R3qu13m0f50ul5 – yes this does follow on from Learning to Lead, Learning to Follow.

The morning after the barbecue Jaune again woke early. He had a busy day ahead of him. He would be training his sword fighting with the twins before breakfast and then he would be going fishing with his father on a nearby lake between the late morning and early evening.

His father would be preparing the packed lunch although he suspected that there would be a few things recycled from the barbecue. Although the family and guests had tried their best to eat everything, the Arcs always erred on the side of over catering.

The twins were waiting for him in the gym. Jaune had to remind himself that there was no Professor Goodwitch around to repair any damage. He wondered how important it was to the success of Beacon in the Vytal Festival that its students could train without having to worry about causing damage. There was forty minutes of exercises which Jessica put him and Nancy through. Jessica commented that he had got himself into good condition.

The two then swapped over and Jessica then practised fighting with him while Nancy critiqued them both. At first he felt that Jessica was holding back with him. This irritated him and he actually tried a few of the moves which he had learnt from fighting Dove and Brede. Her eyes widened and she then took him more seriously. At the end of fifteen minutes Nancy called time out.

"Amber was not joking when she said you had a strong aura and considering that you missed three and a half years of training, your technique is quite good."

Jessica chimed in with "Does one of the people you practice with prefer the foil to the sword?"

Jaune replied, "Yes, one of them was transitioning from the foil to a sabre. How can you tell?"

Nancy replied, "There are some moves there which are normally more appropriate to the lighter blade. You have the strength to bring them off, but it will take some opponents by surprise. We are here for another three days. I would suggest that what we do is teach you the counters to the more specialised attacks who are likely to encounter. Your basic technique is solid enough, but you have not yet learned to react instinctively when your opponent tries something new to you."

Jessica said, "Crocea Mors is a fine weapon, but it is a little behind the times. I think you may have made some adjustments to it?"

"Yes, one of my friends, Ruby, majors on weapon design and helped me out."

"She's clearly pretty good. You should think about a secondary weapon though. Perhaps a revolver or pistol will give you some options in a fight particularly if you use it sparingly. Perhaps for when you go up against Grimm a rifle would be another option."

Nancy added, "I agree. While it is exhilarating fighting sword to claw, it is a lot safer if you can reduce the odds by picking off Grimm at a distance."

Jaune nodded at this. He had promised himself to save up for two new weapons. "Next term I will try out some of the practice weapons to see what suits me best."

The sisters exchanged glances and Nancy said, "Speak to Amber and dad about that. They helped us upgrade our weapons and buy new ones. Once dad stopped breeding, he started saving his money and took the view that lending us some to help us stay alive was a good exchange. Amber also chips in. She is now commanding the prices which a Vytal Semi-finalist who has stayed alive post being licensed can expect and most of her jobs provide free board and lodging."

Jessica then said, "You no doubt know already that your aura strength is going to be useful in the team rounds, especially with Pyrrha and Valkyrie around. No reflection on you, but in those rounds your opponents will concentrate on you and try to take you out quickly so as to play the numbers game with your teammates."

Nancy said, "In the first round your opponents from Haven will simply be looking to improve the odds of qualifying by taking a few of your team out before those two get to them. They know Lie Ren is a speedy and talented and that Valkyrie will have his back. They will therefore target you. A strong defence will frustrate them and tactically there may be little incentive to go on the attack and put yourself at risk of counter moves. However, keep an eye out for opportunities to use your aura to take them off balance and there are a few moves which we can teach you that are good for dealing with opponents who are attacking all out."

Jaune realised that the twins were paying him the compliment of taking him seriously and thinking about his future career. He also knew from what Cardin had said to him that if you were the weakest member of your team, people did take notice when employing you after being licensed of how well you had fought in the team rounds and the double rounds. A fighter who avoided being eliminated as a matter of course was clearly more valuable than one who got eliminated early but was part of an otherwise formidable team. One who took out opponents by himself or at least significantly weakened them was not seen as a passenger.

"Thanks, I will appreciate that. By the way, have you any tips on dealing with the brothers in law? They both insisted that I should meet up with them this week."

Jessica said, "They will insist on showing you off at the Beowulf club but get them to take you for dinner elsewhere. Alex away from his father and his father's cronies is a lot more forthcoming and Jasper is not so relentlessly cynical. Besides which at the Beowulf they all compete with each other on who can most convincingly pretend that nothing has changed since just before the Great War."

