Yang meets the Schnees

by Muskrat2

Yang goes to Atlas with Weiss during the Winter holidays following their first term at Beacon and start bonding with each other and Willow. In the meantime events in Mistral have a knock-on effect thoughout Remnant. Links into Jaune's Winter holiday and Learning to Lead, learning to follow. It is not necessary to have read those to understand what is happening.

8. Chapter 8 - The Adel fashion show

Weiss was waiting for the Adel fashion show to begin. She was standing next to her mother who was worried that she could not spare the time to be at here. There had just been a message from Lisa Lavender saying that she was now a probable rather than a definite attendee. In addition, Ironwood was negotiating some special guest appearances which until they were set in stone he was not divulging to anyone. Weiss wondered why he was bothering keeping secrets from mother. Weiss was certain in her own mind that Ruby and two out of three of the Belladonnas would be the main targets. He had apparently roped in a team from Vacuo and had almost finished bringing in another pair from Beacon who apparently also helped on the stronger together theme

On her other side was Yang who was genuinely excited to be at a fashion show. She was happy to join in the meeting and greeting. Although she had not been at Kulsa, plenty of people recognised her from the footage showing the White Fang attack in Vale. Having been away for four months meant that people were also curious to see how Weiss had changed.

Yang had enjoyed herself at the club last night. She had expressed the opinion that it made a change for the premises to be intact after a night out. At least Yang had waited until her father had left for the office this morning to reveal that Team FNKI had extracted the urine from him last night.

Weiss actually knew about the Coal family business. While she could not blame the young man for being loyal to his father, it had made economic sense for the SDC to deprioritise the mom-and-pop stores and the specialist stores. The costs of dealing with them had always been high as the orders were unpredictable, debts were often paid late and there were arguments over trivial matters which they blew up to be matters of principle. When companies such as the Amin Corporation in effect became their own distribution network and negotiated discounts for bulk orders, being responsible for their own storage, etc, then it only made sense to take them out of the figures used to calculate the prices charged and the costs passed on to the smaller shops. It had got to the stage where the Amin Corporation could make a profit by selling at prices which were only fractionally higher and sometimes lower than the price the mom-and-pop stores paid to the SDC.

The fact that the price which the Amin stores charged retail were only slightly more than the small stores paid the SDC reflected economic reality. Besides which the SDC had made certain that enough distributors existed so that no one could play hardball with them.

As the proportion of turnover reflected by the small shops reduced then the need to tolerate late payment and bad debts reduced. Indeed, it had made sense to require payment upfront. In the end many of the mom-and-pop shops had sold out to the Amin corporation, their competitors and indeed the SDC and had become employees. Curiously the SDC got all the blame while the Amin corporation and their human counterparts were seen as providing a lifebelt. Weiss suspected that the Mantle based companies had been more tactful with how they had dealt with the ex-owners.

Still, she would speak to father about improving their reputation in Mantle. The Amin corporation got a lot of good press for its support for Mantle cultural and sports facilities and most of the family still lived there. Meanwhile Marrow Amin was seen as having shattered the glass ceiling for both the Faunus and Mantle residents in the Atlas military and the academy.

Yang had described to her and her mother how the audience had reacted to Marrow turning up in Mantle last night. In the interval between sets the four members of the band and the Fox Faunus singer had gone over to talk with Marrow and later in the evening Flynt had dedicated a song to him. He had apparently encouraged the four of them to apply to Atlas and they also credited them with persuading the powers that be allowing them to be on the same team.

What Weiss had found more troublesome to process was when Yang had said, "I had not known old guys should be such good dancers. Parsifal is almost as energetic as Russel and has had more practice. I thought all older men danced like my dad."

Mother had laughed at this. "He is in his early fifties and is not really that old. Still, he was always good on the dance floor and was excellent at making his partner feel comfortable and that they were a better dancer than they really were. I am glad to hear my old friend still has the knack."

