Jaune woke up early the next morning. He was still on Beacon time whereby he was used to getting up early and either catching up on his reading or exercising for an hour. He decided not to stay in bad and instead went downstairs and put the coffee on and staring making himself some toast. He was just about ready to pour the coffee out when his mother joined him in her dressing gown and carrying a book. He poured her a cup of coffee, put some more toast on and smiled at her.
The two of them sitting down for breakfast together reminded him of the times they had done the same when he had been working with her for the Local Grimm Defence Force (the LGDF) and she had briefed them on what they would be doing that day. He said to her "I am half expecting you to tell me which village we are going to inspect today or the hunters we are going to brief about local conditions."
She smiled back and said, "I enjoyed those days as well. You worked very hard and were so eager to learn."
"I meant what I said last night about how helpful my time with the LGDF had been for me."
"I know dear. I also mean what I say about your contribution."
They sipped their coffee and he said, "While I am here, I would be glad to meet some of the LGDF team again."
She looked indulgently at him and said "I assume that Amber briefed you. Thanks for volunteering. They will be glad to see you and would appreciate a version of what you told me about how helpful your time with us has been to you at Beacon. Shall we say the day after tomorrow?"
"That sounds good to me. How is Lavender getting on?"
"She is doing well enough. She works hard and is more serious than the twins were at her age. She is perhaps a little too eager to please and I will ask Amber to have a word with her tomorrow when Nicholas takes you fishing."
"He has not asked me yet."
"He will later today. He says he wants to talk with you without being interrupted by the rest of the family."
Jaune was glad to think that Dad was going to talk properly to him about things although he was still half prepared for the conversation to be about the Arc code of male behaviour.
Jaune said to his mother. "You wanted to talk to me about the barbeque."
"Yes, dear. I know in the past you rather ignored history and politics or rather you just accepted the education you had at middle school."
Jaune replied, "That's true mum."
"Does Bartholomew Oobleck still teach history and politics at Beacon?"
Jaune winced. The class which he found most difficult was Dr. Oobleck's. He and Ruby had taken some persuading that it was necessary for a huntsman or huntress Also he had had to do so much catching up to do on other subjects that he had neglected history last term. While the history essays were delivered thanks to Pyrrha and Ren taking it in turns to sit down with him and coach him, he virtually never did the advance reading. Dr. Oobleck had become increasingly irritated with his contributions to the class.
"Yes he does. Have you heard of him?"
"Amber bought me this book five years ago when she was going through the stage of arguing with your father. She was not altogether happy at Haven. She took a lot of missions in Vale and Argus province after getting her licence."
She showed the book to him which was called, "Whose truth is it anyway?" The subtitle showed it to be a book about the different narratives behind the Great War. He suspected that he had heard the message before.
He said, "Mother, can I talk about this to you?"
"Of course. It was the reason I raised the subject."
Jaune paused. He needed to have the conversation, but he did not want to betray his friends. Oobleck's history classes had been tough although Jaune had felt that Mistral had been portrayed as the bad guys in relation to the Great War. Pyrrha had pointed out that Dr. Oobleck when discussing the causes of the war had given everyone a fair hearing and that it was not his fault that the other three kingdoms did primarily blame Mistral.
"I found it very upsetting to hear and read about what other people thought about Mistral at the time. I am proud to be Mistralian and did not want to listen to bad things being said about it. The problem is that once I heard those things, I could not dismiss them out of hand. However, I still resented having to think about them."
His mother asked him, "How did you deal with it?"
"I listened to what my friends said and thought about it. I did eventually accept that Dr. Oobleck was trying to be fair to Mistral and pointed out that the other kingdoms had their own myths."
He hesitated and decided to raise an issue which had particularly upset him. "It was actually the story about what happened after the war which I found hardest to hear." He had listened to Weiss and Blake who were both history fanatics discussing the origins of the Faunus Wars. One of the few things they had agreed on had been to criticise Mistral for the so-called Sam Raven laws and even more upsetting had been that Ren and Pyrrha had said that they agreed with them.
