Glynda always started preparing for initiation in earnest a week before the end of the summer term. The end of year exams for the first years and the fourth years were over, secondments for those who needed them had been arranged, offers had been sent out to the students from combat schools. Acceptances had already been received from fifty students and currently she expected that they would have between 60 and 64 students joining next year. Most came from the Vale combat schools, but there were also students from Atlas, Vacuo and Mistral coming. There were two very surprising ones from Atlas. James had been very reticent about these although he had used a phrase which indicated that he would have more to say when they met face to face next month.
There were also currently seven older candidates who had not been to combat school, who she and Peter Port would be interviewing and testing next week. These were candidates in their early twenties who had been recommended by hunters who had come across them in the field. Peter referred to them as mustangs. However, she would be surprised if they needed to reject any of them as hunters were very sparing in recommendations. In addition to these, four places were reserved for Ozpin's wild cards. He said that a headmaster should have room for playing hunches, recruiting from unusual backgrounds or for picking up outstanding students who became available at the last minute. So far none of these spaces had been taken. She gathered that tomorrow he was meeting someone Bart felt was worth considering and who had been recommended by an ex huntress who had been at Beacon with Bart.
She got out her notes and reminded herself of everything which had gone wrong in the past, checked what had been done to put those right and how far the solutions had depended on the talents or trustworthiness of individuals who were no longer available. The problem was that they were dealing with around 60 students from different backgrounds, most of whom were aged 18 and many of whom were away from home without parents for the first time in their lives. They would be excited, tense, nervous and looking to make a strong impression. They were training to be hunters and huntresses and so needed to learn to act responsibly, take care of and think for themselves and to treat others with respect without having the teachers there all the time. At the same time, they had self-selected themselves for a profession which involved risking their lives on a regular basis. This meant that they tended to be strong personalities and felt the need to prove their abilities to each other from the start. Generally once teams had been formed and term had started these tensions eased. It helped that they could then test each other in the dueling ring and the unarmed combat classes and usually the animosities mutated into grudging mutual respect. However, there had been initiations when she could understand what Peter meant when he talked about smelling the testosterone and indeed the oestrogen.
While Glynda wholeheartedly supported having students from outside Vale and allowing the mustangs to become huntsman, it added to the problems at the start of the year. The mustangs could be over-sensitive to perceived slights from the combat school students. Meanwhile students from other kingdoms suffered what Bart called culture shock. Mistralian students found it hard to understand the social structure in Vale which was less stratified then they were used to. Atlesian students were taken aback by the comparative informality of Vale. The Vacuoans were mystified by the uniform. In addition, alcohol was legal from the age of 18 onwards and some Atlesian students acted as though they expected the limit to be raised to 21 at a moment's notice while the Mistralian students were surprised that they could buy drinks legally. To these normal problems were added two students who would be prime targets for the White Fang and a third who was one of the most famous people in both Mistral and Atlas and was well known in Vale.
Ozpin tended to the view that these things would work themselves out in the end and so long as the students all made it to the cliffs in a fit state to participate, was happy to let Glynda tweak the arrangements each year. She had realized that perfection was not possible and that there were some things such as the evening meal and having all the students sleeping in the ballroom overnight where she had accepted that she had to choose the least bad option.
For the last ten years they had involved two second year teams in the initiation process. However, it was important to choose the right teams – at first she had defaulted to choosing the two top performing teams and seared on her mind was the year when the two teams were led by a girl from Atlas and an ex head boy from Pharos. The sight of them ordering fifty-six students to organize themselves into a crocodile to store their weapons in the lockers was not something she had been expecting and it took months before Ozpin and Port stopped teasing her about it. She supposed she was lucky that they had not tried ordering the new students to hold hands as well. She had decided that the best balance was a thoroughly responsible team and a responsibly irresponsible team.
This year Team PLUM and Team CFVY were the obvious candidates. Team PLUM consisted of four human Vale combat school students, two from Pharos, one from Signal and one from Torch. They had all been members of their respective student councils from their first year in combat school and all were prefects in their final year. They were responsible, hard-working and polite. They were ranked third in the year in combat. They would be known to the Vale Combat school students and would probably be respected by most of them. In addition, one of the team had a semblance which might come in helpful from a security perspective.
