Chapter 8
The door to the conference room opened, and Headmaster Ozpin stepped in, before seating himself across the oval table from several of his prospective students. He placed his coffee mug on the hardwood, and interlaced his fingers before speaking. "As all of you must know, Beacon Academy isn't shy about taking students from other countries under it's tutelage, and usually a student's acceptance would be based on their final exam scores from the primary academies they attended. However, Beacon provides exemptions for those who were raised outside the safe borders of civilization. As all of you have passed Beacon's Huntsman Course Pre-entrance exam, I find it appropriate to inform you that you have been admitted to Beacon Academy." Ozpin said, smiling softly.
The short redhead at the end of the table, Nora Valkyrie stood up from her seat. "Oh my gosh! Ren, did you hear that? We made it!" She said, pulling the dark haired boy beside her out of his seat and into a hug.
Going unnoticed, the boy in faded white glanced around the room, both he and his lead to Tarus blending in with the crowd.
When the letter arrived at the homestead, his Father was elated, his mother nearly broke into tears, and the six sisters still living at home teased him to no end. Jaune Arc, having applied for the far and away Beacon Academy agricultural sciences and business program, had not expected to be granted a scholarship based on his aptitude test, for both his more "civilian" classes, and the huntsman course he'd chosen. Still, he'd packed his bag. His mother had purchased a ticket for an airplane flight out of Shione into Vale, and his father, since retired from the profession, passed down what remained of the family armor, sword, and shield bearing the Twin Arc coat of arms. The centuries old metal plates, and weapon being taken from the Arc homestead fireplace mantle once again. "I always knew you would pick up where I left off, as I did for my father, and he did for his." His dad had said the day he'd boarded the plane.
"I'm going to school to learn how to run the farm one day, dad. The combat classes are just so I know how to protect the house." Jaune had said.
"And you'll do so with honor. I know you will, son." His father said, before hugging Jaune one last time.
After the short ferry ride to Vale, The Crimson Couple and the sister of the fairer sex between them, Yang, had boarded an airship bound for Beacon. "Oh this is so exciting, you two are going to make so many friends." Yang said, only for Ruby to sigh.
"The student body of Signal would lead me to believe otherwise." Clayton said, looking down at his thumbed feet as he stood upright.
"Oh please, there's going to be plenty of faunus students at Beacon, I'm sure you two would fit right in with them." Yang said, trying to remain optimistic. Truthfully, Yang herself didn't have that many friends, even with pretty privilege on her side, being the sister of a "faunus lover" wasn't exactly the best label to carry.
"Yeah, Clayton, the city's got a way better social attitude towards faunus than the settlements." Ruby said to her boyfriend, as their airship neared the school.
Jaune was not having a good day. First, He had a 12 hour plane flight to Vale. Which, as it turned out, made him sick. Second, he was knocked over by some dickhead in gray full plate armor while at the Vale airport. Thirdly, he then had to take an airship ride to Beacon Academy, which also made him sick to the point that halfway through the ride he threw up all over some guy's feet… Thumbed feet… Jaune looked up at the guy he'd vomited on, finding a face holding a level of restrained from anger he'd only seen his father contain.
Thankfully whatever the ape faunus (he damn well knew gorilla feet when he saw them, Planet Remnant was comparable to Saturday cartoons after all,) had planned to do with him was shrugged off in favor of cleaning the bile and half digested food off himself. Jaune nearly fainted when the big guy and his friends walked away, only to be hit by another wave of nausea. Thank the gods the trip was over.
Pale spat into a dip bottle, and then cracked his neck. He was a patient man, but by god was the wait for the initiation briefing murder. With what little he owned in the bag on his shoulder, he leaned against the wall, appearing as if he was any other student, eyes carefully tracking his prey from across the assembly hall.
Pale had heard rumors of initiation taking place in the Emerald Forest this year, which meant it was possible he'd have to face grimm. Not particularly excited about facing the creatures of darkness, Pale would soldier on if it meant Belladonna would lead him to Taurus.
The fact Pale had been let in simply by passing an entrance exam didn't do much to instill confidence in the school's ability to catch unqualified or otherwise unvetted individuals, and so he believed it was entirely possible that more White Fang like Blake had gotten in. His personal vengeance was secondary now, as the possibility of dodging terrorists and sympathizers from within the school lingered in the front of his mind. He'd need to take things slow.
