Ilia is a smart girl, her parents said that she was, and it'd be disrespectful to them if she thought any differently. So when she heard that a man, no, a Faunus by the name of John Courrier would be arriving in Menagerie? She doesn't know what to think about him. During the Grimm invasion of Vale, both humans and Faunus alike told the same stories, a Faunus with strange eyes and no identifiable traits, only recognized as a Faunus because he himself said so, slaughtering Grimm with a smile on his face while saving both humans and Faunus indiscriminately.
He wore a strange bodysuit, covered up by a dark blue duster with the number twenty-one etched onto the back of it, eyes covered up by a pair of golden sunglasses, and hair obscured by a red military beret. He had no identifiable Faunus traits, looking more like a human than one of her people, but who was she to judge someone based off of that? Her Faunus trait could be disguised as birthmarks or freckles even without the use of her Semblance, so what's so different about him compared to her?
The people of Vale called him a hero, a Faunus hero, imagine that. Adam told her about Courrier, about how the man helped him through some tough times, even aided during the train plan in Vale. Ilia decided that Courrier wasn't so bad of a person after all, despite not meeting him ever in her life. After all, nobody would ever try to help Taurus in the way that he did, most would just be intimidated by his general air of uneasiness and back off!
She lounged atop a tree branch, watching as this Courrier's bullhead land just in the outskirts of Kuo Kuana, some Faunus were worried when they first saw the bullhead, seeing how it had Atlas markings all over it, but the worry was quickly assuaged when Ghira told them off, saying that the people aboard that bullhead was one of them. Although Ilia noticed that Blake seemed uneasy at the thought of this Courrier arriving in Menagerie.
Courrier departed the bullhead alongside his three buddies apparently, Ilia knew of them of course, some White Fang members that served Adam when he was still in Vale. Mint Thresh, Johan Violet, and someone else whom Ilia did not recognize. She didn't look like a Faunus, but whenever she opened her mouth, Ilia would notice some fangs. Must be a wolf Faunus then.
"I've never seen water so blue before," Courrier was crouched over one of the docks, peering down into the water, Thresh nodded before nudging the man, notifying him of Ghira's arrival.
"Hello! Hello, welcome to our humble community of Kuo Kuana," the big man shook Courrier's hand, "It's good to have what the Valeans call a 'hero' here on our island!" Ghira had a big grin on his face, "You say you were a Faunus?"
Courrier laughed, "Aw yeah, check this out," he opened his mouth and pointed at some sharpened teeth near his canines, too short to be fangs though, then again, some Faunus do get the short end of the stick when it comes to visible traits, "Proof of my Faunus heritage, Adam woulda mentioned me."
"Ah, yes, Adam," Ghira chuckled, "He's a lot more… calm during our meetings now," he laughed, "Well, him even attending any of the meetings is a surprise enough! I assume we have you to thanks for that."
"Yep, sing me praises-" "Ah, Mr. Belladonna, sir," Thresh cut in during Courrier's sentence, "Can you direct us towards Sienna Khan please?" he smiled nervously, "Ah… Mr. Courrier has some things to say to her."
Courrier glared at Thresh, "Aw, why so soon? You know if you keep focusing on going from A to B then you'd miss out on the whole alphabet!" Ghira laughed, Courrier chuckled at this, "Come, stay awhile in Kuo Kuana, enjoy the scenery a bit, I'm sure that meeting can wait!"
"Well- wait, can it?" Violet turned to look at Courrier, who nodded violently, "Huh, maybe we can go around and sightsee a bit."
"What? But I thought the meeting was supposed to be important!" Thresh then got smacked in the back of the head by the remaining Faunus girl, she then chastised him for… something, Ilia couldn't hear, "Boo, you two suck!"
"I would like to apologize for Thresh's… personality-" "Hey!" "While we would like to stay in Kuo Kuana for a while as you put it, we still don't exactly know where we should stay." Courrier blinked at the girl, clearly not expecting her to be so eloquent with her words.
"Hmm, how about you all stay at our house! I'm sure we have some spare bedrooms here and there in the home…" Ghira pointed towards the Belladonna Family home at the end of the road, just over a hill, "A home befitting a hero of the Faunus, am I right?" he grinned, nudging Courrier with his elbows.