Yang had said, "Will be seeing you on the dance floor at the ball, Willow? I would like to see you dancing with him."

Mother had laughed, "Not with him. Probably with Jacques and Ironwood and maybe Clover Ebi. Yang, it would be tactful if you did not repeat what I said to Jacques or Whitley. Husbands do not like their wives complimenting old rivals and sons do not like the idea of their mothers being young and frivolous."

Weiss must have shown something in her face as mother had turned to her and said, "Dear, Parsifal and I enjoyed each other's company, but it was obvious to both of us that it was not going to end in marriage. It helped that being seen together annoyed both sets of parents. It was a flirtation which helped both of us achieve what we then wanted."

Yang said "Why? He is five years older than you but was that really a problem for your parents? Besides which a little bit of test driving helped me know that Bumblebee felt right between my legs." Yang had winked at Weiss when saying this. Mother had laughed at this. She had already heard all about Yang's bike and had learnt not to rise to the double entendres.

Mother had replied, "The old aristocracy were more powerful twenty-five or thirty years ago. As far as the Campions were concerned the Schnee family were vulgar newcomers and were inherently inferior. Parsifal was still the second heir then. His brother had married but no children had resulted. If you thought the Campion's family reaction to Brede's photograph in Salutations with his teammate was hysterical, it was nothing compared to their reaction when they thought Parsifal was interested in me as a wife."

Yang had laughed, "The whole idea of Lydia being a gold digger is totally insane."

Mother had smiled, "Mind you my father's reaction was not that much more measured. My father reacted to the condescension of the old aristocracy by taking the view that the last thing he wanted was to hand the SDC on to a second or third son who had no interest in the business. He tended to regard my admirers as either after me for my money or wanting to humiliate him by loving and leaving me and then boasting about it in society."

Weiss had nodded and said, "Father worries about the same thing with me. Actually, when I started singing in public there were people who pursued me which suggested that he was right to warn me. Nowadays there is also the threat of selling a story to the Remnant Enquirer."

Mother had then continued, "In my case it also helped that seeing me with Parsifal and the others meant that Jacques realised that I had options."

Yang asked, "Had you and Mr Schnee known each other long?"

"He was one of my father's brightest young men. He used to regularly invite them to eat with the family and encouraged them to talk shop to him and included me in the conversations. Jacques was dashing compared with most of them. He was a businessman first and a mining expert second. He was also the one who paid me the most attention and answered my questions fully."

After Yang had left the table to brush her hair, mother had turned to her and said, "Dear, perhaps we should have had this conversation before. The reality is that money in itself is a secondary consideration for your father. Back then I would have been very lucky to have had anyone marry me primarily for love. Understandably my father preferred me to marry someone who cared about the business more than the money. He was desperate to ensure that he had a legacy in the world for at least one-hundred years. Unfortunately, a business like the SDC requires constant attention and does not leave your father much time for other things including family."

She sipped her coffee and then added, "My father more or less ordered Jacques to marry me if the alternative was going to be an effete aristocrat. That suited me at the time because I enjoyed speaking to your father about the business. Parsifal, although making it clear that if I were up for anything more than a flirtation but less than marriage, he would be happy to oblige, was motivated by a sense of public service. He used our flirtation to put pressure on his family and his family obliged by using their influence to have him sent on a posting to Vale. He claimed that it also resulted in his father ordering his brother to hurry up and start breeding."

She then paused and said, "Back then the idea of a woman running the SDC was unthinkable. It is now possible. Please do keep your options open as long as possible."

Weiss found it difficult to process both aspects of this conversation. Klein had been correct to advise her to go with her instinct to reveal that the ambassador had been in the restaurant but had not interacted with her. She had waited until midway through the meal with Winter and Ironwood to reveal that. It seemed to pass under the radar or perhaps more accurately father had listened and had decided that it was not something he was going to make a fuss about now Weiss had mentioned it. Weiss was not entirely certain in her own mind whether he had already known or not.

