Service with a Smile

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"Can you at least do something to help?" "I can serve good coffee to bad people and hope that somehow fixes all our problems."

When Jaune Arc fails to get into Beacon Academy, he decides to take his tuition money and open a coffee shop/diner as an alternative to returning home in shame. To his surprise, "Jaune's" becomes popular with not only the people in the neighborhood, but with professional huntsmen and huntresses, Beacon students and the criminal underworld. Jaune makes friends among all four groups, and even a finds a girlfriend among the staff of Junior's bar. Of a necessity, "Jaune's" becomes something of a neutral ground, one respected by even the most extreme factions to pass through Vale. And despite all manner of trouble, ranging from competition from a Starbucks-like chain called Café Prime to Grimm attacks, "Jaune's" continues to survive and prosper. But when Jaune learns of and tries to avert the impending fall of Beacon, will he succeed, or just be another victim of Cinder's plans?

Service with a Smile is a RWBY Alternate Universe Fic by "Coeur Al'Aran", written between August 2017 and January 2020. Spanning an in-story period from the "Yellow" trailer to the end of Volume 3 (followed by an epilogue set four years later), it is centered on a very not badass Jaune Arc who nonetheless manages to have an amazing impact on the world around him. From Ruby the night before his opening day to the customer who appears in the final moments of the fic, Jaune encounters and influences (both intentionally and not) many of the movers and shakers of Remnant, and the course of events changes thereby. And all through it Jaune does what he's best at -- making a good cup of coffee especially for that particular customer, then talking and listening to them. And wherever possible, doing his best to help.

It can be read here on Fanfiction.net.

Tropes used in Service with a Smile include:

• Abusive Father:
  • What is implied in canon is stated outright here: Mercury's father was profoundly abusive, and in fact beat his wife to death in front of young Mercury.
  • Russel's father was a mean drunk who abused his son. Cardin basically rescued Russel from him, which is why Russel remains loyal to Cardin despite disapproving of his bullying ways.
• Adopt the Dog: Subverted when Cinder adopts a husky puppy and names him "Snowfall". She never stops being a psychopathic villain -- but it does make her more human and relatable to the people around her, and prevents even her enemies from seeing her as an emotionless Complete Monster.
  • Played with in the epilogue, when Snowfall and his "companion" Seraphina have had a litter of puppies -- and Cinder is determined that they will all go to good homes, starting with Jaune (who gets no say in the matter).
• Affably Evil: Just about every antagonist from the trailers and the first three volumes of RWBY. They come to know and like Jaune, and go out of their way to help him when he has problems. Junior and his organization consider him "family" and protect "Jaune's". (And when Junior discovers some of his men have taken bribes to look the other way when when someone does attack it, he's furious.) Roman and Neo personally hunt down the gang which trashed the diner, beat Jaune to a pulp, and stole Crocea Mors. Cinder -- a self-described psychopath -- tries obliquely to convince him to get out of Vale during the Vytal festival, so he won't be harmed by the attack she's engineering. Miltia Malachite gets romantically involved with him. Amazingly, while he initially makes their acquaintances before knowing what they do, Jaune keeps up the friendships and other relationships after and despite learning that they're basically Vale's criminal underground. The only wholly-evil antagonists encountered in this story are a band of racists, a group of thugs, and the local equivalent to Starbucks.
  • Adam Taurus doesn't get to know Jaune any better than as a regular customer, but approves of him and how he treats faunus.
• Agree to Disagree/Amicable Exes: Adam and Blake. In stark contrast to canon, they reach a point where they respect each other's life choices and can be civil to one another, while still acknowledging they may end up enemies anyway.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Mother: Juniper Arc, tough broad that she is, is still mother enough to enjoy embarrassing her son around his friends.
• Anatomically-Impossible Sex: Jaune and Ruby find plenty of examples in books "borrowed" from Blake, and can't help laughing at them.
• Anger Born of Worry: Everyone, practically, toward Jaune when he gets seriously injured by Grimm during the incursion. Miltia thought she'd arrived in time to see him killed, and Ruby, finding only his bloodstained apron later, thought he had been killed. They and others let him know in no uncertain terms just how upset they were with him risking his life.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Ruby unintentionally invokes this on herself while dancing with Mercury:

"Who'd be afraid of you? I'm a huntress. I fight Grimm. I drink milk." They held one another's gaze for a minute of dancing, Ruby's face slowly turning pink. "You want me to ignore that last one?" he finally asked. "Please..."

