For the first time in his life, Jaune was bored.

Back at home, there had always been something that needed doing around the castle; repairing the walls, overseeing dust extraction, and other tasks fit for a nobleman. There was plenty to do on a personal level, too; studying in the library, training with his sisters or the master of arms, even learning a bit of cooking from the staff. Sure, it wasn't always interesting, but he'd never really been stuck just waiting for something to happen.

Suppressing a yawn, he looked around the terminal once again, taking in the sights. There weren't that many of them, unless you counted the rather large crowd of students milling around. Well, large by his standards at any rate. He wasn't quite sure if this counted as a crowd by... well, anyone else's standards.

It had been a few weeks since his birthday, and apparently his aura had, in fact, been a problem or at least a nuisance. Sure, he'd gotten a good amount of time with Argent, learning how to use a sword and board, and yeah he'd gotten a couple of hunts in, but how exactly was was he supposed to take just suddenly being carted off to a no-name school in some distant backwater?

Well, maybe not so much a backwater, he thought, glancing out again at the rows and rows of buildings beneath him. Argent had been pretty quick to disabuse him of that particular notion, but still this whole place just rubbed him the wrong way. Maybe it was just the sheer number of people in one place, maybe it was because the food didn't taste quite right, but he just couldn't bring himself to relax.

At least no one was staring at him. He'd balked initially at his sister's insistence on replacing his entire wardrobe, and looking around he still wasn't convinced he'd stand out, but his new 'more casual' outfit (Essentially a shirt, some pants, and his armor) had a certain ability to blend into the background. That was probably a good thing, though a bit lonely, as he wouldn't have been able to keep up with any of the conversations going on around him.

He checked his scroll, for the upteenth time, once again marvelling at its construction. He'd have to make a note to mention them in his first letter home. Sure, they wouldn't be that useful to the help, most of them had grasping claws ill-suited to subtle manipulations, but for keeping hunters in touch over a hunt they'd be nearly indispensable. Even as he fiddled with it though, he knew he needed to find something to keep him occupied until the airship came. Casting his eyes about once more, they seemed to slowly settle on a small bookstore, just off the main concourse. Argent had packed a few tomes with his luggage, but they were all purely practical things, focused on weapon maintenance and first aid. In all honesty, he could use a bit of light reading.

Unfolding himself from the mildly uncomfortable, too-small bench, and edging his way between the small clumps of hunters-to-be engaging one another in idle talk, he saw that the store had a fairly well-stocked section on folklore, in addition to the expected fare on current events. That would be good. Entertaining to read, not an especially strange subject, and it would help him learn a little more about the culture he found himself immersed in. Sliding a hand in his pocket, he mentally tallied up how much pocket money his sister had given him. Enough for a few books, probably more if he got some of those thinner ones stacked in the window. Nodding to himself, he wandered over to the shelves and picked the first book that caught his eye.

/\/\/\/\

In the Forever Fall Forest, Argent frowned as her scroll began to buzz. Getting a call in the middle of the hunt was always a bit of a mood killer, but it might be important. In all honesty, it was probably Jaune sending her a panicked text after seeing something odd. Maybe he'd tried to order liquor and was being asked about his ID? His papers were a bit of a rough job, even with the assistance of their mother's 'contacts', so if he'd gotten picked up by the law for forgery she couldn't exactly leave him hanging.

Not that she would anyways. Her mother might call her sloppy, but she was hardly a dick.

Either way, she wasn't making much progress on this hunt, so there was no harm in seeing what had happened. Leaning against a nearby oak, her frown shifted from worried to confused as she read his message.

Sister, I was looking through several manuscripts available for purchase at the port, and I have come across some concerns. Jaune.

Jaune was not panicking. He was a proud son of Castle Cainhurst, he did not panic. He did, however fidget nervously and flick his gaze from side to side, the book he'd selected resting on the seat next to him. Everyone seemed absorbed in their own conversations, but-

His phone buzzed. Okay, good, this techno-sorcery actually worked. Fumbling a bit, he opened the message and read, his mind stumbling a bit. His sister was as skilled at butchering prose as grimm it seemed.

K, 2 things bro. 1st this isnt a letter, just write lyk u talk

2, what u on about?

He frowned, glancing around to check for anyone reading over his shoulder, or through the other side of the screen.

