"This is not going to work…" Timbre said as she struggled to get between a pile of books and a painting easel to the bed she had claimed before the team had moved all of their stuff in. Their dorm room was a mess of various art supplies, records, filming equipment, and paper along with the rest of their textbooks and luggage.

"Yeah…" Arty was pinned the side of a bed by a group of matching green suitcases. The one planted on his foot felt like it was full of bricks, but logic told him that it had a better chance of being a soundboard or some instrument that he'd never heard of. He finally managed to jerk his foot out. "I think we have too much stuff."

"Why don't you take it all then? You'll burn it in no time," Roland jeered with his feet propped up on the foot of the bed that he had claimed the night before. He had his nose stuck in a book thicker than most people's heads, except maybe Everest's. Several pages were churned through every second.

Arty held up Palette and aimed it at his partner. A violet paintball glowed in the chamber. He wasn't going to allow Roland's behavior to escalate again. "With pleasure. I'll start with the dictionary you're reading there."

Timbre pushed the barrel of the paintball gun down. "Stop it you two. We're a team now," she looked to Roland, "and that means no fighting. Got it?" She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms. "I don't want to upset Gavin any further just by being associated with you two."

"Oh, right, because you're all smiles and rainbows." Roland scoffed. "Because the girl who gets up on stage and sings about how she's so sad and angsty is totally grounds for good team dynamic. Throw an incompetent leader and a mute into the mix, and that's a recipe for a team that's just fine and dandy." As rude as he was being, he wasn't going to allow himself to bash Arty where it actually hurt again. Anything else was free game. "By the way, it's also a thesaurus, dimwit."

Sepia glared over at the Faunus from behind one of her bucket-shaped stage lights. Cords fell over her shoulders when one of the lights popped off of its stand and clattered to the ground. Her nose wrinkled while she picked it up.

"Oh, so I'm the angsty one?" She rolled her eyes. "Says the guy that likes to be all silent and brooding. You only speak to either say something mean or to… well, you really don't say much else, do you? You're such a jerk that you'll kick Arty while he's down just so you don't have to talk about yourself! Please, enlighten us on why such an antisocial jerk would want to go to a school like this!"

"Hey… guys?-" Arty tried to cut in.

Roland shot up from his bed and threw his dictionary/thesaurus against his sheets. "How about you mind your own business, huh?! I earned my place here. That's all you need to know!" He kicked one of Timbre's suitcases across the dorm. "I don't have to explain anything to you. I've honed my skills, but then we have someone like you who just barges in here for no reason!"

Timbre leapt through the mess. The next thing Roland knew, he was being held against the wall by his collar with one hand while the barrel of the other hand's glove was only a few inches away from his face. Her eyes burned with fury, her grip tightening at his neck. "I did not just barge in." She slammed him back against the wall again. "I earned my place here just like you, so don't you dare sit here and lecture me."

"And you have no idea what I've gone through to get here, so back off." The impact stung and certainly left at least a small dent in the wall. Roland raised a hand to cause a flurry of papers to come rushing up between him and Timbre, pushing her off of him. "You think you're important, huh? Surely you don't think that your celebrity status carries over, do you? I mean, come on, who the hell even listens to your crappy music anyway?"

The sound of a metal bar being snapped rang across the room. All eyes fell on Sepia, who still had a stage light clenched between her fists. It was broken, one end in each hand. Malice flashed in her shining golden eyes.

They sat staring at her for a second before somebody appeared in the open room door.

"Will you four… er… you three stop with all the yelling?" Team ARTS turned to find a pale girl with long grey hair and piercing grey eyes glaring at them from the hall. "My team's having enough trouble getting settled in next door as it is without you hitting the walls and arguing in here. If you're going to kill each other, can you at least do it quietly? Thank you."

"Yeah… sure thing… Frost, right?" Timbre murmured with her gaze cast down at her feet.

Frost nodded and turned to go back to Team FREZ's room next door, but ran right into someone coming out of the room across the hall from Team ARTS.

"Hey!" Alice looked up to her nemesis, "Watch where you're goin'!"

Frost rubbed her temples. "Please… don't start with me today, Crims."

"I was just going to tell Timbre Forté and these idiots to please keep it down, but I see you got here first," Alice waved a hand. "So if you excuse me," she turned and slammed Team ANTE's door behind her.