He said, "Is it true that after the Great War Mistral in effect reintroduced slavery for convicted criminals and that Faunus were disproportionally affected by these laws?"
She looked at him carefully, "Do you really want me to answer that question honestly?"
He nodded.
She stared at him and said, "Yes, that was the main purpose of those laws. Yes, there was a law-and-order problem after the war and the excuse given for the laws was to address that issue. My Grandfather who was involved in government said that in reality the laws were used to target Faunus who did not know their place and that the unsupported testimony of a human always trumped that of Faunus. However, crimes by humans against Faunus were ignored."
He blinked.. The fact that his mother confirmed it and clearly thought any other answer was a lie really took him aback.
"Do you think that was the right thing?"
"`It was what happened. My personal views on what happened eighty years ago are irrelevant save to the extent that I do my bit to ensure that it does not happen again. For the avoidance of doubt, I find it abhorrent. However, what good would it do to tell our neighbours that I find their yearning for what they see as the good old days as fundamentally immoral?"
"Mum, what are you trying to tell me?"
"Mistral has lost confidence over the last ten years or so. Significant towns have been overrun by Grimm and bandits. Atlas and Vale have outcompeted us economically and seem to regard us with pity. The White Fang seems to be able to strike with impunity. The Branwen tribe controls around 20% of the kingdom. Five years ago, they occasionally raided towns 100 miles away. They now levy regular tribute from towns which are fifty miles away. Our central government is widely seen as run by criminals and incompetents; the economy is stagnating except in Argus. Haven has not won a Vytal Festival in twelve years. People were hoping that this year would be different and the fact that Pyrrha Nikos went to Beacon was devastating news."
She paused and looked at him before continuing, "After the fight in the nightclub, people have now decided to adopt your team as a sort of unofficial Mistralian team. Seeing Pyrrha strutting her stuff against the White Fang reminded them that she was actually from Mistral and was the most exciting fighter in Remnant. Added to that, your two friends from Kuroyuri finding weapons to fight with and you charging the White Fang armed only with aura appealed to the public. The image which they have of Mistral is of brave improvisation and a refusal to give up."
Jaune thought to himself about the reaction of the stewardess on the ship and saw that he should take his mother seriously. "I think I see that I understand that part. However, what about the other teams from Haven?"
"I know you avoided watching the Mistral regionals and only watched the twins fights in the Vytal festival. However, the fact is that the best teams in the third and fourth years at haven are not expected to get beyond the second round and the teams in the first and second years have all been defeated by Pyrrha. No one believes that they can win. According to the twins, the best teams in the second year are either competent but lack confidence or they are arrogant and lazy. The first-year teams are better, but do not appeal to the general public."
"Still, what does it have to do with the barbeque?"
"You are a sort of hero, unlikely though it may seem. People who last year would just say hello and happily leave you alone for the rest of the party will want to speak to you. Today people will be asking your opinion on the important issues of the day. You need to understand that this is not really because they want to know what you think, but because they hope that you will confirm their view of the world. You have had a term being at Beacon being educated by people who believe that whatever the differences between man and Faunus, we have a common enemy in the Grimm and that we should cooperate against them. That was I hope implicit in how your father and I bought you all up, but we did not put it that bluntly when speaking to people here. Amber did and that is one of the reasons she rarely comes home nowadays."
"Mum are you worrying too much about this. Our friends and neighbours are very polite."
"Darling, that is because we have known each other for years. We have learnt not to speak to each other about things we strongly disagree about, at least when sober. We are all polite to each other's faces, but when surrounded by right minded people it is no holds barred on the subject of those who are agreed to not be one of us."
"But no one knows what I think about anything. I like people generally and take them at face value."
"The risk is that people will assume you think just like them and just need the company of someone you can be honest with. You are a good-looking young man who now you have filled out and muscled up look like a poster boy for Mistralian youth. They are going to project on to you. You have just spent the best part of four months fitting in at Beacon where I am certain that the range of opinions is rather different from here."
