Four Is A Crowd
First Years, Line Up!
Three large airships docked on the sky-port of Beacon Academy and the new arrivals aboard them were quick to depart for a better view of the prestigious campus.
However, before they could explore on their own, each exiting group soon found themselves greeted by a pair of prefects.
"Over here, Firsties!" called out a rather tall and blond man as he waved to his assigned group — in particular, the one that Sieg Aschelt was in — beckoned them to come quickly. He introduced himself when they finally arrived, one hand on his hip with his legs spread heroically wide. "I'm a Fourth Year: Rock Waltafela!"
Next to him was a very short girl with pink-colored hair. Her features were doll-like and it was hard to imagine that she was an upperclassman. She lazily raised her hand and only spoke her name as loud as a whisper. "Nonono Pretter."
They were dressed in Beacon's uniform. The male uniform was a black blazer with gold-lining, a white dress-shirt under a blue vest, a red tie, and black slacks. The female uniform was a similar outfit — a dark reddish-brown blazer with gold-lining, a white dress-shirt under a tan vest, a red ribbon, and a red skirt with a black, red, and gold plaid. Both Rock and Nonono had distinct orange armbands to denote their status as prefects.
"Now, I'm sure you're all excited to be here and super eager to go exploring the school and all that, but orientation comes first, Firsties! So you better follow us or you'll be late and you definitely don't want to be late; Professor Goodwitch doesn't take kindly to tardiness!"
Nonono sharply crossed her arms into an x. "Punishment befalls you."
"Hahaha! Right, right," the male prefect energetically nodded his head, "So let's move along before we all get into trouble!"
Despite the suggested urgency, Rock at the front and Nonono at the back led the group of new students rather leisurely and allowed them time to soak in the sights around them.
Sieg couldn't quite describe the architecture of Beacon. Spires upon spires, arches connecting spires, ornately paved paths, blue holo-banners hanging on street-lamps, trees and flowering bushes dotted the field in an organized manner; it was very grand but not gaudy.
[...]
Sieg Aschelt's group was eventually led into the circular floor-room of the academy's amphitheater — the huge wooden doors closed behind as the last group entered after them. The room was filled with a near-hundred number of new arrivals.
They had a brief moment to chatter before a cough from the stage called for their attention.
The man was dressed stylishly in three different hues of green for his suit, vest, pants, and turtle-neck shirt or sweater. He had a cane and, despite his gray mop of hair, did not appear to be a man older than his thirties. Glynda Goodwitch stood attentively off to his left side and was certainly more beautiful and stern in person than what the holo-screens could portray. Thus everyone figured — if they had not already known — that the man standing on stage was quite obviously none other than Headmaster Ozpin.
"Ahem..." he pushed up his small black circle-shaped glasses, "I'll keep this brief. You are here to better yourselves — to hone your craft and acquire new skills, to dedicate your life and future to the protection of the people. But, here, I look amongst you... and all I see is misguided youth. You assume knowledge will enlighten you and free you of such adolescence, but you shall soon learn that knowledge can only carry you so far. Students Of Beacon — Hunters-In-Training — temper your resolves because it is up to you to take the first step."
A few were peeved at being called misguided youths. Others were not quite certain about that the man's dismissive attitude. Some were glad that the stuffy formality was brushed over quickly. Those who listened intently kept his words as wisdom. But most people simply planned to do their best anyways as the speech didn't sound all too different from what they would normally hear.
Sieg was part of the very last group; the words had went in one ear and out the other. He was here to become a Hunter. He had years of fighting Grimms under his belt and thought of Beacon Academy as a mere formality at getting his license. One way or another, he was going to become a Hunter, no matter how dangerous people said it was.
The headmaster briskly walked away from the stage and left Goodwitch to take his place.
"Tonight you will sleep in the ballroom and tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready, Students. Dismissed."
[...]
The prefects from before were quick to fill in the void of authority.
In particular, Rock Waltafela boomed loud and above the volume of the crowd, "Over here, Firsties! Follow us if you want a tour of the place!"
'Sounds like a plan. I've got nothing to do and I'd rather not get lost later on.'
Sieg wandered off into a random direction — away from Rock Waltafela — and ended up following a prefect with blue slicked-back hair who had belt of a pistols holstered on his waist and even on his back. Their group was the second-to-last to leave the amphitheater when they had finally numbered around twenty people.
He adjusted his tie, swept back his hair, "I am Antonis Avetti," and tilted his head back with a scowl on his face, "After this little tour is over, I expect none of you newbies to bother me again, capiche?" A couple of students hurriedly nodded their head.
The prefect was concise — perhaps too concise in Sieg's opinion — in that he explained what and where things were but didn't elaborate on how things worked. A number of students easily started to feel confused, if not uncertain, about the tour.
At one point, a minor explosion had occurred somewhere on the school's ground, but Antonis had merely said it wasn't his problem to look into and had promptly ignored it.
[...]
