As the airship approached his Great Aunt Agnes's mansion, Winchester Towers, Cardin wondered what else he should have warned Sky and Russel about in relation to the GA. He was so used to the eccentricities of both his Great Aunts that he tended to take them for granted. He hoped Dove had been able to fill in the gaps for Sky. He supposed he was better off than Cousin Lydia as at least his team was all human and Dove had been a frequent visitor with him in the past ten years. Also, Dove's grandmother had been at school with the GA, and they had remained cronies. He did have some worries about Dove, but not about how he would get on with Agnes.
Sky came from a well-off family in Mistral and knew which cutlery to use. He had been warned that she would assume that she was superior to him but would try to be gracious. Russel 's hair was more of a potential problem. Cardin hoped that she would treat Russel as she had said she used to treat her husband's senior NCOs during the Faunus war. Russel had said that he would treat her in the same way as he treated the matriarchs in his tribe - he would be very polite if spoken to, never contradict her and otherwise keep out of her way. Cardin thought that this was probably the best tactics.
He thought about Team LILAC which his cousin Lydia belonged to. Anne Harker was a pig Faunus, but when clothed could pass for human. He supposed that she must have a tail. She had a plebian accent, but he suspected that if Agnes could overlook Russel's hair she would have no problem regarding Anne as a salt of the earth striver who showed that the system allowed talent to come through. Brede Campion was an Atlesian aristocrat who he had no doubt would charm both Great Aunts. Lydia was a force of nature who everyone decided to recast the rules so that they did not apply to her. He had got to rather respect her this year and she had decided that he was on balance less obnoxious than his father. That admittedly was not a high bar.
He wondered what Great Aunt Agnes would make of Leslie Corkran and saw that he had been clearly briefed about her. Wearing an Isthmus hat with a white linen suit was an interesting choice for hiding his Lynx ears and downplaying his Vacuoan background. Despite the fact that he was from Vacuo, he spoke with a strong Atlesian accent which was arguably posher than Brede's. He was a mustang and was between two to five years older than the rest of the students. Unlike most mustangs he did not lack social skills or social self-confidence. He had heard Lydia tell him that she wanted to ensure that she had introduced Brede to the GA before he opened his mouth as it would be unfortunate to make it seem as if he had been trying to trick her.
Actually, it was probably Cardin who would have the hardest time of it. He had to look after his team, indulge Agnes's whims and not risk alienating Lydia and the rest of Team LILAC. The first term had been tough going. It did not help that he and especially Dove had earned a certain reputation at Pharos for bullying those they perceived as weak which included Faunus. Dove and Sky had exacerbated matters when they had decided it would be a good idea to pull the ears of a rabbit Faunus in public. Luckily. Cardin had told them to stop immediately he saw what had been happening which had allowed the team a second chance. However, Goodwitch had sanctioned a training session between Dove and Sky and two members of the team which the Rabbit Faunus belonged to. Unfortunately, that had been Team CFVY who were arguably the best combat team in the second year, and it had taken time to rebuild Dove and Sky's self-confidence afterwards. Actually, Dove's was still a bit fragile and as a team they had been fortunate that Dove's drunken pass at Anne had not resulted in a bar fight or his expulsion.
He decided that is for the best that he was spending most of the holidays with his team and spending time with his Great Aunts. There were various reasons for this, some of which were more creditable than others.
First, having the extra training sessions with the hunters and huntresses Great Aunt Agnes had invited to stay with her would help improve the team's performance and teach them techniques with which they could surprise other teams. Admittedly Team LILAC would also get the benefit of them, but there was room for both teams to qualify for the Vytal festival and Cardin admitted to himself that there was clear blue water between his cousin's team and Team Cardinal. While Lydia and him, were evenly matched and Campion's strengths were not really in close combat (excellent sniper, however), the two Faunus members of Lydia's team were dangerously unpredictable. Anne's semblance meant that provided there were loose objects anywhere in the vicinity, she was more dangerous unarmed than most people were with weapons. She had apparently been offered personal training next term by Professor Goodwitch in exploring and enhancing the semblance. Corkran had the perhaps mixed advantage of having had to fight for his life since he was younger than most people started combat school and was at least four years older than the rest of them.