/-/
Miles Scarlatina and Pietro Polendina had sent an urgent message to Ironwood. He was now meeting with them along with Clover Ebi and Winter Schnee. He looked at the two scientists. Scarlatina was looking worried and even Polendina was less relaxed than normal.
"Gentlemen, I gather you have found something of concern."
Polendina gestured to the younger man. Scarlatina said, "Yes. If it had not been for the hint you gave us and Professor Goodwitch's abilities we would not have spotted it. Whoever was responsible for the explosion had access not only to an individual with a strong illusion semblance but also had a knowledge of our security systems."
He played some footage from the embassy security cameras showing a small woman and a tall man in security guard uniform entering the bullhead at the embassy airfield with a briefcase. The coverage then switched to the interior and the time date by three minutes showing a short and a tall technician leaving a bathroom carrying a toolkit. He said, "The reason we think an illusions semblance is involved is that we can find no trace of the two technicians entering and leaving the bullhead or the two security officers doing anything in the ship other than going to the bathroom. Furthermore, the officers are on the staff at the Embassy and so were not questioned by the guards at the entrance. While the heights are the same, the appearances otherwise are very different. There does not appear to me to have been the time to disguise the two people and besides which changing a briefcase into a tool kit is inherently unlikely. You will perhaps be glad to know that the two officers in question were attending a meeting with the Vale military at the time of the incident."
He then switched the footage to show a corridor with a door guarded by four soldiers. He explained "This is just outside the cell in which the prisoner was being held. Watch the soldier at the rear left."
Ironwood watched and he saw the soldier sneeze and nearly drop his gun. Scarlatina froze the image and then said, "Now watch the recording ten minutes later." The same soldier sneezed and nearly dropped his rifle.
"It looks like they time looped the tapes at that point."
"Do you know why?"
"The explosion was in an empty cell next to the prisoner's and took out some important infrastructure which meant that the airship would crash. It would have been necessary to remove and replace some vents. The security cameras in that part of the ship are linked and they looped the two they needed to. I can only surmise that one of the two had an illusion semblance which allows them to fool cameras as well as people, but only works for certain if they can see where they are casting the illusion. While they could hide what was going on in the cell from the guards they would not have been able to hide it from the security personnel who they would have had to assume would be watching the security cameras. The other worrying thing is the placement of the bomb. It was designed to take advantage of an aspect of the design which would not have been known to someone who did not have detailed knowledge of the design of the airship."
Ironwood said, "Neither of them were the build of Watts? Why do you think he was involved?"
"I am not certain that he was personally involved. However, the build of one is similar to that of a junior scientist who used to work for him and who seems to have disappeared from trace a year ago. They messed with the surveillance footage, and they knew that they needed to do more than"
Pietro Polendina said, "In the past research into illusion semblances suggested that they are easier to maintain the less you change the size of the individuals or objects you are trying to hide using the illusion. Having the ability to also fool surveillance cameras as well as eyes is rare."
Winter asked, "Are we certain the bomb was planted at that time?"
Polendina said, "We magnified the footage from the vacant cell before and after the loop finished. There are a few paint specks on the floor afterwards which were not there before."
Ironwood said, "Thank you gentlemen. The likely survival of Watts is to be kept secret for the time being. Professor Scarlatina, that risk assessment we discussed earlier is your most urgent task."
The two scientists left shortly after that. Ironwood turned to Clover and said, "Specialist Ebi, I want you and the Ace-Ops to brainstorm the possible damage which a person with an in-depth knowledge of Atlesian technology could cause us. This includes embarrassing us with our allies." Clover saluted and left the room.
Ironwood turned to Winter and said, "Your analysis, Schnee?"
Winter said, "While there is no proof that Watts is alive, it is more likely than not that he is. Certainly, we must work on the assumption that Watts is alive, is working for the enemy and has a small group of associates working with him. The enemy has in addition to Watts at least one strong illusionist, Tyrian Callows, the unidentified woman, Hazel Rainart and the faction of the White Fang led by Adam Taurus working for her."
Ironwood asked, "You believe that it is only a faction."