Frost shook her head dismissively before returning to Team FREZ's room, leaving all four members of Team ARTS sat stunned.

"Well…" Arty began as he finished setting up his drawing table next to his bed, "at least we're not the only dysfunctional team around here."

Roland kept his eyes on Timbre. Though they had both been silenced for the moment, he didn't believe that the peace would last but a few more seconds. Something still itched in his brain. Even after that little spat between him and Timbre, he still felt just as frustrated. It was the room. It wasn't tidy.

"You know what? I'm pretty fed up with being extra pissed off with the room like this." He held up a hand to his mountains of books and focused. They seemed to vibrate for a moment before slowly sliding a few at a time under his bed. In a few moments, all of his books were stacked away neatly. It took up all of the empty space between the floor and the box spring, but it would seem that all of them together all fit perfectly under the bed, though without any more space for any extra books.

He looked over to his teammates, "That help a little?"

Timbre was still fuming. "Yeah. Sure." She snapped as she began moving her stacks of records and CD's into a bookshelf near her bed, which was to the right of the window. Despite Roland's sudden compliance, she refused to just forget about what he had said to her.

"Hey! I can see the floor!" Arty said from his bed as he tapped his boot against the carpet. At this point, he was just trying to defuse the tension in the room.

Sepia locked eyes with Roland as she slowly used thumbtacks to pin up a Timbre Forté poster directly above her bed. In her little corner, she could spend her nights staring up at her idol like she always did. What made it better was the fact that the real Timbre would be on the other side of the window from her. Still, she kept her eyes on Roland's. This was her own way of defending Timbre.

A look of disturbed confusion spread across their leader's face as he looked at the flashy poster of Timbre. "Are uh… are you gonna be okay with this?" He asked Timbre, not taking his eyes off of Sepia's new ceiling decoration.

She was rubbing her temples. "I'm just… I'm just going to pretend I have a normal life…" She looked back over to the aggravating otter Faunus, who was busy reassembling his reading material. "And pretend like my entire team is actually cooperative."

Arty nodded solemnly. "Right…" He suddenly jumped up and clapped his hands together. "Well, now that the room's pretty much put together, I think I'm going to head down and get some lunch."

"Ooh! Nice setup guys! Really living up to your team name, too!" A loud and cheerful voice called from the door. Xannie Rhea stood with her sister, Lurida, beside her. "You guys definitely put all your stuff together a lot quicker than Team GLXY did last year when we first met!" She grinned at the girl in the black and purple skinsuit. "Isn't that right, sis?"

"We did have Yamuna ripping up our stuff, though…" Lurida yawned tapping her foot impatiently next to her sister. "Are we actually going to get food, or are we going to keep wasting more time?" She asked with her arms crossed. She began walking down the hall, mumbling something about coffee to herself.

"Yeah, hold up." The energetic blonde turned back to Team ARTS. "C'mon you guys. You can walk down with us! Celebrate getting along and having your room setup!"

Roland was about to object when Timbre suddenly cut in.

"We'd love to! Thanks!" She jumped up, grabbing Arty and Sepia by the arms. She seemed to want to get away from Roland as quickly as possible.

Just to spite Timbre, Roland jogged down the hall to catch up with the group. "Hey, Xannie, could you tell us about the kind of music you're into?" He asked. He thought he had an idea answer, but to have her aid in the petty war that Timbre kept going.

Xannie put a finger to her cheek and thought for a second.

Timbre glared at Roland.

"Um… mainly pop, techno, a good bit of dubstep. You know, club music." A genuine smile was still plastered across her face while she rattled off a few examples.

"That's really nice! I'm into classical mostly, but I shake things up a bit with some dubstep every now and then. You'll have to let me come by and see your music library sometime." Roland nudged the blonde's arm. "That rock crap that's been put out in recent years kills me."

Timbre's eyes flashed with anger. How dare he talk down about her passion. How dare he insult the entire genre her music fell into. She wouldn't let this slide. "Yeah. That'd be cool! I can show you my collection, too. I have vinyls from all over Remnant!"

"Awesome, then I guess we won't be limited to just your music." Roland rolled his eyes at her. He wasn't backing down.

