"Selina Uaine, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie recovered the white rook pieces. You will henceforward be known as Team Sunlight."

The screen above the four arrayed four letters, forming SNNL. Three red-headed women, one in green, one in bronze, and one in pink, as well as a lithe man favouring green as well. Only Nora and Selina smiled while the other teams around them applauded dutifully

Then Headmaster Ozpin's voice sounded once more over the speakers, ever even though with a hint of satisfaction: "Led by... Selina Uaine."

The faunus girl pumped her fist. "Alright!" she shouted and high-fived Nora. Ren and Pyrrha offered simple nods, polite applause sounded again and the four hopped off the stage. However, all three of Selina's teammates hesitated when they saw her expression morph into a nasty scowl; her gaze followed the the last team to be announced as they passed them, four girls that could not be more different.

"And lastly," Ozpin continued, "Weiss Schnee, Penny Polendina, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long. The four of you recovered the white queen pieces. Henceforward, you shall be known as Team Spiceberry." The letters SPBY formed up on the screen above them. "Led by... Weiss Schnee!"

Weiss herself was a petite and pale woman; snow white hair crowned her head, bound into a purposefully asymmetric sidetail. The only disruption of her immaculate appearance was the thin scar running over her forehead, ending right above the eye. Weiss smiled serenely until Yang clapped her shoulder, the force of which sent her stumbling forward. Penny swayed cheerfully by their side in her green and black combat dress, hands clasped in delight. Lastly, her top and shorts monochrome and bearing raven hair to match, stood Blake Belladonna. She frowned much like Weiss did.

Selina chuckled to herself then. Her team noted the sudden swing in her behaviour, but only Pyrrha commented: "Surprisingly cheerful, considering you do not seem to like Weiss."

The quip earned a snort and Selina threw her partner an amused look. "Girl, I don't give a shit about Weiss."

"Really?" the other redhead retorted with a smidgen of curiousity. "I thought you were upset due to her... affiliations, during initiation."

"Nah, had nothing to do with her."

Meanwhile Nora nodded sagely. "Huh. I getcha, Pyr. Most faunus we've met don't really like the Schnees. Like, at all."

Selina heaved a sigh at that. Spiceberry scampered off the stage under renewed applause while she talked to her team: "You ever been to Menagerie?" All three shook their heads. "Figures. I'll explain later, let's grab dinner and a shower."

In a bid to beat everyone else to the communal showers, SNNL went there first and to the cafeteria second. Most everyone else had already gathered to eat by the time they arrived; this meant only a small line still waited for food, meaning they barely had to wait.

Once it was their turn however, Selina had to heave another sigh; she stared down at the plate of meats she was given with a thoughtful look. Her teammates all got a more balanced meal.

Pyrrha arched a brow while Ren watched on stoically. Nora voiced their confusion: "Hey, uh, why's yours different?"

"Eh, whatever. Go ahead and find us a table, I'll go take care of something."

"Like what?"

Selina did not respond to Nora's final question and strolled away. Her target was another table with a team of four, though one neither of them knew; upperclassmen, most likely. Two men, one a veritable giant and the other small in comparison. Two women, both brunette; one in designer clothes, the other with clearly visible rabbit ears. SNNL kept watching as they wandered over to SPBY's table and their sister team's gazes followed soon after.

They all watched Selina quickly chat up the hare faunus, who fidgeted minutely under her attention. Whatever the redhead said, it quickly relaxed the older woman. She shook her head at Selina, who grinned and put down her own tray. The hare stared for a moment, nodding along to whatever was said. Then her overabundance of greens was exchanged for Selina's meat.

"What am I looking at?" Yang asked at that point.

It was Blake who answered, scowling: "Racism at work. They see the ears and immediately think hare and wolf, so they give them too many greens and meat respectively."

A cheerful Selina strolled up to them, though her good mood clearly took a hit when she saw the other team. Taking the final chair opposite Weiss, she still forced a halfway earnest smile. "Heya, girls. Congrats on getting leader."

"Why, thank you." Weiss, though surprised about the lack of hostility from a faunus, kept her polite smile in place. "My congratulations to you as well. Although, if you would forgive me for saying so, I did expect it to be Pyrrha."

