Restaurant Debate
Ozpin was talking to Glynda outside the entrance to the restaurant. She was filling him on how things were in Beacon Academy first. Even though some time had passed since the Dilophosaur Beacon Incident, the trauma was still fresh for some, particularly a good portion of the freshmen and small number of sophomores, while the rest were doing their best to move on. It didn't help him soothe his nerves that a senior Beacon Huntsmen-in-training team had lost two of their teammates and a female professor was killed in a premeditated ambush in the Emerald Forest.
The culprit responsible for the ambush was none other than a fully-grown Dilophosaurus that stood at 10 feet tall and 24 feet long. It had been reported to have not only killed Huntsmen, but also destroyed entire packs of Grimm with a combination of inhuman speed and its paralyzing Semblance, which was visually indicated when the dinosaur turned from green and mottled yellow and red to dark blue, neon yellowish-green. The Grimm were first paralyzed by the neurotoxic coating whenever the Dilo bit and clawed them quickly.
The Dilophosaurus was confronted by Glynda Goodwitch herself, but even her power and experience wasn't enough as the beast not only clawed her more viciously than its younger brethren but had outsmarted her several times in the Emerald Forest. It had ambushed her and led her into Grimm infested parts of the forest, exhausting her with the poisoned wounds she sustained slowly paralyzing her body until her students had to request medical evac. Even with the assistance of professional Huntsmen and eventually Atlesian soldiers and Vale's local militiamen, the beast proved to be wily and elusive to the point that the expedition had to be called off when it was too dark to continue any further.
Last time, the school had limited media exposure due to the isolated nature of the last incident and how Ozpin and Vale's Council were able to cordon it off. However, this was different as the near total annihilation of a senior Huntsmen team and the killing of a professor would definitely bring more attention from the public, especially the parents of the young adults killed by the culprit. Then there was the failure and paralyzing ailment of Vale's powerful vice Headmistress and the deaths of two professional Huntsmen and several military soldiers. All of that will more likely bring more national coverage to the matter. Much more than Ozpin was willing to put anyone at his Academy through.
Ozpin pinched his forehead and nose bridge as he said to his employee,
"Glynda, you should have consulted to me about this before going ahead. The severity of the incident will already stretch my ability, and actually, yours to appease to the Council's goodwill to convince the media to cover our backs, not to mention that their resources are stretching dangerously thin from having to cover, if I heard correctly, several cryptid encounters, and in our own city no less."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ozpin, but I couldn't afford to let this pass after many weeks of dead ends and leads up to nowhere. Not only that, those dinosaurs were responsible for hurting my students, no, our students and killing a close friend of mine. How could I let that stand as the acting Headmistress of Beacon Academy on top of having to piece the fractured pieces back together?!" Glynda complained on the line.
"I understand how personal Ms. Peach's death was to you, but the fact that you've allowed all the built up stress and emotions to cloud your judgment, which was you were blindsided enough to become paralyzed and poisoned. In the throes of your rage, you wasted more good lives on an expedition into Emerald Forest that ended up for naught." Ozpin reprimanded her calmly.
"I needed help, and I needed it immediately. And I had to act quick because that thing was and it is still out there, Oz." Glynda responded dejectedly.
"Glynda Goodwitch." At the uttering of her full name, Glynda Goodwitch stopped herself on the other end while he said more, "That was why I told you that if you saw anything unusual, you report to me directly even when I am here on Hammond's island nature park because I know how motherly and overprotective you could be when it comes to our students and the faculty you are in charge of."
"I was doing my best to protect Beacon, sir! Yes, I must admit this was an oversight of mine, but-"
"But nothing. I know and I appreciate how hard you've tried to keep things in beacon as normal and stable as you could while you and our staff conduct our own investigations into our campus grounds and beyond. However, you have taken on too many things at once, burning yourself out, which made you lose sight of the original goal to keep our Academy at a low profile. I am sorry to say that you have failed me because you have jeopardized your health and the safety and stability of the Academy."
There was silence from the other end of the communication line, which lasted for thirty seconds, until...
"Mr. Ozpin, I apologize for my selfishness. I should have told you earlier before you left that I wasn't ready to take up on the mantle temporarily." Glynda confessed.