It probably did not hurt that Parsifal Campion of all people was now in favour with Ironwood and was hardly ever in Atlas. Her father was likely to have decided that the man was best left alone unless he made trouble first.

She was not certain what she made of her mother's attitude to the man. She could half understand it as she did enjoy Brede's company who apparently took after his uncle in having a sense of public duty and a certain degree of charm. However, unlike Brede, his uncle was a womaniser and a hedonist. While she would not admit it to Yang, the more she thought about it the less convinced she was by mother's insistence that they had been both playing their families.

Yang had told them that both the ambassador and Leslie had interacted with the Fox Faunus singer. She had sung a song in Parsifal's honour citing his role in the changes in Vacuo. She had also joked that she had now met the Lynx Faunus at gigs in three of the four kingdoms and that he must be one of her biggest fans. She had then sung, "He's a tramp" which the Beacon contingent had thoroughly enjoyed. It had been quite clear that the song was aimed at Leslie who liked to cultivate a certain raffish quality about himself.

It seemed at the end of the show that the singer, the ambassador, Leslie, and Marrow had gone for supper together. Yang had made it quite clear that she thought this was a euphemism, but even though Yang felt comfortable with mother, she had not gone into the more detailed speculation which she would have indulged in had they been in the dorm at Beacon.

Still dinner last night had been fascinating. Watching Ironwood and her father negotiating had been intriguing and she saw the force of mother's plea to keep becoming head of the SDC a real option. Indeed, today she could watch Coco's attempt to pull of the balancing act of training to be a hunter with being involved in the family business.

She had followed Klein's advice over the last few years. Father was highly resistant to accusations that the SDC had lost its way or was a criminal organisation. However, he was at least ready to listen to arguments that there were improvements which could be made and that as Remnant evolved the SDC needed to respond.

Clearly last night Ironwood's PR and nudge experts had been readying him with prompts which father was happy to go along with. The Raddock girl's behaviour which most of her friends had expressed to be something they had never seen coming had allowed the SDC to say that they also had not understood the demons underlying her uncle and his best friend when they had been in charge in Vacuo. Both were now dead. It was assumed that the third member of the three amigos from Mistral was also dead and so no one was in a position to contradict them. Anyway, Haven was happy to say that the SDC had done its best to warn them and that the fault lay in the very dead and traitorous deputy headmaster.

Ironwood had tacitly accepted that father was technically right to say that the SDC had never been found guilty of authorising the breaking the law in Vacuo (ignoring the scarring which could be blamed on overzealous employees). The SDC Mistralian accountant had actually dotted the I's and crossed the T's when he had implemented the employee rip offs and had made the contracts legally consistent with them being independent contractors. In addition, the company store profit margins while extortionate were within the letter of the law at the time. However, father accepted that he should not say it too loudly in public and should instead major on the changes over the last three or so years.

Admittedly the Atlas tax and employment authorities were now threatening the multi-kingdoms with a General Anti Avoidance Rule, but it was still a threat rather than legislation. Brede had explained it as a message that the multi-kingdoms should engage brain as to what was the spirit of the law which in most cases was don't obviously be exploitative. Brede had also said that this likely meant that the multi-kingdoms were counting on at last three trips to the last chance saloon before the law was introduced.

She had asked Brede about the first term in Vale had changed him. She knew that she now thought more about why other people believed what they did and that it was not unreasonable for them to think that way. He had replied that he now understood emotionally what he had half believed intellectually.

He had said, "Weiss, I know computer games are more Ruby and Yang's thing, but I get now why some say that being a wealthy human male from a stable family is the lowest difficulty setting in life. Certainly, it is clear from speaking to Anne that being a poor Faunus from a one parent family and having your dyslexia diagnosed as stupidity is a different proposition."

"But she is at Beacon and is about to be a competitor in the Vytal festival."

"Yes, but she knows that is down to luck. She says her life changed because one day she hitchhiked. Someone spotted her potential, and the Travers foundation funded her ADA. She does not talk about how she unlocked her semblance but the fact that it is an unarmed combat one speaks volumes."