Team CFVY was virtually the poster team for integration. A wealthy celebrity, a rabbit Faunus, a softly spoken giant from Mistral and a wiry blind brawler from Vacuo who were the best combat team in their year. Port had said to her that Mr. Alastair and Mr. Daichi were likely to be the students his mustangs would feel most comfortable with. She also expected that they would be of assistance in settling down the students from their respective kingdoms. In addition, Velvet and Fox's abilities would be particularly helpful in locating students who had wandered off. One year six students had failed to make it to the welcoming ceremony having lost track of time while two had spent the night outside rather than in the ballroom. While that had been the worse year, in most years there were one or two wanderers and a few more late arrivals into the ballroom.
She sent two messages - one to Thomas Piper the leader of Team PLUM asking him to come to a meeting in Professor Ozpin's office in an hour's time to discuss his team's involvement in the initiation process. Her message to Coco Adel merely told her to come to the same place in an hour. While she liked Miss Adel, she felt that an hour of wondering what she had done wrong would be a small payback for the efforts of her and Mr. Alastair to wind her up over the last year.
She flicked through some back copies of Salutations. She had been forced to concede to the chief librarian that a subscription to Salutations magazine was justified with the arrival of Miss Adel despite feeling that the librarian should simply donate his own copy to the library once he had read it. She acknowledged to herself that it had been helpful this time as the magazine had provided photographic evidence that Miss Adel knew the three celebrities socially. However, she could not discuss them with Miss Adel yet. The authorities in Atlas and Mistral had asked them to keep their identities secret and she and Ozpin had agreed. If there was a leak, she and Ozpin preferred it if they could categorically state it was not Beacon's fault. There were people in Atlas who were fixated on security and clearly the two students from Atlas would be prime targets for the White Fang. The less time there was for a plan to be put together to target them on their arrival the better. She presumed that there were some unhappy people in Mistral who were trying to convince themselves that it was a bluff to force up the cost of renewing the sponsorship deals and in any event wanted an opportunity to talk Miss Nikos out of coming to Beacon. She gloomily thought to herself that she would probably need to ask the librarian to add a subscription to the Remnant Enquirer next year.
….
Coco entered the lift to Ozpin's office. Yatsuhashi and Velvet had reassured her that, despite exuberantly celebrating the news from Pharos, she had not been destructive last night and that if the dance around the bonfire was a problem then at least another ten ex-students from Pharos would have been joining her. She had then tried to recall any other deeds which Goodwitch might have found reprehensible which had not previously been discussed. A sudden moment of panic hit her when she remembered her mother had broached offering Glynda a contract to model clothes for confident mature women. When she saw Tom Piper, she then realised that she was not in trouble or at least not the official disapproval kind.
Ozpin greeted them "Mr. Piper and Miss Adel, I am delighted to tell you that your teams have been selected to assist the staff during the initiation process this year. This does carry one advantage in that your teams have automatically been allocated your first-choice dorms for next year. Professor Goodwitch will now outline your duties."
Glynda did so and then suggested they have an initial discussion with each other on how they wished to allocate responsibilities. She also gave them a list of the things which had gone wrong over the last fifteen years to give them an idea of what they needed to think about and watch out for. She suggested they should speak with each other now, then speak to their teams, confer with each other in the morning and meet with her tomorrow after lunch in her office to set out their proposals and ask any questions. They would have at least one other meeting before the end of term. The day before initiation the two teams would meet with her, she would distribute details of the new students and review any refinements which might be needed to the plan.
Tom and Coco grabbed an empty seminar room, read Glynda's list of unfortunate events and discussed their mission. They had known each other at Pharos, and they liked and respected each other without being close friends. Tom said "I will volunteer Team PLUM to deal with loading the bullheads. The problems in the past seem to have arisen from Pharos, Torch and Signal students locking horns over who gets on board first and between the four of us I think we can handle them. When we get to Beacon, we will encourage the students to go directly to the main hall, have some refreshments and stow their weapons away before Ozpin's speech. I think last year team FIRE said something about avoiding the rush to persuade me to do so."