Courrier laughed, "A hero huh? I'm going to need to get used to that!" the four then followed Ghira through Kuo Kuana, with Ilia silently sneaking behind them in tow… although that girl seemed to look behind her a lot, sometimes Ilia thought that she suspected her of being there or something. Each glance made Ilia more and more wary of this girl… was she a part of the White Fang? Or something else entirely…
Arriving at the Belladonna Family home, with some hiccups in the journey here and there as people crowded around Courrier, either thanking him for saving their family back in Vale or just seeing what the big deal was with the guy.
"Thank you so much! My cousin told me about you back in Vale!"
"He doesn't look like much…"
"Are we sure he's a Faunus?"
"You saved my sister back in Vale! Thank you!"
"You saved a lot of lives man, you're a hero!" They said, Ilia could see where they're coming from, it's kinda sad actually, that the Faunus has been suffering so much to the point that they'd cling onto a heroic figure other than the White Fang so readily.
They stopped by The Shallow Sea district, mostly so that Courrier can stare at the water below, saying weird things like 'Is water supposed to be blue?' and 'All my life I thought it was brown'. Ghira just laughed it off like a joke but Courrier seemed to be genuinely confused about this.
"That's what I hear from some people who used to live in Vacuo! They were always amazed by the blue colour of the water, are you a Vacuo native by any chance?" Ghira asked light-heartedly, Ilia watched as Thresh and Violet crept closer to Courrier, as if trying to eavesdrop… but badly.
"Yep, lived in the outside of the city though, so all I saw was just desert, desert, and desert," Courrier smirked, "Sorry if I track sand into your home by the way."
"Haha! Actually though, please don't or my wife will never let me hear the end of it."
"No promises."
"We have a follower, behind us, behind that column, over there," the girl pointed, grabbing Courrier's duster and pulling on it to let him know. Ilia felt her heart stop for a quick moment as the girl pointed directly at where she's hiding.
"Already ahead of you Lavs, good job on the spot by the way, even though I saw her first," WHAT?! "When we landed down outside of Kuo Kuana, I knew that someone was looking, I was just waiting for you to notice too."
"Thank you sir, I'll try better next time."
"Quite the interesting group you have there Courrier! I assume these are all White Fang members correct?" Ghira faltered a bit when he said 'White Fang' but quickly recovered, "And who's the girl?"
"My student, or apprentice, whatever, her name's Greenhorn," Ilia heard footsteps coming closer to her location, but Courrier's voice was still far away, so that means- "Oh look! And there she is with our follower!"
Ilia felt herself be dragged by the girl towards the group; she thrashed around, trying to get the girl to release her grip on her, "Ilia?" She stopped, turning to look at Ghira and Courrier, both of whom had an amused expression on their faces, "What're you doing here?"
"I- uh- um," Damn it! She had no comeback for this type of questioning! "I… uh…"
"She can come along, no big deal," Courrier shrugged, Ghira chuckled before walking up the steps up to the Family home. Ghira pushed open the large doors to the house as he shouted out.
"Kali! I brought guests! Get Blake too!"
"Well you should've said so earlier!" Kali approached the group, she smiled, "Normally I'd treat you all to a meal but Ghira hadn't mentioned that he'd bring so many!" Ghira chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head as Kali glanced at him, "And it looks like he brought along someone special too!" She motioned towards Courrier.
"I'm special?" Courrier smiled, Ilia noticed that it was genuine too, with a hint of vulnerability in it… strange…
"Of course, you saved so many people in Vale," Kali said as she ushered everyone to the dining room, there was only a small table at the centre of the circular room, with four mats for sitting… definitely not enough for the seven people who's supposed to eat here, Courrier didn't seem to mind though, "Ghira, go get Blake, I'll prepare some food for when you get back."
"Ooh, looks like there's not enough space," Violet grimaced, "So uh… where do we sit? Not trying to intrude of course…"
"Well, you guys can have the table," Courrier reached into his duster and pulled out a small retractable table, it looked well-used, "Mint, Johan, Lavs, and I can eat on this table. We'll sit on the floor too."
"Oh, but that'd be rude!" Kali exclaimed, straightening out the mats as Ilia sat down, "You're the guests after all!"
