Jaune managed to make it to Dr. Cortez's class early, by some miracle. He had taken a roundabout path to avoid the crowded halls, striding through the tiled halls. His feet had no echo against the tiles.

Man, my shoes must be very soft. Jaune thought to himself, looking down at his dream-worn boots. His sneakers had been abandoned a long time ago, their form ruined from the long miles of his exodus. They didn't look particularly soft or silent, but Jaune had found that looks could be deceiving. As were lung capacities.

I'm amazed that Arslan can be so loud. She's such a tiny thing. A said, thinking about how small the lioness was compared to his height. He was at least a head taller than her, perhaps more. Jaune looked down at his cracked and damaged scroll. It was a miracle that the thing had survived his travel from Beacon, even if it was much worse for wear. . He looked at the map of Haven, trying to find his next class's location. He knew it was somewhere on the third floor, the hard part was finding where.

I'm telling you, it was that left a couple doors ago. B insisted to the dominant personality. Jaune shook his head, squinting at the map once more.

"That can't be right." he shook his head, looking around the halls again. He was sure he was heading in the right direction. The ranger sighed, shaking his head. He could wind his way through the thickest of jungles and forests, but lord forbid he manage his way through a freaking school building. He let out an audible growl at this confusion. It was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming up from behind him. Jaune turned to see Sun Wukong, making his way to whatever class he had next. Sun noticed him as well, standing there in the middle of the hallway.

"Yo, Jaune man!" The blonde monkey greeted with a smile and a wave. "You look a little lost, bro. Where ya heading?" was how he decided to offer his help. Jaune gave him a slightly raised eyebrow, looking down on the faunus in a literal manner. Behind his mostly blank stone mask of a face the ranger was considering many things.

Mostly, why would he have to rely on this mostly stranger, barely acquaintance, of a man. Secondly, whether or not he should enjoy himself. Just a little.

You know, it's been some time since we did theater… A trailed off, clearly hinting at what he wanted to happen. Jaune had to agree. The last time he did theater was for his little sister's middle school play, almost a year before his trip to Beacon.

"Aye, young star, alas, I be lost. A may'th most easily navigate a forest dense or wilds long forgotten by the whims and machinations of the worlds of men. But a corridor of falsehoods and marble? Tis vexing." Jaune said with a slight smile, hidden by his sweeping gesture to the halls before them. Sun blinked at him, suffering from whiplash at the strange phrasing.

"What the- which century did you drop out of again?" The monkey faunus asked him before shaking his head. "Fucking wierdo, man." He said to himself in his native faunus tongue. Jaune turned to him, spinning on his heel to face the faunus.

"Weird, am I?" He asked back, some bite in his voice as he returned with the sacred feral language. "Nay. Perhaps mad, perhaps strange. Yes, perhaps. But consider this." Jaune leaned forward, his face looming with a dangerous and dark aura. "Perhaps the world is as mad and as strange as I am."

Sun was left wide eyed and speechless, still suffering from the sudden whiplash that Jaune had inflicted. He shook his head, searching the human for any signs that he might not be human, but rather some kind of faunus. He found no evidence. No sign of a tail, nor ear nor fang.

"How do you know Feral?" Sun asked him, his voice shifting to accusatory. "It is a sacred language, inscribed into the faunus's holy books." It was unordinary for anyone who was not a faunus, or of the Feral religion, to know Feral. Not that many faunus were not of the Feral religion to some degree to start with, or that the religion itself was called Feral. That was a human term. There really wasn't a universal term for the Faunus religion, although its scriptures were referred to as the Testaments. But it's language was holy, and in the mouth of a human was almost impossible.

Jaune only tilted his head at the monkey faunus. "A fisherman taught it to me." the ranger said simply. Sun was flabbergasted, his mouth catching flies before he dismissed it as the world just being mad.

"Now, could you direct me towards Dr. Cortez's class? I would hate to be late." The ranger said, letting the monkey faunus lead the way to his next class. Apparently they shared this class.

The classroom was what one could probably expect out of a normal classroom. Rows of staggered benches and chairs sat innocently, populated with a small scattering of students. Jaune saw his most familiar face sitting in the front row, pulling out a spiral bound notebook.

"Ms. Altan, may I sit here?" He asked, causing the lioness to look up.

"Sure, Jaune. Why not." The lioness said, pulling him out a chair. Sun took a seat behind the two, creating a cluster of blondes in the left hand side of the classroom. Jaune looked around the classroom, taking note of the possible exits.

One by the window, one by the door. Door is closest, but also poses the risk of people entering. B calculated, glancing around the room.

Jaune and his personas were shocked out of their paranoia when Dr. Cortez quite literally kicked the door open, cracking the quiet muttering in the classroom. The blonde jolted from the slamming sound, almost falling out of his seat.

Sebastian rolled into the classroom with a characteristic swagger. "GOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!" He yelled at them with a rolling cheshire roar. He dropped down into his rolling seat, sliding to behind his desk. "Welcome, everyone, back to Whatever the Fuck This Is, where the subject is made up and the grades don't matter."