"Sounds fine to me" agreed Coco." We may need to think further about how we deal with weapon storage. Glynda's list seems to indicate that more problems have arisen from challenging someone for not depositing their weapon who had actually done so, but that the worse incident was when two candidates got out their weapons at dinner as an argument got heated. There is also the question of knowing what is or is not a weapon and we should ask Goodwitch if she can let us have a list of weapons which the incoming students need to deposit. I would have been tempted to carry Gianduja around last year, but too many people knew she was more than just a stylish bag" She thought to herself of Velvet who had deposited her other weapons, but had carried Anesidora around all evening and used it to take ordinary photographs. Indeed, still most of Beacon did not know that Velvet's camera doubled as a weapon.
"I think your team may be best for looking out for the wanderers both before the welcoming ceremony and after dinner. Velvet and Fox always seem to be the best at tracking people in the stealth classes and no one ever seems to take them by surprise even at night" said Tom. "Velvet's hearing may also be helpful in noticing when an argument is getting out of hand. I also remember from our joint mission two months ago that Yatsuhashi does seem to have a knack for defusing situations by looming over people and asking if there is a problem."
"While judging from Goodwitch's notes we will need to keep an eye out for trouble, it seems unusual for there to be a real fight" said Coco. "I suspect all we need is a light touch and simply tell them that if they have a problem with each other they can have a sanctioned fight in the combat arena without getting into trouble. I suspect your team has the best idea of who from Pharos, Torch and Signal operates on a short fuse or is rather shy and whom it may be sensible to look out for."
Tom thought about that and shrugged. Their old headmistress at Pharos had disliked Coco intensely and had discouraged her from being involved in student affairs, but he suspected that she was more respected by at least some of the incoming students than she thought. While he had gathered from Loretta that Velvet had been rather shy and not a party goer, she had been well known to the weapon geeks who he expected would form a good third of the likely incoming Signal students.
Coco continued "Yatsuhashi and Fox may well know some of the students coming from Mistral and Vale and in any event do have an excuse to talk to them. I think my team will dress in combat uniform as that will probably go down better with the mustangs and the Vacuoans. Yatsuhashi and Fox do look more imposing that way."
They discussed the arrangements for dinner. They were at a loss to understand why the Academy opted for a formal dinner with tables of between 6 and 10 people where the students were waited on. In their year the students had tended to divide up with one table consisting wholly of Pharos students, one table of Signal students, one table of Torch students, a mustangs table, a mostly Faunus table, a table of Mistral students and Atlas students and two mixed tables of latecomers mostly from Signal, Torch and Pharos, but with a few late arrivals from Mistral and Vacuo. This hardly seemed ideal for an academy which prided itself on not caring where students came from. They wondered why the tables where not deliberately mixed using a seating plan, or why there was neither a cafeteria service nor a stand-up buffet instead to encourage mixing.
As the meeting came to an end Tom said to Coco "I gather from the bonfire last night that you have heard the news from Pharos?"
Coco nodded – Joan Pettigrew had not been her favourite person and she had been delighted to hear that the headmistress had taken early retirement for unspecified personal reasons. Perhaps joining with a few other ex-Pharos malcontents to dance round a fire singing "hey ho the Geist is dead" had lacked subtlety, but it had been enjoyable. "I suppose it was obvious. Last night we were all competing to come up with the most scandalous theory, but all we had were rumours."
Tom nodded and said "At lunchtime, I had a call from one of the prefects I know best in that year who spoke rather cryptically. He did not name names, although you and I can make educated guesses as to who some of the protagonists were. It sounds as though something went wrong with the election for the combat valedictorian this year. One candidate was prevented from standing because of some rumours of cheating. A second candidate withdrew their nomination in protest saying that the rumours were clearly malicious nonsense leaving only one person standing. At the last minute, another person was talked into standing. The election was held last week. Just as the school was gathered to hear the result, the deputy head announced there would be a recount. No result was announced that day or the day afterwards and the teachers refused to say anything. The morning after that there was a meeting of the governors, Goodwitch and Port were seen arriving at the school just before lunch and mid-afternoon it was announced that the election would be rerun. In addition, the previously debarred candidate was being allowed to stand on the basis that the accusations against them had been shown to be unfounded. Then yesterday Pettigrew announced her resignation with effect from the end of the term."