"But the system did allow her and Leslie to come through."

"Have you talked to your sister about his time in Vacuo? About half the officers he worked with tried to court martial him because of his accent. Fine, by the time she got there it had been turned into a test of character for new officers, but can you imagine what it would have been like the first time someone went after him as a young auxiliary?"

"We all have to play the hands we are dealt with. Both of us are training to be hunters. It would have been far easier for me to have simply become the heiress and you to have become a Henry Marigold."

"Weiss you wound me. I could have never been a Henry. Possibly a May, but I am happy being a male and Uncle Parsifal showed me that it was possible to do things my own way without totally rejecting the family."

He had then reverted to being charming and asking about her holidays. She had tried to get him to talk about whether his family had tried apologising to him for how they had allowed their newspapers to go after his teammate Lydia. He was reticent although his mother's sister had renewed an invite to have the whole of his team stay with her and her family next holiday, but otherwise it appeared that this was not something which was talked about.

He had got a sort of hint from his brother that part of the problem had been that they had known Lydia was related to Dahlia Travers but not that she was also related to Agnes Winchester. The former, although rich enough, was a liberal by Vale standards and positively unspeakable by Atlas standards. They were worried enough that he got on so well with his uncle and the thought that the spare could marry into what they euphemistically called a family of animal lovers had thrown them into a panic.

Anyway, now she was looking forward to the fashion show. The Adel family had also ended up revising their plans in the light of Kulsa. Hunters and huntresses were now the heroes and heroines of the hour. In Atlas the teenage princess market was now huge, and some mothers enjoyed portraying strong women. A lot of parents who had busy lives showed they cared by spending money and the Coco brand had really taken off.

The Adel family were also going for the young males who wanted to dress like a stylish hero. Unfortunately for them while Coco's brothers were tall and arguably at least as attractive as her, they were clearly aesthetes. The fact that fashion was only her second passion oddly made Coco more effective as the vehicle for the Adel's young women range. The Adel's had not come up with anyone as striking for their male range.

It was curious watching Velvet in full fashion photographer mode. She was dressed in a black trouser suit with a colourful vest or as she called it waistcoat and a bow tie. She had two cameras around her neck as well her normal box. Her mother had asked Velvet about the cameras and the rabbit Faunus had explained that one of the cameras was for black and white photographs only. Apparently for some shots the contrast in black and white photographs made them more effective and in many ways more real. Weiss's mother had nodded at this and had asked if the black and white shots would primarily be used for the behind-the-scenes photographs. Velvet had laughed and said that would probably be the case. Willow had then said to Weiss and Yang, "I agree with your friend. When I look at the photographs from my childhood and teens the black and white ones always seem more real. Perhaps it was because the colours were just too bright then, but it is what I feel."

Weiss was not altogether certain how she felt about knowing that her mother had gone dancing in clubs with Parsifal Campion and had views on art and photography. Yang had even said to her that she thought that Willow "was cool." Actually, Weiss acknowledged to herself that seeing her mother engaged with life reminded her of what things had been like as a child when she had admired her mother's poise.

She saw Yang was waving at someone. She turned her head and saw two young men approaching. She had seen one before at the night club in Vale and on the coverage from Kulsa. She had not seen the other before, but he was tall, smartly dressed and had blue hair.

The young man flashed a smile at Yang and asked to be introduced to "your Snow Angel friend." Weiss found herself a little flustered by the attention. Yang introduced the two, Mercury Black and Neptune Vassilias.

Apparently mother knew the Vassilias family well and drew Weiss into the conversation. Weiss did quickly check, and Yang seemed happy enough teasing Mercury.