"So, how we feeling, how we doing, how we living?" he asked the class at a rapid rate of fire rate.

A murmuring sound of "good" came from the class. Jaune was still suffering from whiplash, rubbing his eyes to try and recenter his brain.

"Good, good, because the half decent chaps in the room are going to be fucking depressed after this shit. But before that-" He said, pulling open a drawer in his desk. A pile of vanilla folders were slapped down onto the desk. "Side projects for those that want them. Valued at three hundred points each. Due whenever you can get it to me."

Jaune tilted his head at the folders, but Cortez was evidently forging ahead. "Alright, Alright, Alright! Let's get crackalackin! Your question for the day:" He started, rubbing his hands together, as though he were some cartoon villain.

"What is the value of a human life?" the gunslinger asked, putting his feet up on the desk. "A deceptively simple answer, it is something that philosophers have discussed for centuries. Answer is worth three hundred points."The classroom fell into silence for a moment. Sun pulled out his scroll to google the answer.

"According to the internets, a human life is worth 10 million dollars." He responded. Dr. Cortez just pointed at him and made a buzzing "ERRRR" sound. A stereotypical wrong answer sound.

"The internets have failed you, young padawan. Anyone else?"

Arslan raised her hand. "Life is priceless. You can't give it an arbitrary worth-"

Sebastian made another buzzing sound. "I'm going to stop you right there, Ms. Altan. A kind sentiment. But if you don't put a price on a person's life, someone else will. And they will value it at zero." he said, emphasizing the number with his hand forming a zero. "It's not that hard of a question, people."

The class started to think, with some members throwing out arbitrary guesses and elaborating questions. Is the worth in Lien? Are different peoples' lives worth different amounts? Does the value of someone's life depend on their social standing or their contribution to society?

Kind of, Yes, and No.

Jaune's brow furrowed. "The value is variable." He blurted out to the class. Sebastian's eyes light up as his feet hit the ground.

"Correct!" He shouted, his hands slamming on the table, causing Jaune to flinch. "Now, can you tell me why you are correct?" he directed his question to the rest of the class, gesturing with a wide hand swipe. "Can anyone tell me why Jaune is correct?" Sebastian returned his attention to the ranger briefly. "Three hundred points, by the way."

"I have no idea how much that is worth."

Sebastian waived the statement off, looking around the class. "Is it because it depends on the scenario?" The nameless classmate asked. Her name was actually Chriss, but no one actually knew that or cared about that fact. It was almost as though they were wholly unimportant. It was as if their sole purpose was to utter those lines, and to never be mentioned again.

"Yes. The value of someone's life is dependent wholly on the current scenario and whatever the consequences of that scenario is later on." He swallowed, moving to one side of the room. "There will be times when you have to make a snap judgement and determine the worth of a human being. The worth of a person, and if they are worth saving. Who do you sacrifice? Who do you let die to save someone else? Who do you save?" The jovial and energetic tone was lost, dying in the cold question. The class looked around nervously at each other, not sure how to answer.

"You don't have an answer? Good." There was a morbid little smile on his face, as though he reveled in this forging. "You shouldn't be able to. Not yet, not now. But there is something you should be able to answer." He moved back behind his desk, leaning over the table.

"What is the value of the life of a Huntsman?" That question sent shivers down the classes back. They didn't answer, sharing sideways glances of concern. How could you put a price tag on their lives?

And if you could, it must have been higher, right? They were the defenders of humanity, the first and last line of defence. There were so few of them, they had to be worth more. Right?

Sebastian sighed, as though he could see the internal gears ticking away in their heads. "No, no, no. It's not that hard guys." He sighed, looking at the tiled floor. "How much is your life worth?"

Jaune blinked. He knew that answer, deeply engraved in his soul. It was an answer that weighed heavily on his mind, and not one that he liked. If he disappeared, who would mourn? When he left, who would remember him? His family?

Perhaps, but unlikely.

His friends?

He couldn't remember the last time he had made a friend. Those that he had trusted betrayed him on a whim, leaving only Nora behind him. Perhaps Nora would grieve, but she would move on. It was in her bubbly nature.

No, he doubted many people would mourn his absence, or his death. He would just end up being another statistic to the morbidly high death count of huntsmen.

"Nothing." Jaune answered finally, causing a lot of people to give him a very concerned look. Sebastian gave him a pitying little smile. "Ding ding ding." He chimed, giving him a little finger gun snap. "Give the boy a gold star!" He cheered, before returning to a serious tone. "Ahem. Correct, Jaune. A dangerous answer, but a correct one. You, as huntsmen, have a unique status as being defenders of humanity. The moment you picked up a mechashift weapon, enrolled into Signal or Bulwark or wherever, or told your parents you wanted to die young and painfully, you stopped having an inherent worth as a human, being overridden by your duty as a Huntsman." The teacher said to them, looking each and every one of his students in the eye. It was almost spell binding. "Your sole worth to the Human race has become who you can save, who you can protect. Your usefulness to ensure our survival. You are valued by your blade and not much more. Your job is to balance your usefulness against the risk of death, your ability to kill, to save, versus a life." Sebastian paced around the front of the classroom once more, letting his words sink in a little. "This is the hard part about being a Huntsman. It's not the Grimm studies, it's not the grueling combat. Hell, it's not even the god damn PTSD. It's the moral weight, the responsibility of being a living weapon.