"The fact that either Sienna Khan or one of her closest confidantes leaked information to Raven Branwen strongly suggests that. Also, it is consistent with all the intelligence that we have that Adam Taurus wants unrestricted war with humanity which Sienna Khan is resisting."
"Could this not be disinformation?"
"Our informant at worse has his own agenda. He is not an ideologue. It is also corroborated by the information from the Vale informant."
"Blake Belladonna was Adam Taurus's lover while our Vacuo recruit was their most effective assassin for eighteen months. Both are now at Beacon and are likely to be competing in the Vytal festival. I think we should consider the possibility that they are treble agents."
"Possible, but unlikely. Three years back he could easily have allowed Parsifal and Brede Campion to die in the ambush and would have had a good chance of catching me unawares. He also could have failed to disclose the proposed attack on the power plant. Blake Belladonna has shared a dorm with my sister for a term and our intelligence was that she was an advocate of economic violence and very targeted assassination."
"I know, Winter. However, what if the stakes are high enough to justify forgoing those opportunities."
He thought about it for a moment and sent a message to Clover asking him to particularly address one possibility.
/-/
Qrow had woken early that morning and had perched himself on the roof of the Argus Express and travelled on it for two hours. He had decided that morning that he would leave the train just after the first of the mountain tunnels as that seemed the closest landmark to where the farm was meant to be. He had avoided perching near the engine or the dining car to reduce the risk of causing major inconvenience to the train or passengers. He half hoped the air turbulence from yesterday had reduced his semblances need to express itself for the time being, but he knew that he needed to minimis the risk.
circled the seemingly deserted farm and then landed on the roof of the largest house. He continued to stare around him. The fields had turned to wild meadows which were slowly being taken over by brambles, there were no animals in sight other than the skeletons of cows, sheep, and dogs. Puzzlingly, they seemed to be intact. He took flight for a moment and thought about things. He decided to activate his aura just in case there was some latent disease or source of poisoning. He promised himself not to eat or drink anything on the farm.
He landed on the front porch of the largest house and tried the door handle. The door swung open. He knocked loudly and called out, "Anyone home?" There was no answer. He wandered into the house, but no one was downstairs. There was a layer of dust, and his footprints left a trail. There were some plates and cutlery which looked like they had been washed up and left to dry. The larder was reasonably stocked while the wine collection was very tempting.
He went upstairs and looked into the bedrooms. In most of the beds there were skeletons. They looked as though they had died peacefully in their sleep. He sniffed the air, but there was nothing in it. He then wandered around the rest of the farm. The other houses were almost identical to the main one, but instead of washed-up plates and cutlery the tables had the remains of one meal on them.
He found the atmosphere a little oppressive and took flight again circling the farm and deciding on his next move. He decided that he would look in more detail at the main house as that presumably had been inhabited by the leader of this small community.
He looked at a picture in the study and spotted a young redheaded boy. The date at the top of the photograph meant that it was not impossible that this was a young Roman Torchwick. Underneath the picture was a note of the names and Qrow nodded. The name of the boy was Norman Bartleby. He decided to take the picture with him. It was not that large, and the magic meant that it was easier to carry things in bird form then when he was human. He avoided thinking too hard about how his clothes and weapons were impacted by the magic but had made a note to himself never to transform himself when holding on to anyone.
He then looked at the bookshelf and saw some numbered volumes. There were twelve in all. He opened the first one and saw that it was a diary kept by the leader of the community. It seemed that he was originally from Vale and seemed to be a younger son of a wealthy family. Certainly, the handwriting suggested that he had had an expensive education. He decided that he would skip to the final volume to see if it would throw light on what had happened. He skimmed through and then read a sentence which made him freeze. How could anyone be that stupid. He reread it and decided that this was a case of a clever person doing something incredibly stupid. He thought carefully and decided that although he was a little sluggish, his aura had protected him from the worse of it and he could spend another ten minutes here. He took the books, put them into a sack he had found in a barn and turned back into a crow. He found that the weight of the books did not cause him a problem.