"No, I am terribly sorry for forcing this onto you because I trust you. I thought you could handle the responsibilities of running the entire school alone, and you did well for the most part." Ozpin drank a sip of his coffee.
"Sir?"
"Glynda. What you did back there was understandably not wrong, but not necessarily right by how you've handled it." It was a lot of something to say coming from a man, who has made thousands upon thousands of mistakes in many lifetimes. "This is another reason why I have let you be the temporary Headmistress in my place because I want you to see that this is different than running a classroom."
"I know that, Oz. And the past few weeks have proven it to me."
"Now you know why it wasn't easy to entrust the safety and the fate of the entire Beacon Academy to anyone, even you, Ms. Goodwitch."
"So what's going to happen?"
Ozpin thought carefully his answer after Glynda asked him indirectly whether she's going to be demoted, asked to resign, or otherwise. He knew that should he go with demotion or resignation for his right-hand woman, the school would not be able to survive longer without any substantial leadership. The fact it had managed to last this long under her leadership was worthy in of itself. The problem was that her maternal overprotective instincts can override her rationale at times when her students and close friends were grievously hurt or killed. While that's admirable as a teacher and to some extent as the acting Headmistress, it could potentially become a hindrance for forgetting to see the bigger picture and the tendency to make short-sighted decisions.
However, while a punishment of sorts was needed, he can't issue it where Glynda was currently. Thus he needed to be smart about it.
"Nothing. The best you can do is try to keep yourself a low profile and minimize the damage when it comes to the media. It is still your high priority that our students in the Academy need to catch up on their academics and Huntsmen training. In the meantime, I hope you will have recovered enough to be able to walk on your feet again."
"It'd be nice to get out of the wheelchair. I feel awkward whenever I pass by others in such a state."
"I can only imagine," Ozpin chuckled.
"Oz, apart from the school, there have also been casualties in not only Vale," Glynda referred to the deaths of Junior, Militia with Melanie being the only survivor and traumatized, several Faunus, a bouncer, and notable White Fang individuals. "We've been getting reports of victims being attacked not just by Grimm, but also unknown rogue animals coming from Vacuo and Mistral recently apart from the one we know of regarding Team (I)NRT."
The Headmaster frowned at the piece of news.
"And authorities in Atlas and Mistral are just beginning to investigate the most recent case where a train that was supposed to arrive on time at Argus didn't show up at all at the train station. They sent in their Huntsmen and Argus' local police to find out what had happened."
"*Sigh* I hope nothing worse has happened to the passengers on board."
"One can only speculate what on Remnant happened with them. Heck, we might as well be wondering where they're coming from." Glynda used her good arm to take a needed sip of her lavender tea from her tea cup at Ozpin's desk she was in. "And I am starting to agree with Qrow on his suspicions about Hammond and InGen as a whole."
"Well, I can't say much with him around since we don't know whether Hammond's even aware of what's happening outside the island park. Even if it is likely given what I have seen," Ozpin lowered his voice as to not let the InGen entrepreneur or the employees hear him.
"Even if Hammond wasn't directly aware of them, InGen might be." She took another sip of her tea before she warned him, "Regardless, be wary of John Hammond. I don't think he's been honestly forthright to you about what's happening with InGen."
"That remains to be seen, but I will keep my diligence. Perhaps Malcolm may see something about Hammond that I may not be able to."
"Maybe so...Well, I'd better let you go. You enjoy your lunch, sir."
"We will discuss more about your position when I come back to the Academy with the others after this vacation is over. For now, recover and enjoy your lunch, Glynda. Over and out," Ozpin said before he ended the call.
And just on time when he entered back in as the tailored servers were passing out exotic, Vacuoan dishes, including the familiar Valean dishes to his peers, students, the scientists, the lawyer, and Hammond. Not too long ago, Oobleck and his ragtag group of Shade and Haven Huntsmen students appeared about the same time into the restaurant as the main body did. All still thrilled about what they had seen at the Jurassic OceanSphere when their mood somewhat deflated when they saw the haunted, disturbed looks on Beacon Academy teams and Professor Port's faces. Zach and Gray had to leave for the Control Center since the former's internship required him to be there during certain periods of the day and the latter was going along with his brother for the reassurance of safety after they witnessed in the Raptor Paddock. As for Regis, he was going to the same place as the boys were to check up on the other employees, particularly a slobby one at that, and the running of the equipment. It did help lighten up the mood when Oobleck's group shared to the rest about Jurassic OceanSphere, and how breathtakingly epic it was to see the Mosasaurus, Archelon, the ichthyosaurs, Marlins, and the plesiosaurs up close as the aquarium could allow, which got mostly positive, light-hearted reactions from the others, particularly the paleontologists, Weiss, Ren, Yatsuhashi, and Blake in particular, since she's keen when anything comes to fish. Some were bit more queasy for various reasons, like Neptune for his irrational fear of water, Sun for his fear of croc-like animals that inhabit the waters, and Velvet at the thought of seeing such intimidating titanic leviathans that could easily capsize a boat and chomp on it.
