the last float next to the grill at one end of the gazebo as the rest of the girls came in under the shade.

“Okay,” Ruby commented as everyone gathered around, “Hello new girls, nice to meet you, hope we get along. Um... well, we’ve got a good sized crowd already, so let’s just fire up the grill and take it from there.”

“I see you there friend Ruby!” A cheery voice called from outside the crowded throng, “Where you really going to start without me?”

“Penny!” Ruby answered jubilantly, rushing out of the crowd and hugging her fried, standing happily on the sand in a white one-piece, shawl, and sun hat, “I didn’t know you’d be coming.” Ruby admitted as she stepped back, then paused and blinked at a stranger in a white and teal bikini and yellow shawl. “Um, who’s this?”

“Ah, this is my assigned partner Ciel Soleil!” Penny enthusiastically informed. “She’s come along to look after me during my downtime. Please excuse her if she behaves awkwardly.”

Even Ruby couldn’t resist looking at Penny askance for that ironic statement, but when she saw Ciel staring at her wristwatch and counting the seconds she got what her robot friend meant. Though, looking past her, she saw...

“Winter!” Weiss could almost be said to have yelped, and when her sister turned to look at her from under her elegant white parasol, the younger heiress tried to play it off with a laugh, “A-aha, I mean it’s such a pleasant surprise to see you, dear sister.”

“Hello Weiss,” the young officer returned the greeting as she strolled over in a strappy, blue and silver one-piece, “Yes, this was a rather spur of the moment trip. My duties were done early, and I rather needed a chance to unwind after the morning I had.” Winter frowned as she remembered the headache-inducing charade it had been to sort out a mix-up in the extra guard schedules, exasperated by the unhelpful ‘supervision’ of one Qrow Branwen.

“At ease Cadet Soleil,” She reflexively commanded at the puffed-up and saluting trainee, only to stop short as she registered the large group around her sister. “What’s all this then?”

“I’m hosting a party! You can be invited to.” Nora informed cheekily.

“Ah,” Winter considered briefly, “If you truly don’t mind my presence, I suppose it would be an enjoyable diversion.”

“It’s all cool with us Ice Empress, make yourself comfortable.” Yang flippantly welcomed as she also stepped out, “The more the merrier I always-What are you two doing here!?” She suddenly barked as she caught sight of two familiar, identical faces.

“We saw you in the middle of this crowd and immediately felt the need to check that you were behaving Blondie.” Melanie snarked, leaning against her twin sister as they stood in color-coded bikinis.

“No I mean why are you in Shade!?” Yang gritted out in frustration, before narrowing her eyes, “Are you following me?”

“As if,” Miltiades scoffed, “Remember that it’s _you_ that always comes and bothers _us_. We are here on a genuine vacation, because we have lives of our own.”

Cinder and Emerald peered around searchingly. While true that the Malachite twins’ presence had nothing to do with the loud blonde, they knew that the real reason the two were in Vacuo at all was because Cinder had ordered all of the criminal elements she had pull over to come with her, as she needed all the muscle she had on hand to finagle some new plan to disrupt the Festival.

Sure enough, while they didn’t see any of the boys anywhere, a tap at their elbows let them know that Roman’s diminutive helper had tagged-along. She stood between them with her hair in black pigtails and her eyes colored green, clad in a frilly black-and-white bikini and her trademark impish smirk. She was also carrying a stereo set and bag of CDs she set on a table with a flourish.

“Okay, fine, whatever.” Yang threw her hands up and snapped, “Who else is gonna drop in, Juane’s sisters?”

“Is that an invite?”

Everyone turned to see a tall blonde-haired woman in a white bikini standing next to a olive-skinned brunette in a light blue one-piece.

“You must be Yang.” The blonde greeted warmly, “I’ve heard so much about you from Juane. I’m Saphron and this is my wife Terra. Freshly married, and we’re here for our honeymoon to cheer my favorite little brother on.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ruby returned the greeting, “We’re just kinda pulled together a party here. Wanna join?”

“Oh, Nora already let us know,” Terra informed, lifting a bag full of chips and condiments and a snack tray.

“Great!” Ruby enthused. “So is that everyone?”

“I invited one more person.” Nora piped up.

“I’m here!” A voice cried out as a cat-tailed girl in a glittery sky-blue bikini ambled over a dune, “Sorry I’m late, I needed help with this cooler, and my team are all squares!” Sure enough, another girl, older and in a black-and-white striped one-piece, was helping her carry a cooler as they approached. “This is Matte Skye, I met her on the docks the other day, she’s cool.” Neon Katt informed, “Is a plus one alright?”

“Sure!” Nora insisted brightly. “Now let’s put some drinks to chill and fire up the grill!”

“Oh, I already came with drinks.” Neon informed with a sly grin, as she opened her cooler to show...

“Whew~, that’s a lot of beer and wine coolers.” Coco whistled.

“Thanks!” Neon exclaimed proudly, “I know how to get hooked up.”

“You look a like a girl that can get hooked up,” Miltiades purred appreciatively, “In fact I’m surprised you don’t have anything with a sharper bite.”

“I mean, it’s still day, and I figured ‘most everyone else coming here would be a basic bitch,” Neon pointed out, “And I try to avoid anything that can cause a damaging crash as a personal standard. However,” she continued as she rummaged in her fanny pack and pulled out a plastic bag full of some shredded plant and some paper strips, “I do pack a little herb on me as a matter of course, enough to share.”

Weiss hissed through her teeth as she glanced tentatively at her sister side-long, “Winter? Is this going to be an issue?”

Winter for her part glared stonily down at the transgressive Faunus, before suddenly scoffing, “You know what? After the grief I’ve been put through, I don’t feel much like upholding law and order on my off-time. Go nuts for all I care.”

“Now that’s the right attitude to bring to a party!” Yang whooped and exchanged a high-five with Nora as a number of more sensible bystanders looked aghast.

“Uh, kids?” Terra stammered, “Maybe that’s not such a good idea to-“

“Oh come on Terra,” Saphron chided, running a teasing hand down her new wife’s side, “Let the young people live a little. Besides, we’re only a few years older than most of them, you remember getting a little wild in school, don't you?”

“W-well...” Terra stuttered and backpedalled, “I guess as long as it’s not... a major danger...”

“Absolutely unacceptable!” Ciel snapped, “This is a serious decency violation and I will not stand by when I have a duty to-“

“To make sure _I_ don’t get in trouble!” Penny cut off her partner. “So as long as I don’t partake, it’s really nothing to get worked up over.”

“...Huh,” Ciel mused, “That’s a fair point.” And with that she instantly relaxed again, “You may proceed then.”

“Great!” Melanie clapped her hands and called attention, “So enough standing around and clucking like old hens already! If over two dozen smoking hot bitches with a giant case of booze and some toke on a beach in Vacuo can’t have a rip-roaring good time, the world may as well end today.”