Coco said, "There must be more to it than that."
Tom replied "You know how only people she approved of ever stayed members of the student council for more than one term or became prefects. I tried merely not to antagonize her rather than totally sucking up to her, but in retrospect from the outside it looked like the same thing. This year I have had far too many conversations in the bar with intoxicated old Pharosians which ended with them telling me that they were surprised to find out that I was a decent guy. I suspect that Michelle and I will be perceived as Pettigrew loyalists and you will be respected as someone who raised their head above the parapet. As the election was for combat valedictorian, I would expect most, and probably all, of the candidates and their most enthusiastic supporters will be coming here and they may not be on the best of terms when they arrive."
Coco reassured Tom that she had always thought he was a good guy, if a little rhomboid. In any event she was one of the few in their year who could afford to be mildly rebellious. They agreed that they would find out more in the holidays and decide just before the start of term if any tweaks had to be made, although she suspected this meant she would be surrounded by Pharos students at dinner.
It was now the day before initiation. Yatsuhashi together with the rest of Team CFVY and Team PLUM were now gathered in Seminar room 1 with Goodwitch, Port, Peach, Mulberry and Oobleck. Glynda presented them with a list (including one in braille for Fox) giving some basic background on the sixty-three new students such as name, age, weapons and kingdom of origin. It also stated in most cases which combat school they had attended or whether they had entered through the hunter recommendation program. There was also a booklet with a photograph of each of the students. She asked if they could review the list of new students and discuss between themselves any issues and then Tom and Coco should speak with her first thing tomorrow morning.
While the news that Pyrrha Nikos was coming to Beacon had broken a week ago, the identity of two of the students from Atlas had not (although a SDC executive airship had been seen arriving) and their names resulted in Coco sending the rest of her team an expletive ridden thought via Fox's telepathic semblance.
Glynda said that in the light of the identity of some of the new students they would need to amend the arrangements to take account of the increased terrorist threat from the White Fang and the different threat of a swarm of paparazzi. Coco added a few more telepathic curses. First, the bullheads would be coming in from Pharos rather than the main city terminal. In addition, Team CVFY would be allowed to carry their weapons tomorrow at least before dinner. Perhaps the oddest one was that Velvet had been appointed as a special correspondent for Salutations magazine to take photographs of Pyrrha Nikos for them. This had been agreed by Glynda with Pyrrha Nikos's representatives to meet a contractual obligation of Miss Nikos with the magazine. Goodwitch said that in addition Velvet would take photographs for the Beacon yearbook and may be expected to take photographs of the two famous Atlas students as well for Salutations and for the wider press in general. She would let Velvet know tomorrow if this was the case.
The meeting then went over what they would be doing during the initiation process. Mainly it was to assist the teachers in monitoring the progress of the students and to note when eye contact was made. It was stressed that while the teachers would intervene as a last resort, they preferred not to. They were told not to disabuse the students of the fact that their lives were at risk particularly as it could not be guaranteed that they would be able to reach them in time. Any intervention would require the express approval of the professor they were accompanying. Peter Port explained that in his view "any student applying to Beacon should be able to deal with a pack of Beowulf, but if a Nuckelvee or Geist turns up and the students make a decent fight of it, then they deserve to survive and study here"
"Many a semblance has been unlocked in the stress of initiation when students believe their lives are at risk and their salvation depends solely on themselves" added Oobleck. Port nodded vigorously and opened his mouth. Yatsuhashi expected a long anecdote illustrating the point, but Glynda coughed loudly and he reluctantly desisted.
As the briefing came to an end Glynda asked Tom and Coco to talk with her, Mulberry and Peach between them grabbed the rest of Team PLUM and Oobleck asked Velvet to speak with him.