/-/

Velvet was now behind the scenes at the fashion show. Coco's mother had asked her to make certain that she had plenty of photographs of Team VBES backstage and of Arkos front of stage. She half giggled to herself. The pair had been together less than two weeks and the press had already agreed how they would be referred to as a couple. Jaune was dressed in Adel men's clothing and had scrubbed up well and Pyrrha had accepted a pair of A-Bans to wear after having had her lawyers check the terms of her other contracts.

It amused Coco that Pyrrha was so desperate not to make Jaune feel that he was being kept by her that she had encouraged him to take an income from the Adel Corporation. Still there was a difference even though Coco's mother was using it to reel Pyrrha in.

She had already taken the group photographs of Team Vibes. Team VBES had a sort of boy band feel about them. Sun with his abs was clearly the pin up for teenage girls and was the Faunus human parents would not object to their daughters bringing home. He also apparently worked as far as at least one of Coco's brothers was concerned. Coco had said that Velvet would need to be there on the catwalk and would need to take pictures of the audience as much as of Sun. The tail was somehow exotic rather than off putting.

Neptune was somehow a cool rich nerd which appealed to a certain demographic. He dressed himself but helped the look of his team. Luckily, the Adel corporation had their own versions of his favoured clothes which he had agreed to wear. Mercury had a bad boy vibe and with a pair of A-Bans and a Coco beret he was now a cool bad boy.

Apparently Coco and her mother had found it difficult was which way to jump with Emerald. She was definitely a potential star, but did they emphasise that she was a bit of a tomboy or push the wiggle in the walk? Coco's mother had slept on the issue and would decide on the last minute. Apparently Emerald took direction well and could go either way.

Mercury had also been roped into the shoot this morning and Coco had guilt tripped Neptune into joining the rest of his team for a few group shots as a one-off deal. In his case a payment to his family's charity had been the incentive plus the fact that it increased the payments made to his team members. While the Vassilias family was not Schnee or Campion rich, they were in the top 0.1%. Besides which the Adel family knew that once someone had gone the first step; it was easy to persuade them to take a few more. He was also a second son – it was possible that his family might encourage him to seek more sources of income.

She had gone looking for them thirty minutes back when a tail appeared in front of her as the monkey Faunus from Team VBES attracted her attention. He was accompanied by Neptune whom she had met last night. The latter said, "The team is ready for its close-up Miss Scarlatina." They had both discussed their love for old films last night and he was obviously expecting her to spot the reference.

She laughed at them. "Ok boys. Let's go to Emerald's dressing room." This was another ploy by Coco's mother. She had realised Sun just enjoyed life and sharing a room with his two male teammates was fine. Giving Emerald a larger room to herself was important to her and made her feel appreciated.

Mercury was slouching outside the dressing room and as he saw them approaching, nodded, and knocked on the door. Twenty seconds later they were all inside the dressing room. Velvet looked around and decided to change the venue. "This will be a good photo but not a great photo. I want the four of you on the behind the curtains section of the catwalk, I want to emphasise that you are stars. In half a year the common touch may be right, but not now."

She saw Mercury whisper to Emerald and saw her nod. Sun led his team off, but Mercury motioned at Velvet to wait a few seconds. They had spoken last night, and she felt that he was sort of a Fox character with a few more rough edges.

"We can go three ways on this. I rather suspect that the Adel's will prefer us to leave some ambiguity."

"If that is OK by you."

"Seems best for Emerald. Those who want her and me to be in a relationship can imagine it, those who want her to be single can also imagine it. Perhaps I can copy Neptune and Sun. I have yet to tell them that there are people who ship them."

Velvet thought to herself that Fox should spend some time with Mercury. He would enjoy it and might also make the man more willing to admit that he had a softer side.

She said, "Works for me. By the way, did you know Leslie before last night?"

The man slightly delayed replying and then said, "Never met him before. Good to meet another outsider. Hope we do not meet his team in the first two rounds at the Vytal Festival. Actually, would prefer not to fight him or his team at all. He strikes me as being too observant. Besides which Haven did get the unexpurgated footage of the night club fight and Professor Lionheart showed it to us last week. He and his teammate have a certain talent for improvisation. Just as well that the Vytal Festival will not include a bar fight scenario."

