Sharing the room with Sun wasn't as bad as Serene had imagined it would be. He asked about her past but didn't push when she tried to change the subject.
Her snacks lasted about three days before they had to start sneaking out at night to steal food from the kitchen. Serene hadn't been particularly hungry; it wasn't uncommon to do a few days without eating when rations were low, but it was fun to make a game of sneaking through the halls and avoiding detection. They came out and night to walk around deck and get some fresh air. On the rare occasion another passenger or crewmen saw them they were given just a polite smile before continuing on their way.
It felt like forever before their trip came to an end, and Serene was up before the sun (and Sun) rose, looking out their small porthole as the land approached.
The day grew brighter as the small speck grew into the large city of Vale. Sun was rifling through the old and discarded equipment for the hundredth time as Serene waited anxiously for the dock. She was so far past cabin fever. It was more like cabin she-was-about-to-burst-into-flames-and-burn-the-boat-down.
"How much longer?" Sun whined, just walking back and forth.
"Not long. We're pulling into the dock." "How are we getting off? Can we just make a run for it?" He asked excitedly.
"If you want to…" She said shrugged dubiously. "Cool! Give me a countdown when we dock." He grabbed his staff,
And they both froze as the door opened, and a middle-aged man appeared. All three stared at each other for a moment, before the man straightened up, frowning. "You two aren't supposed to be here." He said angrily.
"Five four three two one!" Serene said quickly, grabbing her bag and making a run for it. Sun grabbed his staff and ran after Serene, who jumped kicked the sailor to the opposite wall, landing in a roll and throwing her bag onto her back and running.
"Sorry!" Sun called after them, following after her.
They ran up the stairs and burst into the light, getting a few looks from the passengers who had gathered there with their luggage.
"You think we can make that?" Sun asked, looking over at the slowly closing gap, about fifty feet away, between the boat and the metal and cement dock.
"Hey! You two get back here!" Cried a voice from behind them. Sun and Serene turned and saw the angry man glaring up at them from the bottom of the stairs.
"I don't think we have a choice," She replied, slamming the door shut and melting the lock closed. She pulled out a gauntlet and quickly put it on, running to the dock and jumping onto the railing, propelling herself forward and sending her wire out, which wrapped around a pole and yanked her forward. She hit the dock hard and spun, almost falling into the water on the other side. She retracted her wire and looked around for her bag, which had landed behind her. The boat was almost docked, and Sun appeared, his two doubles pushing him forward and he landed beside her.
"Scatter!" He called. Serene jumped to her feet, ignoring the ache in her arm and hip and grabbed her bag, taking off. Sun went left and she went right, running through streets and down alleys until her lungs burned and a painful twinge was flaring in her ankle.
"Holy shit," She panted, clutching her bag to her chest. She sat there until her heart rate calmed down before getting up and switching her jacket out for a green one, brushing her hair out of her face and tying it back her fringe fell into her eyes and she brushed it back.
Walking out onto the street, she looked around. It looked like mostly businesses, and she walked until she found somewhere, she could get a drink. She 'accidently' bumped into a woman and grabbed her purse, pulling out the lien before dropping it into a gutter.
The café was a bit more packed than she would have liked, but she stepped inside anyway, ordering a sugar filled coffee she had come to love and, desperate for some real food, a sandwich, and waited patiently, enjoying the air conditioning. "Here you go hon," the cute waitress, a brown skinned doe faunus, said, handing her food over the bench. Serene gave a smile and took it.
"Would you be able to give me directions to Beacon academy?" She asked, leaning against the bench.
"Oh, of course! You turn right outside and walk three blocks. Then you'll be on the main road, and if you go left, you'll find a bright red bus stop and you can catch a ride from there right up to Beacon." "Thanks," Serene winked and took her purchases, heading outside. She followed the directions and found the bus stop. She had two hours until the next bus stop Beacon so she sat on the bench, eating her food and taking a moment to collect herself.
She was at Beacon, in Vale. Ugh, all she wanted was a shower and a proper night's sleep. She wandered what happened to Sun, but didn't like that she cared.
Finding another, smaller and quieter café, she bought another coffee so she would be allowed to sit and charge her scroll. It turned on, and she was relieved to see no messages from Raven. None from anyone, actually. She messaged Raven to let her know she had arrived and downed the rest of her coffee. At this point of exhaustion, she was energised; she hoped signing in wouldn't take long. She was at the point where murder might just be a legitimate solution. She changed into her Haven uniform in the bathroom before catching the bus, which took her straight to Beacon and she didn't know if she almost fell asleep or simply blacked out on the ride. Checking in was easy enough and she stared at the map she was given for a few minutes blankly, nothing actually registering.