Second, he meant that he could postpone meeting his father. The admiration of youth had given way to badly hidden contempt and the term away from home had only added to it. His father's constant refrain that the poor and Faunus were workshy and expected the world to regard them seemed rather hypocritical coming for a man who had been waiting for his aunts to die for twenty years. Eventually he had got the message that for estate planning reasons both aunts had decided to skip a generation, but instead had focused his attention on Cardin becoming the favoured heir. This had led to an unsavoury incident a few years back when his father had celebrated the death of Lydia's older brother on the basis that it gave a clear run for Cardin. He supposed that he was being slightly hypocritical that he was not happy that his father had had an attack of energy and was becoming a political force on a human rights platform (with the emphasis being very clearly human rather than Faunus).
Third, actually it did make sense to stay on good terms with Great-Aunt Agnes. He had seen the advantages which having lien gave to hunters. Weiss's Myrtenaster was an exquisite piece of weaponry which made up for her slight build and lack of stamina. Coco Adel's handbag and dust enhanced bullets made an already formidable fighter even more overwhelming. Brede Campion's rifle collection was true collection of masterpieces, while Lydia's collection of enhanced family heirlooms meant you were never entirely certain what type of battle you would have with her. This term the fact that Agnes had financed a colour coordinated armour and the enhancement of his team's weapons had helped build team spirit and made the difference in close fights. While there were a couple of teams who they still had be careful of in fifth and sixth place in the rankings, Cardin felt that the fourth spot at the Vytal festivals was there for the taking. Being able to afford the best equipment possible could make all the difference in being the best hunter you could be. If one took Agnes at her word (which seemed sensible) she was going to leave 90% of her lien to one heir and the trait she most admired was martial skill.
Fourth, it would be good to escape from the publicity about the fight at Junior's. While no doubt Agnes would enquire, she took it for granted huntsmen did their duty and he hoped the hunters would simply acknowledge the event had happened. The servants might admire them a bit, but it would be unobtrusive. He had suggested to Agnes that she should suggest to Beach that the footman Hugo be asked to valet for Dove. She had not queried it and hopefully that would reduce the risk of unfortunate incidents with the maids.
He foresaw that he was going to have a difficult conversation with Great-Aunt Agnes sometime soon about Faunus. Actually, it was worse as it was more likely that the conversation would be kickstarted by Lydia whose views were those of her father and Great Aunt Dahlia. She was not overly preachy but did believe that Faunus should be offered a square deal and that discrimination was a reality. He would need to avoid upsetting either of them as the fact that Lydia had been prepared to say that he was improving had made life easier at Beacon for his team. He was also conscious of the fact that if Lydia had been a man she would have been at least as strong a contender as him for being the designated heir. He also suspected that Great Aunt Agnes did not mind someone standing up for themselves if they did it politely.
Until the age of sixteen he had shared his father's views about Faunus and had happily agreed with Agnes's more outrageous statements. However, at Pharos it had become clear to him that one of the best fighters in his year was a Faunus and that he was rather a good egg as a person. Also, his father had insisted on him trying to persuade Great Aunt Dahlia as well as Great Aunt Agnes that he was the best heir to the family fortune and that had meant that he had been forced to bite his tongue when Dahlia talked about systemic discrimination. The more he had listened and the more stories her guests had told the less comfortable he felt about his own beliefs and the readier he was to notice when reality conflicted with them. That had been reinforced this last term as Blake Nightshade (AKA Blake Belladonna), Anne Harker and Leslie Corkran had proved themselves to be amongst the best fighters in the year. It is hard to despise someone or think them inferior to you when they have defeated you in fair combat. At the very least he would have been lying to himself not to admit that the best Faunus were as good as the best humans and pretending that the Faunus at Beacon were not equal to the humans in combat skills was frankly delusional. Of course, the average human was superior to the average Faunus, but the gap was not immense. He wondered how he could convey this to Great Aunt Agnes. Actually, that might be the line to take. Really the only Faunus he knew well were fellow students and the rest were mostly servants.