Hammond, who sat at the front end of the table facing everyone, spoke up getting everybody's attention, "Most of the attractions were not ready of course, except for the few exceptions like Jurassic OceanSphere, Cenozoic Safari, and the Cretaceous River Cruise for the very purpose of the basic tour you're about to take. And other rides will come online about seven to 15 months after that. Absolutely spectacular designs! Spared no expense!"
Gennaro, who sat in between jumped in with suggestions on the pricing and marketing aspects, "We can charge anything we want; 2,000 lien a day, 10,000 lien a day. And people will pay it and there's the merchandise-"
"Donald, Donald..." John Hammond corrected him, "This park was not built to cater only to the super-rich. Everyone in the world has the right to enjoy these animals."
"Well, sure! We can have...uh, a coupon day, or something," Gennaro chuckled, making Hammond chuckle along with him. Most of the people were cool towards the idea, especially for a majority of the Huntsmen students, especially Coco who chimed in with her own idea.
"Kinda like a percent discount for say, like Huntsmen-in-training, and alumni coming in to visit. Because I'd sure would love to be able to sell a lot of products, especially the clothes merchandise, books, and whatever you have, coming from a company's perspective." Coco said.
"Yes, I mean, not to say about making it exclusive to us, Huntsmen and all, but it's just to be a flexible in catering to everyday ordinary citizens and families that wanna take their kids on a vacation to Jurassic Kingdom. Ah! You know what would be a great idea, coupon discounts for families and for class field trips; whether it'd be from preparatory academies like Signal and great academies like Beacon, Shade, Atlas, and Haven." Weiss added her input on the matter, feeling like more at home when it comes to business discussions like this similar to the ones she had seen her father had done so with the SDC's business partners. That got most of her peers and some of the adults murmuring in agreement with the valid points that the heiress was making.
"I think those are good ideas to build off from there, Ms. Schnee. Mr. Cabot would love to take them into account in the coming months before we jumpstart our park officially," Hammond said in reference to Cabot Finch, the head of Jurassic Kingdom's Public Relations and Crisis Management, and the very same person who was Hickory's boss and also met with Ironwood during the tour of their security facilities, including the newly-built ACU (Asset Containment Unit) Center. Winter Schnee felt some pride in seeing her younger sister start to come onto her own despite still having long ways to go with a silent smile on her face, which Weiss quietly acknowledged at the corner of her eye.
For some individuals at the table, they were more cautious or more reserved about Jurassic Kingdom.
Especially for a certain, intellectual chaotician.
"Gee, the lack of humility before nature that is being displayed here...um, staggers me." Ian Malcolm commented uncomfortably.
"Well, thank you, Dr. Malcolm, but I think things are a little different than you and I theorized," Gennaro tried to rebut him, but Malcolm was persistent.
"Yeah, I know, they're a lot worse." Malcolm interjected.
"Now hold on, we haven't even seen the park-" Gennaro was then interrupted by Hammond.
"Now Donald, Donald, Donald...let him talk. There's no reason to shut him up. I wanna hear his point of view. I really do."
Everyone had their eyes on Malcolm as he started his argument.
"Don't you see the danger...uh, John...inherent...in what you're doing here? Genetic power and Semblances are the most awesome and powerful forces Remnant has ever seen and you wield them like a kid who has found his dad's Huntsman weapon and has discovered his own Semblance early, taking wild guesses of what to do with it," Malcolm said.
"It's hardly appropriate to start a conversation like that," Gennaro said exasperatedly, but the chaotician put his hand up to stop the lawyer as it became clear to everyone at the table that he held the figurative commanding pulpit of the conversation.