"Are you alright?" Serene looked up, blinking owlishly and trying to figure out how to make her mouth work.
"Huh?" She asked brilliantly.
The student in her Beacon uniform smiled kindly. "You're from Haven, right? Are you lost?"
"I think so." She turned the map over, seeing the blank back of the sheet. She turned it back over again.
"Are you trying to find your dorms? The visiting students' dorms are to the East." The student, a rabbit faunus, moved to stand beside her, pointing out the dorms on the map.
"The fastest way there is to cut across the courtyard and take the stairs up. The dorms start on the second floor."
"Thanks," "Velvet," She held out her hand, and Serene shook it.
"Sera." "Well Sera," Velvet said enthusiastically, "Welcome to Beacon."
Her luggage was there when Serene arrived and her first course of action was to grab her clothes and toiletries and making her way to the bathroom. She almost fell asleep in the shower but managed to dry off, dress, and stumble to her dorm. Curling up and passing out on the cool bedding.
Serene woke almost twelve hours later at about four in the morning. She sat on the bed, checking out the room. It was plainer than the Haven rooms, and she didn't like the way the beds were, so she moved them around to resemble the room back at Haven and claimed the one behind the door, making sure the door was locked and pushing her trunk against it.
Bored with nothing else to do, she sat in the middle of the room and emptied her duffle bag and trunk, spilling the contents onto the floor. All of her clothes in her duffle smelt like the ocean, and she threw it into a pile to wash later. She carefully cleaned her gauntlets, careful to avoid rusting, and rewiring them. her staff was in good order, so she sat it behind her out of the way of her haphazard throwing.
Her trunk was more interesting; she hadn't looked much into it since she had packed it, mostly with stolen goods, so she started sorting through the pile at the end of her bed. the clothes were nicer than the ones she had been wearing, and she had a whole bag of toiletries that smelt nice, but she wasn't entirely sure what to do with. The notebooks she stole had been left empty in favour of the ones Haven supplied and the ones with the pretty colours she had stolen in the marketplace.
With a gasp of excitement, she noticed a bag of candy she had stolen from Maizie early on under the toiletries bag, and ripped it open, a tad dismayed when the small colourful sweets burst all over the clean clothes. She quickly scooped them up and shoved a handful in her mouth, her hunger making itself known as she tried to sedate it. She ate all the sweets before turning her attention back to the mess, searching for any more treats.
With her trunk sorted and her hunger momentarily quelled, she fell back into bed, hoping for a bit more sleep before the school came alive with the rising sun.
The sound of students in the hall woke Serene up. If her reflexes had been any slower, she would have fallen out of the bed from the awkward position she had shifted into in her sleep.
Getting dressed, she emptied the toiletry bag and read the small writing on the container. She had hand cream, which smelt like flowers but was very slippery. He put too much on her hands and had to wipe it off on an old shirt.
She put her clothes in the laundry before going off in search of a cafeteria. It was huge and most people were heading towards it, so it was easy enough to find and pile food onto her tray, finding an empty area of the right end table and sitting down, shovelling the food into her mouth so fast she barely had time to chew.
After breakfast she grabbed a drink and headed to the laundry room, hoping her clothes were done. Unfortunately, they still had a few minutes left, so she took a seat on one of the plastic chairs and waited.
Monday came too fast, considering all she'd done for the last two days was sit in her room reading her history textbook. It was, in all fairness, very interesting. She didn't know about most of the things she read about. Education wasn't the top priority at the backwoods bandit tribe she called home.
Sunday evening, she finished her book and, desperate for more, decided to explore the school in hopes of finding the library. She found it, and looked around for anything to do with, well, just about anything.
She found a series, 'The world of Remnant', and picked up the three books labelled 'Atlas', 'Vacuo',and'Mistral'.Walking over to the front desk she endured the borrowing process before returning to her room, ignoring the few students still around as it got darker and darker outside.
The next morning was… difficult. She'd tried to put on stockings but had torn two pairs before giving up and abandoning them. Besides that, her uniform was perfect, and she ran her hands through her hair in lieu of brushing it and grabbed her bag and copy of 'The World of Remnant; Vacuo',and headed to the hall to eat.
Vaguely aware of the other students filing in, Serene read about the Huntsmen who first settled in the dessert.