I purchased a book on local mythology. I thought it would be useful, but apparently we're in it. And we're the bad guys?

Argent's frown shifted to thoughtful. Hadn't she told him? She mentally reviewed the last few days and came up blank. Apparently she hadn't.

Thought I told u? Ppl think we creepy b/c blood thing idk

Not like the semb. The seasoning, cookin an drinkin

And mebe the help.

Jaune's not-panic grew. He knew his family weren't the monsters the book described, and his classmates seemed reasonable, so there really wasn't a need to panic. He was just being silly.

But we aren't? I mean the blood thing comes from our semblance, and the castle's inhabitants are perfectly reasonable when you talk to them.

Argent was in the middle of typing her reply when a rasping bark echoed through the woods. Her gargoyles had located the pack. Her thumbs hastily stabbed out the remainder before switching the device off and pocketing it. Her brother would figure it out, he was smart.

Ofc but they dont kno that lol

Just keep quiet bout it.

Newbs b eager sumtimes

Jaune's eyes widened. What did she mean by eager? He pushed out another message asking for clarification. Then another. And another. He received no reply. Apparently, whatever sorcery that animated the device had stopped functioning, or his sister's was inoperable. Either way, he was now officially on his own.

He barely noticed when everybody began to board. He was much more concerned with his new-found goal of not getting murdered by the people that were supposed to be his classmates. His mind shifted into gear as he threw together excuses for every possible misstep or odd behaviour, considering and reconsidering where he'd tell people he was from. Somewhere near home-no that might lead them back to Cainhurst. Somewhere up north would be good, same region same accents, roughly the same history. So he continued. Working himself up into a borderline nervous state. Not quite on the fight side, not quite on the flight side.

Jaune would later swear up and down that it was air sickness. Yang would give him the benefit of the doubt and back him up. But the fact of the matter is that the product of his nervousness and the stress of a strange environment, plus the sudden, unexpected appearance of an attractive blonde girl asking after his health, resulted in a sudden upwelling from his stomach and on to her shoes.

/\/\/\/\

As the ship docked and disgorged the throng of students (one staggering straight for the nearest garbage can), feelings were mixed.

Nora, however, was not one for subtlety. She was positively ecstatic! She was at Beacon, the boy she was with-but-not-like-together-with-they-were-best-friends-honest was at Beacon, her hammer-cum-grenade launcher had just had a tune up and-wait a second. Something wasn't quite right.

Her bouncing, excited jog came to an abrupt halt, almost causing the raven-haired boy behind her to hit her, and her eyes narrowed as she took in the school. There was something there, just on the corner of her vision, but she ignored it.

Ren, for his part recovered quickly. He was about to gently chastise Nora when he saw her expression, the same one she usually wore when something had gone wrong with one of her grenades and she was trying to spot the fix before an errant twitch set it off.

Just as quickly as she had stopped, she almost popped to attention, thrusting an arm out towards the academy's spires. "Ren!"

He grunted an acknowledgement.

"Look at the rooftops!"

"Hm?"

"Since when does Beacon have gargoyles? Those weren't in ANY of the pictures!"

Ren, bemused, squinted at the edges of the roof, and found that she was right. Several of the buildings had hunched, winged statues arrayed around their perimeters. With a shrug, he turned back to Nora.

"So?"

She turned to face him, giving him what looked to be her number 3 flat stare, the one she usually reserved for when he'd missed something obvious.

"So? So why would Beacon, a school for training kids with heavy weaponry, waste money on adding a bunch of ugly statues only weeks after their latest photos were published?"

She leaned towards him, her flat stare shifting into raised eyebrow and a pensive look. Glancing over her shoulder, Ren decided it was best to reign her in for now.

"Nora? You've forgotten one thing."

She tilted her head, her eyes widened in confusion as she wracked her brain for what she could have possibly overlooked. Wordlessly, Ren pointed over her shoulder towards the departing crowd. Squeaking in surprise, she seized his hand and dragged him off, already babbling about being late on the first day, or would it be the zeroth day and so on.

/\/\/\/\

Jaune, having finished tasting his lunch a second time lurched back upright, just a half second too late to see where everyone else had gone. While that did wonders to settle his nerves for now, being late before they had even assigned teams would probably attract exactly the sort of attention he'd rather avoid. Glancing around, he managed to spot a member of the faculty nearby, though the white stonework made spotting her translucent form trickier than it would be otherwise.