"I-I-I-if I may, I'll tell you the problem with your scientific power that you're using here. Um, it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You know, you read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibilities for it." Malcolm argued, to which Hammond shook his head, unconvinced. "You stood on the shoulders of geniuses...to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you-you-y-you patented it, packaged it, and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're-" Malcolm smacked on the table to emphasize his point of the carelessness of Jurassic Kingdom, "-selling it. You're selling it."
Hammond gestured, not convinced with the argument Malcolm was making, "I-I-I-I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists of Jurassic Kingdom have done things, which nobody has ever done before."
Malcolm sucked in air hard before he argued coolly with the entrepreneur again, doubling down on his point, "Yeah! Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!" Malcolm hissed at the last part. That had a lot of people, even fun-loving, thrill-seeking people like Yang, Nora, Coco, and Sun, think back about the cloning process they had seen on the tour.
"Condors!" Hammond thought of an idea, a very plausible one to him to counter Malcolm's argument, "Condors are on the verge of extinction." Which only got Malcolm shaking his head, seeing that the old CEO had completely missed the point.
"No..." he groaned at that.
"If I were to wish to recreate a flock of condors, complete with the genes that enable them to wield whatever Semblance they were innately coupled with their individual personalities, flaws, and strengths like all of the dinosaurs and the creatures here in Jurassic Kingdom." That certainly got Oobleck and his group surprised of the implications that the dinosaurs, if not, all of the creatures were recreated with their own Auras and Semblances, which they thought Regis was exaggerating on the Jurassic OceanSphere tour. They looked to Ozpin and the others with a 'Is that true' look with the Headmaster just eating on his Vacuoan Sea Bass. Teams RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN proved to be rather sheepish in their response as they clearly forgot to mention that in conversing to them, including Port, who mumbled a curse something about his age starting to catch up to him. Ironwood, Winter, Ciel, and the soldiers, with the exception of the jubilant, curious Penny Polendina, nodded gravely to their questioning looks.
"You wouldn't say anything about it." Hammond spoke down on Malcolm, but the chaotician didn't back down as he jumped onto the flaw in Hammond's counterargument.
"Hold on, hold on, John! This isn't some species that has been obliterated by deforestation, the building of a dam, or had become the unintended casualty of the Great War and the skirmishes between men and Grimm. Dinosaurs had their shot and nature selected them for extinction, and that includes an enormous majority of the species in your park prior to the rise of Man, Faunus, and the Grimm."
"I simply don't understand," John shook his head again, "That's a lot of attitude, especially from a scientist!"
He then gestured with his hands to emphasize the wide expanse of Jurassic Kingdom, "I mean, how can we stand in the light of discovery, and not act upon it?"
"Oh, it's not very much a discovery, it's a violent...penetrative act...that scars what you call discovery." Malcolm smiled, "I call it the rape of the natural world."
Yang covered Ruby's ears while Blake's bow dropped as she frowned that she was beginning to see some sliver of truth to the statements Malcolm had made. Weiss, on the other hand, was peeved at the gall that the chaotician had in criticizing the wonderful work that John Hammond took ownership for in such blatant, obscene terms.
It was Ellie Sattler who next gave her own thoughts on the matter, "The question is how can you assume to know anything about an extinct ecosystem. Therefore, how can you be truly confident that you can control such an ecosystem so complex over millions of years. I will give some credit where it is due in that you did put some in recreating some of the ancient plant species suitable for the dinosaurs. Otherwise, it is not much to boast about because a lot of the plants...you chose them because they look good, but you never took the trouble to research how toxic they might be to the animals, even to creatures as recent as the giant sloths. These are aggressive living beings that don't even know what century they're in, but they'll fight tooth and claw to defend themselves...violently, if necessary."
Nora made a so-called 'sloth' sound at that much to the embarrassment of her team and Team RWBY.
John was surprised to hear criticism coming from a paleontologist of all people.
He then turned to the Huntsmen, "What about you all? Whay are your thoughts about what have you seen so far?"
"I think I speak for the rest of us when I say that so far the park is totally legit. As long as they are behind the fence and chill about it, we're all good," Brawnz blurted out with a smirk on his face with his teammates and Team NDGO clapping in approval.