• Artistic License Economics: Averted on the small scale with both "Jaune's" and the very practical business advice Weiss gives Jaune almost every time she sees him.
• Ascended Extra: Half the cast, it seems like: Junior, Melanie and Miltia, Russel... Velvet was little more than an extra when the story was started
• At Least I Admit It: During the meeting Jaune arranges, Adam points out that the White Fang owns up to the innocent blood they've shed while Atlas covers up its atrocities, accidental or otherwise.
• Backstory: Two notable cases for characters who had none in canon at the time the story was written, which have since been invalidated by revelations in various RWBY spin-off works.
  • Gives Roman Torchwick a powerful and poignant personal history as a disillusioned huntsman from Mountain Glenn, the only survivor of his team, who turned to crime to strike back at the politician whose orders resulted in their deaths.
  • Also provides an abbreviated one for Cinder in which she was the only survivor of her village, overrun by Grimm pursuing fleeing huntsmen who sought to use the settlement as a distraction, rescued and raised by Salem.
• Badass: Jaune's mother Juniper, so described by Miltia who is impressed with just how tough and no-nonsense she is, despite not being a huntress.
• Bait and Switch: There is a moment early on when one of Junior's gang marches into "Jaune's" and slams his hand down on the counter, saying, "You know what I'm here for." With all the earlier lead-ups to it, the reader is primed to expect a demand for protection money, but no... he's there for the daily four o'clock coffee take-out order.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Ruby and Mercury, surprisingly. Sadly, we never see if it ever developed into anything.
• Bishonen: Early on, after his clientèle has shifted to predominantly huntsmen and huntresses and Beacon students (and their groupies), Jaune notes that huntsmen tend to come in two varieties: rugged and roguishly handsome, and bishonen.
• Black and White Insanity: The refusal of any side to consider compromising in any way with the other side during the meeting Jaune arranges at the end of the story almost results in the collapse of the meeting -- and prompts Jaune's epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Blatant Lies: From the epilogue:

"Here. Dry your eyes." "I'm not crying." "Hmhm. I know. Dry them anyway.

• Bound and Gagged: What the rest of Team RWBY have to do to Blake to keep her from running off after Ruby tells the team what she overheard of Cinder's plans.
• Bow Chicka Wow Wow: Yang uses the phrase in an "If You Know What I Mean" sense when discussing Pyrrha "supporting" Jaune as he recovers from the beating he received when his shop was broken into.
• Celebrity Is Overrated: Just as true for Pyrrha in this story as in canon, except that without Jaune as a partner she ends up retreating into herself out of fear of being swamped by fans who only see "The Invincible Girl" and not the girl, and also because of unintended side effects of her celebrity on people she does get close to. She ends up socially isolated for her first few months at Beacon, and was stuck in an actively hostile relationship with Russel, her partner, because she misunderstood the reasons for his initial enthusiasm at having paired up with her.
• Cliff Hanger: Chapter 56 ends on one, with Cinder drawing her sword after Jaune admits to her in private that he knows she's planning an attack on Beacon and Vale.
• Code Names: Yang insists on their use while they watch for something to happen at the dance. For some reason she uses a different code name for Weiss every time she gets mentioned.
• Comically Missing the Point: Nora, in chapter 35, just before Jaune's first date:

"Use protection!" Nora yelled. "Nora!" Ren rebuked. "Sorry. Don't use it if you don't want. Just make an informed decision!"