As the two began to bicker again, Arty tried to calm them down, but he ended up just getting booted out of the argument.

With a discontented sigh, the purple Rhea sister stopped and turned around. "Will you two just stop?!"

Roland and Timbre froze and stared at Lurida.

"We could hear you yelling at each other all the way from Team GLXY's room… on the other end of the dorm building from you. The only reason we stopped by was to tell you all to shut up." She shot a look to her sister. "I've seen people go on bickering like this before. Heck, I was one of them. It does not end well, and you've only been a team for about twelve hours." Lurida spat at the two. "Would you two just chill out and move on? You won't survive here if you can't." She turned back around and kept on her way with her sister close behind. "It's too early for this crap… I haven't even had my third cup of coffee yet… I sleep in a few hours and this is what I get..."

A few seconds passed before anyone said a word. Finally, Roland broke the silence, "Um… Lurida, it's like… noon…"

Xannie skipped ahead. "She needs a lot of caffeine to even keep her eyes open!"

As Team ARTS followed the Rhea sisters, Sepia looked to her feuding teammates and wagged a finger at them.

"Seriously guys. Can we not piss off the second years?..." Arty whispered. "If I'm going to get expelled from another school, I'd like to last at least a semester before that happens."

"Right, I'll just go on when they're not around." Roland whispered back.

Sepia elbowed him in the ribs surprisingly hard for a woman of her stature.

He rubbed his side and groaned. "Fine, fine… play nice, got it…"

Team ARTS walked with Xannie and Lurida around the bustling food hall. All of the students milled around and talked as they ate.

Arty held his tray as he scanned the room for a place to sit. "So… anybody see any actual open space in here?..."

"Yo! Xannie! Lurida!"

"Gavin!" Xannie hurried her way over to her team leader, careful not to spill the contents of her tray. "Thanks for saving seats for us! We were scared we'd have to take our food outside."

"Yeah. When I heard you guys invite Team ARTS over here, I decided to go ahead and grab seats for all of us." Gavin explained as he took a sip of soda.

"Glad we got here when we did!" Yamuna shoved a whole half of a double-decker ham sandwich into her mouth. She hardly seemed to chew before she swallowed.

Sepia seemed to instinctively sit across from Xannie. Maybe it was the mutual positivity between them. 'I'm glad to hang out with you again. I was in your tour group, remember?' She presented to Xannie on her scroll.

"Yeah! You were definitely the most talka… tive… Oh god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that…"

Sepia silently laughed and waved her off. 'It's fine!' She typed. 'I've only been mute for a little while, and I don't get offended easily.'

Roland sat across from Yamuna, seemingly drawn to the other Faunus. "Hey. I think we met earlier. I'm Roland."

"Right! You're the guy that Gavin doesn't…" She thought about her words before speaking. "That Gavin doesn't… care for…" she winced when she realized she didn't exactly pick much better wording. She looked to Gavin to give him a silent apology.

"I don't dislike the guy!" Gavin jumped in and laughed. "Don't take it the wrong way! I just want to see the new teams cooperate, and your attitude could be… better."

Roland grumbled and sank in his seat.

Lurida looked to Timbre and Arty. "How do you two feel about your new team? Do you think that you'll ever… you know… get along?"

Arty took a quick glance over to Roland. "Uhhhhhh…"

Timbre butted in. "We'll manage."

Lurida rolled her eyes. "I think the better question would be," She leaned forward. Timbre found her bright purple eyes somewhat unsettling, "do you think that you would fare any better if you had teamed up with any of the other first years from your orientation group?"

None of them could respond.

"That's what I thought. You may have your dysfunctional qualities now, but trust me. You ended up together for a reason. Professor Alabaster has a way of making things add up."

"Got that right." Yamuna nodded. "We were a mess when we started! Lurida and Xannie were their own thing, Gavin struggled to get any of us to think about each other's talents, and I just refused to work with any of them. We're pretty good now, but we have our little bumps every once in awhile even today!" She nodded to Xannie. "Just ask her about the time we were playing chubby bunny and I took on a whole bag of marshmallows just to spite him!"

Xannie shook her head. "Yeah. She won. And Carmen wasn't happy that we had to get Yamuna to the medical ward when she almost choked to death."

"Haven't eaten marshmallows since!" Yamuna said giddily.