"And that might be the problem." Ren, with his words, dumped cold water on the enthusiasm before it even started.
"Why's that?" Arslan asked, subtly challenging his claim while being curious.
"When we went to the Raptor Paddock, we saw a pack of raptors take down the horse. They were mobbing it until it was killed. That was when the squabble started and that was also when we saw them with their Auras active. Not only that, two of them activated their Semblances." Ren explained that made Velvet, Weiss, Jaune, and Neptune cringe subtly at the cruel memory of the brutality.
"What?! Woah! Okay, I can understand them having Aura, but I thought Semblances are only applicable to humans and Faunus." Octavia said, reminding everyone what they had been taught prior to entering the Huntsmen Academies.
"So did all of us, young lady...until now." Port with his voice sounding a little shaken at the thought of ferocious prehistoric monsters possessing Oum knows what kind of powers. "It's quite the revelation to take in, even for me." He scratched his bushy mustache uncomfortably.
"Good Freaking Oum...Grimm are already bad enough," Octavia swore with the rest of her words faltering at this.
"Yeah, so every animal on the island has super powers. So what?" Nolan shrugged his shoulders, "To me, InGen probably had their bases covered with the heavy electrical steel fencing. I mean, they had to when it comes to multi-ton monsters, right?"
Hammond soured internally at the young man's insult towards the dinosaurs, but he couldn't blame his way of thinking given his occupation and the dangerous job details it was entailed with.
"It wouldn't be if it's just brute physicality we're dealing with here, but clearly that's not the case. So..." Ruby twiddled with her fingers, still trying to comprehend what she had witnessed with the Dakotaraptors. Also she was nervous with many eyes on her as she was not good with crowds.
Thankfully, it was Pyrrha who spoke up, picking up where Ruby left off.
"The thing is that because of the possibility of every creature possessing a unique Semblance of their own, the fences may not be enough to contain more of the destructive individuals." The red-haired bodacious Spartan stated.
"Hey, I like you personally, champ, but we've not seen much of the park yet. So hold your horses and cool it, before we all start losing our cool," Reese gestured. "Besides, I wanna have some fun seeing the goodies."
"Miss Reese, I'm sad to say not all of us are at ease because of this new information," it was Headmaster Ironwood that spoke this time and he was far from comforted by what he had been hearing from the students so far. "Which Hammond had failed to warn us about the moment we first stepped foot into the park."
Ozpin knew how blunt James' words were and he saw what was verbally coming to Hammond a mile away. Here we go, he thought as he sipped from his mug
"General Ironwood, what's your opinion of Jurassic Kingdom now that you've gotten a good look of our security measures?" Hammond asked Atlas Academy's Headmaster, hoping that the tour would negate the skepticism he had about the park. Winter, Weiss, Ciel, and Penny paid more so attention than anyone else in the room since he does represent the Kingdom that prided itself on advanced technology and state-of-the-art security.
James cupped his chin, thinking and measuring his words carefully. After gathering his thoughts, he said this,
"Mr. Hammond, I must say that the large investment that you and InGen had put into installing heavy, military-type security into the park is very impressive considering the kind of attractions that you intend to reveal to the public." Those words seemingly got Hammond cheery while others like Ozpin either frowned or became surprised that the normally stern and orderly general would approve of something so inherently risky as Jurassic Kingdom. That was before until they heard his next words that quickly turned that upside down. "But also because of the kind of living attractions comes the potential risk to your future customers if some catastrophic disaster, glitch in the system, or sabotage were to make the park unable to take care of the animals for a longer period of time. I can't say for certainty that the current security measures would be adequate enough to handle whatever complications may arise, especially with the new information about one of the dinosaurs I have heard from the students."
If this were a full-blown cartoon, Hammond would have lost his jaw and it would have clattered onto the table. Ozpin grinned with his mouth hidden by the coffee mug he's sipping from. Qrow, for once, agreed with James on his current general feeling on the park, especially after what he had witnessed in the Raptor Paddock; even if begrudgingly. Winter and Weiss were internally impressed with the backhanded compliment and criticism that Ironwood delivered onto Hammond all at once while they kept themselves as neutral as possible.
"Ironwood! I am shocked that you, a General of the Atlesian Army; well known for wanting order and peace, would be so skeptical of the heavy security equipment and measures I took the trouble to having it all installed throughout the park!" Hammond said in an exasperated tone with shock on his face.