She checked the time, "We need to shower now. Lavender and dad will expect us for breakfast in ten minutes. Do make certain that dad does not get away with fobbing you off. Amber threatened us enough to make certain we kept our mouths shut. Saphron suspects something odd happened, but you know how good she is at compartmentalising things. Debo and Lily just accepted what dad told them. We have no idea what mum thinks, but her whole philosophy of life is to remain silent and gently nudge when she sees an opportunity."

Nancy added, "We are a bit calmer nowadays. If you ask us about being a huntsman or family, we will answer honestly and try to resist the temptation to tease. However, when it comes to your love life and comics, we are still the terrible twins and don't you forget it."

/-/

Qrow was woken by a knock at his door. He had had a late night. He hated it when he started feeling sympathy for villains or read about bad things happening to good people.

He said, "I did not ask for room service. Come back later. I still have an hour before I have to check out."

A cheery voice said, "Greetings Qrow. Clover Ebi here. The general wants me to take you to Atlas today so he can brainstorm current developments with you as well as Professor Goodwitch."

Qrow inwardly swore to himself. "Give me a few minutes. Perhaps I can join you for lunch in fifteen minutes."

Lunch is on Atlas. We can have it in the officer's mess at the base. Colonel Cordovin will be inspecting the troops so there will be no need for each of you to wind the other up."

Qrow thought that he might as well eat at the military base. Even if Cordovin kept out of his way, he no doubt could find some other people to irritate.

He also enjoyed Clover's company. He had first met him in Vacuo around three years ago and found him easy going by Atlas standards. Considering the amount of time, he spent around James that was an achievement. He recalled that Winter had been less wound up in Vacuo then she was now. Still perhaps that was because she had not known about Ozpin and Salem then. "OK, meet you in reception. Any chance of Atlas settling my bill if things are so urgent?"

"Already taken care of, Qrow."

A shower and a short journey later, Qrow was in the Argus military base being offered the full Anima Brunch.

As he munched through the first of the sausages, he said, "Clover, while it is always a delight to see James and Winter, you do know that my semblance is not one to risk on a trip to Atlas. I gather the weather is bad enough without risking a one in a century storm."

"That will not be a problem. Professor Goodwitch explained the problem and I believe that my semblance will counterbalance it. I also promise to join you on the flight back."

"Your semblance?"

"Good fortune."

Qrow laughed, "I will try and dampen mine down during the trip. No point in taking unnecessary risks. However, it would seem rude to decline."

They walked to the airship. Qrow laughed as they approached it, "Winter lent her airship? James must really want to see me."

Clover smiled politely. "Strictly it is an Atlas military airship donated by the SDC which is predominantly used by Atlas's special military envoy. It is above my pay grade to speculate on the motivations of the general or Jacques Schnee"

/-/

Jaune had rowed them out to the middle of the lake and he and his father had fished for two hours in a comfortable silence. A few fish had been caught and thrown back. It had been agreed that any trout would be taken back and eaten tonight, but so far they were not biting.

Dad checked the time and said, "I think it's time for lunch and a father/son talk." As jaune had expected dad had packed a lunch which could have fed four of them. He had even sneaked in a pork pie which usually Lavender and mum vetoed. Dad grinned and said, "I am allowed one every three months."

There was hummus and flatbread, bacon and sausage sandwiches with a thin layer of lettuce and tomatoes, some carrot cake, salad, and spicy chicken skewers. Also, as dad announced in the same way he had for as long as Jaune could remember, "We have lashings of ginger beer as well." There was a wink and he added, "Today we also have lashings of beer."

After the pork pie had vanished, dad turned to him and said, "I owe you an apology and an explanation, son. As you and Amber suspect, I persuaded your headmaster not to unlock your aura four years ago and deliberately botched it up myself."

Jaune said, "I had guessed. I would like to understand why you did it."

"It's complicated, but at the time I thought that enough members of the family, and particularly the males, had given their lives for Mistral in a never-ending war against the Grimm. None of you remembers your grandfathers or my brothers Jim and Clive. Only Saphron and Amber remember my brother Bill or mum's brother Jaune." He reached for his wallet and handed Jaune a photograph showing a young Nicholas Arc with what was clearly his team at Haven. Jaune noticed that one of them looked very like the photograph of him in Salutations.

"Is that my uncle?"

"Yes, you do take after him. Besides being your uncle and my teammate, he was my best friend and the bravest person I knew. I still find it difficult to forgive him for throwing his life away in a lost cause and how it affected your mother."

"I understand that you gave my sisters the choice not to become huntresses. Saphron and Deborah clearly are happier not fighting and I remember Lily's relief when you told her that she did not have to become a huntress if she did not want to. However, why did you take the decision away from me?"