Lurida groaned and took a sip of coffee from a rather large mug. "The point being, you guys just need to give each other a chance. Why not… like… I don't know… try and say something you all like about each other? That's what Gavin made us do." She glanced over to her leader. "It sounds stupid, and I hate to admit it, but it works."

Gavin laughed. "Not to pat myself on the back or anything, but convincing these three to do that is probably one of my proudest moments as leader. Works like a charm!" The bright glow that he seemed to give off faded. He leaned in close towards the first year team in front of them. "Well… when there's no sarcasm involved…" He sat back down. His usual smile returned. "Otherwise it won't do you any good!"

Team ARTS seemed put off by Gavin's shifting attitudes. Timbre thought back to how quickly he defused the situation between Roland and Rime through sheer intimidation, so she guessed it was more effective than it seemed. Whether or not is was a conscious shift, she had no clue.

"Right. We'll be sure to do that…" Arty said as he forced a confident smile.

"Sup nerds?!" A tall blond guy that seemed a few years older than any of the members of Team GLXY said as he walked up. The odd combination of a dull yellow sweatshirt, brown track pants, gold scaled armor around the waist, and leather shoulderpads made him stand out amongst the rest of the students. He looked ready to fight, but also ready to laze around, a regular look found more commonly among freelancer Huntsmen.

"Hati!" Yamuna jumped up and hugged the taller student.

"Hey sis!"

"What are you doing here? I thought Team Ashes was heading off on a mission today."

Hati grinned stupidly, "Well, we were..."

"Until some of us went off and got in trouble during the first year initiation yesterday." Another student, a pale guy much shorter and noticeably younger than Hati walked up silently, stopping next to him. He was wearing a black leather jacket, a large dull gold piece of jewelry that looked like a broad collar draped over his shoulders. His most notable features were a curving gold symbol resembling an abstracted eye tattooed around his own right eye and the pointed black dog ears sticking through his jet black hair.

Gavin hopped up and enthusiastically shook Hati's hand. He quickly turned and gave the newcomer's hand the same treatment. He gave him a hearty slap on the back, much to his displeasure. "Hati, Anubis! It's awesome to see you guys! So, what'd Ashes do this time?"

"Well…" Anubis began, "somehow, Team Ashes was given the task of taking the relics out to the temple for the newbie's initiation. We get out there and some of us thought it'd be a good idea to play dodgeball with them." He glared at Hati.

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I only joined in after most of them were already broken."

Anubis shook his head. "My point exactly… Luckily, Alabaster had another set in case the first one was broken," he paused, "in other words, we're kind of not allowed to leave school grounds right now."

"Well, it'll be nice to have my bros around to help the first years for a little bit," Yamuna smiled.

"Wait…" Arty said. "You three are siblings?"

"Yes, why?" Anubis shifted his jaw.

"I mean, Hati, are you a Faunus?" He stammered to the taller brother, careful not to accidentally let his gaze shift back to Anubis. Even though Arty only been around Anubis for a couple of minutes, he was already the most intimidating student he'd met at Beacon, and he was scared he was already getting on the Faunus' bad side.

"Uh, dude." Hati turned around, showing off the bushy golden wolf tail swishing around behind him.

"Oh…"

"You'd think an artist would notice something like a wolf tail a little easier than that." Timbre sniggered through a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

Gavin laughed and patted Hati on the back. "Well, I guess a wolf tail is a little less noticeable than say…" he pointed to Roland, "an otter tail."

Roland pet his own tail and glared at Gavin. He didn't think that his tail was that obvious. It was just… bigger than most Faunus tails.

Having noticed the discomfort of Team ARTS' leader, Lurida tapped the table in front of him. "You must not see many Faunus up in Atlas, huh Arty?" Once she had his attention, she took another sip of coffee.

"Not really… sorry. I didn't mean any offense..." Arty turned bright red.

"Hey, not a prob man." Hati said grinning. "That's the life of a Faunus. People notice you have a tail or ears or horns or feathers or… whatever, they go wide-eyed for a minute, and then they forget about it."

"Right…" Anubis suddenly paused. One of his pointed dog ears began to twitch a little. He let out an exasperated groan, "Not again… We need to go find the troublemakers before they turn our in-school suspensions into expulsions." They turned to leave. "Oh, It was nice meeting you, ARTS."