"It is the improbable that concerns me, John. If these dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals are now anything like us humans and Faunuskind, not only do they possess Aura, tremendous strength ferocity, and powers not seen by human eyes for 65 million years. The levels of their unique Semblances fluctuate, never remaining constant. In simplified words, Mr. Hammond; they change and evolve over time just like the dinosaurs. And hear me out before you accuse me in a fit," Ironwood warned the elderly InGen CEO, who kept his mouth shut reluctantly, "I understand that InGen probably took all of that into account. I am not dismissing the effort the company put into making their state-of-the-art technology evolve as best as they could to keep up with the animal's biostatistics. That much is clear from what I have seen so far, but I can only imagine that's after however many tries and failed attempts. In fact, I managed to talk with my former student after he was finished giving us the tour. He admitted that most of the security measures and Asset Containment was done on a lot of trial and error. Guesswork based on the animal's newfound behaviors with some of them close to the mark while others proved to be erroneous, forcing it back to square one."
"Goodness gracious, James, we've known that would always happen-," Hammond interjected, trying to save face, but Ironwood shouted him down, not loudly, yet firmly enough that there was no longer any room for Hammond to finish his rebuttal.
"And you still have no idea of what you're dealing with, or the true extent of these creatures' powers. You may have missile launchers and turret guns constructed to every corner of the park, covering every enclosure from what I have seen from the map in the Asset Containment Center. You may have amassed more than enough manpower, including Atlesian Knights - my Atlesian Knights, and Paladins for your security forces along with enormous stockpiles of weapons that can arm an entire kingdom to war. But all of that could be useless when you don't even have an inkling of the animals you have brought back into existence or what they're really capable of when push comes to has not yet given me any reason to place my trust into the stability of your park."
Malcolm smirked after seeing Hammond's naivete and ego taken down a notch by Atlas's number one control freak.
"Well, that's quite a surprise. Never thought I see the general, of all people, being skeptical for once." Gennaro chuckled nervously, "I am not sure whether to be happy or to be nervous."
"Oh, it's nothing to be nervous about. Good to have a healthy dose of skepticism once in a while. It does help keep your mind alert. And Jimmy's not the only at the table to be wary. I, myself, have some concerns for the park that Jimmy over there have eloquently addressed; granted we have not seen the rest of the park. I just happen to have a slightly different take on it." Qrow ate a piece of the fish before he continued, "All of that jazzy new equipment and how much security you had to focus on one enclosure tells me that you don't know a thing about your dinosaurs."
"I beg your pardon, Mr. Branwen. I don't think you understand or appreciate the time and effort our researchers took into understanding the nature of each of our animals in the park." Hammond defended with a look as if he tasted a sour grape.
"The fact that you have more than armed guards roaming the park than handlers is indicative of how much you fear your own creations because of the lack of understanding that you heedlessly pushed aside to get your assets out as fast as they could." Qrow pushed back.
"On the contraire, Mr. Branwen, it's the other way around. If we hadn't understood and learned much about our animals, we wouldn't have the security measures and personnel necessary in the first place."
"The raptors certainly didn't give me the good impression that you and the guys had it all together totally," Qrow was about to criticize more until he got nudge to the arm by his older niece sitting next to him. Yang had the 'cut it off' expression as she shook her head saying enough was enough with Ruby waving her hands saying the same thing to their uncle non-verbally. Qrow grumbled, upon seeing his brother-in-law mouthing him to shut up, he grabbed his glass cup to gulp down his beer.
"Hammond, you have recreated basically entirely new ecosystems of, for the lack of better terms, super powered monsters." Ozpin stated, "Ancient, yet complex, powerful beings that no one has been able to wrap their heads around. And most of them may not even be aware of their Semblances, except for a few that are extremely intelligent. I am willing to bet that even if the dinosaurs were aware of their Semblances, they probably wouldn't care in the same way we do. It is innately second nature to them as it is to breath air. Not like how most of us have to discover our Semblances later in life and take time and effort to know them, thus introspecting ourselves. The dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts don't have the capacity to do so. The point, my friend, is that they're like fire and you're playing dangerously with that fire that can quickly turn into a wildfire. It doesn't care who or what gets in its way because sooner or later, someone is going to be immolated. By the time you realize, it'd be far too late."