• Comically Small Bribe: Mercury trades Cinder's plans for a kiss from Ruby. Played with in that Cinder's current plans are... to go shopping for a nice dress.
• Consummate Professional:
  • Russel, who has had several previous jobs as waitstaff, has what amounts to a professional code of behavior when "on the job", which includes leaving his problems and prejudices behind when he's "on the clock".
  • Jaune becomes this as he grows to love being the owner/operator of a diner. Amusingly, his ignorance of Vale's darker side accidentally gives the impression of this to Roman early on.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Café Prime's Regional Director, Alexander Sterling. In an attempt to put Jaune out of business, he escalates from sleazy but legal tactics (like free coffee for Jaune's customer base and opening a copycat diner on the same block) to hiring a gang to bust up "Jaune's" and administer a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Jaune to using family connections with the Vale government to get street construction started to cut off some of his customers' access. And it doesn't stop there.
• Cosplay Cafe: The gimmick Jaune (accidentally) comes up with to fight back when Café Prime initially targets his shop. At first it was Team RWBY helping him out after an injury, dressed in maid costumes (because that's what Weiss bought from a uniform supplier). Later it becomes a deliberate thing, with "theme weekends" such as pirates, gangsters and medieval fantasy.
• Crash Into Hello:
  • In the very first paragraphs of the first chapter: Ruby provides the "hello", Jaune provides the crash.
  • Coco engineers a similar meeting with Jaune while shopping with Velvet to get her an outfit for what turns out to be her job interview with Jaune later that day.
• Crazy Cat Lady: Jokingly invoked by Coco as a possible fate for Pyrrha and Miltia together after Jaune theoretically dumps both of them -- retiring after a life of adventure to live with 300 cats.
• Cuteness Proximity: Probably the best trope to describe Cinder's first encounter with the puppy she would eventually buy and name "Snowfall".
  • Miltia with Snowfall after Cinder leaves him with Jaune.
• Deadpan Snarker: Ozpin. Mercury.
• Death Seeker: Blake describes Adam this way, though not in so many words. Adam's unhesitating offer during the meeting at the end to be arrested or executed if that's what it takes to get the White Fang official recognition by Atlas seems to bear this out.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Ruby has a couple cases of this when talking to Pyrrha while exhausted in chapter 48. At least two comments that appear to be (and which Ruby believes to be) her Inner Monologue actually turn out to be things she said aloud.
• Distant Finale: Chapter 64, the epilogue, takes place four years after the rest of the story.
• Distant Reaction Shot: When Ruby screams in frustration upon learning that Blake has already agreed to take part in Jaune's plan to get the good guys and bad guys together to solve their differences over coffee, there is a sudden cut to the Beacon dorms, miles away:

Blake's head perked up. Yang looked over. "What's up?" "I thought I heard Ruby scream my name..."