"Yeah! C'mon Courrier, why do we have to sit on the floor?" Violet pouted, Thresh smacked the back of her head, she turned to him indignantly, "Hey!"
"Don't worry about it, there are clearly not enough seats for everybody so we'll have to make do," Courrier grinned at Kali, just after glaring at Violet, "Besides, guests don't take precedent over the owners of the house now do they?"
Kali frowned, "Well I think that we should show some respect to our guests!" she placed down a couple of plates of snacks and finger food on both tables, "But… if this is what you want to do then we'll respect your decisions too."
Blake followed her father down to the dining room to see two tables set up inside, her mother was sat next to Ilia of all people while Mr. Courrier was there too, sitting in front of a completely different table with two strangers and Ms. Greenhorn sitting next to him.
…What the hell was Mr. Courrier doing here in her home? And with strangers no less! She felt a chill go down her spine as Mr. Courrier's eyes widened when he noticed her, no longer obscured by his sunglasses they were… strange.
"Ah ha!" He exclaimed, pointing at Blake, "So my prediction was correct!" one of the strangers, a man with mint-coloured hair, grabbed Mr. Courrier's pointing arm and pushed it down, "Rude!" he said to Mr. Courrier, to which he just shook his head at the man with a strange expression on his face before relenting.
"Prediction?" Her father raised an eyebrow, sitting down next to Kali, opposite of Ilia; she sat down too, next to him and Ilia.
"Oh, nothing too important, I just noticed that this was the 'Belladonna' house," he chuckled sheepishly, "I made the connection and thought that Blake would live here too! And I was correct!"
Her father laughed, "Just realized that now have you?"
Mr. Courrier grinned before digging into the snacks laid on the table… so did Ms. Greenhorn, and the two strangers. They ate like they've been starving for the last week or so!
"So what were you going to discuss with Sienna?" Her father asked inquisitively, taking a bite out of the crackers on the plate, her mother admonishes him for this, saying something about leaving crumbs on the table.
Mr. Courrier was going to meet with Sienna Khan of the White Fang?! For what?!
"Oh, just something regarding Vacuo," he swallowed the food in his mouth, "We were about to make our way to Mistral but I realized then that Adam's probably got the place locked down already," he places his elbows on the table, "So we decided to go to Vacuo instead, trying to spread pro-Faunus sentiments there instead, like how Adam's doing with Mistral."
Blake stiffened at Adam's mention, nobody seemed to notice… except for Ms. Greenhorn, "Ah interesting, so you want to ask Sienna about the White Fang cell in Vacuo then?" her father rubbed his chin, "It'd be difficult though, Mistral, despite all of its faults, is still miles ahead in Faunus rights than Vacuo, and that's saying something!"
"Well, I thought that me saving a bunch of people in Vale would be enough to, at the very least, sway some people but I guess Vacuo has more underlying issues," Mr. Courrier chuckled, Blake heard about that, she saw it on the news too, they proclaimed him a Faunus Hero after all the people he saved during the attack of Vale, "Underlying issues that can't be solved by seeing a Faunus swing their staff around on live broadcast saving people I guess."
"Hmm, I'd say the difficult part about Vacuo would be the tribal disputes," her father hummed, "Maybe… you solve that for them and they'd be more appreciative of the Faunus! Imagine that, a Faunus coming in and solving the number one problem that Vacuans are afraid of!"
"Ghira, that's unrealistic," her mother chastised him, "We can't just rely on one person to solve the bandit crisis over in Vacuo, that'll take time!"
"Ah… I guess you're right, Kali…" he deflated, "Still, even if you can't fix every problem in Vacuo… you must still have some plans for the city right? Convincing Sienna of whatever plan it is will be difficult though."
Mr. Courrier grinned widely, "Eh, I'll manage."
Watch in horror as my dumbass attempt to write something related to Menagerie and the Faunus.
The Courier's wacky wild antics as a 'Faunus' continues! Surprisingly with no suspicion from either side.
Don't worry, no one from the Mojave's going to join the Courier's journey, he'll be alone here! Very sad.
Thanks for reading! You all can ruminate on the implications of Remnant and Earth existing in the same universe while I try to cook up something interesting...