You've picked up little. As it turns out, most news sights aren't bothered explaining the different one world has with another, so your studying didn't come up with a ton. Your research did enlighten you on a few things, but there was literally a world's worth of information out there that you could learn. Despite your best efforts, you spent a little too much time goofing off on different websites last night trying to figure out how to spend your time.
What you have learned is that there are a few major differences between your memory and reality. Going off the most important things… you'd probably say Grimm first; Grimm were literal monsters made of darkness that feed on negative emotions and regularly attack places. You learned that Grimm attacks are pretty regular, but people didn't actually know all that much about why Grimm exist, rather, they focused on how best to kill them. After that, the next important thing was Dust; it came in crystals, powered most everything, was processed by some megacorp, and let people basically do what looks to you like straight up magic. You don't remember jack about anything like that. After Grimm and Dust, you took a look at news sites and got a basic rundown on cities, countries, that sort of junk that's easy to grasp. You now live in one of the biggest cities here on Remnant, Vale, and attend one of several Huntsman academies, Beacon.
Aside from the basics and the massive differences, you learned about what you are. You are what is known as a Faunus, which are people that have one animal trait, which can be any thing from any animal, which is pretty crazy. You figured out that you have cat ears, but you still can't tell what breed. Something that you came across in your research on Faunus feels… oddly and uncomfortably familiar despite the circumstances; there were a high number of articles talking about race riots, police shootings, and most all, the latest news with the White Fang. A terrorist group took up arms against humans in order to take revenge for injustices, so tensions between Faunus and humans were pretty high, despite the fact that they were pretty much identical.
So, you are now caught up on the BIG picture, if nothing else. You'll have to talk around things while you continue to familiarize yourself with the world, but for now, you'll keep your lack of knowledge to yourself. For some reason, you don't really want everyone to know that you… aren't from here, and it's best to try and blend in. Assuming you stay a while, you'll adapt soon enough and it'll be like you've always been here.
Seeing as you'll be staying at Beacon for the time being, you need to get things! At the moment. Your only possessions are mismatched, ill-fitting clothes and a weird but cool cape. Well, after you check outside your door, you find a few other things Oz left for you; you bring in a box of correctly sized Beacon uniforms, your work laptop, a scroll, a service card, what looks like an futuristic ID, and some notes on how to get to a mall in Vale. Oh, hey, you have a full name! Looking at your new ID, Oz gave you the full name of Briar Redfield.
Looking at a note attached to your ID, you read, "This is a temporary identification while you get settled in. I apologize for choosing a last name for you, but I will wait until our meeting later to start the full registration process. Should you choose, you can still choose a different name to be registered under; you have the day to decide if you would like a different first or last name. Knock on my door when you are ready. -Professor Ozpin." Neat! You're okay with your name for now, but you have plenty of time to reconsider. You'll spend the day as Briar Redfield and see if it suits you.
Now that you have a name, you check out the notes Oz gave you. He mentioned that the service card is a voucher to a… what looks like a future car service. Upon investigating, it appears to be a sort of self-driving delivery van for you to put your stuff in so that you wouldn't have to carry all your new stuff home from downtown; basically, it looks like you can buy all your stuff, call a number, and get a rent-a-car back to Beacon that you didn't even need to drive. Another thing you learned was that the text here was pretty advanced; self-driving cars being widely available and used for grocery shopping was something, but robot soldiers and mechs were also nearing mass production. Aside from that, Oz's note also said to drop by his office when you were ready, so you have a plan for the day.
Still pretty nervous, you hop on a fancy looking future bus and begin the trip into Vale proper. You get there pretty uneventfully and start following Oz' directions to a mall. In between checking the small map screen with convenient waypoints and a minimap, you truly start to realize the breadth of the technology in Vale; streetlights were holographic, airships (not airplanes!) flew out along the horizon, and even the billboards were animated advertisements rather than faded pictures. An electronics store you pass by looks more like the secret lair of a super villain, as everything was giant, flat, transparent screens or projected holograms, but everyone just accepted it as normal. Everything you see is colored in a strange, exciting light filled with opportunity. You haven't even considered it up until this point, but it felt like the whole city was connected wirelessly, and you felt like it was difficult to find a place where you couldn't connect to SOMETHING.
Basking in the bright futuristic city before you, you eventually reach the mall. For as much as things changed, some things were always the same; barring the upgrade, the only difference between the malls you remember and this one was that the people were considerably more A. attractive, and B. a lot more fashionable. Somehow, despite everyone wearing bright colors, mismatched outfits, and weird armors pieces, everyone's clothes were cohesive, stylish, and practical. People also seem to be more fit in this world, you guess because maybe a lot of them were/are/will be Huntsman. Regardless of the reason, there were significantly fewer people that looked like they had given up on getting dressed that morning.