Sepia ran up to Hati and nearly broke her neck trying to look up at him. She gave him a meek wave and gave Anubis a bow before returning to her seat. 'Tell them I said that it was also nice to meet them.' popped up into the group text.

Timbre nodded. "She says she's also happy to meet you." she relayed to Anubis and Hati.

Anubis eyed the odd girl in the sequin dress, who just sat there smiling at him whilst kicking her legs back and forth under the table, "Right… okay," he said as they disappeared into the crowded mess hall.

"Your brothers' team got in trouble again?!" Xannie burst out laughing.

"You've known them for a year now, Xannie. They've been in trouble every day since you met them." Yamuna laughed with her teammate. She hurriedly took a bite from her sandwich and swallowed it without chewing. Her mismatched eyes flicked around as, like Anubis, one of her ears twitched. "On that note, I think they're about to start a little brawl out in the courtyard," she brushed off crumbs from her kimono, "Anubis isn't a big fan of his team goofing off, so it might get a little brutal. Gotta go." She got up and and ran after her brothers, her sandals clapping against the floor.

Strangely, Lurida seemed to smile at Yamuna's observation. "Anyways, ARTS, don't end up acting like a fool like those… idiots." She got up and cracked her knuckles. "Time to play damage control again."

Xannie stacked her and Lurida's trays. "Yeah, we'll see you guys later!" She waved goodbye before trailing off after her sister and the itty-bitty wolf Faunus.

Gavin watched as the twins walked away. He shook his head, "Guess I better go, too." He stood and followed the rest of his team. "Good luck on your classes tomorrow, guys!"

After Team GLXY went on their way, more students began filing out of the cafeteria. Team ARTS still sat in silence while they finished up their lunch. The tension began rising. Roland and Timbre occasionally caught each other's hate-filled gaze, and Arty and Sepia looked on helplessly.

Roland finally stood and looked to the rest of his team. Though it pained him to admit, Lurida was right. They were on a team together. "Timbre," He started. When she began to get up with anger burning in her eyes, he held up a finger. "I think that you're a talented singer. If you weren't, then you wouldn't have had such a successful career. I'm sorry for the way that I acted earlier." His toes curled in his boots as he restrained himself, but he felt that his words were at least somewhat genuine. He'd already apologized to Arty for being such a huge jerk, so he might as well do the same for Timbre.

Timbre was taken by surprise. She raised one of her eyebrows as if she didn't believe what she'd just heard. She must've heard him wrong. He wasn't actually… apologizing, was he? If he was, was he actually telling the truth? She didn't sense any sarcasm like what Gavin had warned about. She sensed anger, yes, but truth nonetheless. She really didn't want to, but she swallowed her pride. "Roland. You may be a completely insufferable jerk…" Probably the wrong note to start on… "but I truly want us to be friends. You're an incredibly flexible fighter and… I can plainly see the effects of the training you talked about earlier." She smiled. "And you definitely deserve to be here, and I don't want anyone to tell you different," she sighed, "and if you really don't want to talk about yourself, I'll respect that, but I expect to learn about who you are while we're stuck together, got it?"

Roland thought over her comments before nodding. Something felt warm inside his chest. Something… comforting. The feeling was reminiscent of when he would visit his mother at her apartment or in her classroom.

'Now hug it out!' Sepia messaged the group and shot up from her seat. She latched onto Timbre and Roland's arms and yanked them together.

A previously unheard sound rattled Team ARTS. Roland was laughing. He put an arm around Sepia and Timbre's shoulders and grinned at Arty. For what felt like the first time in forever, his haze of anger was fading. "You know what? I'll go with that. Arty, get in here." That feeling that his mother had always told him about was becoming less and less foreign: Comradery.

"Wait… what? Why?-" He found himself shoved into Roland and Timbre by Sepia, who in turn hugged him against the two. "Great… group hugs…" He said, barely able to breathe from Sepia's surprising strength.

As they all took in the first real moment of cooperation in their first day as a team, Team ARTS heard a slow clap from somewhere down the aisle between the tables.

"Oh boy… the princess is here." Roland sneered as their team separated.