Pulling the dip from his lip and jamming it into the bottle in his hand, Pale looked down at his revolver, and the bayonet to his rifle, both resting on his left hip, and smirked. "Well, there is more than one way to skin a cat." He muttered to himself. It was going to be a long year. Looking up, Pale realized he'd lost track of Blake, the girl seemingly wandering off. "Damn it." He whispered.
Siniy rubbed his electric blue eyes and growled in frustration. First class his left ear. (One of the extra ones,) With all of the money he paid up front for his two duffle bags and weapons case to be moved on a cart, one would think it would actually be done, yet for some reason after the 8 hour flight, 2 hour layover, and the hour long trip at half speed from Vale's airport to Beacon's, the Schnee got her luggage loaded onto the only cart they'd had on board instead of his. He hoped she'd blow up or something… Ok, that was a bit much… He hoped she'd only be minorly inconvenienced by tripping on an uneven stone or something. He picked up his things, strapping a bag to his back, then his front, partially obscuring his vision, and rested his weapons case over his shoulders, then got to moving out towards the specified auditorium for new first year students.
Halcyone pulled her shemagh around her face tighter. Beacon was a lot colder than she'd anticipated, being on the top of a cliff. Tack that on to the fact this annoying redhead kept asking her stupid questions all the way to the building she was supposed to go to after being informed she'd passed her pre-entrance combat exam, and the day had her seriously pissed off. Whatever. She was at Beacon, tuition fees paid, with a little bit of help. Nothing could stop her now… Except maybe the potential aneurysm… And the fact her freedom had been severely limited for the past few months without the rat rod to take her wherever the wind so chose. Who knew, maybe the team she got stuck with would be less annoying than the redhead… Or maybe she'd find someone nice, and actually have a chance at a stable relationship that didn't revolve around backstabbing and smuggling controlled substances.
Ruby, Yang, and Clayton walked off the airship together, and took in the sights of the school, only for Yang to wander off in an attempt to find a bathroom, leaving the Crimson Couple to themselves. Ruby looked around, and noticed the lack of people nearby, and suddenly felt a little warm. It was just her and Clayton, and they had an hour until they needed to be at the first year induction ceremony.
"Hey Clay?" Ruby asked, looking up at her boyfriend. He took notice of her affectionate nickname for him. "We have a little while until we need to be anywhere, wanna just, sit down?" She asked, eyeing an unoccupied bench.
"Oh Rubes, that would be- OOOOW!" Clayton shouted, pulling his foot up, as pain suddenly ran through his toes. Someone had run over his foot with a luggage cart. Unfortunately for the owner of the cart, all of its contents were tossed upwards, as Clayton's strength overturned it.
"What are you doing?!" Came a shrill voice from beside him, as Clayton hopped in place clutching at his foot. Failing to recognize who he was about to insult.
"You ran him over! How is this his fault." Ruby asked, pointing at the white haired girl.
"What kind of idiot walks around without shoes on?" She asked, as Clayton spun to face her, his red hoodie flapping behind him.
"What kind of idiot…" There was a moment of realization for the both of them.
"It would be a faunus clodding around barefoot." The now identified heiress of SHI said, narrowing her eyes.
"And it would be Weiss Schnee who treads on me." Clayton said, lowering his thumbed foot to the ground.
Weiss turned her nose at that statement, as she picked up a vile of Fuscusium that had fallen out of her luggage. "Do you have any idea the amount of damage you could have caused, you primitive ingrate? This is purified and refined earth dust. If you stepped on it, we'd all be on our way to the hospital, and Beacon would have a new geographical landmark." Weiss said, scolding the man in front of her waving the vile in his face. Only for him to snatch it out of her hands.
"Actually yes, I know what this stuff can do, which is why I wouldn't be waving it around like that." Clayton said, holding the dust out of her reach.
"Give that back!" Weiss shouted, only for Ruby to pull out Crescent Rose and cock the weapon.
Ruby was in a predicament. Her boyfriend and the heiress of the SHI were about ready to come to blows, and she wanted to stick up for Clayton, but he could plenty well do that on his own, and she could not in good conscience let Weiss Schnee of all people be proverbially bent over and spanked by Clayton. Race relations were bad enough… Why had her mind instantly gone to spanking?... Oh right… Sunday night at Claytons. She shook the memory from her thoughts. This was no time to be thinking like a dirty girl. "Both of you stop it. Clay, give Schnee her dust back, and Schnee will you please leave Clayton alone." Ruby said, gently nudging her boyfriend away from Weiss with the head of Crescent Rose.