• Don't Tell Mama: Jaune muttering "Don't tell mom" right after delivering an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech is the first clue to Miltia that he's about to pass out. (He was referring to realizing he had just ripped into four of the most powerful and/or dangerous people in Remnant.)
• Drinking Game: Jaune, Neo, the Malachites and Pyrrha(!) play the drinking game "I Never..." in chapter 24.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Just about every "bad guy" from the first three volumes comes to see Jaune as a friend or even family, and goes out of their way to help him when he's in need. Even Cinder Fall, who tries to get him to leave Vale before the Vytal Festival, and delivers an an apology coded in flowers when he's injured by the Grimm incursion which is the first stage of the plan.
  • On a different level, Neo is this to Torchwick, who enjoys spoiling her.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Invoked playfully by Coco to reassure Velvet that an outfit looks good on her.
  • Much later, Reese Chloris of Team ABRN glomps Velvet because she's adorable.
• Everyone Can See It:
  • Pyrrha's early attraction to Jaune is obvious to everyone but him.
  • Velvet and Russel's growing Unresolved Sexual Tension is obvious to everyone but them, to the point there is a Side Bet among folks in the diner about when they'll figure it out. (Sadly, that's not one of the things we learn in the epilogue.)
• Evil-Detecting Dog: Utterly averted with Cinder's puppy Snowfall.
• Face of a Thug: Russel's green mohawk and usual garb at Beacon make him look like an unsophisticated tough. But he's actually well-spoken, honorable and loyal to a fault (which is why he remains friends with Cardin Winchester despite his bullying ways), and is a Consummate Professional as a waiter with multiple glowing recommendations from previous employers. He also cleans up nicely, as Team RWBY notes when they see him in his uniform at work.
• First Kiss: The little peck Mercury cajoles out of Ruby, she and Jaune later deduce was probably his first kiss. Interestingly, it wasn't Ruby's.
• Flipping the Table: When Jaune hits his Rage Breaking Point during the meeting at the climax of the story, he blows his stack at everyone and flips over the table they're sitting around before smashing crockery and delivering a verbal beatdown to each and every participant.
• For Want of a Nail: Jaune Arc's attempt to enter Beacon with falsified transcripts fails -- and the choices he makes in the wake of that disappointment end up changing the entire course of RWBY. On a smaller scale, we see changes at Beacon caused by his absence from the student body -- the initiation from Volume 1 goes wildly different, and a number of canon partnerships and teams simply don't form. On a larger scale... well, read the story.
• French Maid: Probably the best trope to cover the uniforms Team RWBY wear when they help Jaune out in the diner early in the story (and one of which Miltia finds herself unwillingly wearing at the climactic meeting). The narration specifically notes that the outfits are frilly (although not terribly revealing).
• Friendly Enemy: In the epilogue, Cinder and Ozpin are this to each other.
• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Discussed -- and then invoked for Jaune's benefit by Melanie (with Pyrrha) -- during a night out in Junior's club in chapter 24.
• The Glomp:
  • Miltia performs a somewhat more aggressive and less innocent version on Jaune to inform him in no uncertain terms that she's interested in him.
  • Much later, Reese Chloris of Team ABRN glomps Velvet upon seeing her during her first visit to "Jaune's".
  • In a less athletic variation than usual, Miltia, Melanie, Pyrrha, Russel and Velvet all sweep Jaune up in a sudden group hug in chapter 54 when he gets momentarily depressed about the prospect of everyone graduating from Beacon and leaving Vale.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Jaune finds himself on a day-long outing with Cinder in an attempt to find something that gives her genuine pleasure in life (in what he admits to himself is probably the vain hope that they can come across something that makes her happier than being a terrorist). He actually goes on further outings with her that she jokingly calls dates.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: After the destruction of the diner and Jaune's savage beating at the hands of a street gang, everyone on Walker Street comes to his aid, from Junior, Roman Torchwick and the Malachite sisters on down to individual customers, who each bring a mug to replace the mugs destroyed in the attack.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck: At a moment when Ruby is angry at Jaune, she uses "fricking" as an expletive. Lampshaded by Jaune who asks, "Frick?" only for her to snap "Shut up!" at him.
