All things considered, explaining the strange meeting to Ruby and Weiss went surprising well.
"The nerve of that man! Setting up a tent on Beacon grounds like it was a shanty town!" Weiss hmphed. For her part, Blake had never actually seen a proper 'hmph' happen outside of a book before she had met Weiss. "While I am glad that the Headmaster was willing to evict such a trespasser from school bounds, the fact that he was able to slip in here and have long enough to actually set up his little hobo shack before being discovered seems like a gross oversight!"
Ruby for her part just seemed sleepy. Considering how she had propped herself up against the bed head to watch the door, Blake suspected that their team leader had opted to stay up a bit longer than she intended to in order to be a good leader and make sure the rest of her team came back alright. It was… honestly rather touching for her to have done that and Blake couldn't help but feel a little guilty they were out for so long without meaning too if it meant causing Ruby to worry about their well-being.
Of course, if any of them wanted to get any sleep anytime soon, they needed to deal with Weiss. The heiress had started to relax recently, but it was clear that the presence of what seemed to be a homeless man on school grounds was digging at her elitism and she was currently in the process of working herself up about the whole affair… it had been a few weeks since something like this had happened, and truth be told Blake didn't welcome its return.
"Weiss, I don't know what to tell you because the matter has been sorted out. Ozpin has likely asked him to leave and since Clauneck didn't seem like he was willing to fight about it he almost certainly did. Unless you feel like breaking curfew in order to hunt down an old, homeless faunus man in order to kick his ass or yell at him a bit, its over. Let it go." Yang of all people answered, causing Blake to turn towards her partner with a mild look of pleasant surprise.
It was rare for Yang to be the one to defuse a situation, but she could have a way with words at times. It was clear to see that her choice of them had caused Weiss to stop and reflect on the situation; As snobbish and elitist as Weiss was, she wasn't a bad person at heart, and she was smart enough to recognize that she had some negative traits to work on in order to be a better one.
With another 'hmphed' that rivalled the earlier one, Weiss turned towards her bed and let out a sigh before saying "I must admit, I find that you are correct Yang. We have class tomorrow and losing sleep over a harmless situation that has resolved itself peacefully would be a waste of time and effort. Goodnight."
With the rant stopped before someone outside of the team banged on the door to ask them to keep it down and the full team accounted for, Blake saw Ruby offer a small mumble and a wave as she snuggled down under her own covers for the night. Weiss had already been dressed for bed and thus was quick to enter it herself.
While it wouldn't have been the first time that Yang had fallen onto her bed and passed out while fully dressed, the lack of alcohol during the evening's activities ensured that she was willing to take the time to get changed much like Blake herself was before they flicked off the lights and settled down.
But despite everything, sleep didn't come easy to Blake. From the sounds of shuffling from the bottom bunk, Yang was having some trouble as well. While Blake wasn't a betting woman, she was willing to guess that whatever she had seen when she had been looking at her cards were at the forefront of her mind as well.
The idea of talking with Yang about the evening came to mind, but Blake wasn't the most social of people to begin with… plus Weiss was a remarkably light sleeper and they had already had to defuse one annoyed rant before it got started tonight, it was doubtful they could get away with another one for waking her up.
Still, even with her eyes closed Blake couldn't help but picture the various things that she saw. Recalling the past with Adam… hurt. Not just because of how their relationship had ended and the path that lead to it, but also because of the kinder, happier memories that came before.
It would have been so easy to not feel any pain about it if she could just remember Adam, the hate filled, violent jerk. But that Adam was mixed in with memories of a sweeter, more compassionate man. The Adam that inspired loyalty among the White Fang and cared so deeply about their people because he didn't want them to live in a world where what happened to him could happen to others.
There had always been a part of Blake that wondered what happened to the man that she had loved that changed him so. Even back when she had first met him, the anger had been there; Considering what had happened to him, rage against those that branded him was honestly a normal and healthy response!
But as the years passed by, the rage darkened and twisted into a hatred that overpowered his desire to help his fellow faunus. It stopped being about protecting their people and became more about hurting those who harmed or abused them. Then that morphed into harming and killing humans in general. After a time, those faunus who weren't apart of the White Fang or sympathetic to the cause were viewed as complacent with the status quo or worse, actively working to maintain it…
It all happened so gradually. So naturally. Even now, looking back on the past with a clear understanding of how merciless and cruel the Vale chapter of the White Fang were becoming, she could still remember how… logical and rational it had all seemed from the inside. If she hadn't woken up to the reality of the situation when she had, she almost certainly never would have. The thought caused a shiver to run down her spine that had nothing to do with any chill in the air.