Velvet took about forty photos of Team VBES. She was happy that they included five good ones and she just had to decide which one was best. Actually, she was fairly certain that she could use all of the best five, depending on what any publication in question wanted to emphasise. Neptune and Sun obviously had been friends for years and the bro aspect came across strongly without having any undertones that they were attracted to each other. Mercury and Emerald were more ambivalent. If it had not been for the pictures from Kulsa then it would have been easy to say that there was nothing going on between them or that he was more interested in her than she was in him. They also were wearing the glasses so you could not see their eyes. She was minded to go with the ones where they had their backs to each other, but they were touching.

She and Coco had talked about things last night. They had actually got back about the same time, and she had described the night out to Coco. Coco said that they should go again to the night club as it sounded fun, and the Faunus singer and the Flynt Coal band could be worth signing up to the new Adel talent agency. There had been some discussion about today. While they had agreed that Velvet had final choice of what pictures to take, she accepted that Coco and her mother had suggestions worth listening to.

Coco had apparently argued for emphasising the wriggle, but with self-confidence. Coco was the first to acknowledge that her own sex appeal was all about attitude. As far as she was concerned Yang and Pyrrha were far more attractive than she was objectively. She did say that in forty years' time she would still be stunning while the other two would be showing their age. Currently if you looked at the three of them in photographs, Coco was the slightly squat also ran. In the flesh or on screen, Coco was a contender. Pyrrha was too nice and tried to avoid emphasising her attractiveness, Yang had no problem playing up to her attributes but was always too close to a fit of the giggles. Coco had the attitude that she was hot, and it was reflected in how she moved.

Velvet had challenged Coco as to what was different about Emerald. Coco had turned to her and said, "I do not argue with my mother on motivation and models. She thinks the girl wants love and admiration but does not expect to get it. Mother is betting that she will earn it on the catwalk and will become addicted to it. It will not hurt that she will be well off for the first time in her life." She had then whispered, "Besides which eventually it will become obvious to everyone that I prefer women. For the moment I enjoy the best of both worlds. I can subtlety hint my preferences to those who want to see them and play other cards for those who do not. Fox is a good sport about me goosing him, but sooner or later the rest of Remnant will catch up with the fact that most of the men I am seen in public with are as relieved as I am that we will not be sharing a bed at the end of the evening."

Velvet had spoken with Coco in the past about financial related matters. She also understood why Coco had them with her rather than with the others. Her parents had known tough times in their youth, but Velvet had, even after the divorce, never been conscious about not being able to afford to do necessary things but had known that there were limits on what was practical. Dad was now earning a wage which allowed him to spoil her as an attempt at apologising for the break-up but even he was now comfortable rather than rich.

It had helped that she had been to combat school at Signal rather than Pharos. There were no Winchesters, Bronzewings or Travers at Signal and so she had never felt poor by comparison. Yatsuhashi and particularly Fox had been poor in a way she had never been, even if some of her cousins were.

Coco was third generation wealth. She joked that her brothers and her would take the Adel family back to clogs by the time they were finished, but the reality was that it would be her brothers' children who would either mess things up or sell out.

In Coco's case the commercial drive had shown up by incorporating the team at an early stage and funding Velvet's research. Bunny vision (or rather the A+ Bans) and the new bullets looked like they would earn Velvet more in the next six months than the rest of her family combined had earned in twenty years and would also make Fox and Yatsuhashi financially independent.

Anyway, it was now time to head backstage. Most of the models were now used to her and even were trying to get her to take photographs. A couple of them who had been most relaxed with her a year ago had seen their basic wages double and their bonuses also going up. Whether or not it was as a result of her photographs, the rest were willing to give it a go. The problem was that poses only took you so far and the more obviously contrived they were the less they looked honest. Last year she had taken photographs with the models concentrating on their make-up which had been revealing. This year too many of them were waiting for her to aim the camera at them. Luckily, this year she could get away with taking photographs relying on mirrors to catch people reacting naturally. She had no idea what she would do next year.