He flew off towards the railway line. If he could hitch a lift on the afternoon express he would do so, but otherwise he would fly to Argus. Once there he would take a hotel room, read the books he had taken and then contact Glynda. He had caught references to greedy hunters and the anxiety of his fellow farmers at their financial position. He would read all the references to Norman to see what it revealed about the young man. What really puzzled him was the writing on the last few pages. It was a younger different hand and covered two weeks.
Bartleby should have known better than to believe that capturing two Apathy Grimm was a viable idea. They were a herd Grimm, and a little more research would have shown the man that trying to use them as a tranquiliser was destined to end in disaster. Qrow supposed that he should inform the local hunters that there was believed to be a herd of Grimm at Brunswick Farms, but even he was not up to tackling it by himself unless he absolutely had to. What startled him was the suggestion that a young girl had been able to survive a fortnight in a Grimm infested environment with adults who lacked the energy to get out of bed or eat without herself succumbing to the Grimm's abilities waiting for her cousin to come and rescue her.
/-/
The barbecue was going well but Jaune knew that he now had to go and mingle. He had managed for an hour or so to get away with helping dad prepare the barbecue, helping his sisters bring out the salads and sauces and serving people burgers and lamb chops. This had meant that he had said hello to everyone, but also in retrospect had meant that he had promised most people there to spend some time with them later. He had put off the move until Amber had actually come behind him and said, "It is my turn to serve, your turn to talk."
He had been watching to whom Amber spoke on the basis that these were likely to be the easiest ones for him to talk to without unintentionally contradicting them in a way which upset them. He also felt fairly relaxed about speaking to the neighbours who worked with mum on the LGDF as they were more used to dealing with a range of views politely.
He had also thought about the potentially difficult issues and how to deal with them. The one he had not planned for was being surrounded by four of Lavender's friends who were all trying to make eye contact with him simultaneously. He looked above their heads to see Lavender approaching at a quick walk with a look of horror across her face.
He did a mental toss up of who to challenge and decided that Ren was not a viable option in the current circumstances. He decided a mixture of Russel and Cardin may be ok. Be friendly and self-confident without pushing things. Amber had warned him to carry a pen and to check that he did not leave a big gap above his signature.
"Hello lavender. Will you introduce me to your charming friends?" He realised too late that he was channelling the wrong set of male friends.
The girls shrieked with laughter as if he had said something funny.
Lavender said "Jaune meet Heather, Quinn, Cordelia and Drusilla." They all curtsied to him as they were introduced. Heather J bent particularly lowly. He suddenly realised that none of his male equivalents at Beacon were the right person to follow.
He looked up. Ne could see that the twins were watching with grins spread all over their faces.
Lavender said, "My friends would like your autograph, I have no idea why."
Jaune said, "Certainly, I have a pen."
Heather was first in line with an autograph book. He was slightly impressed to see that the one on the page before his was that of Arslan Altan. He said as he signed, "Pyrrha says the opponent who she most enjoyed fighting was Arslan. She never gives up and always tries to win."
His eyes moved up from the page of the book to realise that the girl was invading his body space and that some buttons on her blouse had mysteriously undone themselves. A husky voice intoned "I admire a woman who knows what she wants and then tries hard to get it."
He decided to pretend that she was a sort of Yang and that the way to deal with her was to take her at face value. "I have no doubt your boyfriend appreciates that."
Unfortunately, she took after Yang in being happy to raise the odds, "Oh he is. But sometimes one needs a real man and not just a boy." She then winked at him.
Luckily Quinn presented her autograph book and then asked for a selfie after he had signed it. He agreed and Heather insisted on joining in on the other side and told lavender to take the photograph. He was relieved to find that Quinn was more interested in being photographed with the hero of vale as she put it and was not interested in pushing things further. Heather, however, clearly was thinking about possibilities and leant into him as the photograph was taken. She also squeezed his bottom. This at least reminded him that he needed to think more carefully about whose example he should follow. To his chagrin, he realised that he needed to channel his female rather than his male friends. He decided instantly that Weiss was not good example to follow. They were his sister's friends and so far not even heather deserved a full Weiss put down.