Selina waved her off at that. "Nah, I get it. I kinda did, too. Guess the powers that be saw something we didn't, eh?" Her quip earned chuckles from Nora and Yang. Weiss inclined her head as if to agree.

"...why are you just taking it?"

For the first time and much to her dislike, Selina finally acknowledged Blake. She truly wanted to punch her in the face a few times but knew that now was not the time. The fact Blake may have turned over a new leaf stayed her hand, but she still only had a flat "What?" for the other faunus at the table.

Then again, Blake hid her cat ears under a black bow. She did not even manage to stop them from flicking when she motioned for Selina's tray. "Why do you just take it? You can lodge a complaint or something. This is not right!" Her indignation easily outdid Selina's own.

The wolf stared for a long moment, long enough that Blake became uncomfortable.

"So first off," Selina began slowly, "this is none of your business. But I'll tell you anyway: these guys made an honest mistake. They're trying to be considerate and overshoot. I'm not gonna spit in their face by complaining to the manager, what kind of bitch do you think I am? I'll wait if they notice on their own if I keep trading with Velvet over there and if they don't, I'll mention it in passing and see what happens." Her barely calm tirade over, Selina threw an arm out to indicate the rest of Beacon. "What next, you want me to stab the first person to insult me in the hallway?"

Blake, who had been about to retort, recoiled. "What? No!"

Selina simply shook her head and got to eating. The others were watching the exchange silently, most some manner of disturbed. Weiss was the first who dared to speak: "Well, you certainly seem passionate about this matter."

"Meh, you'll get used to it. I'm a born Mistrali, this got nothing on the shit I had to keep up with as a kid."

The commentary made Nora perk up. "Oh, neat. So we're all from the same place!"

"In a way," Ren amended for her. "We have not been to Anima in years and you mentioned you're from Menagerie."

"Yup. Nice place. I'll take you there during break, you'll love it."

"Fine with me. You in, Pyr?"

"I will... consider it."

Weiss studied Selina while this exchange took place; she continued to do so afterward while the faunus woman ate quietly. It took a minute until she rolled her eyes and met Weiss's gaze. "If you want to say something, say it. I'm not gonna bite. Unless you want me to." She winked cheekily, to which the heiress' expression tightened.

"Your crude insinuations aside, I was merely taking notice of your, how should I say, surprising lack of hostility. As you may imagine, I rarely interact with faunus to begin with." She spoke carefully, half expecting some sort of eruption in response. Against her expectations, Selina simply nodded understandingly.

"And most of the ones you do see are the White Fang assholes, I getcha."

"That is... not exactly how I would phrase it, but yes."

Blake had been stewing in the background for a while. With Penny listening to the conversation her partner was involved in, it fell to Yang to deal with that. Her nudging yielded nothing, though; the black-haired girl simply finished her sandwich and stood to saunter away. Her chair scraped enough to draw the others' attention.

Yang followed her partner's retreating form with a low whistle. "Damn, she knows how to make an exit."

Weiss glanced in the same direction and rolled her eyes. Meanwhile, Penny turned to Yang curiously. "How do you mean? She just walked away."

"Yang means that Blake's got a nice ass," Selina quipped. "Can't deny that one."

"Oh, I see. How is this relevant?"

A beat. The other students looked between each other, then Selina stage-whispered to Weiss: "How is she more sheltered than you?"

Instead of taking offense, the heiress shrugged helplessly. Yang giggled to herself.

As the meal came to a close, Selina waved her team along and Weiss to her. The heiress was wary but followed the motion out of curiousity after their amicable conversation earlier. Selina threw her a grin. "Just wanted to say, from leader to leader, if you ever wanna hang out and compare notes, hit me up."

Weiss nodded, wary of such open friendliness but also intrigued. She thanked Selina for the offer and turned to join her team. Meanwhile, Selina allowed herself a grin and waved at Velvet and her team on the way out. The rest of Sunlight joined her at the door. "That went pretty well," she mused.

"What did?" Nora inquired.

"The path to a better tomorrow, duh."

"Ohhhh!" The other redhead left a short pause, frowning. "I don't get it."

Selina winked at her in response. "Big Daddy won't be in charge of Schnee Dust forever. And when Weiss takes over, she'll know not all faunus are assholes and terrorists."

"Or perhaps having an in with the heiress would offer alternate benefits?" Though Pyrrha was perfectly polite in her phrasing, the small sting in it was notable to all of them. Selina flipped her off.