Hammond looked around with disbelief in his eyes as he landed his gaze onto Alan Grant, who had not said anything at all during the conversation.
"Dr. Grant, if there's one person here who could appreciate what I am trying to do." Hammond said to him.
Seeing that all eyes were on him, he nervously shifted himself a bit into amore comfortable position before he answered, "The world has changed so radically and we're all trying to catch up and survive with whatever our predecessors have managed to salvage of our previous civilizations. It's a miracle that we are where we are today given the constant attacks of Grimm, bandits, and terrorist groups like the White Fang, no disrespect to any of the Faunus here. I mean, look at it this way, we're still running to catch up and make sure our four Kingdoms stay unified. I don't want to jump to any conclusions for certain, but..." He took a deep breath to take diligence of what he wanted to say, "Dinosaurs and man. Two species separated by sixty-five million years of evolution has been suddenly thrown back into the mix together, which nothing in Remnant's natural history had ever happened before. That is a direct contrast to that of man and Mammoths that have coexisted together for ten thousand years, at least we have solid fossil record of our ancestors' interactions with those beasts in the Pleistocene. But with dinosaurs and others that are further back in time, how can we possibly have the slightest idea of what to expect, much less when they and the Grimm come to blows with each other?"
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it. You all are meant to come down here to defend me against these characters," John pointed to Malcolm and the kind of skeptics like him that were known to be critical of systems in place. He then pointed his finger to some of the younger Hunters and then to Gennaro, "And the only people I've got on my side are some handsome-looking punks and the blood-sucking lawyer."
"Well, thank you," Gennaro took the backhanded compliment surprisingly well, though he probably inwardly cringed at it.
"All due respect, sir, some of us are more intellectual than we look," Neptune interjected, feeling the need to correct the old man, allowing his youth and pride to get the best of him.
"Psshh...yeah right," Brawnz and Yang waved him off dismissively.
"Not yet, Mr. Vasilias! You have quite a long way to go before you even reach my level," Dr. Oobleck declared. "Which I'll warn you it is easier said than done, assuming the Grimm don't bite your brains off."
"Can we please not talk about brains and Grimm when we're trying to eat here?" Weiss requested as politely as she could.
However, that was ruined when Yang chose the worst time to interject her pun into the situation, "Yeah, it's no-brainer that we're trying to enjoy our lunch before we explore the rest of the dino park for a while!"
"Yeah, I hate to b-rain on your parade, missie, but I predict that we will be lunch for the dinos before the day will be even over." And Malcolm had to join in on the wrecking pun train.
Some of the people spit out their drinks, a few choked on their food, while most groaned, except for Taiyang, slamming their palms onto their faces.
"Oh no..." Ellie shook her head with her cheeks puffed up, trying her hardest not to laugh.
"Oh dear gods, now we got two jokers that can't make a good pun even if their lives depend upon it," Qrow groaned.
"For once, I agree with you on this one," Winter gulped hard on her wine from her cup.
"This must be another nightmare where I am still sleeping in the infirmary," Ruby slammed her head onto the table.
"Winter, remind me to disinvite Dr. Malcolm to speak in one of our seminars," Ironwood looked like he was having an aneurism.
"I don't know who's worse!" Weiss, on her part, snapped, appearing she was about to tear her white hair out, "Our blonde joke of a brute, or the nonsensical mathematician whose Chaos Theory has more holes than Swiss cheese!"
"Nice one, Doc!" Yang gave a thumbs-up to the eccentric chaotician, who chuckled with her.
"Pleasure to joke with a future comedian," Malcolm complimented.
"No! Don't encourage her!" Blake growled with a bag covering her head.
Jurassic Park Trivia: Michael Crichton wrote the novel because of his concern for the rise of scientism, and the exploration of bio-genetics for the sake of profit.
RWBY Trivia: The initials of the Wizard's name, Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, spell OZPINHEAD, which may be the origin of Ozpin's name, as well as his position as headmaster of Beacon Academy.
Other Trivia: Stella Lionel Burke draws inspiration from two characters, Leone from Akame ga Kill and Sadie Adler from Red Dead Redemption 2. Her gauntlets are a combination of Wolverine's adamantium claws and Ryu's red fighting gloves.