He was then confronted by Drusilla who looked at him with her head on her right shoulder and said, "Your neck looks tasty."
Heather shouted, "Watch out for her, she's a bloodsucker."
Jaune started to relax and hoped that each girl would protect him from the three other ones. He gave Drusilla an autograph and posed for a selfie with Quinn at the other side of him. The worse bit of that was that that Drusilla licked his neck as Lavender took the photograph, but at least she not actually try to give him a hickey.
Cordelia then presented herself. She was dark haired, tall, and looked more mature than the others. She greeted him with the phrase, "Hello, spicy badness."
He did his best to ignore that and said, "Would you like an autograph?"
"Yes, but I forgot to bring my book. However, you can sign me if you like."
It was interesting to see the reactions of the others. Heather looked as though she wished she had thought of that gambit, Quinn looked embarrassed, Drusilla looked quizzical, and Lavender pretended to puke.
He decided to channel his inner Lydia, "That's OK. Lavender could you get a piece of paper from the notepad by the phone?" Pretend obliviousness was the way to go. He did pause for a second to note that the fact that he had a strategy to deal with sexual harassment was because he had been a nuisance himself.
Lavender said "Yes, of course." She headed back to the house, only pausing to turn round and give him a thumbs up.
Cordelia decided to take advantage of Lavender's absence by asking Quinn to take a photograph of her and Jaune. Drusilla and Heather joined in, and the absence of Lavender seemed to encourage them all to excesses. His bottom was squeezed by Heather, Drusilla was nipping at his throat and Cordelia was making him regret that he had not worn a belt.
The twins appeared singing a little ditty which seemed to be called, "Keep your hand on your ha'penny." They stared at the three girls and Nancy said, "You do realise that your parents and their friends are all watching you."
Jessica added "I also taped you and am willing to bully Lavender into giving me the scroll addresses of your class and I already know that of your headmaster and most of your teachers."
She looked at Quinn and said, "Take the picture once you can see both hands of the jailbait."
Jaune now felt rather less manhandled and smile for the picture. He then signed the piece of paper which Lavender had returned with and gave it to Cordelia.
The four girls disappeared off along with Lavender. They were giggling which Jaune was both relieved and annoyed about.
Jessica smiled and said, "Despite being such a beanpole, you are still our little brother. You need to be able to tell girls like that to take a hike."
"Sorry, but I am not used to the attention. How did you deal with boys?"
"Brutally, if they took us for granted. We may not agree with Amber on much, but she was dead right on that score. Also had to do the same with some of the girls." Nancy nodded in agreement.
Jaune nodded. He would apologise profusely to Weiss and Lydia next term or perhaps to Ruby and Anne and ask them to pass it on. It made a difference being on the receiving end of propositions that you did not wish to say yes to but felt guilty about rejecting too harshly. Actually, if he was honest if they had been in private he would have been tempted to take them further.
"Sorry, but I am not used to fighting off girls. I was rather frightened that if I called their bluff they would have taken me into the bamboos."
"You are probably right. If they had we would have filmed it." Nancy again nodded her agreement.
He then said, "To be fair, Quinn only wanted to be photographed with me and Drusilla was sort of playful."
The twins laughed at him and said, "Time to speak to Lily."
Lily was two years older than him. Early on she had said that she did not want to be a huntress and her parents had not pushed her. She had married the eldest son of a local industrialist and was expecting her second child. The first child was called William Nicholas Gruen. He was named after the father's grandfather and Lily's father and was currently smiling benignly at the world from his mother's lap. Her husband Alex was by her side and her parents in law David and Rebecca were next to them. A couple of the neighbours where also speaking to them. Jaune recollected them as being fundamentally nice people apart from they complained about Faunus who did not know their place. His time at Beacon had perhaps caused him to ask himself where they had met these uppity Faunus as they made pains to stress that they had no problem with the local Faunus who worked hard and deserved respect.
Alex said, "Congratulations on getting into Beacon. Lily explained to me why that was your only option unless you wanted to go the Mustang route and wait three to five years."