"These may not be good reasons in retrospect, but they seemed compelling at the time. I had just retired from full time hunting and was starting to receive my pension. As you know, within a year I had decided that I was only semi-retired, but at the time I was taking stock."

Nicholas Arc paused and looked into the distance. "Part of taking stock involved me thinking about the days at the academy. I made the mistake of looking at old photographs and I realised that of my class at Haven only six people besides me were alive. Of those only me and one other were not seriously injured. Too many had died or been injured in incidents where their sacrifice was of questionable value. A village given one more hour of existence, a pre-emptive cull which turned out to be unnecessary or ineffective. There were situations where the fact that huntsmen existed seemed to have merely encouraged humans to take unjustified risks and settle in areas which were deserted for a good reason. I was wrong to be so negative, but it was how I felt at the time."

Jaune nodded and said, "I do recall that you were a little withdrawn back then and often went fishing by yourself."

His father continued, "A bit of me was terrified that the Arc name would die out. My two brothers had died without having children and your grandfather was the only one of four brothers who had boys. Now that it was socially acceptable for girls to become hunters, I thought three children destined to become hunters was enough. Already two of Amber's team had died, and she had been fortunate to survive herself. Actually, she had made her good luck- she had ensured that she had a line of retreat."

His father drank some more beer. "The tipping point for me was a conversation with your mother. I woke early one morning to find her sobbing into her pillow. I asked her what was wrong and after reassuring me that it was not my fault, explained that you reminded her too much of her brother at the same age."

He paused clearly thinking about the best way to phrase the next sentence. "Son, you may not remember what you were like at that age, but you believed the comics and the story books about how heroes should behave, and you rather neglected the detail of things which were necessary but did not interest you. Amber had been more like your mother in preparing for things and being realistic. The twins were a force of nature and were good at looking after each other, even if individually they were a little headstrong. You did take after your uncle and his death had hit both me and your mother hard. Your headmaster had similar thoughts. The number of his pupils who had died weighed heavily with him and he also felt uneasy about how the Mistral Regional tournament encouraged individual fighting skills rather than team skills."

Jaune thought about what his father was saying. He could not deny that his fourteen-year-old self had been a little idealistic and headstrong.

"I know you meant well, but it should have been my choice to make, dad."

"Yes. The problem was that once I had made the decision, I could not see how to retreat from it. For most of my life one of the lessons I have learnt is that once a decision has been taken, you should stand by it unless it is clearly wrong. Unfortunately, I was very determined to think that I had made the right decision."

Nicholas Arc spent a moment tidying up the hamper before resuming. "I kept telling myself that you would come to terms with it, but you did not. Basically, you went into a depression for two years. I tried telling myself that your reaction justified my decision, that you were immature and simply wanted to be a hero rather than do the best you could. I realised that I was being unfair to you. I admit that one of the reasons I started taking part time hunting gigs was that I found it difficult to deal with your situation. It took two years before you were ready to move on. Your mother waited until you started showing some interest in her work with local Grimm defences and she then got you involved in the LGDF. You worked hard and seemed to be enjoying yourself. I then told myself that things were working out for the best. Following your mother into the LGDF allowed you to defend others without putting yourself in the line of fire every day and taught you to think about the greater good of the community."

Jaune said, "Thanks dad for telling me the truth. I would like to mull things over the next few days to see what I really think. Perhaps we can catch some trout for dinner for the next few hours."

Jaune knew what he wanted to convey to his father but needed to think about how to say it. It would be easy just to say I forgive you, but that would not be true. It would also be easy to tell his father about the full depths of the two years of self-hate and depression that he had gone through before joining his mother at the LGDF. Even after that he had still despised himself as not being a real man. He had struggled to talk to women properly. He had inwardly believed himself unworthy of being loved but had put up a desperate front of self-confidence that had clearly come over as neediness. However, there were limits to how guilty he wanted his father to feel about things. Jaunes recognised that it had been his choice to wallow in his misery and to push his family away when they tried to help. He acknowledged to himself that only Amber and mother had persevered with him. The first because she was only around every few months and had a thick skin, the second because she had been waiting for him to say something positive which she could then run with. It was not that the others did not care, it was more that they did not know how to deal with him and had just avoided the subject.

The trout started biting and they had just cooperated in landing a large one when Jaune decided it was safe to talk.

"Dad, did you do the same thing with Saphron and Debo?"