  • Much later, there is a moment where she is banging her head against a table and "muttering cutesy semi-swearwords to herself".
• Gourmet Pet Food: Cinder buys expensive, nutritionally-balanced kibble for Snowfall.
  • When she leaves him with Jaune and Snowfall loses his appetite, Jaune tries a (different) gourmet dog food to get him to eat.
• The Greatest Story Never Told: Jaune's success at preventing the attack on Beacon and Vale by getting everyone involved to sit down at a table and talk things out is all but a state secret, something only the people involved will ever know.
• Ha Ha Ha No: Jaune's reaction to the thought of having coffee on his day off.
• Hammerspace: Miltia's claws seem to flick in and out of existence from Jaune's point of view, and apparently reside ... somewhere else ... when she doesn't need them.
• Hand Signals: The White Fang have a gestural "battle language"; when Blake first sees Adam outside "Jaune's", they use it for a limited but revealing conversation.
• Heroic BSOD: According to her teammates, Ruby's reaction to finding only Jaune's bloodstained apron in the diner and thinking he had been killed and eaten.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: At one point while talking with Adam, Mercury uses the phrase "down-to-Remnant" in the same sense as "down-to-Earth".
• Honey Trap: Ruby accuses Jaune of wanting to use her as one to get a message passed to Cinder through Mercury.
• Hot Springs Episode: In an end-of-chapter note, the author calls chapter 24 "the Hot Springs episode -- only without the springs".
• How Many Fingers?: Just before Jaune passes out after delivering his "The Reason You Suck" Speech late in the story, Miltia asks "How many fingers am I holding up?". He replies, "Fourteen."
• Human Shield: During the meeting at the end, Ironwood accuses the White Fang of using civilian populations in this way -- populations that the Atlesian military goes ahead and bombs anyway to get at the White Fang. Jaune then points out that Ironwood is using the population of Vale in exactly the same way; Ironwood is stunned when he realizes Jaune is correct.
• I Have This Friend:
  • Roman Torchwick invokes this trope tongue-in-cheek when passing info on the attack on "Jaune's" to Lisa Lavender.
  • Jaune uses the line when talking to Ruby about Cinder.
  • Then Ruby uses it truthfully with Dr. Oobleck to get info for Jaune.
  • Pyrrha then uses it when asking Ruby for advice. About this point Ruby starts getting a Twitchy Eye on hearing the phrase.
  • Blake makes the mistake of starting her own discussion of Adam with Ruby with this phrase, unintentionally setting off Ruby's frustration with one "I have this friend" too many in too short a time. Ironically in this case, because Blake actually was talking about a real other person and not herself.
• I Know You Know I Know: Ruby rattles this off at a moment of frustration with too much of I Have This Friend from Jaune, telling him to stop hiding behind a fictional "friend" that they both know is him.
• I Never...: The Malachite twins get Neo, Jaune and Pyrrha to play this game one night in The Club.
• I'm Not Afraid of You: Averted in the epilogue. Jaune honestly admits to Salem that she frightens him, but notes that he's afraid of a lot of things. And that the hospitality of "Jaune's" is more important than fear.
• I've Come Too Far...: Late in Café Prime's campaign against "Jaune's", Weiss explains to Jaune that they've reached a point where they simply can't back down, they have to carry through to the end regardless of what happens. If they don't, they'll take an even bigger reputation hit than they would for driving a small coffee shop out of business, and some of their investors are likely to defect and offer to finance turning "Jaune's" into a competing chain.
• Instant Web Hit: The video of Velvet taking down Sterling's thug goes viral less than 24 hours after Blake films and uploads it.
• Ironic Echo: Conversations between Velvet and Pyrrha and between the Malachite sisters that take place in close temporal proximity both include an exchange much like, "Too harsh?" "Maybe, but people aren't psychic, they need a push to see the truth."
• Ironic Echo Cut: When Ruby wants advice on Mercury, Jaune can't give her any, but he knows someone who might, although it's "a weird and convoluted longshot". In the very next scene Adam Taurus asks Ruby why she wanted to talk to him and she repeats that it's "a weird and convoluted longshot".
• It Amused Me: Seems to be the main reason Jacques Schnee dispatched his personal lawyer to represent Jaune against Café Prime.
• It Tastes Like Feet: Jaune's opinion of the variety of coffee known as "Atlesian Black". He refuses to sell it, because as far as he's concerned it's disgusting sludge no one in their right mind should drink. When General Ironwood starts coming to the diner and ordering Atlesian Black, Jaune fakes it with a special, very dark blend of other beans. The General thinks it's the best Atlesian Black he's ever had.