He thought about Dove again. He hoped that Dove would obey his instructions not to initiate discussions about Faunus. His Great Aunt had certain views on Faunus, but she also had views on how her guests should be treated. He replayed his conversation with Dove in his head.
"Dove, I've spoken to the GA and she has agreed that Hugo Bogarde will valet for you. He knows how you like your clothes laid out and the temperature you prefer your bath and morning coffee."
"Thanks, Cardin. I'll just have to avoid getting too used to it."
"Dove, just to make certain we are on the same page, but I would prefer it if you are careful about how you discuss Faunus at the dinner table. We both know what the GA thinks, but Lydia and Brede will be sitting next to us. It will make life difficult for us back at Beacon if you start talking as openly about inherent inferiority. I'm not saying that you have to say anything you do not believe or that you should contradict the GA. However, please do not encourage her to rant."
"I get why I have to mind my language at Beacon as they have to pay lip service to that equality nonsense. It seems a little much to have to pretend in private with someone I know agrees with me."
"I know. However, let's face it we would all feel pretty stupid claiming that Anne and Leslie are inferior to us and I am still thinking about the implications of that. Second, the GA is insistent on her guests being polite to each other or at least only being indirectly rude. It may not stop her being outrageously rude herself, but her house, her rules. On the rare occasions she had had Faunus guests in the past, she had rebuked even old friends for making observations on the guests animal features and discouraged general observations about all Faunus." Cardin was conscious that he was over stating a little here, but he wanted to be clear that he expected Dove to behave in much the same way he had learnt to behave at Beacon..
Dove had brightened, "Ah, I can point out that Anne does not know what cutlery to use, but I can't say she eats like a pig."
"I would prefer it if you did not test the boundaries. The GA will feel honour bound to support Brede if he calls you out on being rude about his teammates."
Dove had eventually seen the point and agreed, but Cardin was still a little nervous.
Anyway, on the positive side, the GA had pulled in favours and had got eight experienced hunters into helping train the two teams over the next week. The fact that both his and Lydia's teams were potential competitors in the Vytal festival had encouraged her to take an interest in them. Besides which she and Dahlia did have two of the best cooks in Remnant working for them which also had been an attraction. It also meant that he could spend as little as possible of the holidays at home. He checked his scroll and saw a message from the GA's butler, Beach. Apparently one of the eight hunters had had to go on an urgent mission to Mistral but had been able to arrange a replacement at short notice who was if anything even more distinguished.
/-/
Sky was shocked at how far Dove and Cardin had understated the Winchester mansion. He had been expecting a large villa and had encountered a small castle. He had thought he and Cardin were social equals, but it was clear that at least some of Cardin's ancestors totally outclassed Sky's in wealth and influence. He looked across at Campion who had burst into laughter when he caught sight of the residence. Thinking about it the amount of Atlas which was habitable was miniscule compared with Vale and Mistral.
He then kicked himself. Obviously the real reason for the hilarity was that after the recent photoshoot in Salutations magazine, Lydia had been accused in the Atlas press of being a gold digger trying to entrap the flower of Atlesian manhood. In retrospect sending a photo of the family home might have been an easier rebuttal than going to Junior's Café Mistralian and snogging the Malachite twins. Still, no one could have predicted that the White Fang would have attacked the club that night.
Still at least he had another month to think about how he should open up to the rest of his team. Russel had told them all his story and he had better reason than Sky to hate Faunus. The fact that Russel had been the team member who had most supported Cardin in saying that whatever one thought of Faunus generally, those at Beacon should be given both respect and the benefit of the doubt was shaming considering what had happened to Russel's brother and uncle. Sky decided that he should follow Russel's example and not assume that all Faunus were supporters of the White Fang and that members who had not killed anyone should be allowed back into society. It also helped that he was getting used to the different attitudes in Vale to Mistral. He just accepted that Faunus were treated differently as a matter of course and had amended his behaviour accordingly. He did not have to decide what was right or wrong, it was just a question of obeying the rules of your host in his own house. If you did not like them then you did not stay.