"Not with Debo. It may have been that deep down she did not want her aura to be unlocked, but that was genuine. Saphron was a bit different. She clearly did not want to be a fighter, but felt honour bound to follow the family tradition. Her relief when her aura was not released was so obvious that I never felt any guilt about not unlocking it. Lily just told us flat out that she did not to be a hunter and that freedom of choice included the freedom to decide that her ambition was to be a full-time mother and wife."

"But you knew I wanted to be a hunter."

"Actually, what you wanted to be was a hero."

"I was a fourteen-year-old boy. What were you expecting? You could have told me that I was a little lazy, too stubborn and had the wrong idea about the practicalities. I would eventually have listened and got the message. After all the twins did."

"I should have believed in you or at least given you the benefit of the doubt. The problem was that four years ago all I recalled was that my brothers and your mother's brother never did get the message."

That one took Jaune aback. The family line had always been that his uncles had been heroes.

He decided to leave that remark in the air and continued, "Dad, I still love you and know you meant it for the best. Next time you do something for the best and it does not work out, do not be afraid to admit you were wrong or that you had not thought through all the implications. I will try and learn that lesson for myself."

He paused," Did mum know?"

"I certainly never told her until a few days ago. I do not know what she suspected and when. She did insist on me trying to unlock your aura when the headmaster failed to. She was not happy when I told her and asked me what on Remnant did I think I had been up to."

Jaune nodded. He was still angry with his father. There was some consolation that he wanted to give him, but he would do it indirectly through his mother.

"You were not tempted to do the same with Lavender? She is the most like Saphron of the rest of us."

"I had learnt my lesson and she was more cautious and studious than you were at the same age and did not have the same reluctance as Saphron"

/-/

Pyrrha had just had a quick sandwich lunch in between recording voiceovers for adverts and promotional interviews. The sponsorship deals had used to be fun and had paid for a new family home and weapon upgrades. She had come to resent the time and energy they took up and she was increasingly hating the trappings of fame. She could not go out in public even in Argus without being pursued by autograph hunters and journalists. While she liked to believe that she was fundamentally a kind and good person, she knew that her image of perfection was one which no one could live up to all the time.

She had over the last two years reduced the number of deals, but her agent had increased the fees, so she was still better off than she had been. One advantage of going to Beacon rather than Haven had been that some of her sponsors had demurred at the increased costs because of the uncertainty as to how the public in Mistral would react to her perceived betrayal. She had also declined to extend any deals past the Vytal festival and had concentrated all her other obligations into the first and last week of the holidays. Her agent and her mother had also at the time agreed with the strategy of delaying even opening negotiations on her behalf until the spring holidays. However, the White Fang attack on Junior's Club Mistralian had meant that she was coming under pressure earlier than she had expected.

In desperation she had sent a scroll message to Weiss and Coco asking for their input. Both were used to the problems of being in the spotlight and would not despise her for being a poor little rich girl complaining about problems which most people in Remnant would think were blessings. They had replied and had agreed to talk her over the CCT network using the SDC encoded lines and the SDC private room at the Vale Tower.

She started off by saying, "I need your advice."

Coco said, "Let me guess. Your agent is pressing you to sign million lien contracts after you curb stomped the White Fang."

Pyrrha nodded at this.

Coco then asked, "Do you want to, or do you need the money? Do you hate doing the promotional stuff so much that your life would be easier if you did not do it?"

"It's complicated. My mother says that so far as she is concerned, she has enough money, the house has no mortgage on it and the rest of the family are not entitled to expect me to look after them for the rest of my life. On the other hand, if they pay me a fortune for not very much, why not take advantage. I do not mind a few days a year, but I hate being perfect Pyrrha all the time. I am also uncertain whether my siblings and cousins are getting dependent on my help and do not persevere because they can count on me."

Coco said, "We have spoken about the first issue before. If you can drop some products in return for exclusivity for others than you can earn the same money for 25% of the effort. Coffee adverts are good for that. Also, if you limit the products you advertise to those you really like you can negotiate a bonus for only using their product in circumstances where you would have done anyway. On the other hand, just refuse to enter into any contracts with morality clauses."

"Is that an Adel family view? Apparently, your mother has offered me a contract with an immorality bonus clause."

"I have not yet received my immorality bonus" replied Coco. "I would not count on her ever thinking you had done enough to earn it. She is serious that a bad girl image does not hurt sales in our industry, and she will not cancel a contract for anything less than murder."

Weiss remarked, "But you only pretend to be a bad girl. You have not even remotely earned a bonus for immoral behaviour."