Port then invited him and Fox to his office saying that he wanted to discuss with them some issues relating to the older students who had not been to combat school, who he referred to as mustangs. Port explained that "As usual, the mustangs are in their early 20s and either worked in the travel security industry escorting lorries, bullheads, trains and riverboats or were nomads in the Vacuoan outback or the Mistralian wilderness. Generally, the security industry students left school at 14 and usually their auras will have been unlocked at age 18 when working in security although I believe that sometimes this rule is ignored. They may have been unlocked earlier if they were nomads. Normally their semblances were triggered during a Grimm or bandit attack. In any event eventually they all came to the attention of hunters who thought they had potential and would benefit from being at Beacon. They were then sounded out as to whether they are interested in becoming hunters. Often they are, as despite the four year course, a hunter's basic stipend is better than a security guard's, there are more opportunities for promotion once they have qualified as huntsmen and it is perceived to be a higher status career. In addition, they receive a reasonably generous grant while at Beacon and we can arrange secondments during the holidays which allow them to gain experience, make new contacts and earn more money. To be honest they also relish the chance of eventually being put in charge of their previous immediate superiors who tend to have been individuals who left combat school at 18 to join the military or the security companies rather than become hunters"
Port paused and opened a bottle of beer for each of them. He then continued "Glynda and I interviewed and tested the mustangs. As we expected they all passed – the hunters who recommended them are rigorous. I expect that tomorrow they will all arrive on the same bullhead and will tend to speak to each other. In part this is because during the tests, they stayed at the same hotel and will have got to know each other. In addition, they are that little bit older and they will feel that they have more in common with each other. They have had more practical experience of fighting Grimm than most students, but they are conscious that they do not have the academic background. Many of them will have left school at 14 for financial reasons. This can mean that they are at the same time justly proud of their strength, experience and ability, but simultaneously insecure in respect of their intellect, knowledge and social status. It would be helpful if one of you could join them at dinner tomorrow and be prepared to address the concerns they may have. It may be worth swapping over after the main course. I suspect they will feel more comfortable with you then the rest of your team or Team PLUM due to your obvious manliness, strength and fighting ability."
He sipped his beer and added "Perhaps if the evening has gone well and some of them have indicated they wish to know more about the weapon workshops, you can introduce them to Miss Scarlatina. The security firms tend to use standardised weapons for understandable reasons of economy. Those arriving do seem to have had their weapons customised and I know from my interviews with them that at least three are enthusiastic tinkerers. However, the equipment available to them tends to be basic and some guidance on what extra Beacon has to offer has in the past been appreciated."
Port did say that there were three huntsmen recommended entrants he had not met and that it should not be assumed that his remarks applied to them. These were Jaune Arc, Blake Nightshade and Anne Harker.
Yatsuhashi and Fox discussed the conversation using Fox's telepathy talent on their way to the new dorm. As often with Port, there was a kernel of perception underlying his comments if one listened carefully. Certainly, he and Fox got on better with the mustangs in their year then most of the combat school students. Yatsuhashi was used to people underestimating his intelligence when they first met him and so was careful not to make the same mistake with others, while the mustangs in his year respected his obvious strength. In Fox's case, the fact he was clearly from Vacuo, was scarred and had overcome the disadvantage of being blind meant that it was clear he had fighting experience and had not had things handed to him on a plate. Although he knew Team PLUM to be good people, their politeness could come across as condescending. As for the rest of his team, meeting Coco for the first time was a shock to anyone's system while Velvet looked too much like the people they were used to protecting. Certainly, the mustangs in their year had found it hard to believe that she was a huntress in training. That did change, but mainly because the role of practical weapons geek allowed them to put her into another box.
As promised by Coco, the new dorm was an improvement on the one they had last year. It was larger and there were two bathrooms and a stand-alone toilet attached. One of the bathrooms had a bath long enough to allow even Yatsuhashi to stretch out. While they waited for Coco and Velvet, they started to review the list of students to see if they knew any of them from the past.
As was to be expected, the students from the combat schools were aged 18. The majority came from the Vale combat schools. There were also three mustangs from Vale aged between 21 to 23. There was also a non-combat school student from Vale aged 18 who had been recommended by a huntsman. There were six students from Atlas including one who had been privately trained and one mustang. There were nine students from Mistral, three of which had not been to a combat school. Of these one was in their early 20s, one was 19 and the other was 18. There were six students from Vacuo of whom four were 18 and two in their early 20s.