"This is the First-Year Dining-Hall." It was already filled with students getting or eating their lunch and the delectable smell of a well-made meal wafted tantalizingly in the air. "Tour's over. You're dismissed, Newbies. If you have anymore questions, ask someone else." Antonis lazily waved his hand and walked away.
With the prefect gone, a few people were quick to complain about how terrible of a guide he was and bonded over their mutual dislike.
Sieg was preoccupied with other things, namely his rumbling stomach. "Finally, I can get something to eat."
The meal being served was far more than what Sieg would normally eat. A small-sized bowl of soup and bread or bowl of rice were the appetizers, some sort of refreshingly nice-smelling herbal tea was the drink, and the main dish was some chicken-legs, a couple of boneless fishes, and a saucy pasta. It was practically a feast in his eyes.
He quickly found an empty spot amongst the many long tables and took a seat.
"You stink."
Sieg turned his head toward the speaker.
It was a girl that was a tad shorter than most. Her neck-length chocolate-brown hair was tied into a left side-tail. She had bright reddish-orange eyes which didn't quite fit with her stoically-bored expression on that baby-face of her's and wore some rather tight-fitting clothes — shiny black short-shorts, thigh-highs, fingerless-gloves, and something lime-green under her brownish comically-oversized hoodie. She was also a faunus if the flame-colored reptilian-tail was any indication.
"You stink," she repeated with an expression that didn't actually look bothered, "Can you not sit so close to me?"
"Ah, uh, sure."
He scooted back. She nudged her head. He scooted back some more. She nudged her head again. He scooted back even more. By now there was enough room for another person to sit between them. She nudged her head once again.
Sieg stopped. "Hey, don't you think you're asking for a bit too much?"
"No, you stink like shit." Sieg frowned and then scooted closer. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm not moving anymore. I am sitting here and I am eating here. If you don't like it, then you move." Without waiting for her response, Sieg removed his mask and placed it on his lap.
He picked up his spoon and fork and chowed down. He ignored the atmosphere and other occupants as he gobbled up his meal quickly. His manner was atrocious and his noise obnoxiously loud, he only finished half of everything on his tray, but the teen was swift to leave the table within minutes of his guzzling.
His mood had dropped to the point where he couldn't even recall whether the food was delicious or not and the meal which sat in stomach only made him feel half-empty.
"That sucked."
[...]
Before night could fall, Sieg Aschelt found a spot underneath the stairs to occupy in the ballroom, he wanted to avoid space-issues like that from the dining hall. Unfortunately, there were still several more hours before night could claim dominance over day.
Such a large amount of free-time was an oddity to him. Training, hunting down Grimms, odd-jobs, and playing with his little sister Linde was where most of his time had went. The closest thing he had to a hobby was drawing people — or doodling as he personally thought of it — but had...
No, wait. Could it be?
He rummaged through his tiny satchel.
Aha! He did indeed have a sketchbook and a pencil on him. Linde must have stuffed it in his satchel, which would have explained why it was little weightier than it should have been. He recalled quite fondly that she had insisted on him getting a new one for when he attended Beacon, so it was still completely blank of content.
'Guess I should fill it up for her.'
The teen took off his mask and tried to relaxed. He started drawing the people he had seen today, or at least the ones who stood out enough that he could remember: mature Professor Glynda Goodwitch, loud and jolly Rock Waltafela, little doll-like Nonono Pretter, Headmaster Ozpin, almost aloof Antonis Avetti, and that bratty you-stink faunus girl.
Sieg drew slowly so night had mostly fallen by the time he was finished and the ballroom was now lit by moon-and-candle light. He could hear the rustle of the many sleeping-bags, the snores of some early sleepers, and the chit-chat of those too excited to go to sleep.
He felt stiff for sitting prone for so long. He yawned, packed up his stuff, stretched, and yawned again.
'I'm more tired than I thought.'
Rolling his head, Sieg set out to grab a sleeping-bag for himself.
That's when he finally noticed the racket that filled the air.
"What in the world is going on over here?! Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep?!"
"Oh, not you again!" "Oh, not you again!"
It was a group of three girls as far as he could tell. One with long straight white-hair in a nightgown, another who seemed the youngest with short reddish-black hair and wearing a tank-top with polka-dotted pajamas pants, while the last person looked the oldest had long wild golden-hair who was also in a tank-top and shorts.
"Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!"
"Oh, now you're on my side?"
"I was always on your side!"
"Yeah, what's your problem with my sister?! She's only trying to be nice!"
"She's a hazard to my health!"
Sieg tried to tune them out but it was to his misfortune — and many others — that the night was still young.
Author Notes
Rock Waltafela and Nonono Pretter are part of Team NWVR (pronounced New-verse). Meanwhile, Antonis Avetti is part of Team CAKE much to his misfortune.
Chapter Three was suppose to be a part of Chapter Two but since so many characters appeared in this one — named or otherwise — I decided to separate them.