Blake looked up from her book for a moment, as she was finishing her aimless walk around the campus grounds. "Huh." She said, with a raised eyebrow. A primate faunus of some kind, and the heiress to the SHI were arguing over a dust vial, before a girl in red and black separated them. The Schnee was given the dust, before she walked off, loudly proclaiming the ape faunus to be a "Stupid animal." Blake narrowed her eyes, and felt her left cat ear twitch beneath its bow. The hit that Adam planned for Weiss Schnee had failed then, it seemed.
"Pathetic, isn't it." Blake spun in place, and her amber eyes narrowed on a shorter boy who stood beside her. He wore a uniform that looked like it belonged to one of the academies of Atlas or Mantle, a beanie covering his white haired head, with two large bags and a case strapped to him, the added bulk looking comical compared to his small size. "Acting like that." Blake's gut reaction to his statement was to narrow her eyes further, as she noticed the blue shade of his eyes. At first glance he looked and sounded just like every televised family member of the Schnee family. Then again…
Blake looked at the wool beanie on his head, which was very out of place given the rest of his uniform, and then saw the extra hair on his hands. This guy had to be a faunus. "You'd think with all the money the Schnee's have, they could have bought some tact." The short boy scoffed. Blake actually chuckled at that. Yeah, he was definitely a faunus in disguise, seemed to be a lot of that going around.
"My name is Siniy, Siniy Garnet." The boy said, extending his free hand to her, which she shook.
"Blake Beaumont." She said in return with a half smile.
Whelp, it was official, Jaune's luck was horrible. After throwing up on the airship ride to Beacon, and taking almost 30 minutes to recover, he wound up tripping over a dust vial left lying around, and knocking over some long haired blond girl in the process. "Hey!" She yelled, getting to her feet as Jaune recovered as quickly as he could.
"I'm sorry, I kind of tripped over…" Jaune looked back at the vile, before leaning over and picking it up. "This…" He said, before pocketing the fire dust vial… What? Free dust was free dust, and SHI brand powder at that. It was expensive.
"Oh… Well… Sorry for blowing up at you like that. Let's start over. I'm Yang." She said, holding out a hand for him to shake. Jaune hesitated at first. He grew up with 7 sisters, adding another crazy blond to his life was not on his to do list any time soon. Then again, Yang seemed… Well, less crazy at least.
"Jaune, Jaune Arc." He said with a smile.
"Aren't you the one who threw up on the ride over here?" Yang asked.
Jaune chuckled nervously. "Motion sickness. It's hereditary you know."
The welcoming ceremony for the general class was a short affair, and once complete, those attending Beacon to partake in the Huntsman Courses remained behind for their own welcome. The Crimson Couple had regrouped with Yang, the long haired blond separating from the new friend she found in Jaune.
Headmaster Ozpin stepped onto the stage set in the hall for the second time that afternoon, approaching the microphone placed at the edge. He cleared his throat before speaking. "I'll keep this brief… Each and every one of you before me has come to Beacon under the common goal of attending our Huntsman Licencing Program, and it is for that reason I want to make it clear that this program is not for the faint of heart. You will train far harder than you once did at the primary academies you've come from, and will face real world dangers consistently. Any exams you've taken, any tests you've passed, any recommendations you've been given, all of it will go out the window by tomorrow morning when you partake in initiation… Tonight however, you will gather in the campus ballroom while the necessary preparations and accommodations are made for your stay in the academy should you pass. Sleep well." Ozpin said, before backing away from the microphone.
Most of the evening was allocated to getting the many potential students settling in for the night. Sleeping mats and bags were provided for those who didn't bring any, and in droves the young men and women rotated through the showers. Though the showers were individually divided, the locker room was unisex. The room itself was large enough that solid partitions running center through it allowed everyone to change into their sleepwear in relative privacy.
Once situated, Ruby and Clayton cuddled up on a shared sleeping bag. "This is awesome, it's like a giant sleepover, but with hot people everywhere!" Yang said, plopping down next to the Crimson Couple, looking around at all the shirtless teen boys occupying the corner, and a select few girls who were wearing their underwear.