"Thank you Alex." Alex had been distant, but not dismissive when Jaune had been a man with no aura. Jaune had decided that he would pretend that this was out of embarrassment rather than contempt. It might well be true. The sisters were all convinced he truly loved Lily and could not be blamed for not arguing with his father.
David came to him and shook his hand, "Well done at the night club. It's time someone taught the White Fang they are not immortal."
"Thank you, sir. However, my fellow classmates and my teachers did most of the damage. I just did what I could."
"Yes but you and the Winchester guy charging them relying solely on your aura. That was showing the right stuff. It meant you took a prisoner and had a chance of working out who was supporting them."
"We did what we could." Jaune said to himself that saying any more would be false modesty.
"Loved your interview after the nightclub and last night. Possibly a little too modest, but that is not a bad thing when so many people boast about nothing."
Rebecca chimed in, "We were so impressed by all your team. We all knew how good Pyrrha was in matches, but seeing her doing her stuff when lives mattered showed that she had…" She struggled for the word, jaune suspected that she had originally been going to say balls but had decided that was not appropriate.
"I know what you mean, Mrs Gruen. She is the best fighter in our year at Beacon."
"Yes, but also your other teammates. The two from Kuroyuri were also unarmed. The little girl taking the club from the huge man and using it to hot a grenade back at the attackers upstairs and the man in green coming out of the kitchen with choppers. It made me proud to be Mistralian."
Jaune realised that this was one of those moments when saying nothing controversial was the right call. He remembered David Gruen expressing the view that the people in Kuroyuri had a lack of moral fibre and had invited the Grimm in by their cowardice.
"I am proud of all of my teammates and also my friends at Beacon. We also had help from a Haven student."
"I suppose so. Still, he comes from Vacuo and while it may be narrow minded of me I love to see good fighting from Mistralians."
David chipped in with a comment, "Are you good friend with Cardin Winchester apart from charging into battle together?"
Jaune said "Yes, I have done a lot of training with his team, and he has helped me develop as a fighter."
"His father Nigel is often on the television here and says a lot od sound stuff about Faunus."
"I would not know. I don't have much time to watch the news and Cardin does not speak much about his family. Actually, none of us do. The truth is that we are only as good as our talents."
Rebecca said, "We were so glad to see the White Fang being defeated. Ever since they kidnapped and killed Umber Raddock, it seemed that there was nothing we could do to beat them. It just gives us hope to see that they are only human…" she stopped, realised what she had said and went bright red.
David said, "We should have sent all the Faunus to Menagerie. The White Fang can just disappear in Mistral and none of their kind will admit to hiding them. I know as you are Beacon you had to say the things you did during the interview…"
Jaune decided that it was better to cut him off at an early stage. "I know I am a young man without your experience, sir. However, the Faunus I met with my mother when I was working with the LGDF were little different from the humans and my fellow students at Beacon who are Faunus are as brave as anyone else. I can only judge on the people I know. At Junior's Club Mistralian the Faunus hunters in training fought as bravely as the rest of us."
Lily chimed in, "You always say, Grandpa, that the workers in your factories work hard and do a good day's work for a fair day's pay."
Her father-in-law paused and then nodded, "That's true. Still, I have had to lay off 50% of the workers at the hat factory."
Jaune looked at his sister and brother-in-law for an explanation. Alex said, "It is unfashionable to wear hats nowadays. Since the Raddock incident the assumption is that the White Fang wear hats to disguise the fact that they are Faunus. Actually. half our sales were to Faunus who wanted to blend in."
Rebecca said, "There were a couple of unfortunate incidents when people reacted badly to realising a Faunus was wearing a hat."
The meetings with his mother's friends at the LGDF went off well. Everyone knew not to tread on sensitive territory and their congratulations on him being at Beacon were heartfelt.
He had a few conversations with his father's friends which were a little awkward. However, his line that the Faunus he knew were good people and reciting his mother's mantras that a stranger was just a friend you had not met yet and that he judged the people he met on their merits generally meant the conversation went back to more comfortable topics.