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am?"

She turned to face him, and his nerves eased further when he saw the absence of any real annoyance on her face. He gestured at the garbage can.

"I, uh, missed whatever announcement here was. I'm new here, where are we supposed to, uh, meet up?"

Calmly, she extended her arm, finger outstretched, and spoke to him. New students were to assemble in the main hall, over yonder. If he'd like, she could accompany him to ensure he wouldn't stray. Jaune nodded his assent, and fell in step behind her. Having to be shown around by faculty would be embarrassing, sure, but the other students likely wouldn't pry. If he was lucky, he might even catch up with the group before anyone realized he'd fallen behind.

Any hope of that was soon deterred by the muffled thump of an explosion stopping Jaune and the ghost in their tracks. On the one hand, he could ignore it and continue on his way, on the other hand someone might have actually been hurt. At the very least, it would provide an excuse for being late.

/\/\/\/\

Ruby was having an awful, awful, no good bad day. Sure, things had started out great. Barely fifteen and already in one of the best academies in the world, in the same class as her sister no less. Then her sister had blown her off, she'd run into that crabby girl, exploded, and now she was lying in a crater still at zero non-Yang friends. Maybe she should have stayed at Signal.

Her eyes flicked open as a shadow fell across face. Looking up, she saw another student. Tall, blonde, fairly-wait wasn't that the guy that-

"-uninjured?"

She blinked.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said are you alright?"

She blinked again. Why would he-Oh right, the crater. She took his outstretched hand and got to her feet.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just another exciting day at Beacon."

She chanced another look at him. Yeah, that was vomit boy alright. She blinked again, rubbing her eyes. Weird, it felt like there was something just behind him, but she couldn't see anything.

"Oh, uh, are you a full student here? I thought you were new here, like me."

"What? Oh, no. Just a little joke. I'm Ruby, Ruby Rose."

She put out her hand for a shake, and after a moment's hesitation he took it in his own.

"I'm Jaune. Jaune, uh, just Jaune, actually" Inwardly, he cursed. Hopefully she wouldn't ask about his slip. All that thinking about his manners, and none about his own name.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion. It sounded like he was going to say something else but stopped. Was he in trouble with his family or something? She considered asking, but thought better of it. He almost sounded scared when he'd mentioned it. She nodded to herself, yes it would probably be better to let it go.

"Right then, Jaune. Do you know where we're supposed to go?"

"What? Oh yeah, we need to go…" He paused, looking over his shoulder. Again, Ruby felt the faint impression of something behind him, a slight tingling at the base of her skull catching a bief-She shook her head to clear the sensation, and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. She really needed to find Yang, then find somewhere to cosy up with Crescent Rose for a nap. She looked back to Jaune just as he seemed to finished thinking "Over there. That building."

"Which one?" He pointed.

"Oh, how did you know?"

He turned back to her, his arm waving vaguely towards the Academy's grounds.

"Just kind of, asked directions. From the faculty." Oh, yeah she guessed that made sense. She supposed they were probably wandering around campus somewhere. She hadn't seen any, mind, but they were probably around.

/\/\/\/\

Several stories up, and a few hundred meters away, Ozpin looked down from his office, observing the new students. He was fairly sure he'd managed to pick out the Cainhurst boy, who looked to have met up with the other special case he'd brought in. Qrow had given him an earful when he'd found out, but the headmaster had managed to placate him.

Damn, but the man had expensive tastes.

Taking another sip of his coffee, he was stirred from his thoughts by a chime at his door. Flicking the control, he unlocked it and Glynda stepped in. With another pile of paperwork.

Civilization had the power to make men fly, and level cities, but it still hadn't found a solution to that particular menace.

He acknowledge her presence with a nod, expecting just the usual delivery, and was confused when she stayed. He hadn't done anything recently, and his welcome speech wasn't for another half hour at least.

"Glynda." Hold out bait, entice her to speak first.

"Headmaster, the staff have been talking and we have some…" she trailed off, apparently trying to figure out how best to put it "... Concerns, regarding the apparent budget."

Ozpin frowned. He was pretty sure he knew where this was going.

"The budget is available for all the staff to see. We are a public institution after all."

Glynda nodded carefully.

"Which is why we're wondering about those." She said as she swept her arm, gesturing to the windows.

