=SPTL Meeting=
Oh boy was topaz excited; shed been working her way up for this for years now! Currently the small fox faunas, whose ears and identity were hidden and would remain like that thank you very much was being sorted into her time. She was to be the third member of team SPTL, pronounces as spectrum.
Her team however, to put it lightly, scared the living day lights off the poor vixen. Slate, there to be leader, was a human who was the literal personification of tall, dark and deadly. The only bits of colour on the built six foot boy was yellow boots and gold rings that only helped to contrast electric Blue eyes.
She looked at her leader and his face which she could only describe as "terrifyingly cold", features set in an expression of disinterested yet mildly angry. His eyes snapped to hers for a moment before slowly drifting back to stare forward into the crowd before them as their new headmaster gave a speech and she could hear herself give a small squeak of fear. Topaz looked down at her feet to avoid it happening again
"Really hope i can get the bed that's next to the bathroom, seems convenient." Slate thought to himself. "Im leader so do i get first pick? Nah that'd be pretty rude. Guess i'll just try and get there first."
Slate was really tired. After going through some grimm and retrieving some weird figure thing he was ready to just nap for a while. Plus he had to deal with all these new people and ugh, they were draining him dry emotionally.
"They seem nice enough" pondered Slate, as he glanced at his teammates. "Is that one really ready though?" He thought as he looked at Topaz. "Jeez she seems pretty scared. Even more now than she was in the forest. Guess it's just first day jitters or whatever. Jesus Christ when will this be over so i can sleep god damn it."
Topaz then looked at the second member of her team, the one who was to be her partner for the next 3 years. Petal, or at least she thinks that was her name? Whatever she can find out later, is somehow even taller than slate! The practically Amazonian women seemed to Topaz to look like some kind of hippy punk maybe?
Petal had pink hair that was long enough to reach her shoulders, but was shaven off on the right side of her head, it also seemed the her right eye had some kind of damage due to the large eyepatch that she wore over the top left side of her face. The eye patch was black but had her green and pink symbol shown where her eye would be. Her skin was so pale that Topaz wondered about her health; the paleness of it also brought out the multiple scars that were all around the girls' mouth and lips. She looked super pissed. Topaz was really hoping it wasn't because she was her partner; They hadn't gotten to talk about Faunus yet but Topaz was really hoping they would be at least neutral towards her if she decided to reveal herself to them.
As Topaz realised she was staring at the girl and was about to look away, the tall girls gaze swung to met hers. She saw Petal narrow her eyes and make some kind of annoyed noise before turning her head back to look at their headmaster.
"Oh darn" She thought to herself, "She seems pretty annoyed that she's stuck with me doesn't she?"
Topaz's fox ears drooped; she hoped they didn't show through her large curly hair and thought it would probably not be noticeable, however she might have seen the last member of their time give a questioning glace her way if she thought to look at him.
Petal was pretty ticked off right now; her annoyance was with herself more than anyone else mind you but still, she gave off an aura of mild anger and discontent. Apparently she wasn't allowed to bring some of her plants into beacon, she wishes she was actually fucking told about this! They throw out her still growing primroses; they were showing great progress as well!
"I have a bag full of highly explosive spikes and the horned guy had a case full of deadly dust but nooOOOOOOooooo, a fucking potted plant is against the rules." Petal silently seethed. "At least i have an excuse to go down to vale and find a nice market or gardening centre, I wonder if my partner would want to come?" Petal glances at her partner wondering, "Id have to ask her if she likes plants, but hey could be a nice way to get to know each other."
Petal really couldn't wait to get to know her partner and her team in general. They all seemed so nice! Her poor partner seemed so nervous though; she would have to ask her how she's doing once they got back to their dorm.
Finally Topaz looked at the last member of her team; she wasn't quite sure what to think of them at all. "Lumber." As he introduced himself as, was a Faunas. Just like her! Well... not exactly like her, he had curved ram like horns on his head instead of having fox like ears such as Topaz.
Normally Topaz would have been ecstatic to have a fellow Faunus on her team; however Topaz was suspicious that he might be affiliated to the White Fang. Topaz may be weary of humans but she truly feared the White Fang, she would have parents if it wasn't for the White Fang going in disguise to rally humans against her family. Humans mostly could be taught better, but White Fang were truly radicalised now unlike the old Fang.
Topaz thought lumber might be Fang is because of the a few reasons; first of all there were the scars on his face. Going diagonally across their face they had three gashes that luckily hadn't gotten to his eyes. They looked almost like exact copies of the three slashes that are part of the White Fang flag.