Yatsuhashi had met six of the Mistral students. His recollection of Pyrrha Nikos was that she was almost too polite and self-effacing for her own good and he suspected that no one really knew her. He was on nodding terms with Sky Lark, who he recalled had family in Vale. He decided that he would warn the others that he had typically Mistralian attitudes to Faunus, but he believed these to be unthinking rather than strongly held. He smiled when he came across the names Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. Ren and he had attended the same meditation classes and they had got on well together. Nora was a force of nature and despite her size was almost as strong as he was, but a lot more mobile. Ren and Nora had won the doubles competition for combat school seniors in Mistral last year. He knew some of their story, but decided it was for them to tell it if they wanted to. He decided his line with the rest of his team would that "They are good people and strong fighters. They have been best friends for at least eight years. They will not cause problems, but they will defend themselves if provoked. I will be interested to see what you make of them." It would be good to see them again, but it was a sign of the problems in Mistral that they had decided to come to Beacon. The two other students he had met were Faunus who had been at a different combat school to him, but whom he had met at the Mistral tournaments. He had got on well with them and he recalled them being interested when he said he had applied to Beacon.
Fox said that he knew four of the new Vacuo students. Two of them were easy going personalities who should rub along fine with most people. Russell Thrush was a human with a short fuse and some underlying anger issues, but he was a competent fighter. Leslie Corkran was a self-assured Lynx Faunus who had a similar sense of humour to Fox and who for some reason had cultivated an accent normally associated with the Atlas elite in old films.
Velvet and Coco arrived shortly afterwards. They were also happy with the new room, although both seemed thoughtful. Coco had repeated Tom's comment and had asked him if he minded being on looming duty. He grinned and said that was fine. It was an advantage of his size that his mere presence gave people an excuse to deescalate confrontations.
Yatsuhashi and Fox gave their views on the incoming Vacuoan and Mistral students. Coco had commented that it did not seem that this year the Mistral students would be automatically sitting with the Atlas students.
Velvet said that before the meeting she had spoken to Loretta who had been at Signal with her. She agreed with her assessment that generally the Signal students were a decent enough bunch. The likelihood was that they would talk to each other before the welcoming ceremony and sit next to each other during the welcoming dinner. While they had their rivalries, they saw no reason why these would emerge before initiation. They had pointed out a couple of people who had in the past tried to be bullies, but even those seemed to have mellowed. They had agreed that there was one loose cannon named Yang from Signal. Velvet filled in the others on her larger than life personality and temper. She emphasized that Yang was fundamentally good natured and did not mind being teased. However, she would not back down from a challenge, had a destructive semblance and had a few trigger points which her classmates at Signal had learnt to avoid. Loretta had said she thought she could gather up the Signal students early on and keep an eye on them and that Beau intended to do the same with the Torch students.
Coco updated them on her discussions with Tom and Michelle before the meeting about the Pharos intake. The fallout from the election had been both better and worse than it could have been – generally in public the participants attributed the mess to Pettigrew and her resignation to the governors overturning her decision and that could be said to be the semi-official rumour. The debarred candidate, Henry Boxer, and the candidate who had withdrawn, June Benjamin, had taken the line that Miss Pettigrew had made an error of judgement and had rightly felt honour bound to resign when the governors had reversed her decision. The Pettigrew favoured candidate's, Cardin Winchester, official line was that he had never believed the rumours about Henry, that Miss Pettigrew had made a mistake by acting on rumours, but she had paid a heavy price for it. An undiplomatic note had been sounded by the last minute candidate, Lydia Travers who was reported to have said that "I always knew that the Pettigrew was unhinged and I am frankly amazed that she had not been taken off in in a long sleeved jacket years ago." Coco told her team that Tom understood that Lydia had been persuaded to stand because she thought Henry had been treated badly, it would wind up Pettigrew and it would annoy Cardin, who was her cousin.
The semi-official version did not address what had gone wrong with the vote which seemed to have been the incident which precipitated the governor's meeting. This had resulted in an orgy of speculation. The story Coco and her mother believed was that the vote had been very close but that Lydia, who Pettigrew disliked, had won by two votes, that Miss Pettigrew insisted on doing the recount by herself, her recount had resulted in a Cardin winning with some votes being recharacterized as spoiled or invalid, that the tellers at the first count had gone to the deputy head and the deputy head had called in the governors. A variant of this story took the view that Miss Pettigrew's recount had been honest but that the deputy head and her enemies had been waiting for a chance to stitch her up. The fact that Henry was a Faunus added to the confusion with one group saying that if he had been human he would have been allowed to stand despite the rumours while another smaller group said that Miss Pettigrew would not have had to go if he had been human. There were also conflicting stories as to who had been the source of the rumours, one version had Cardin's friend Dove being one of the main spreaders.