He still worried about Dove. Russel had agreed with him that it would be a high-risk strategy telling Cardin what they thought Dove's problem was. Actually, it was also high-risk telling Dove what he and Russel thought Dove's problem was. They had both decided that it was safest to just tell Dove when he was letting Cardin down. It was odd, considering how generally tolerant the society in Vale was, that it had seemed to have a blind spot in relation to attractions between people of the same sex. Still while Mistral had its taboos, saying no just because of the gender was seen as bad form. He gathered from Russel that in Vacuo anything goes, but it was OK to say not for me, thank you very much, but no harm/no foul in asking politely. Actually, until he had met Russel, he had not remotely understood how fundamentally polite Vacuoans were.
He stared at Anne, while trying to hide it. He worried that he was like his uncle, but let's not go there. Still on any objective standard, Lydia was far more attractive. However, apart from being Cardin's cousin, she scared the frack out of him. Anne was someone he wanted to hold and cuddle. Lydia was someone you worshipped.
He moved towards Dove and said, "I knew Cardin and Lydia were well off, but I did not realise the family was this wealthy."
Dove laughed and said "The Great Aunts are rich, but the rest of the family are merely very well off. Both the Great Aunts married rich husbands and came from wealthy families themselves. Agnes Winchester's brothers died in the Faunus wars and so her parents left their money to her. By the way Agnes and Dahlia do not get on with each other, so best not to talk about the one to the other. Anyway, just speak clearly, but not too loudly and compliment her on the artworks."
Sky nodded. When he was shown to his room he would spend some time on his scroll researching etiquette, art history and the Winchester family history.
He looked towards the mansion and saw a butler holding an umbrella over an old lady in a wheelchair which was being pushed by another servant. Behind were eight people he assumed were the hunters who would be training them. Some of them were familiar from tapes of previous Vytal festivals. He had also looked up the names last night. Just before they had landed, Cardin had mentioned that one of the hunters had had to pull out but had arranged for someone to take his place.
He noticed, as he approached the welcoming group, that one of the hunters was looking at him quizzically as if he looked familiar. He looked back at the man in question and realised that he had met him once before. He felt sick as he remembered the exact circumstances. He would need to speak to the man and ask him not to reveal the family skeleton. The man had clearly spotted his resemblance to his uncle and sooner or later would recall why he looked familiar.
/-/
Dove was glad to be on holiday, but almost wished that Cardin had not signed them up to the training session at his Great-Aunt Agnes's and then the long weekend at Dahlia's. Actually, he could have lived with that, if it had not been for the fact that Lydia's team was also with them. He had far preferred it when Cardin had referred to Lydia as the jolly hockey sticks weirdo. Actually, Dove had been happier when it had not been clear that Lydia could beat him in a fight nine times out of ten and it did not help that she barely hid the fact that she regarded Dove as being beneath contempt.
On the other hand, being at Beacon was better than the last eighteen months at Pharos. Cardin was spending time with him and the other team members respected and encouraged him. In retrospect, he had stagnated during the last year at Pharos and had not challenged himself. He was now a better fighter, and the others would give him detailed feedback on his strengths and weaknesses. Sky in particular did not sugar-coat his opinions on Dove's weaknesses and the mid-term teaching assistant replacement had noticeably improved his technique. He realised now that the problem had been that Cardin had cared too much for his feelings to give honest criticism. While he did feel that Cardin spent too much time with Russel, he saw that was more the fault of the partner selection system and Cardin had done his best to ensure that he and Dove were on the same team.
Still the training they received would help the team make the Vytal festival and even have a good chance of making it to the second round. Honestly, he would be amazed if they made it past that round. Team RWBY and Team JNPR were clearly better than they were and Team LLAC were still the only team in their year to have beaten Team JNPR, although admittedly that had been a one-off ambush. There was no way that the best four teams in their year at Beacon could all get past the second round. On the plus side, if they made it to the second round, that would be the best performance that any member of his family had ever achieved.