• It's Personal: Café Prime Regional Director Alexander Sterling seems to take Jaune's refusal to give in, sell out or give up -- along with the community's willingness to help him keep going -- as a personal affront after a certain point, which only prompts him to escalate his campaign against Jaune. Sterling himself confirms that the conflict became personal in a private meeting with Jaune in chapter 34, and when Jaune turns down a very generous offer in the same meeting, Sterling is offended and pretty much turns this trope Up to Eleven.
• It's Quiet... Too Quiet: Said by Jaune and Russel when they notice for the first time the effect unexpected street construction has had on the business.
• Klatchian Coffee:
  • Ozpin's triple espresso, light on the water. It makes Jaune ill just to think about it.
  • The Dust-laced, glowing, cup of something he brews for Qrow when the latter demands "something strong" after thoroughly annoying Jaune.
• Like Brother and Sister: Jaune and Ruby's relationship. They're best friends, and neither sees the other in any kind of romantic way.
• Local Hangout: "Jaune's" becomes this for a strange combination of criminals, Beacon students and professional huntsmen/huntresses. It's effectively a Good Guy Bar and Bad Guy Bar, both at the same time.
• Made of Plasticine: Jaune, relative to huntsmen and huntresses. Yang accidentally dislocates his arm (and nearly breaks it) by yanking him to (she thinks) safety when she first comes up on him chatting with Miltia and Melanie.
• A Man Is Not a Virgin: Averted. Jaune admits he's a virgin at 17 to Miltia and Melanie; they don't mock him for it, and admit at his age it's as likely as not.
• Married to the Job: Jaune. He never skips a work day if he can help it, and quickly realizes he doesn't have interests or hobbies on which to spend what little free time he does have.
• Memetic Mutation: Jaune and the diner are In-Universe subjects of this trope, once the conflict with Café Prime hits Remnant's Internet starting with a video clip of Velvet casually demolishing some of Sterling's hired muscle.
• The Missus and the Ex: While Jaune and Miltia are on their first date together, they run into an ex-boyfriend of Miltia's, who seems inclined to spoil at least their night and maybe their relationship.
• Mistaken Age: It happens "off-screen", but when Jaune first met Roman and Neo, he mistook Neo for Roman's daughter. This amused Roman and annoyed Neo, but despite forgiving Jaune for the error she proceeds to tease him with her sexuality ever after.
• Mister Muffykins/Canine Companion: "Snowfall", Cinder's husky puppy, which she buys because of Jaune's influence. He'll eventually grow too large to be a lap dog, but during the timeframe of the story, he is (as Mercury notes) basically a tiny ball of fluff with legs.
• Modesty Shorts: Jaune notes after spending time with her that Cinder wears tight black bike shorts under her slinky red dress.
• Motivational Kiss: Mercury suggests that getting a kiss from Ruby will inspire him to reveal Cinder's plans.
• Must Make Amends: Self-admitted psychopath Cinder apparently feels this way for getting Jaune injured during the Grimm incursion, given the message she sent coded in flowers.
• Mythology Gag: Jaune introduces himself to Salem in the epilogue with the "short, sweet, ladies love it" line he used on Ruby in V1E3. Only here he's deliberately using it to make her laugh, as he's apparently done many times before.
• Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters: Junior and his Red Axe Gang -- especially to Jaune, but also in general: they have standards and don't approve of hard drugs or violent crime, and take their Protection Racket seriously by actually protecting their "customers" from threats other than themselves.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jaune receives one from a street gang (hired by a Café Prime executive) which broke into the diner. He is so badly injured that Cinder Fall activates his aura for him so that he won't have to spend upwards of a year recovering.
• Noble Demon: Adam as he is portrayed here.
• Odd Friendship:
  • Roman Torchwick and TV personality/reporter Lisa Lavender have one of long standing.
  • Adam and Mercury form one over coffee at Jaune's.
• Off with His Head: In the epilogue, Ozpin mentions that he killed Tyrian and put his head on a pike.
• Oh Crap: Sterling's reaction when he discovers he has just publicly and on the record called the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company a liar.
• One from Column A and Two from Column B: Adam's answer in chapter 53 when Ruby asks him if Mercury really likes her or is just being a prick is, "a little of Column A, a little of Column B".
• Only Friend: What Jaune is, functionally, to Cinder.