Alice stood before them, her team standing behind her like servants to a king… or rather a queen in this case. "It's adorable. It only took you…" She looked at her scroll. "Almost 24 hours ta actually stop screamin' at each otha'. Good on ya." Her fake smile was nauseating.

Turf shrunk back behind her. Navy stood at her side obediently like an attack dog ready to pounce. Ebon seemed pretty indifferent to the situation as they picked at their sandwiches.

Arty wasn't having this. "Hey, back off Alice. Getting teamed up with almost complete strangers is kind of a big thing to get used to."

She smirked. "Really? Team ANTE is already perfectly in sync. Our room's already set up and we're set for our first day of class tomorrow. Isn't that right lads?"

"Actually, you were panicking because you lost a few decks of cards just a few-" Turf began, but was cut off by Alice's poisonous gaze.

"So," she continued, "saw you talking to the little… wolf girl and her siblings," she exaggerated a disgusted shudder, "What were they having to say? Anything about picking pockets or how unfair the world is towards them?"

"Hey!" Arty stood up, "They didn't do anything to you, leave them out of this."

Roland felt that haze of anger return. He jumped to his feet and pushed Arty back, stepping closer to Alice, separating ANTE from ARTS. "Look, Carrot Top, you should really choose your battles a little more wisely." Roland popped his knuckles. "Don't talk crap unless you can back that crap up."

Sepia stood beside him with fire in her eyes. The urge to fight was contagious, it would have seemed.

Roland waved a hand to tell her and Arty to sit down. "Unlike you, I let people's actions speak for them, not how they look, and let me tell you, I've seen plenty from you over the past couple of days and you are pretty low on my list. So, you can either ante up and stay in the game or cash in and back off."

Alice looked offended, as if she were the victim. Her scowl and furrowed brow convinced Roland he hit a nerve.

"Well queenie, what's it gonna be?"

The clean-cut blond in the blue camo fatigues stepped between Roland and Alice. "Maybe you're the one who should be backing away, Faunus." He put a lot of emphasis on the last word, as if it were a swear.

Alice put a hand on Navy's shoulder. "Stand down, Navy. We don't want ta mess up everyone's lunch now do we?"

"Too late for that, Alice." Timbre said in hopes of getting her to back off.

The girl in the red dress glared at the singer with an almost hurt expression. "Whateva." She snapped her fingers, gesturing for the rest of her team to follow her.

Timbre was absolutely shocked by Alice's behavior towards her. Granted, she wasn't near as mean to her as she had directly been towards Arty or Roland, but she was obviously acting much different than the near obsessive fan she was the two days prior. But then again, maybe she had just started showing her true colors now that she was in a state of imaginary "power" that came with the title of leader. I could have been her partner.

As the members of Team ANTE filed by her, Turf turned his head back and mouthed 'sorry'. The small ordeal was almost done, but Navy decided to shove his way past Roland by knocking him with his shoulder while keeping an icy glare.

This offense wasn't just going to be ignored. Roland's tail caught Navy's ankle as he passed. He didn't even bother turning his head to look at the guy that he'd tripped. "If you ever call me a Faunus as it were a derogatory term again, I'll do a lot more than make you fall down." He clenched his fists. The anger was back full blast thanks to Alice, but it was angled at a new target. Arty and Timbre were just nuisances. These two, they were enemies. "My mother drilled it into my head that Faunus are just as good as Humans, and I will not let you talk as if she lied to me."

Navy was fuming. He kicked himself up off of the ground in one fluid motion. He kicked his foot forward into Roland's stomach, knocking him to the ground.

"Hey!" Arty stepped forward to protest, reaching instinctively for his backpack, but realized it wasn't there. He cursed to himself, remembering he had to put Palette and his paint in his locker. Despite this, he still tried to run up to help Roland, but found Alice pushing her hand against his chest to keep him back. A bright red card flashed between her fingers, the top edge pointed at Arty's nose.

"Nuh-uh painta boy. You may be leada, but this is his fight."

"You know your weapons should be in your locker. There's a schedule we're supposed to follow for that sort of thing." Arty sneered back. He tried to look brave, but he knew he had seen what her cards could do.

Alice chuckled, "Oh, you care about rules now? That's a laugh, but that's besides the matta at hand."

Arty tried to ask what she meant by that, but she continued to command the conversation.