"Fuck off, it's not like that."

She spent the trek to their dorm room brooding; fortunately, SPBY would be living right opposite to them. Selina opened the door for her team and leaned against it the moment it closed behind her.

"And while we're at it, tough girl: if you got a problem with me, say it to my face."

Taken aback by the sudden hostility, Pyrrha needed a moment to return to her polite self. "Nothing of the sort," she deflected. "What would give you the impression?"

"I dunno, maybe the constant sniping?" Selina received no retort to that and rolled her eyes. "So what is it? That I'm leader and not you? That I'm a faunus? C'mon, tell me now if it's that."

"And what will you do if it is? Challenge me?"

"Pff. If you wanna throw down, I'll talk about it with Goodwitch."

The other pair had watched their back-and-forth with some apprehension. Ren stepped forward at this point to use the tense pause. His quiet voice cut through the silence: "Perhaps we should all calm down." He threw a sharp look to Nora, who sheepishly stopped herself from chanting 'fight, fight, fight' as he knew she would.

Unfortunately, the other two redheads on his team were less inclined. Pyrrha's gaze narrowed ever so slightly, arms folded. "While you do have a point, I imagine it will be necessary to clear the air sooner or later." She then took a step forward, trying to stare Selina down; her partner was not impressed, if partly because they were roughly the same height. Pyrrha did not let that stop her. "I have no issue with your leadership. I will follow your orders. But neither do I want your friendship, nor will I go out of my way to accomodate you."

Despite everything, Selina snorted at that. The noise confused Pyrrha greatly, as did the jovial clap to her shoulder. "Heh, we'll see about that. Four years is a long time." The faunus walked past her, talking to the room at large more than her: "But fine with me. Just stop being a bitch about stuff and we're golden. I'm the only bitch in this team."

Selina flicked one of her wolf ears for emphasis, to a surprised blink from Pyrrha and Ren. Nora cheered, to which Selina sketched a joking bow before turning back to Pyrrha. "And I'm still gonna talk to Goodwitch about that match. We're drawing up an exercise plan tomorrow, ladies. And Ren."

He nodded mildly, as did the other two. The reminder of having a boy in the room gave Selina some food for thought, too. "Actually, you cool with changing in front of each other? I don't really care."

"Nope, don't care," Nora chirped. Ren nodded along.

"Me neither. Nora and I are quite used to it by now."

The final member of their team hesitated upon feeling three pairs of eyes on her. Her ears reddened, safely hidden under her scarlet mane even as Pyrrha averted her gaze. "I shall simply frequent the bathroom," she murmured.

"Cool. And if you're gonna fuck, please hang a sock on the door." Selina's comment had Nora and Ren sputter. "Or keep it somewhere else if possible. I'll do the same." This, Pyrrha left entirely uncommented. Selina congratulated herself on a joke well done and carried on. "Now, next on the agenda..." Only to be interrupted by a yawn. "Okay, one last thing. Semblances. I didn't see yours in the field, so you keep them secret ooooor?"

Nora immediately responded to her prompting, once again beaming: "Nah, mine's pretty obvious. I can absorb lightning and get super strong!"

"Hey, neat."

"And Ren can mute peoples emotions. Great for calming down and to hide from Grimm!"

"Double neat! I love you two already!"

All three looked to Pyrrha, who slowly shook her head. "I would rather not." She half expected complaints or prying, but Selina simply shrugged it off.

"Sure, fine. Tell us when you're ready. Just remember I can't plan for your stuff if I don't know it."

"I will keep that in mind."

About as soon as Pyrrha finished her deflection, Nora invaded Selina's personal space; she hung off her leader's shoulder and poked her side cheerfully. "Okay, now spill your own. What's it do? I bet it's something cool, like, like... like throwing fire! Or blowing stuff up on a touch! C'mon, tell us, tell us!"

Her enthusiasm was contagious; Selina chuckled and imitated a buzzer. "Meeep, wrong and wrong. You're never gonna guess mine. It's nowhere near as awesome as yours."

Nora cheerfully threw out more ideas, slowly becoming more absurd with each one. Ren offered a handful of more grounded guesses and even Pyrrha had an idea she added, having been caught up in Nora's curiousity. They were all wrong.