The largest group of students seemed to prefer to take the view that school was behind them, they would never know the truth and while the speculation had been fun, it was time to move on. There were, however, four students who were now not on speaking terms with each other. Cardin Winchester and Dove Bronzewing were proponents of the stitch up theory. The other two felt that Pettigrew should have been dismissed years ago and anyway hated Cardin. In some ways this made it easier as when Tom, Michelle and Coco had met with members of the two groups over the holidays, they had warned them about making trouble at Beacon but pointed out they would have the opportunity to beat each other up in class. It was agreed that it made sense to monitor Cardin's group if they interacted with Faunus and Vacuoans. Tom and Coco had also warned Glynda about the tensions and that it would be particularly difficult if members of the two groups were mixed on the same team. They also had told her that, despite the fact they were generally polite to each other, it would not be a good idea for Cardin and his cousin to be on the same team.
They then discussed the two members of the Atlas elite who would be arriving tomorrow and the extra headaches they caused. In Fox's case it meant not only did he need to keep track of the new auras arriving tomorrow, but also needed to look out for unfamiliar auras in case there was an attack from outside. Coco said that Glynda had kept her behind after Tom had left and told her that two new members of staff had unlocked auras and that Fox would be made familiar with their auras tomorrow. Glynda stressed that they had been cleared as not being threats. Yatsuhashi suspected that they were members of the Atlas security service and no one disagreed.
It was agreed as Fox was going to be monitoring auras and using his telepathy semblance to aid team communication constantly, it was probably best for him to keep in the background. Velvet was doubling as the photographer for the Academy magazine and yearbook (as well as for Salutations) which gave her an excuse to mingle and keep her ears open for trouble. As still only her team, one member of team FIRE and the teachers knew her camera was also a weapon, she would also carry one of her lighter weapons. The team had taken the view that there was no point in revealing their semblances and strengths if they did not have to and it helped to keep others guessing. Certainly, their team coordination in combat was one of their strengths and their opponents not knowing that it was Fox who needed to be taken out first helped.
Coco said that she had often met Pyrrha Nikos as they had both been faces of prominent advertising campaigns and met at advertising awards in Mistral as well as at social functions around the Mistral regional tournaments. She had met both Weiss Schnee and Brede Campion when visiting Atlas marketing the Coco Adel brand of young adult clothing. Weiss was a talented singer, but very formal and tense. Brede Campion was a member of the Atlas elite who would have been a noble if Atlas still had kings. He had an eccentric persona - part silly ass, part educated dilettante. Coco said she suspected that this was just a facade he adopted to amuse himself and the fact he was coming to Beacon seemed to confirm this. Both had asked questions about Beacon when she met them so she supposed she should not have been that surprised they were coming here. The rest of the Atlesians were unknown to them, but to judge by their own year they were likely to be people who felt that the Atlas academy was too regimented for them and were coming to Beacon for a different experience.
The three younger huntsman recommended students Anne Harker, Blake Nightshade and Jaune Arc were agreed to be people they should look out for, especially as Peter Port had made it clear that the last two had only been accepted last week and that the first had been recommended by a contact of Dr. Oobleck's. They were the ones who were unlikely to know anyone else and might find the whole experience overwhelming. None of them had met them before, although Velvet had stared for some time at the photo of Blake Nightshade before shaking her head and moving on. Yatsuhashi had wondered if Jaune Arc was related to the Arc twins who had been two years senior to him at his combat school in Mistral. He certainly had the same blonde hair and face structure as the impressive sisters. However, if that had been the case, Yatsuhashi would have expected him to have attended a combat school rather than being huntsman recommended. The name Blake Nightshade rang no bells and Coco remarked that the bow was a brave choice both from a hunter academy and a fashion perspective.