Despite Clauneck's words about there being 'another woman', Blake couldn't bring herself to take comfort from them. Wouldn't allow herself the ability to take the easy out of claiming that her efforts to try and stop Adam's path to darkness and hate had only ended in failure because some unknown bitch was undermining her.
Thinking about it was frustrating, because no such woman came to her mind when she thought about whom it might be. Sure, there had been other members of the White Fang that were interested in Adam for reasons political, personal or even romantic in nature but none of them stood out as someone who was actively stroking Adam's ire for humanity; Humans tended to do that with their own actions well enough without active support.
That thought caused Blake's eyes to open wide as her brain ground to a halt. Humans…
The White Fang had been working with Roman Torchwick and his goon squad to steal dust. From what she saw neither side really seemed to be enjoying the arrangement, but the two sides were grudgingly working together. Even more so, Roman had been the leading figure at the docks with the White Fang, albeit grudgingly, following his lead and commands; Something that Adam would never allow under normal circumstances.
There were periods of time when she hadn't been with Adam in which he could have met with an outsider to the White Fang. In fact, she remembered contacting several groups, both legal and criminal, that weren't allied directly to the White Fang, but who shared common goals with them. It was simply a fact that while Adam was the more charismatic of the two of them, Blake had been the more diplomatic and thus tended to be trusted with jobs that a bit more social finesse was required.
The only reason that Blake could think of that Adam would have private meetings with an outside group without telling her about it would be if he was doing something taboo… such as talking to a human group. Of course, such things hadn't always been taboo; Back in the days her parents were leading the White Fang, there had been human members and allies (normally in the form of friends or family since genetics didn't care for human and Faunus all that much and mixed households weren't uncommon) but under Adam's leadership of the Vale Chapter such a thing would be utter blasphemy.
For Adam to even entertain the idea of meeting with a human to discuss the White Fang working with them, let alone actually doing it… There was a time that Blake knew that the very suggestion of such a thing would have been a killing insult.
And yet, White Fang of the Vale Chapter had openly followed Roman Torchwick's command in the field. As insane as the idea sounded in her own head, some shadowy mystery woman that had somehow gotten some degree of influence over both Roman and Adam convincing the two of them to put aside their differences and work together made more sense that the two coming together in their tedious alliance alone.
For a moment, she considered the idea of speaking to Headmaster Ozpin about this idea. Roman and the Vale Chapter of the White were a considerable problem to Vale and anything that could help bring both to a stop would almost certainly be welcomed and the headmaster seemed like he would not only listen to her words, but also take her seriously.
But the more she thought about it, the more unsure of how good an idea that was seemed. While Opzin would likely take her seriously, there wasn't a lot of evidence to support her theory beyond her history of being a trusted member of the very organization that was behind a lot of the crime spree and the words of a homeless elderly faunus man who liked to use tarot cards. The latter would be disregarded without any serious consideration and the former would involve drawing the attention of various law enforcement agencies on her head.
Besides, just how useful would 'There is a mysterious woman that somehow connects Adam and Roman together' with no further details be to ongoing investigations?
She was going to need more in the way of proof. Preferably something that could stand on its own without needing to expose her criminal past, but if she had enough that doing so would not only help undo some of the damage of her past crimes but also clean up a lot of the mess that the White Fang was currently causing… she could live with that.
Of course, how to do that was a rather important question that needed an answer. It was currently not one that she couldanswer with any certainty. Though, it did put that third and final card in mind. It was a bit of a long shot that 'Mary's Soups for Lost Sheep' would lead to the solution for such a big problem but… well, had to start somewhere. Besides, even if it did prove to be unrelated, she kind of just wanted to know why it turned up in her cards.
If this was somehow an advertisement ploy and Clauneck was advertising the place, Blake wasn't sure if she would be angry, upset or honestly kind of impressed. Regardless of the answer through, it would likely have to wait until after school on Friday; She simply wouldn't be able to get into Vale long enough to get a proper investigation going sooner.
It took a little longer, but in the end Blake managed to drift off into a shallow, restless slumber.