Other than that there was nothing really intimidating about his appearance, He may have been muscular but most hunters were since they were combat specialists. But he was pretty short, and thats coming from Topaz's five foot even self. Lumber was five foot four at the very most and that was probably including the fluff of blue hair on his head. Some may have thought his sharpened horns to be some kind of intimidation but after being around so many horned faunus before she knew it was just part of some peoples maintenance.
The second reason was because of how angry they seemed to be, when they met in the forever fall forest he seemed all happiness and bouncing energy but then when slate arrived chased be a few Ursa minors he was livid and stayed that way. Even now he was breathing heavy in a way that suggested suppressed rage and his arms, still covered in his gauntlet based weapon, were folded and he was holding his arm with such a grip that it seemed like it would bruise.
His grey eyes were staring directly ahead of him wide and focused on a singular point. Topaz felt more scared of him than the other too, but this was mostly because of her suspicion of his White Fang membership. An angry Faunus she can handle, but an angry Fang member? Nope nope no siry she will not be handling that situation at all then.
Lumber was fucking pissed, like wow he knew he needed to chill out for a while. Their role in combat was to be a "bezerker/brawler", his main job was to get real made and just wail on everything he can get to. Lumber liked this, it fitted him well and gave him a lot of adrenaline, although he knew he had a hard time coming down from battle.
"Really need to go relax in dorm or something, cus holy shit" Lumber thought, "I am in no fucking way capable to do fuck all right now."
Lumber looked forward to meeting his team since they all seemed like wonderful people, but his main priority was to bring himself out of his combat rage.
"Would the short one let me borrow their earphones? I think i busted mine in the forest and fucking horns don't really allow for headphones." Wondered lumber. "They seem pretty nervous of us right now so hey might be a good way to start on good terms."
It was then that lumber saw her hair shift around somewhat, Lumber wasn't really surprised that it happened but by what he saw as it swished for that moment.
"Are those ears?" Lumber asked himself, "i am one hundred percent sure i saw some kind of gosh damned ear there in there!"
Lumber looks closer and noticed that she did have some white tuft of, not hair but fur, in amongst her normal human hair. He smiled to himself as he saw this. He was happy that he would be able to be on a team with a fellow Faunus. She may be hiding the fact that she is one right now but he's sure that once she gets to know them or even when they get to talk privately that she will be ok revealing herself to them.
"Really hope that's soon" Lumber hoped, "It would be great to discuss issues with her, without some humans inert fuckin bias" Lumber thought seething.
Lumber took a deep breath and sighed it out.
"Ok need to calm down. Not a human's fault they exist in this society, we've already seen what kind of path that thinking takes you too" He reminded himself, thinking back to his experiences with the White Fang. "Fuck now I really really should chill White Fang is not a calm subject."
After ozpins small speech and the introduction of all the other first year teams, team spectrum (SPTL) made their way to their new dorm room. Upon entering their new courageous leader promptly dropped his bag and fell onto a bed.
The rest of his team stared at him for a moment before getting on with their unpacking process. Topaz was watching her new partner as she unpacked, she had taken the bed in the corner next to the 2 windows. She was interested to see how she took out and lined up little potted plants on the window sill, There seemed to be a lot of variety in what she grew
At that point Petal felt eyes on her and had turned around to see Topaz looking at her plants. Petal was happy to see this! It said to her that Topaz was in fact a plant fan like she had hoped! She grinned as she walked up to her partner and help her hands in her own.
Petal began to ramble at Topaz confusing her saying, "Hey saw you looking at my plants, I was wondering if you wanted to go down to vale and find a market or garden centre. I've heard vale has some really great place for flora and other plant life and i was hoping to go explore it! I need to get something to replace my young Primrose cus apparently beacon decided i wasn't actually allowed to bring it here and they throw it out! It's been really bothering me too because it was growing really well and I'm sorry I was so moody in the forest but i really loved that plant! But anyways now we've got some free time and we can get to know each other and oh my god you seem so nice and cute I'm so happy we get to be partners!"
Topaz realised she was very wrong about her partner and probably about her team leader as well. Her leader now just seemed to just be some sleepy stone faced guy and her partner is simply someone who is really into plants (maybe too into plants).
Lumber however she was still unsure of, that was until she turned around to see how Lumber had both tucked in Slate and was searching though Slates bag.
"Wait ok so he is NOT White Fang that's for sure." She thought staring at her snuggled in leader, "But he's still kind of a jerk? I mean he is trying to steal something from our leader literally seconds after we've become a team."
Lumber looked up from his "stealing" to look at both Petal and Topaz.
Lumber spoke with a British twist to his words and said "Hey do either of you have a pair of ear buds i can trade you for? Busted mine when a Beowolf slammed up at a tree and plus" Lumber paused, as he put the headphones that were around his neck onto his head.