"Your teammate started this and my teammate is going ta end it." She looked to Navy approvingly, "go get him, Navy. Teach Team FARTS's pet Faunus a lesson."

"Real clever, Alice," Timbre said from behind Arty, leading him away from the destructive card.

Roland held his stomach as he stood up. "Navy, buddy, you just gave me permission to do some serious damage…" he stared down Navy and Alice, "to your face. You think I'm lesser than you? I could tear you limb from limb. You want feral, then I'll give you feral!" He rolled up his sleeves.

Navy threw his hat to Ebon before widening his stance and balling up his fists.

Alice nodded to him. "Go ahead Navy," she grinned at the rest of Team ARTS while egging him on, "show tha Faunus what it means to be a fighta in tha real world."

"A fighter in the real world, eh?" Roland tipped his hat to Navy. Using his Semblance, Roland could "feel" the collection of ink pens amongst the dozens of his pockets in Navy's combat vest. Big mistake, partner. "Carrot Top, you have no idea what you've just gotten your lackie into." He stepped forward towards Navy. Instead of balling his fists, he calmly strided towards him. "Last chance before I break the floor with your face, buddy."

Alice did the thinking for Navy. She pretended to mull over Roland's proposition for a moment. "Ah… Nope. Destroy him."

Navy flew towards Roland ready to drive his fist into his face.

The other members of Team ANTE and Team ARTS could only watch as Navy threw punches and kicks at Roland. The whole cafeteria was now aware of the brawl and watched on eagerly. Obviously, student-on-student fights weren't an uncommon occurrence and were seen as a kind of show to enjoy.

Roland did nothing but hold up a hand, and the pens in Navy's pockets exploded. He held him so that his fist was mere inches from his face, but that's as far as the soldier-like student was going to make it. "I've got to hand it to you guys, I was really pissed off. Then I had an idea! What if I could beat the crud out of you without even touching you?!" With his smile renewed, he looked back at his team, "In case you guys were wondering, Navy had about six… no, seven ink pens on him. Seven. Arty, please tell Alice about my semblance."

Arty just wanted to leave. "He calls it Inkheart. Long story short, ink control," He pointed to the dark black splotches sprayed across Navy's chest, "kinda how he's kinda… holding you by your pocket protector there. He exploded your pens. I know, it sounds weird and impractical, but it makes the typewriter make a lot more sense."

"BOLLOCKS! What kind of bloody Semblance is that!" Alice yelled.

"The kind that my mother gave me, like the tail." Roland flicked his wrists so that Navy flew into Alice. He released his hold and grinned at Arty. "Anyway, what's the plan for the rest of the day, Captain Umber?" A hand came up to the brim of his hat in a mocking salute.

Once again, Arty and Timbre were fascinated by Roland's Semblance. Sepia just silently laughed and clapped as she watched Navy flail on the ground.

Arty heard Roland say his name again. "Oh… well. How about we go back to the room and get our materials ready for class?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Timbre looked over to Alice as she angrily shoved Navy off of her. "I've had enough drama for today."

As they left for the dorms, Roland gave Alice and Navy one last grin. Strangely, he was starting to feel good about being in a team.

"So… that was fun." Timbre said as Arty held the stairwell door open to let them onto their floor.

Sepia smiled wide as she hopped up the stairs. 'That was so cool! We can totally be the tough corns!' She signed, then looked at her hands for a moment. 'I mean tough kids.'

"Yeah. No kidding!" Timbre skipped enthusiastically.

"She needs to start translating more often…" Arty groaned and looked over to Sepia. "Cuz no offense, but I'm already getting lost in conversations with you, Sepia."

Timbre stopped abruptly and grabbed her arms as her teeth started chattering. "Wow! Why… why is it so… c-c-c-cold out here?!"

"Doesn't matter. Let's just turn the heat up when we get to our room. We've got to get ready for tomorrow." Roland opened the door to their dorm room. "I'll be messing with some minor explosives, so say on your toes."

"Normally, I'd object to that," Arty stepped into the room, "but I'll actually be working with highly unstable Dust to stock up for tomorrow's combat class!" He grinned, showing off the missing tooth again.

"Oh god…" Timbre said still shivering, "I am literally going to die living with you guys…" She rushed towards their dorm with her team close behind. "We have a lot to do, so let's get to it."