Feeling a bit embarrassed about the fact that you were wearing a school uniform before anyone had even started class, you hurry along. Food would come last since you plan on frozens, so you think your first mission should be shoes; at the moment, you have someone really large man's boots that he had lost at some point, so you'd like to get something a bit easier to walk in. Thinking ahead, you figure out the car service and assign it to park close to the mall entrance so you can have a place to put your things. The car is smart enough to know how to circle the mall, park, and drive up to curbs, so you can call it whenever you have a bunch of stuff to drop off.
As you start wandering, you are immediately reminded of one of the best things about a mall. A mixture of familiar smells hits you as you round a corner and see an escalator; looking up to the second floor, you spy a food court littered with fast food restaurants you don't recognize, but serve the tried and true junk food every tired mom, bored teenager, and cheap date love. Putting a hold on your shoe shopping, you grab a quick bite to eat; Oz was right in pricing things, as a full meal came up to about 10… what was it… lien! A meal cost about 10 lien, and what a meal it was; you're glad to see– err, *taste* that the food here in Vale was great.
Sufficiently fat and happy, you begin looking for a shoe store. On the way there, you notice that nobody really looks your way; nobody could tell that you didn't belong, and everyone just assumes that you're any other guy instead of a displaced newbie. Barring a few people wondering why you're wearing a school uniform and a few checking out your ears, nobody thinks anything of you, which gives you a weird sort of comfort. If anything, it helps with your plan of, "just roll with it."
Skipping ahead, you have two new pairs of shoes. After you check out, you swap your giant boots for a stylish new pair of shoes that actually fit, and instantly feel better about walking around. Now that that's settled, it's time to get some new clothes! You quickly find the half-off rack in a department store and start looking; you want to be careful with Ozpin's money and also make sure you understand how much a lien was worth, so you stick to relatively cheap stuff for now, making sure you budget accordingly. Right now, it's better to get a lot of clothes rather than waste the same money buying brand names, but you find some good stuff that fits and looks cool!
You walk out of the department store and into the parking lot. Still amazed at the technology in Vale, you call your rental car over to you; a boxy van pulls up alongside the curb, and opens up to let you drop off the several bags of clothes you bought. The car drives away with a couple of shirts (both fancy and casual), pants (a few jeans and a good pair of slacks), socks (though you actually put a pair on now, since the lost and found didn't have any), underwear (which you don't put on despite still freeballing it. That'd be weird to do outside a mall…), and some loungewear (because sleeping in an old uniform isn't great). Oz' money covered everything so far, and you still have plenty for food and other stuff. You decide to shop around a bit more before grabbing groceries. Before you go back into the mall, you throw on something else in addition to your socks; deciding to blend in a bit more, you pull your arms through the sleeves of a grey hoodie with some black trim and a big front pocket. Now that you're not running around in a school uniform, you feel like you fit in a bit more, so you stroll confidently back into the mall to continue shopping.
Shoes, check. Clothes, check. What was left on your list was just food for the week. Though, judging from your remaining cash, you have a little to spend on stuff. Checking out a few shops, you decide to pick up some basic school supplies, finding a cheap backpack, some pens, and some notebooks. You also find another essential item for school in an electronics store; you almost start listening to music on your new pair of headphones, but then you realize you don't have any music on your phone, nor do you even know a single song. You'll have to look into bands later, otherwise studying would be a very dull experience.
Thinking it was about time to grab food, you start heading to one of those all-in-one places malls have that carry everything from food to toys to clothes to whatever else. That would have some frozen food, plus any sort of fruits, sodas, or snacks you'd want in the next week until the cafeteria opened up. However, while you consider what kind of food you'd want, you pause as you pass by a storefront, something catching your eye. Said something was a rose. More specifically, you look at a small patch designed after a rose, meant to be sewn into clothes; you wander into what looks like a clothes store mixed with a paint studio, knowing you hadn't seen a place quite like it before.
Something that clicks in your mind is that, in addition to the people in Vale wearing bright colors, a lot of people had a sort of logo. You've noticed that a lot of passersby had someTHING someWHERE on at least one of their articles of clothing that identified them, whether it was a pink-haired girl with a fairy pin, a guy with antlers with a stylized pair on his shirt, or a fashionista with a crosshair on her belt. Everyone had a color, and everyone had an emblem. You have… well, you guess you actually have one of those, seeing as Briar referred to roses (and the obvious Redfield of you decided to stick with it); if you really wanted to fit in, you might as well get some red!
You spend a few minutes conceptualizing with a technician before they take your hoodie and emblazon a stylized rose on the back of it, tangled in a mass of thorns. Feeling significantly cooler, you grab a few rose/thorn-themed patches to throw on your other clothes. Soon enough, you're checked out with few bags of groceries, ready to explore the town a bit. You feel pretty ready to go now that you're pretty set up, living in your new life.