RWBY: Remnant's Blond Bard

Chapter 21

It was a surprise Atlas trusted him enough to go down to Mantle with Penny.

Perhaps it wasn't a matter of trust so much as his being inoffensive. He obviously wasn't with the White Fang given his actions at the gala, and he had no combat ability or even an unlocked aura. He was no more trustworthy than anyone else, but he was much less dangerous.

Penny was also very capable of defending herself, so it didn't matter anyway. The girl – robot, he reminded himself – was certainly an odd one. She really felt closer to a human in terms of personality, albeit an incredibly sheltered one with a learning disability. It felt cruel to say it, but that was a big compliment for a machine. To even manage this much was impressive.

Naturally, he hadn't dared use his Bardic Music on her, Winter or Pietro. There was no need to take any risks like that and he wasn't sure what impact it would have on a machine. Part of him thought it wouldn't affect her at all, but then she had her own level, aura, and all that other stuff that the toaster and coffee machine didn't. And if it did affect her, then he dreaded to imagine what it'd mean if she could record and play it back to herself at every opportunity.

"Is this your first time down on Mantle?" he asked.

"Not quite; this is my seventh time. It is my first time being here without my father or Uncle Ironwood to chaperone me, however." Penny had managed to keep her volume to a reasonable level and was looking around, taking in the frankly mundane sights of traffic and people with something akin to awe.

"Is General Ironwood really your uncle…?"

"No. But father says that sometimes humans assign such titles to close figures. And if anything should happen to my father, Uncle Ironwood would be next in line to be my legal guardian."

"That makes sense. Do you call Winter Auntie?"

"I did. Once. Winter asked me to never call her that again."

Jaune chuckled, and Penny asked him why – forcing him to stop and explain his humour, and how the nickname "auntie" might have implied a romantic relationship between Winter and Ironwood, which they probably wanted to avoid. A sense of humour seemed to be something she struggled with.

"I see. So the comedy is in the perceived threat to their professional relationship…?"

"Not exactly. There is no threat to them since it isn't real, and I wouldn't laugh if they were genuinely in danger of losing their positions because of it. I guess I'm laughing at imagining how Winter must have felt when you called her that. The embarrassment and panic."

"Is it good to take pleasure in the panic of others?"

"Not normally, but if it's harmless then I think it's okay."

Moments like these cemented Penny's artificial nature, and he really didn't think she'd be able to pass as human if she questioned the basic concept of what was funny. He was tempted to explain that, but then he'd have to explain he knew she was robotic. Officially, he was meant to believe she was Pietro's sheltered, homeschooled daughter.

Pietro and Winter are probably recording this for future analysis anyway. They can explain it to her.

It was obvious this was being recorded. Again, not because of any doubt toward him but just because Penny was a machine so, in a sense, wasn't she recording everything she saw? She didn't have human eyes and a brain, so what she took in via optical sensors (or however it worked) must have been recorded and streamed through a computer to piece context together.