By the end Nora pouted up at the other redhead. "Oh, tell us already!"

Her despondent tone earned a grin. "Fine," Selina said, "Lemme just, ah." As if a switch had been flipped, her expression distorted into a grimace. "Ugh, Brothers, this is awful." After muttering to herself for a moment, she turned back to Nora; the other woman still hung off her shoulder. "Yep, you absolutely fuck. And please brush your teeth after giving head."

Pyrrha was flabbergasted at the sudden turn of events; meanwhile Nora visibly blushed, recoiling from Selina in shock. "W-What? How?!"

Ren averted his gaze, the only sign of his own embarassment. Now free of Nora, Selina approached him next with an arched brow. After a moment she huffed. "At least you return the favour, good on you. No idea when or how, but whatever."

"What is this, can you read minds or something?" Nora stared dumbly at her leader, all but confirming the 'allegations'. She received no answer.

Pyrrha stood near the window, worried and somewhat frightened of being exposed as well. Selina approached her slowly, almost skulking like the predator she knew she was. The faunus woman's nose scrunched for some reason; she stared into Pyrrha's eyes for a long moment. Battle-hardened she may be, but she was not prepared for such candid conversations. Her cheeks grew consistently hotter in expectatation of some lewd remark.

"Your perfume isn't so bad."

It took her a moment to comprehend the words. Pyrrha sighed in relief, grateful to be spared embarassment. She needed a moment longer for the clues to fit together. Her eyes widened. "Your sense of smell?" she inquired just to be certain. "That is your Semblance?

"Ayup. Super smell." Selina tapped her nose with a grin; Ren simply nodded and Nora was too busy covering her mouth to comment. Their leader grimaced again. "And let me tell you, it sucks to use anywhere people are. I can learn things about them I never wanted to know."

"It does not seem particularly useful for combat, either."

"But you can dig up aaaaaallll the dirt!" Nora grinned at them, waving her arms. Then realisation set in and she quickly covered her mouth again. Pyrrha did not quite know how to react to the reminder that her two teammates were an item of some sort. Selina just laughed at the display.

"C'mon, we're going to share a room the next four years. Welcome to your new normal. Also, promise I won't use this unless I gotta. Now let's get ready for bed."

Her team took the order with grace and began to change; true to her earlier words, Pyrrha felt too awkward undressing in front of them. While she vanished into the bathroom and Nora dashed along to brush her teeth, Ren approached Selina.

"I was meaning to say, you are surprisingly friendly with Pyrrha despite her behaviour."

Selina shrugged off her top as she mulled over his implied question. Ren politely looked elsewhere while she slipped out of her bra and into a loose, white shirt. "You're not wrong," she admitted then. "Thing is, that's how you get rid of the racism. Being a spiteful bitch won't get Pyrrha around. I wanna deck her, sure, but I can just as well kill her with kindness. It's not easy sometimes, but there's nothing more satisfying than making her change her mind."

He nodded slowly and left her to her own devices.

A calm if long night followed, thanks to Nora and Ren snoring. The two girls with them needed a while to grow used to the noise. Thankfully they had a rest day assigned to figure themselves out. The team began setting up the training plan.

Once Selina opened the door however, she found herself thigh to face with something odd. Black eyes stared up her from within a white plastic mask; the sight made her hackles rise and she unconciously retreated back from the thing. Their gear was in the lockers and not at hand.

"The fuck are you?"

"Is it some weird infiltrator Grimm?" Nora speculated from the back. "Did it come to kill Pyrrha?!"

Meanwhile, the thing kept staring at Selina. It just stood in the doorway; were it bigger, Selina may have seen it as menacing. As it were she was just reminded of creepy children in movies.

Neither of them moved for a full minute, until a commotion sounded from the opposite room. The door opened to reveal Penny, still clad in a green nightgown. "There you are!" she called and swept the creepy thing into her arms; it did not resist, nor did it react to her scolding: "You can not just wander, it is dangerous!" Meanwhile, the creature hung in her arms, still staring at Selina.

The wolf slowly spoke up after digesting that odd scene: "So... the creepy thingo is yours? What is it?"