The headphones were being bent around his horns in a way that would suggest they would break soon, as well as that Lumber looked entirely uncomfortable in them.
"I'm not exactly a big headphones kinda Faunus if I'm bein' honest to ya"
Petal plucked the headphones off of his head and reached into a skirt pocket to toss him a pair of bright pink ear buds. Lumber inspected them for a moment then grinned.
"Hope you don't mind the colour." Petal joked.
Lumber replied with, "Nah I'm a big enough fan of pink." Before putting one in to test the sound quality.
"Sorry for being rude but I was a bit too caught up in the forest and i didn't actually catch your names." Lumber told them as he put out his hand for either of the two to shake.
"Petal Arrossire, explosions expert at you fine service my god sir" Petal replied, mimicking Lumbers accent teasingly as she shook his hand.
"Lumber Mahoe, brawler, bezerker & all around dust connoisseur, a pleasure to make your acquaintance" Said Lumber, using an intimidation of Petals French accent.
"And you?" inquired Lumber as he turned to Topaz.
Topaz squeaked in surprise as lumber turned to her and seemed to close in on herself as she extended her hand and reluctantly took his hand and shook them.
"I uh am Topaz, Topaz Kinross. Nice to meet you." Topaz spoke softly, her words having a Greek twist. Her eyes continuously flicked between the floor and Lumbers face as they shook hands.
"Well I am going to use the bathroom first if you guys don't mind, all that grimm fighting left me feeling kinda grimy." Interjected Petal a second later.
"Nah sure go ahead" replied Lumber as he turned his head to face her.
As Petal went into their shared bathroom and locked the door Lumber turned to stare at Topaz. Lumber smiled knowingly at her and Topaz really did not want to be the center of attention right now.
"So um..." Began Lumber, as he got much closer to Topaz and spoke softly to her. "I know your trying to hide your ears, but uh"
Topaz let out a small surprised and almost devastated gasp.
Lumber ignored it and continued looking at her with care, "I have seen, oh boy, like a hundred Faunus hide who they are, and I've seen how Faunus ears twitch through anything so well, I'm sorry but I kinda noticed and felt I should tell you that I knew."
Lumber, seeing how nervous she already was even before he said this, looked down at his feet a look of possibly shame and care in his eyes.
Topaz sighed before she began to speak to lumber, "Well I uh... I... Thanks I guess, for not just saying it in front of everyone else I mean."
"Hey its fine, I know what it's like to be scared or ashamed." Interrupted Lumber as he rubbed his head near the base of his horns.
"Its not shame. Just my own fear of some humans and well of the White Fang if I'm honest." Said Topaz as she slowly reached up and pulled all of her hair back revealing a pair of furry Orange Fox ears with White tips.
"Fox Faunus. You?" Said Topaz meekly, still looking at the floor.
Lumber tapped his horns a couple times as he grinned and said "Pretty sure their Ram horns. But honestly? No idea!"
Lumber and Topaz shared a quiet small laugh at this, it quickly was silenced when Petal walked out of the bathroom saying she had forgotten her toiletries bag. She looked at them and flashed a grin before walking back into the bathroom.
"Hey at least she doesn't care! But i guess we could tell that from lack of open disgust at me couldn't we. Well i guess maybe inwardly but you know what Petal seems pretty nice." Lumber said, trying very hard not to laugh at Topaz's face.
Topaz has her lips pursed together and her eyes were wide open. Her hands remained where they were holding her hair back but had opened allowing all of her hair to spring back into place. She sat there like that screaming internally.
After petal came out of the shared shower they all got fully unpacked, quietly talking to each other as they did so. When they finished slate stretched out and yawned sitting up and looking at his team.
"Sorry about that. I was pretty beat." Slate informed them sleepily.
His voice a monotone and his accent Russian. Slate looked at his team considering them, wondering if they would be worth his time. He did not believe he was better than them, but he did truly believe that he didn't enjoy the company of people.
"So... Did I miss anything?" He asked, attempting to fill in silence.
Petal and Lumber glanced quickly at Topaz as she seemed to become very on edge.
Topaz quickly bursted out with, "NO! NOTHING AT ALL! WERE ALL GOOD!", as she began to sweat profusely.
"Anybody want to go check out the library?" Suggested Lumber after a few moments of akward silence.
Slate grunted what could have been an agreement while both Topaz and Petal said they were going to go look around vale for a while.
The two sets of partners then left the dorm room to go to their destinations, all of them determined to learn some more about their partner and be more comfortable around them. Except Slate, Slate just likes the quiet of libraries.