Coco said, "Seriously, if my mother has offered you a contract and you are tempted by it, get your lawyers to check it and ensure that you have a veto over the clothe she can ask you to wear. Why not join me, Weiss, Brede, and Velvet in Atlas in two weeks for the SDC charity ball and the Atlas fashion show and we can talk it over then? Besides which I think the more distractions there are when Brede's photographs come out the better. On stopping being perfect Pyrrha without going full teenage pop star, you can grow up without becoming a tabloid joke. A few nightclub visits with me and Brede will help and perhaps invite Jaune to join us. You do not have to do anything with him accept dance a couple of times and have your photograph taken with him. A do they/don't they vibe will please most of the advertisers any way."

Pyrrha blushed and said, "Is that fair on him?"

"If he is interested in you then at least it puts him on notice of what he is letting himself in for. If he is not, then he can just say no or go with the flow."

Wiess added, "I think he was looking for an excuse not to go back to the family home for the last two weeks of the holiday anyway and you can say that you want to discuss team strategy with him. You can stay in separate rooms or even separate hotels."

Pyrrha said, "Can I get back to you on that? It could be fun, and it would help to talk face to face. This week and the last week of the holiday are the only real commitments I have left to contractually fulfil until the Vytal festival so I could make the time."

Coco said, "How long can you put off your agent and the advertisers?"

Pyrrha said, "My agent tells me that the public show no signs of getting bored with me and the sponsors are happy that their Mistral customers do not blame me for going to Beacon. The reaction to the fight at the club means that according to my agent I can name your price. At the very least he says that he wants to open negotiations with them now so that he can fix a floor now to the offers and start playing them off against each other."

"Can you put it off until the last week of the holidays."

"Yes, at the very least I can say that I want to look through the offers. I have decided that I am not going to agree to any more morality clauses or to anything which requires me to meet the CEOs family and friends. I will not renew the Pumpkin's Pete's deal, advertise foods which I do not eat or hair products I do not use. I am also determined not to add more than three days to the time I have to spend dealing with the endorsements before the Vytal Festival."

"Do you mind if I speak to my mother? I think I can get her to be flexible and perhaps a photoshoot with Velvet at Beacon may work for you and the Adel corporation."

"I will think about it. If I go to Atlas we can discuss it then. Weiss, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask. I reserve the right not to reply."

"I received an offer from a biscuit company. I was wondering whether Ruby would object if I suggested that they speak to her."

"I think they already have. Coco and I talked her out of signing up to a year's supply of cookies contract. Perhaps you could let us know what they offered you and we can use 25% of your price as a guideline for her starting point and 50% as the settling point."

Coco added, "We put her in touch with one of the agents my family regularly deals with on the basis that this is a one-off deal so a 15% cut rather than 10% is fine, but that if he tries to exploit her he is in trouble. Still if it is a different firm no harm in having a bit of competition."

Weiss said, "You said that you were not interested in hair product deals. I assume that means you have been offered them. Again, a hint on the going rate might be helpful as Yang is being besieged by offers from them."

Pyrrha said, "What do Ruby and Yang make of it?"

"I think that they are mostly bemused and amused. Ruby after realising they paid cash as well as cookies wants to upgrade Crescent Rose still further and stock up on dust."

Pyrrha said, "Tell them to watch out for exclusivity clauses, requirements to do unlimited publicity and meet and greets. Also insist on no more than two day's filming during the holidays."

Coco said, "Me and Weiss are holding their hands on this. Also, Ozpin has said that they should not sign anything before Glynda gets back from Atlas."

"Has anyone else been approached?"

"I think Lydia and Cardin were and just told them they were not interested. Some of my mother's Faunus proteges are trying to contact Sun, Blake and even Leslie. Anne has passed under the radar mainly because what she did was either not self-evident or because it was too bloody to show on screen. She is not Faunus enough for those marketing to Faunus."

"Coco, how does your family deal with relatives who are not interested in the family business"

"It's complicated. There is an uncle who is a professor of linguistics who we fund because everyone acknowledges he is good at his subject and is not coasting. Otherwise, the understanding is that if you behave as though the world owes you a living, then you will get board and lodging, but no company credit card and minimal financial support. So far that has been enough to prevent anyone coasting. I have a few nieces or nephews who are showing signs of entitlement, so my mother and my elder brother are going to have to make a call about this issue in the next ten years. Actually, a competitor of ours insists upon family members who opt out of the business to work hard for three years in any career they choose to pursue before being allowed to change direction and so far that has worked for them."