It did not help that now she was a celebrity in her own right. Last year she had been Coco's dorky friend who was being indulged. Now she was someone who had their photographs appear in Salutations. In addition, the inhabitants of the village they had defended and the hunter team whom they had provided back-up to had been determined not to let her and Coco's efforts be totally overshadowed by the events in Kulsa. Coco's mother had no doubt encouraged it, but the pressure had started from Mistral.

She then moved front of stage. It was interesting to see who among the guests had taken their seats early. The Schnee group slightly to her surprise had turned up promptly and were sipping the drinks provided. Well strictly Weiss was sipping, but despite rumours neither Willow nor Yang were quaffing. Neptune was talking to Weiss who seemed to be flirting with him. A few surreptitious snaps were taken of that interaction as Coco's mother gently manoeuvred the guests out of the reception room into the venue itself.

Interestingly not only had Neptune and Mercury been placed next to Yang, but they had also decided to rearrange the seating plan so that Neptune was between Willow and Weiss Schnee and Yang was between Neptune and Mercury. While as this was front of house the photographs would spread quickly, she had no doubt that Salutations would want her taking shots of Weiss and Neptune and leave it to them on the spin that they would place on the photographs.

On the other side of the catwalk there were two empty seats between the Marigold and Campion contingents. The seating plan at Atlas had to reflect the need to separate some families from each other and to avoid people feeling that they were being given preference. The Schnee family and the other families whose wealth was comparatively recent had to be kept away from each other and a raised catwalk meant that they did not even have to stare too closely at each other.

Mrs Adel walked on to the catwalk and welcomed everyone to the Adel winter show. She then introduced Jaune Arc as being the new signing as the face of the new Hunter range and then asked the audience to join her in welcoming him to the show. Velvet suspected that the lawyers had stared extremely hard at the casebooks. Jaune Arc then appeared on stage accompanied by the unannounced but very recognisable Pyrrha Nikos.

It was amusing to watch Jaune being embarrassed and Pyrrha manging to take a bow while doing her best not to take attention away from Jaune. Coco's mother when she judged that they had milked the applause for the right amount of time led them to their reserved seats although not before making it clear that Jaune would be attending the post-show drinks.

It was Pyrrha's first public appearance in Atlas since Kulsa and people had clearly wanted an excuse to show their appreciation. The lights then went down, the music volume was turned up and the show began.

Velvet moved backstairs and caught some more unguarded photographs. The speed with which the models changed clothes and the care which was taken in ensuring that this was not obvious to the audience was fascinating. They were all used to it and after fifteen months of being Coco's friend, Velvet had grown accustomed to being surrounded by beautiful semi-naked men and women changing in public.

She knocked on the door of Sun's dressing room just before he was due to go on. As her distinguishing Faunus feature was her ears, she had never really been a hat wearer but otherwise it had not affected her clothes. One of the problems of having a tail was designing clothes around it and there was a limited extent to which you could mass produce clothes. Apparently zips at the back were not a good idea and either they trousers were extremely low hung or buttons had to be provided. Apparently Coco's mother was hoping that Sun could make trousers with buttons at the back fashionable for men generally or at least Faunus men.

The man was excited and was looking forward to strutting his stuff. Either he was genuinely unconcerned or did not realise how ground-breaking his performance today was. A Faunus was being the lead male model at a major fashion show and because of his semblance would have the catwalk to himself. A fashion model using a semblance was almost certainly a thing which had done before, but they would have been glamour based ones rather than physical ones.

Velvet and one of Coco's brothers accompanied him to the back of the catwalk. The man walked down the middle of the catwalk. He was also distinctly less cool than the majority of models. He was clearly excited to be here and pretending to fire pistols in the air and pointed to members of the audience.