Penny hesitated at that. Her gaze wandered between her sister team and the potential Grimm in her arms. By this time her own teammates were peeking out of their room, too. "Well," she began, "Ghost is, well, Ghost." The name had that masked head rise, turning 180 degrees to look up at Penny. She hugged him a little tighter. "I never figured out what he is, except not Grimm."

"Okay," Yang interjected from behind, still clad in shirt and shorts. "And why's he here?"

Weiss stepped out of the door next, clad in a modest, white nightgown similar to Penny's. She pinched the bridge of her nose, staring at Ghost and then her partner. "This is why your luggage was rattling on occasion, is it not?"

"Nooo? Hic"

The byplay drew a chuckle from Selina; if the others thought all was good then she would believe them. She approached to study Ghost up close, intrigued by how smooth his skin looked. "Whatever. Heya, little fella. What's up?"

Once she leaned close enough, Ghost poked her in the chest. Then his stubby arm ran over it, making her retreat. "Hey!" She covered herself more in surprise than embarassment, though her ears grew hot as well.

Penny took a step back as well, mortified. "Oh, I am so sorry! He normally does not do that. At all."

"Very convincing there," Yang quipped.

In that moment a ninth person arrived on the scene. "And what, exactly, am I looking at?" she asked; her calm if tense voice alerted them all to her presence; Glynda Goodwitch, Beacon's deputy headmistress and main combat instructor. Her white blouse and black pencil skirt were perfectly ironed, blonde hair done in a firm bun. She received no response at first, though her hand hovered over the riding crop on her skirt's belt at the sight of Ghost.

Seeing that all students stared at her like deer in headlights, she allowed herself an almost imperceptible sigh. "Ms. Polendina, Ms. Schnee, please make yourselves presentable. Afterward I would like to know why you saw fit to bring a living Grimm into the academy."

"B-But Ghost is no Grimm!" Penny shook her head rapidly, holding him up as if evidence. "He even says so himself!"

"Is that so?"

Seven out of eight students realised the nuanced demand to back down. Penny failed to do so and nodded eagerly. She put Ghost onto the ground and smiled at him. "You're no Grimm, right?" Ghost nodded, prompting Penny to beam at Goodwitch instead. "See? Not a Grimm."

Suffice it to say, the older woman was not impressed. Her attention never quite left Ghost, who used the renewed freedom to approach Selina again. He stared up and she stared down, now realising that his gaze still lay on her chest; specifically the right breast. It took her a moment longer to realise.

"Wait a sec." She turned around and reached under her shirt, ignoring a disapproving sound from the deputy. Selina had to fiddle for a moment before she managed to detach Lumina's Charm. She held it out to Ghost with an attempt at a smile. "Did you want this?"

Ghost reached out immediately, only for a scream to sound. It was not physical, shrieking straight through their minds. A blinding flash followed, burning half of Ghost's arm away.

He stared at the steaming, slowly reforming stump while everyone else stopped futilely covering their ears and eyes.

Selina stared at the Charm in confusion until Goodwitch spoke to her: "And what, pray tell, is this, Ms. Uaine?"

"...something a friend gave me. And it never did that before."

"What does it normally do?" Pyrrha inquired right after. Selina wordlessly palmed the Charm and focussed; bright light illuminated the area, driving all shadows away. The only darkness remaining was Ghost, stark black against the gold.

He kept staring up at her even when she cut off the light and shrugged at the others. "That's all it does. And what are you doing?" Her question went to Ghost and received no answer; he held a shimmering blade of some sort, not long enough to be more than a dagger. Selina tensed up, only for Penny to answer.

"Worry not, Selina! I do not know what this is, but it is not dangerous at all! I saw him poke a few people with that before, but it did nothing harmful. Or, well, anything at all."

Selina stared at her fellow redhead, whose beaming smile barely convinced her to simply hold still. The gleaming edge slapped against her aura to no effect; it fizzled out on impact, creating a mint green flare. Checking her Scroll, aura was still full. Nothing else happened. Ghost stared at her a moment longer, tilted his head, and turned to walk away. Penny quickly snatched him up.

After getting dressed, a lecture from Goodwitch, and a promise from Penny not to leave her 'pet' Grimm unsupervised, the eight of them went to breakfast. Only then did Selina realise she forgot to ask about sparring. She only got the chance to bring it up after their teams separated.

Later that day marked the first time Pyrrha handed her ass to her in the arena; it would not be the last.