He did see what Cardin meant when he said that it was insanity to pretend that Faunus were always weaker than humans and that they should avoid arguing with Team LILAC while here. Still, most of the best Faunus were clearly half breeds. He had discovered that Velvet Scarlatina's father was human. Leslie was obviously the bastard son of an Atlesian aristocrat. No one knew whose Anne's father was, but Dove was certain he was human. After all she hardly looked Faunus at all.
While it had irritated him to have Cardin lecturing him, Sky had pointed to him that Cardin was doing it for the good of the team. Also he supposed after the last term at Pharos and the Velvet incident, Cardin had some justification for heading problems off at the pass.
Apparently Hugo would be valeting for him while they were here. He knew him from past visits, and he was an excellent servant. He was also very smart and well turned out.
As he prepared to greet Mrs Winchester he sensed Sky tense beside them. He stole a look and saw that his friend was ashen. However, Sky quickly regained his composure and smiled. Maybe just an attack of nerves at meeting such illustrious hunters. He would tease him about it later.
/-/
Russel was flabbergasted at the sight of the mansion. Coming from Vacuo, he was not used to so much grass and even the houses of the rich tended to be only one story high. He felt that he had arrived in a film set and was waiting to find that the building was a one-dimensional cardboard outline. He also saw that the time spent watching old episodes of Featherhill Abbey had not been wasted.
He had been warned by Cardin that both Great Aunts would be taken aback by him. Still after being told by both Mistral and Atlas academies that he would have to lose his distinctive haircut before he was allowed to attend, he was used to that reaction. Also, it was clear from what both Cardin and Lydia had said, it was actually quite easy to be ignored by the Great Aunts. He hoped that explaining that you were honouring your ancestors and had pride in your background would deal with the problems. He was waiting to decide whether he would give a pre-emptive explanation.
Russel was still getting used to being the member of his team who annoyed others the least. It helped that Leslie had known him and his family in Vacuo and had said give Russel a fair chance to the rest of team LLAC and that Teams JNPR and RWBY had been prepared to listen to that message and pass it on.
He liked Cardin. He was a man who was struggling to improve himself and whose main motivation was to be the best huntsman he could. The fact that at the age of eighteen he had already worked out that he despised his father, why that was and why his father had turned out the way he was showed some maturity. Also, the fact that both Dove and Sky wanted to live up to Cardin's expectations confirmed his own belief that he was a man worth supporting.
He thought about Dove. Yet again he wondered at Cardin's obliviousness. While he saw that it made sense not to have a young maid waiting on Dove, Russel would have recommended an older footman to look after Dove. He and Sky had exchanged bemused shrugs when they heard Dove praising the smart young man who would be looking after him. Still maybe it was a Vale thing. The old joke was that the reason Vale had never made same sex relationships a criminal offence was that no one had wanted to explain the mechanics to the monarchs and when one adviser had tried to broach the subject, the king in question had refused to believe it was physically possible. While Russel was almost certain that it was just a joke, he had begun to understand the advisers' alleged point of view.
According to Cardin, his Great Aunt had called in a lot of favours. It helped that she had been a benefactor of Pharos academy for thirty years and had given scholarships to deserving graduates of Pharos to attend Beacon and other academies. Apparently while the attending huntsmen were being paid, they were mostly here because they felt they owed her some respect and payback. He had checked the names last night and most of them had actually been quarter finalists or better in past Vytal festivals. One of them had even been a losing finalist and it was no shame losing against Goodwitch.
Last night he and Anne had compared notes on their briefing from the cousins. They were clearly the plebs of their teams and the most likely to be nonplussed by unexpected events. Both agreed that the thing which they found most alarming was that they would have maids or valets unpacking their bags and making their beds and even arranging for their clothes to be laundered. Both had purchased new underwear especially for the trip. He rather liked her attitude towards life, He had at one-point last night tried to apologise to her for being uneasy around Faunus and she had told him, "For the sake of argument, assume I have good reasons for distrusting humans and you have good reason for being suspicious of Faunus. However, at Beacon I am going to judge people by how they behave towards me and not make assumptions. If you do the same then there is no need for us to discuss the detail of our hang-ups from the past with each other." As far as Russel was concerned that was fair enough and the less he had to explain his past the better.