He was rather more muscular than the majority of the male models and the Adel designers had decided to go with the shirtless look. He had been introduced as a member of Team Vibes and as being present at both Vale and Kulsa. What people had not been expecting was that once he reached the front of stage four clones would appear wearing two different jackets and each carrying a glass of champagne in the tail. The glasses were handed to Weiss, Mrs Adel, Coco, and Willow Schnee. The jackets were removed and put back on again as the clones strutted their stuff. The clones went backstage and came back on-stage jacketless to take a bow. Sun at front of stage clapped his hand above his head and the clones disappeared. People had not been expecting this and the reaction was no doubt very pleasing to the Adel family.

Coco made a few appearances during the show. She wore the new clothes in the range along with the other models. The only constant were the glasses and the beret and the sense of cool.

Coco asked Velvet to join her with the final briefing of Emerald. They had clearly gone for the sexy side rather than the tomboy. Black boots, hot pants, green top and a white jacket. There were also holsters which were currently housing imitation weapons. Coco whispered to Velvet, "Just in case there are last minute nerves. Just agree with me when I say she can do it." Coco checked her scroll and nodded.

"Emerald, five minutes to go. Just think of the audience as a herd of Grimm."

Even by Coco's standards, this was an unusual motivation pitch. It certainly distracted Emerald.

"Come on, you must have seen the special edition of the coverage of Kulsa."

"No, I have not."

Coco then put her scroll down in front of Emerald. "Just watch how you walked into battle when you were relying on two semblances working which you had never seen in operation before."

She played the clip which was clearly taken from one of the mistral bullheads. It showed Emerald drawing her weapons and strutting towards the oncoming Grimm. The hips moved with confidence and with a motion which Velvet recognised appealed to both men and women (or at least Coco).

Velvet joined in with what she thought might work. "Just imagine that everyone whoever said that you would never amount to anything are sitting there. You know that you can make them eat their words, but they aren't worth acknowledging."

Emerald and Coco looked at her, "Well it works for me."

Emerald thought about it and then smiled, "I get it."

Coco then put a chain with a green stone around Emerald's neck. "One of your namesake's just for luck."

A few minutes later Velvet had unobtrusively moved front of stage. Emerald was announced as being another member of Team Vibes who had been present at Kulsa and some clips of her fighting alongside Mercury and Jaune were shown. A slightly too electronic for her taste version of "These boots are made for walking" started playing and Emerald appeared on stage shortly followed by five other models in variations on the outfit.

Mrs Adel had been right. The girl had a certain indefinable star quality.

The show ended with Mrs Adel calling on Jaune Arc, the whole of Team VBES and Team CFVY to join her on the catwalk. Velvet handed her cameras to one of Coco's brothers and joined Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox on stage. Yatsuhashi had early on made it clear to Coco that they would be not sit through a fashion show. Fox on the grounds that it would not register for him and Yatsuhashi on the practical grounds that he would block other's people's view unless he was put on the back row, and he preferred to keep Fox company. It was agreed that in the absence of a terrorist or Grimm attack, both Coco and velvet did not need a running commentary from Fox. Therefore, his semblance was not activated until the show was over and they were called on stage.

She heard Mercury whisper under his breath to the rest of his team to get ready for the five second pose. This clearly meant something to Neptune and Mercury and Yatsuhashi said he would explain later. There were individual ovations for Coco, Jaune, Sun and Emerald.

She watched as Jaune gestured for Pyrrha to join him on stage. She immediately told Fox to add Jaune to the loop and warn him not to ask Weiss or Yang to also join them unless he wanted Weiss to never speak to him again.

As you may gather I have not attended any fashion shows. Apologies for any glaring inaccuracies. One of the aspects of Weiss's character which I am enjoying thinking about is how important the company is to her and how she envisages combining that with qualifying as a huntress. Obviously having Coco coming from a wealthy fashion house allows some room for them discussing such issues.

Yang's joke I believe fits in with her reaction to a mixed group sleeping in the ballroom in Volume 1.