He did resort a couple of times to using Cardin Winchester's formula with mild adjustments. He would say that the Faunus he had met at Beacon deserved to be there and that three members of the best three teams were Faunus.
Towards the end of the afternoon when most of the guests were returning home his other older brother-in-law Jasper took him aside. He had always felt uneasy with him. He was a clever man who enjoyed paradoxes and found it difficult to hide his contempt for people he considered foolish. He treated his sister well, so he had no animosity towards him.
"Young Jaune. It is my turn to congratulate you on being a hero. I suspect that we will not see much of you in the future."
"This is my home."
"You are your mother's child and you always got on best with Saphron and Amber."
"So what? This is still my home"
"I watched you carefully avoid calling your father's friends bigots. When you talked about Adrian you avoided mentioning that his father is another woman. The problem is that politeness in these parts means that we never talk about the real problems with the people who have different opinions. You will, like Saphron and Amber, find it easier to avoid coming home unless you can guarantee to only meet your immediate family. Actually, unlike Amber you will not have a few friends who accept you for what you are, o we will see any less of you."
"You say I am like my mother. She gets on well with everyone."
"Up to a point. Her role with the LGDF means she has to be polite to assholes and that works in the periphery. In town everyone knows she is a liberal, but as she does not bang on about it no one cares. The problem for you is that you are too honest"
"That is a problem?"
"Of course, it is. Already this evening despite your best efforts to be non-controversial, no one wants to talk to you about Faunus, Vale, or the Atlas multi-kingdoms. When you said Weiss Schnee was a talented fighter and an honourable lady, people assume that you are warning them off criticising the SDC and the Atlas military. When you praise Blake Belladonna and the other Faunus who fought with you, they think that you are saying that Faunus are their equals."
"What if Pyrrha wins the Vytal festival?"
"She is from Argus. It was clear from the photograph in Salutations that she is far happier in Vale than Mistral. Eventually she will have to make a choice as to where she lives and while I have no doubt she will keep a residence in Argus, I suspect she will default to Vale. Besides which it is quite clear to me that Valkyrie is the second strongest member of your team. Even if you have inherited your mother's tactical and strategic nous, real world you will be one of the passengers in your team."
"Why do you despise me? What have I ever done to you?"
"I don't and nothing. I actually rather like you as does your sister and my wife. The problem is that you are far too optimistic a person. Do you know why the Faunus only constitute 10% of the population in this town while it is 20% across Mistral as whole despite the great emigration?"
"No."
"You know where the Gruen factories are now? That used to be the animal quarter. If you do not believe me I can show you the maps. At the start of the Faunus wars old William Gruen incited a riot. It got out of control. However, for whatever reason humans who had lived side-by-side with Faunus for fifty years decided that they were now their mortal enemies and burnt the place down. At the time my family was a little like yours is now – we believed that humans and Faunus of goodwill could work together. Two of my grandfather's cousins were lynched for defending the Faunus."
jaune heard his mother intervene in the conversation, "Jasper, I know you are telling the truth as you see it. I also know that the Grimm invasion then took out 30% of the human population and the town has still not recovered from that day."
Jasper replied, "You are right about that. But I have heard the stories. Why should the Faunus ever trust us not to try and massacre them again? I would love us to do a deal with the Belladonnas, but would you trust the Gruen's to keep to it? Would I trust the Adam Taurus's of this world to keep to it?
/-/
In Argus Qrow finished reading the journals. He lifted his scroll and rang Glynda. "Hello, G. We need to talk. Our suspect has a semi-legitimate grievance against the system and his relative has a semblance to make us pay in full. We need to speak before we both brief the old man"
My treatment of Mistral should not be mistaken for a realistic view of the southern states of the USA. While it may rely on some fictional tropes, I do not have the first-hand knowledge to say it is accurate or fair. Argus is for my purpose a sort of a cross between Austin and San Francisco as being a town which is rather different to its neighbours and where non-conformists prefer to go.
I have clearly gone for Brunswick farms being the origin for Roman and Neo and will explore this further. Still, it does give a reason for our favourite sociopaths to be the way they are.