Morning Coffee

"... and so you dumped two bottles of floor cleaner on her head, is that right?" Glynda finished. Doug nodded, and took her by surprise with his statement;

"I wish I'd had extra at the time. She deserved more than that." It took him a second, but he did at a point realize that was a pretty bad thing to say about a blunder on your first day at the job. "Maybe she thought I was a lowly janitor, not worth her time, but I'm still one of the faculty here. The least she could do is show some respect, seeing as I'll mop up her sweat every day... whaling on other kids is hardly something to ignore, either."

Glynda regarded him with a hard look for a moment, making him sweat, but soon her shoulders slumped from their squared position. She was going to let him off easy. "I wouldn't be so lenient with you had the student you helped not come forward, you know. It's a relief to see that you take your position seriously, rather than making up excuses, and truth be told we dropped our previous janitor because he encouraged the very same behaviour you just dealt with." That was a bit of a shock. The image this produced in Doug's head was of someone in his getup rooting for gang beats on poor Velvet, which was funny and irritating all at once.

"On another note, you said that Marissa hit you?"

"Yeah, body blows mostly. I'm a little sore, but nothing too bad." Glynda was giving him a sort of appraising stare this time, making him more self-conscious than he had been when there was a chance of being reprimanded for soaking a student in chemicals.

She had whatever phony info his file contained on her desk, adjusting her glasses as she read things he couldn't see. He had been made aware of what he should say in a situation where he was asked personal questions, but there was always room for error when pretending to be someone you're not. "Has your aura been unlocked, Mr. Brightsnap?"

"No, ma'am."

She paused, thinking. "Perhaps we should."

Doug gave her a confused look, turning his hands to face palms-up. "Isn't that for you guys? I'm just cleaning up your messes. What would I need my aura for?"

"You may need it if you're going to continue working here like you have today. I like the fact that you're prepared to make a stand for yourself and others –as an adult here, you should show that kind of sense –but you could get seriously hurt if you aggravate a student like that again, let alone the kinds of accidents that take place around here would have much harsher results on you than anyone else. We wouldn't be training you in the full use of your aura, of course –you aren't here to learn, but to earn. The basics of self defense, however, is necessary for all faculty members; you are currently the rare exception to that." He nodded to her.

"Alright, I guess. It's not like I'm going to argue against what's essentially a bonus." As Glynda stood with intent to circle the table, he got out of his seat as well. "So you were going to do this from the start?"

Glynda shook her head. "No. You were hired mainly because you were completely normal; after all, being surrounded by their comrades-in-arms and monsters may make them forget the simpler things, like the people they're fighting for. I can actually do all of what you do, with significantly less time or effort spent on it, but the Janitor of Beacon is more of a title; an excuse for the example we need to keep on hand of the lives our students are meant to protect. That position has changed as we got worse and worse examples... you're the first that seems to be worth having around." Oh, the irony.

She set a hand on his shoulder. "We're here to guide the generations of Hunters that come through this academy. If they were separated at length from the kinds of people they live and die for, they might forget why they do it."

"I kinda see what you mean. They might have free time to see family and visit the city early on, but work can pile up." He paused, having thought of something. "Wouldn't unlocking my aura defeat the purpose? I wouldn't be quite so 'normal' anymore."

Glynda laughed at him. "Oh, you will still be your usual self, Dirk. You will just be able to suffer more stray bullets and explosions than the average human being, and that will be enough. You had better appreciate the privilege."

Doug made a face. "I'm okay with that. So, uh, how do we do this thing?"

"Close your eyes and concentrate." He did so, and a violet hue crept over her body;

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

Doug opened his eyes, the sensation flowing all throughout him impossible to describe. Glancing down at himself, a yellowish-green color tinged the air directly surrounding him, and with a look up to the woman before him he took a switch directly to the face.

He wasn't expecting that.

Nearly toppling over backwards as the strike threw him off balance, he caught himself just barely to turn around and face Ms. Goodwitch again with intent to ask what the hell that was all about; she was giving him that appraising look again. "Hm."

"What?" He asked, receiving no reply. She raised her weapon again, and he raised his arms in defense; the blow never came.

"Ah, that's it... Ozpin was right after all. Mr. Brightsnap, I can see why one of our senior students was unable to hurt you." Doug opened one eye, catching the limelike color vanishing from himself again.

"I don't get paid enough for my co-workers to slap me around."

Glynda showed no signs of remorse. "I apologize, but it was requested of me to test your aura given you agreed to have it unlocked. And not surprisingly, your resilience seems to have stemmed from there even before you had proper use of it –our students are trained to be tough, Mr. Brightsnap, so the subconscious activation of your inner strength was the only reason we could think that you walked off the strikes of a third year."

"... uh-huh. So are we done?"

Glynda took her seat again, looking him in the eye. "You say we don't pay you enough to get slapped around by co-workers... but what about students?"

"If we're talking about Marissa, it would seem that way, wouldn't it? I haven't quit... though I can't say I want that to happen again." He said. She looked down at her desk.

"Alright, then. I have something specific in mind for you tomorrow, so don't be late."

The next morning, Doug opened the door to the west wing's arena, only to find it in use. His schedule today had said this wouldn't be the case, so thinking maybe there were some mistake, intended to leave and check the east wing's. Glynda's voice thundered over to him before he could shut the door; "Right on time, Mr. Brightsnap. Come up here, please."

He quirked a brow, but did as he was told, setting aside his tools and ascending the stairs to the arena floor. Not seeing anything needing his immediate attention as the caretaker, he gave the teacher a questioning leer. She in turn directed him to stand beside her. "Class, today I'll be introducing you to a new competitive training exercise, the centerpiece of which will be our resident janitor Mr. Brightsnap."

A murmur passed over the spectator's row where most of them were seated. Glynda continued; "Your duty first and foremost is to protect others, but normally you are sent to intercept Grimm before they can reach Humans or Faunus. Sometimes, however, they will be in immediate danger. Today, the matches up here will be one-on-one team battles; one team will play the role of hunters. The other will play the role of Grimm."

"Oh god, really?" Doug asked, not getting an answer. The students got a quick laugh outof the remark, but quieted down as Ms. Goodwitch continued;

"Simply put, one team will be fighting to defend Mr. Brightsnap here from the opposing team. If Mr. Brightsnap's aura drops to red, the Grimm automatically win, and also win if one or more of their members take Mr. Brightsnap out of the arena with them." So they either had to pummel or kidnap him. This couldn't get much better...

"The usual rules apply to the Hunters' team; ring-out the Grimm team, or drop their auras to red standing. Any volunteers for our first round?" Glynda was already looking at who she expected to be raising their hand. "Alright, team Mulberry will be taking?..."

Marissa grinned as she was chosen. Doug cursed under his breath. "We'll be the Grimm team, Ms. Goodwitch."

Glynda scanned the students for another hand, also knowing who she was looking for. She had to suppress the rare smile she might make, once seeing that only Velvet of team Coffee had her hand up, and her team's leader Coco was having a moment to contain her surprise.

"Team Coffee, please come up here and protect Mr. Brightsnap."