Classes weren't anything special, but she felt her interest in Beacon slowly waning as their Grimm studies teacher prattled on about his own life story instead of teaching them. Serene gave up and spent the last fifteen minutes doodling in her textbook. She drew a rather decent drawing of a boarbatusk and shot out of the door the second the bell sounded.
"I gotta get out of here!" Serene whined loudly, throwing herself onto her bed. sitting up, she stripped off her uniform and changed into jeans and a jacket, tying up her boots and grabbing her card, checking the balance and balking slightly.
The government paid huntsmen and huntresses in training a fortnightly pay to get by, and it turned out stealing most of her things had landed her with a decent sum over the last ten weeks. It wasn't Schnee money, but it was more than she'd ever had to her name before.
Avoiding the other students relaxing at the end of the day, she headed into town and looked around for somewhere to buy her ridiculously sweet coffee.
There were several stalls set up for the Vytal tournament, and Serene scanned each one, trying to get a feel of the town. She grabbed a large coffee and subtly followed a group of teenagers to a clothes shop, breaking away and slowly walking around the shop.
The fabrics ranged from bright and colourful to dark and dull, and Serene mostly picked out the items she liked on how comfortable they were. Spotting a group of girls, one of which she recognised from her Combat class, and took in their appearance.
They were all in Huntress outfits. Serene mostly just wore what she could scavenge in the tribe, unlike Raven or Vernal or Ansa who had an outfit they preferred, and she wandered if she should get one. It would help her blend in, as most other students seemed to have their signature look.
It became her mission of the day, and she spent a few hours in the shop trying on different combinations of clothes with the help of a perky shop assistant who insisted everything looked really good on her.
Serene felt bad that she didn't buy any clothes, so she bought some hair bands and socks, telling herself she needed them anyway.
Three more shops and she picked up a few things, but nothing she'd feel comfortable going into a fight in.
"You know," The tall shop owner said as she pulled on her own shoes, "A few streets over there's some stores specifically for huntresses." Serene got the directions and hit the road, immensely hopeful her search would soon come to an end.
The shop was a combination of clothing and dust, and Serene was immediately drawn to the darker clothes in the corner. She found a rack and started flicking through the pants.
"Ah yes; black is a popular colour amongst first year students."
Serene turned, seeing a tall pale person with light cream hair and dark eyes standing behind her. Serene couldn't help but step back, bumping into the pant's rack. They looked like a vampire.
"Um, what?" she asked. "How did you know I was a first year?"
The tall person gave an eerie smile. "The Crossroads' is frequented by all Combat students for our excellent prices and the convenience of having all your Beacon academy needs in one place," They spoke with an even, slightly high pitched voice, as though they were making a sales pitch or recording an advertisement for their store. Serene was uncomfortable with their gaze, as though they could see through her.
"Cool," She said slowly.
"I never forget a face," They said, tapping below their right eye and grinning. "Yours is familiar, but not for an age. Were your parent's huntsmen?" Serene shook her head. "No. And I'm from Haven academy, so…" "Nevertheless; welcome to The Crossroads. Will you be needing assistance today?" She shook her head again. "I'm… just gonna browse." "Alright, well don't be afraid to call out," They turned and walked off, and Serene was frozen in place for a long moment before she regained her bearings.
That was…. freaky.
But true to the creepy person's words, Serene found several outfits she liked in just the half hours she was there. She grabbed some dust and a magazine, stalling until someone else came to the counter to check her out, and exited the store.
The grocery store was next, and she stocked up on food and drinks, hoping to avoid leaving her dorm as much as possible. She was dismayed to discover the drinking age in Vale was twenty-one.
It was dark when she bought her fourth cup of coffee, just walking around the streets killing time until the next bus to Beacon.
She was tinkering with her staff, pushing her new pack of dust into the slots when the police cars raced past.
With nothing better to do, she followed them, weaving her way through the street until she was back at the docks, watching the police arrest a group of men with white fang emblems on the backs of their jackets from behind a large bin at the end of the alley.
"Holy shit," She muttered, pulling out her scroll. She fiddled with it for a moment before she figured out how to record and started filming the scene, trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
She didn't know a whole lot about the White Fang – Raven had been intent on staying out of the Mistral faction's way – but she knew they'd grown more aggressive in the last few years. She wandered what they were doing in Vale.
A few of the cops started spreading out, looking for evidence or something, and Serene decided it was time to leave. Sticking to the shadows, she made it back to the bus stop just as the bus was pulling up.