• Outside Context Villain: Café Prime. A legitimate company exploiting the law to drive Jaune out of business is an obstacle almost incomprehensible to huntsmen and huntresses, who can't just shoot it. It takes another businessman -- Weiss's father -- stepping in to give Jaune any kind of serious help against it.
• Person as Verb: Yang defines "pulling a Blake" as "Running into danger without any thought for consequences, reinforcements or common sense". Weiss and Ruby agree.
• Plausible Deniability: Sterling has carefully insulated himself from the thugs he hired to wreck "Jaune's"; even though Roman acquires information pointing right at him and Café Prime, it can't actually be used in court.
• Porn Stash: Apparently every book owned by Blake that isn't a Beacon textbook.
• Power Strain Blackout: A rare example of one not caused by using a paranormal power: Jaune is so stressed out and puts so much into the "The Reason You Suck" Speech that he delivers to Ozpin, Ironwood, Cinder and Adam late in the story that he passes out as soon as he runs out of steam.
• Punny Name: "Snow", Cinder Fall's husky puppy. Lampshaded by Roman Torchwick (in his private thoughts) when he realizes Snow's implied surname.
• Rage Breaking Point: After pulling every string he has to arrange a sit-down face-to-face meeting between everyone involved on both sides of the coming attack on Vale and Beacon, and playing both host and peacemaker during its early stages, Jaune is driven past the point of no return by their refusal to even consider any kind of compromise. His temper blows, he flips over the table they're sitting at, smashes crockery on the floor and against the wall, and delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to everyone there before passing out from the stress.
• Reality Ensues: Actively averted with Café Prime's campaign against "Jaune's". In an end-of-chapter note, the author goes through a list of very real tactics that Prime could have used against Jaune (and would have in the real world) but which he didn't have them employ -- because while they would have been effective, they would have made for a boring story and/or would have happened out of sight of Jaune and his allies.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Jaune reaches his Rage Breaking Point and delivers a truly epic one to Ozpin, Ironwood, Cinder and Adam when no one is willing to compromise the least bit at a meeting he arranges for them in an attempt to forestall the coming attack on Vale and Beacon. He actually ends up shaming Ozpin into making the first move.
• Retired Outlaw: Torchwick, in the epilogue. With the help of expensive lawyers he got himself cleared of any lingering charges and now spends his days in wealthy leisure.
• The Reveal:
  • After letting Jaune think for weeks that he ran some kind of late-night moving service (as a "removals expert"), Roman eventually (but off-screen) tells him what his real business is as part of passing on what he's learned about the campaign against "Jaune's".
• Right-Hand-Cat: Cinder treats her puppy Snowfall like this; Mercury notes that she has Snowfall in her lap and absently strokes him while planning evil deeds, not even noticing him nibbling on her fingers.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Blake offers a golf-clap when Jaune creates and formally dubs "Boring Blend Number One" just for Winter Schnee (who ordered a "standard" coffee).
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections:
  • Weiss using her family's clout (and lawyers) to get "Jaune's" repaired and re-equipped (and get his insurance company to pay out immediately) after it's busted up by a gang hired by Café Prime.
  • Alexander Sterling uses family connections (an in-law in the Vale government) to set up road construction and approve a possibly-illegal building remodel as part of the campaign against Jaune's.
• Service Sector Stereotypes: The negative aspects of these stereotypes are generally averted among Jaune and his staff. The staff of Café Prime, not so much.
• Shame If Something Happened: Averted. When gangsters from Junior's club start showing up at the shop, Jaune's neighbors warn him to expect a demand for him to pay a "protection fee" -- but no such demand is ever made, and he eventually comes to know most of them by name. Later in the story, Junior claims the coffee is the fee, even though he and the Red Axe Gang pay for it.
• Shoo the Dog: Cinder leaves her puppy Snowfall with Jaune a few days before the attack on Vale and Beacon is supposed to take place.
• Side Bet: There is apparently a pool being run on whether/when Velvet and Russel make out by the end of the school year. Both Yang and Jaune have money on it.
• Smart People Play Chess: The use of this trope in movies -- and the related trope of equating chess with warfare -- is discussed by Cinder after she plays chess with Jaune in a park on one of his days off.