Ruby giggled. "Dad would lose his mind." She said, resting her head against Clayton's shoulder, as she tugged on her black tank top to air it out.
"And good news, I made a friend today too." Yang continued. Glossing over the many others in the room, her eyes settled on the friend in question, finding that Jaune was in a blue rabbit onesie... "Well there goes what sex appeal he had." Yang thought.
"That's one friend to our one enemy." Clayton said, glancing over at Weiss, who was seated across the room paying no mind to him thankfully.
"Wait… Weiss Schnee is at Beacon? Did you get into a fight with Weiss Schnee?" Yang asked, turning to the couple. Clayton sighed.
"It was an argument Yang, I broke it up before Clayton hurt her." Ruby said, as Yang shot daggers at the heiress.
"Was she as bad as I've heard?" Yang asked.
"Racist? Yes. Drinker of faunus blood? To be determined." Clayton said, as he grabbed a book from his day bag with his foot. Suddenly his nose caught a whiff of something. "Who's striking matches?" He asked, looking around the room. His russet colored eyes landed on two people, one a black haired girl who'd lit a candle holder for reading light, and another across the room still fully clothed in a very faded white or gray coat and pants, who'd started smoking a thin cigar by the window.
"That black haired girl… does she look familiar to you?" Ruby asked Clayton, only for him to hum in thought.
Pale sat by the window, mostly just to keep a distance from the faunus in the room. They always seemed to pack together, away from the humans. He could already tell there were a few like minded individuals in the group of 100 or so students. A tall red headed boy gave one look at the monkey faunus and his girlfriend and sneered. He seemed nice and stupid, Cardin, if memory served. He'd be a good underling to have hang around. The Schnee was on his side of the room too. She might have been a bit bitchy, but her family's personal war with the White Fang, and what he could imagine was a well nurtured hatred for the filthy animals might come in handy… Then again. "Excuse me, but you know it's against campus policy for first years to smoke on school grounds." Weiss said, approaching him. Bitchy, like he figured.
"Last I checked, we wasn't students yet." Pale said, before taking another drag, and puffing a cloud of smoke towards the heiress rather than out the window.
Halcyone caught the scent from halfway across the room. Her nose wasn't particularly fantastic at picking up on foul odors having been accustomed to the conditions of Vacuo, but if she could smell it, the humans could too, and the few olfactory attuned faunus in the room were probably being assaulted by the smell of the lit tobacco coming from a boy over by the corner window. Sitting up from her sleeping bag, undershirt falling back over her shrapnel scarred abs, Halcyone got up and walked over to the boy that was the cause of the stink.
She whistled sharply, to catch his attention. Interestingly enough the heiress to SHI was berating him for the same offensive smoke, though probably because he'd blown it in her face. Served her right. "Hey, if you're gonna smoke, do it outside. You might not seriously be disturbing the humans around you, but every faunus in the room can smell that even at the window." Halcyone said, resting a hand on her hip as Weiss Schnee walked away in a huff. The boy looked her up and down, as if he was looking for a faunus trait on her. "Good luck with that." She thought, as the boy put the cigarillo back in his mouth.
"Why do you care then?" He asked, with a raised eyebrow, plopping a faded and dirty white round brim hat on his head, covering his steel blue eyes from view.
Oh, he was one of those kind of people. She'd need to phrase this differently. "Look, all I'm saying is that a few of them don't look particularly happy about the smell, and one of them has at least a foot on you." Halcyone said, crossing her arms over her modest chest. The boy in white seemed to look up at the people in the room, and rested his gaze on the ape faunus.
"I'll take it under consideration." Pale said flatly, as he tossed his cigarillo out the window.
Usually when he was being conscious of his smoking it was to gauge wind speed, and direction, rarely would he be at a close enough distance or be upwind for it to catch attention of his prey, but if a human was pointing out that the smell of burning tobacco was earning him the ire of the faunus in the room, it might make his time at Beacon a slight bit harder. "Wouldn't want to upset anyone now, would I?" He said with a smirk, earning an eye roll from the facially scarred faunus lover as she walked away. Checking her back side as she left, he saw no evidence that she had a tail or other features associated with a faunus.
Shrugging to himself, Pale pulled his hat over his eyes and laid back. He'd need his rest before initiation.