He glanced over at Anne who was next to Brede. She was holding Brede's and tightly. He wondered whether the two of them had become an item and if so what Brede's parents would think about it. If they thought Lydia was beneath his station and a conniving temptress, then their reaction to a piece of what in their eyes would be Faunus trash from Animal Town was unimaginable. Perhaps she was just nervous about meeting such a notoriously acerbic aristocrat and was looking for reassurance. The hand holding stopped and Russel thought that was probably it. She still looked apprehensive though.
/-/
Huntsman Garnet had been briefed his current fighting partner Tulip on what to expect and how to behave. The old lady had helped Tulip early in his career and he had accepted that in return for free accommodation and a reasonable remuneration to spend ten days coaching the teams which her young relative belonged to. Apparently they had a good chance of qualifying for the Vytal festival. It had been agreed that while Tulip spent time here, Garnet would follow the latest leads on some of the bounty hunter cases they had on the books. However, last night a lead had come in that required one of them to travel to Mistral to investigate a sighting of someone who could possibly be a person of interest in the death of an old friend of theirs. Unfortunately, Garnet was still barred from Mistral and although that ban would end in 18 months, that was dependent on him not breaching it in the interim.
The old lady had understood why Tulip had had to pull out after he explained that they were hunting the killer of Rhodes. Actually, it was probably better for Tulip to investigate the rumour. Garnet had been Rhodes's teammate at Atlas Academy, and he was reluctant to believe that a young girl could possibly have killed someone as skilled as Rhodes. Still perhaps she had seen something eight years ago which would give them a proper lead.
Garnet recalled how he had used to tease Rhodes about his charity case at the hotel. He had also told him that he should either have arrange for her to be placed at a combat school or leave her alone. It had seemed to him wrong to leave her in an abusive situation. Rhodes had said that in his view it would make the girl stronger in the long run to fight against adversity.
Garnet supposed that he must half believe that the girl could have killed him as when he had come across a similar situation he had taken the girl out of Mistral and handed her over to a contact of Dr. Oobleck's. He had expressly state that he did not want to know what happened to the girl or to stay in contact. Anyway, talking about the Rhodes lead with Tulip had reminded him of the events of four years ago and the defiant Faunus girl. He ruefully thought himself to that thinking back he had originally taken the case because of Rhodes. A girl leaving someone who had only tried to help her for dead had pushed too many buttons. Finding out that the story was to say the least more complicated had been a shock.
Anyway, he wondered what Tracey was up to now and what had happened to the family of the man she had eventually killed in self-defence. Telling his wife and sister what he had found in the lock up garage had been one of the hardest things he had ever had to do as they realised that they had never really known their husband and brother.
Anyway, time to look at his charges for the next ten days. He had seen the TV coverage of the fight at the nightclub when a mixture of students and teachers from Beacon had repulsed with extreme prejudice an attempt by the White Fang to kill Kali Belladonna and at least it made it clear that his charges were worth bothering with. The old lady had apparently obtained a copy of the entire footage of the fight and the eight hunters would watch it this afternoon and look at it for points to make to the students. Certainly, by the sounds of it, the Garnet guide to improvising weapons would be dusted down for use.
He was startled to see a familiar looking face among the students. He shook his head, thinking about old cases was a bad idea. The boy just had a look of the pre-hitchhiking face of the Mistral man. However, he knew the man had had no children so it must have been a hallucination. The boy looked a little taken aback and Garnet knew he must have stared at him a little too hard. Well, he could apologise to the boy later.
I will be running this story and Winter in Vacuo in tandem. I intend to update each story once a week or so. This follows on from Learning to lead, learning to follow, but I intend it to be stand alone. The aim is to further explore my version of Team Cardin which was outlined in that story and in particular the back story for Sky Lark and some of Dove's issues. The conceit is that Cardin is trying to improve himself and his team. If you wish to read about some of the incidents referred to here without reading the whole story, then Velvet's ears are dealt with in chapter 7 and the Coco curb stomp in chapter 11.