• Sobriquet: As of the Distant Finale, Ozpin has become known as "The Emerald Knight" after he leaves Vale.
• The Stations of the Canon: At least in the beginning, certain familiar events still happen, such as Cinder hiring Roman and the "Yellow" trailer, although we (and Jaune) only hear about them second-hand. And Salem's plans for Vale and Beacon are still in play almost to the end of the story.
• Stop Being Stereotypical:
  • Adam muses briefly on Blake's catlike behavior, noting that it's not implicit in her faunus traits (and contrasting her with her mother, who shows none of them).
  • Marron the baker to Velvet when she asks him for carrot cake.
• Summon Bigger Fish: Alexander Sterling does this to himself by publicly calling Weiss a liar and thus accidentally getting the Schnee Dust Company involved in the conflict between Jaune and Café Prime. The trope is actually mentioned indirectly in an author's note.
• Super Registration Act: The various laws regulating and restricting the activation of Aura in civilians.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Pyrrha's response -- twice -- in the epilogue when Jaune guesses wrong about a couple of her admittedly-secret future plans.
  • Basically the reaction of Jaune (and Ironwood's subordinates) any time Ironwood claims the blend Jaune's made for him is the best Atlesian Black he's ever had.
• Tautological Templar: Ironwood (and Atlas in general), as both Jaune and Roman point out in the meeting at the climax of the story.
• Title Drop: The first line of chapter 39.
• Torture Always Works: It works well enough that Roman can pass useful information onto Jaune -- but it's not enough and inadmissible in court, so it can't be used to bring legal action against Café Prime.
• Torture Cellar: Junior provides Roman and Neo a convenient soundproofed room when it comes time to "interrogate" the survivors of various groups that have caused trouble for "Jaune's".
• Torture Technician: Both Roman and Neo appear quite adept at "enhanced interrogation techniques".
• Trademark Favorite Drink: General Ironwood insists on drinking only "Atlesian Black" coffee, a variety Jaune actually refuses to serve because he considers it bitter, unappetizing sludge. (He fakes it with a custom blend for the General, who has no clue and calls it the best Atlesian Black he's ever had. Amusingly, all his subordinates are aware it's not Atlesian Black, but say nothing.)
• Triang Relations: An evolving set involving Jaune, Miltia and Pyrrha. Initially it is a Type 3, with both girls (as B and C) interested in Jaune (as A) but him unaware of their feelings. Militia takes action to transform it into a Type 4 (with her as C, Jaune as B and Pyrrha as A), but toward the end of the story seems to be actively encouraging Pyrrha to turn it into a Type 7 (again with Jaune as A and the girls as B and C), or in particularly flirty moments even a Type 8 instead. Sadly, the epilogue does not make it clear what, if anything, developed.
• Tropacabana: The story revolves almost entirely around "Jaune's". When it doesn't, it's frequently in Junior's bar, which is simply called The Club.
• Truce Zone: "Jaune's". Initially this is informal, but at one point Adam actually calls it "accorded neutral ground", suggesting that there's been a formal agreement about it between factions off-screen at some point.
• Twin Banter: Miltia and Melanie sometimes indulge, and always do so to annoy or tease someone.
• The Vamp: Neo, Melanie and Miltia all enjoy teasing Jaune with playfully flirtatious sexual advances after they get to know him.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Jaune has a truly epic drunken night out with Miltia between chapters 42 and 43 and has a less-than-pleasant awakening afterward.
• What Could Have Been: In an In-Universe example, Cinder muses on other courses she might have taken, including briefly envisioning an ordinary, but happy, domestic life with Jaune.
• What If...?: ... Jaune Arc hadn't gotten into Beacon, and was too ashamed to return home?
• When All You Have Is a Hammer: Discussed in Chapter 38:

Jaune: Is there any way you would deal with a dangerous problem without attacking it in some way? Like, I don't know, diplomacy or careful strategy? Russel: Boss, you're asking a huntsman and a huntress how to handle a problem. Velvet: He is right, Jaune. We're not exactly taught how to do things – uh – nicely. But if you want an arm broken, I can do it in ten or more different ways unarmed. Hundreds more with a weapon.

• X Called. They Want Their Y Back.: When Melanie comes upon Miltia trying out an excessively "girly" look, thinking Jaune might like it, she says "Uh, the last century called, Miltia. They want to know what you're wearing."
• You Monster!: Ruby, playfully, to Jaune when he threatens to put coffee in her dessert. Possibly a deliberate echo of Yang using the same phrase seriously in V1E7.