He knew what she was getting at, but he couldn't resist baiting her a little more.

"It was about time to replace the windows. Especially after Miss Adel and Miss Scarlatina's last… field test."

Glynda was not amused.

"I was referring to the Gargoyles. The budget has been tight since they decided the festival would be here, and the acquisition of a hundred decorative statues is a needless drain."

Ozpin wanted to sit down and explain the situation fully. He'd held off mostly out of habit, and she did deserve to know.

On the other hand, he'd spotted a heaven-sent opportunity for dramatics, and he was not about to squander it.

"You needn't worry. For one, I got these quite cheap." He said, turning to face her. He'd have to time this just right.

She raised a single eyebrow, her skepticism plain to see.

"Cheap still isn't free. Is this related to your… Special Cases?" Ozpin could almost hear the quotation marks, but he didn't chase after it. Should be right about…

"And Number two, these aren't statues." He paused. Damn, he just barely mis-timed it. If Glynda noticed, she didn't let on, she was used to his eccentricities by now.

As the pause dragged on for another second, Glynda opened her mouth to respond before being cut off by the abrupt sound of flapping wings. A little off, but workable.

"They're Gargoyles," He finished as the creature alighted just outside an open window.

Glynda, to her credit as a huntress, did not panic, and did not appear overly surprised. Her hand did twitch to the riding crop at her side, but it was only a twitch. A less experienced hunter may have shown visible disgust at the appearance of the hunched beast, but Glynda kept her gaze steady on the headmaster as he went to retrieve the parcel it held. Using them as an improvised package retrieval system was probably petty, and definitely a risk, but there were days he just didn't want to walk all the way back down there.

She seemed to have recovered by the time he'd brought the box back to his desk. Yes, that was definitely her not-happy face. Not quite outright rebellious, but definitely bordering on Angry.

"What," she hissed through barely clenched teeth "Are those, What are they doing here, and are you seriously using them to carry your mail?"

"Those," he began, keeping his voice calm and level, and definitely not amused by her reaction "Were Gargoyles, courtesy of Queen Annalise of the Blood-Kin of Cainhurst, First of Her Name, Defender of the North, and a host of other titles. They are here for two reasons, the first being a trade for accepting her son in the new crop of students, and secondly to bolster our security." He took another sip of his coffee "And yes. It's rather convenient, actually."

Short, to the point, and just enough information for her to read between the lines.

"If you were so concerned with security, you could have asked James to-"

"If I asked James for help, he'd be down here with the whole Armada. While I do not doubt his soldier's competence, trusting them with this matter would guarantee a leak further down the line. And while his machines may not be so chatty, I do doubt their security."

Glynda suppressed a sigh. Yes, this was going to be a difficult sell, but it wasn't the worst thing he'd ever asked of her.

"So humans and faunus can't be trusted, but those things-"

"Are essentially bound exclusively to the will of Cainhurst. If someone were to infiltrate the right systems they could get logs of everything the knights had seen or heard, or worse turn them completely. The Gargoyles have no such issue, and neither do the ghosts."

Her eyes had narrowed at the mention of the ghosts, but overall her posture had relaxed slightly. He'd at least convinced her to trust him, but she'd still try to poke a few more holes to make sure he'd really thought it through. Just like she always did.

"Which now means we only need to worry about her agenda."

"Her agenda is obvious. The creatures are also here to keep an eye on her son. As long as we don't endanger him beyond what would be expected she'll let us keep them. She'll take them back once he graduates, but we only really need the security for a year at most. We may only need them for a semester if things go well."

"And what do you plan to tell the students when they're discovered?"

When, not if. Pessimistic, but probably accurate.

"Beacon is old. The academy is recent, but parts of the structure are much older than that. Ghost stories and rumors are to be expected. Besides, they're under strict instruction to avoid contact with the students. They'll probably bend that order around the boy, but I doubt most will notice."

Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose as she sighed. He'd convinced her. Still, she'd probably try to-

"I do wish you'd stop tempting fate like that." She sighed, turning to leave.

And there was the last word. She was probably right, but he'd honestly be surprised if more than a handful of students could sense the ghosts, let alone see or interact with them. As long as the Gargoyles kept to the vault and the spires, and students refrained from using them as target practice, the odds of them being considered more than mere statues was practically nil.