When an evacuation goes wrong, do you leave behind the elderly to stay with those that can make it out? Do you risk yourself for every man, woman, and child? Is your death worth their life? Is there life worth your death? These are the kinds of questions you will have to answer in a moment of time, a split second." The class was thoroughly cowed by his speech. It was a chilling prospect, that they would have lives weighing in their hands. That they were valued by those lives.

"This does not stop you from being human." Sebastian continued, after he had let his class stew for some time. "This does not exempt you from moral quandary. You, despite holding the responsibility of a weapon, are still human." He ran his hand over the wooden desk. "Tonight's homework: Think about what keeps you human, keeps you different from just being a neat mechashift weapon. Class dismissed if you want it."

A lot of the class started to shuffle out, many of them pawing through the folders. Jaune stood up to leave, but the doctor stopped him.

"Jaune, a moment." the doctor said, pulling the ranger aside. Jaune walked over to infront of his desk, nervous. It was never a good thing to be called for after class.

"You called, doctor?" the blonde asked. Doctor Cortez picked up the folders that had been left behind, flipping through them with a level of disinterest.

"Jaune, thanks for stopping by," Sebastian said, dropping all but one into his desk. "I wanted to orient you to this class, As you can tell, it is a little different from the normal class setup. We have points instead of grades." The doctor started to explain. "At the end of the class, I will give you a grade dependent on an arbitrary relation to your total points. This class is entirely at my discretion, so it's going to be rather odd." He warned his student. Jaune gave a nod, understanding what the terms of this class were going to be. "So sometimes class will be like today: Harsh, unforgiving and depressing." He said with a shrug, flipping through the folders. "Other are much more fun. Scenarios, game nights, trust and community building exercises, the works." The teacher handed Jaune the folder.

"Things to keep you human." He said with a nod, before striding out of his own classroom. Jaune looked down at the folder, opening it up.

Hello Agent. Your next mission, should you choose to accept it- He was interrupted by Arslan calling out to him from the hall.

"Jaune!" She yelled, causing his head to snap up to her. All of his motions seemed robotic, or animalistic to her. They snapped, wide eyed and piercing. It was sharp, pointed, and with the whole limb, or the entire body. She had to steel herself from flinching at the almost birdlike motion, like a hawk noticing some kind of rodent. Arslan heard short whispers behind her back, catching her fellow blonde's name among them. Said blonde closed his folder, tucking it into his ratty old and worn backpack.

"Ms. Altan." He greeted her. "Are all instances of this class that…"

"Energetic?" Arslan suggested. "High octane? Scattered?"

Jaune shook his head. "I was going to say dark." He responded, stone faced and stoic. Arslan bobbed her head.

"Not often, but every once in a while he sends something depressing our way." She admitted with a shrug. "Last time he made us read sections of Crime and Punishment, and that was a month ago." She shuddered, remembering that particular class. It was not only incredibly depressing, but also possibly the longest class on record. "I just try to take those classes with a grain of salt. You shouldn't let them get to you." She shrugged, looking at the time on her scroll. It was a little past one, just about lunch time. She knew what came next, as it was her usual schedule. Eat lunch with Bolin and Reese, for better or worse. Worse, if Bolin was in a particular mood.

"Hey, Jaune, you want to go-" She started, looking up to her companion. He was gone, nothing more than a whisper, pushed away in the wind.

"What in the- I didn't even see him leave." Arslan sighed, shaking her head.

From an outside point of view, the conversation was a little stranger. Even in a school uniform, Jaune could strike an imposing figure. He was hunched slightly, bending like a great willow or pine. His shadow spread through the hall like a root, gripping the air in a choke hold. His miasma could practically be tasted, ire and yellow and ethanol bleeding into the back of the senses, seeping into the back of one's thoughts. Those that paid attention, instead of dismissing it as the flavor of whatever the janitors used to keep the floors clean, could hear his conversation. Or rather, the lack of one. Arslan spoke to Jaune, but it seemed that he made no response. His voice was silenced by the air. Whatever words he spoke were not for them. So it really looked a little bit like Arslan was responding to someone who had said nothing at all.

It was very strange from the outside looking in.

It got stranger when he just walked away, leaving a very confused Arslan Altan in his wake. He opened his folder, reading its contents. Hello Agent. Your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find my fetch bag in Tatsuka park. Do not open the bag under any circumstance. Best of luck. You have about two days. Give or take. And bring me a slice of cake if you can. I like chocolate in particular.

Jaune scratched at his head, rereading the missive. "This is it?" He asked no one, rereading the instructions. He sighed, turning towards the gondola docks. Pulling out his phone, the ranger started to search up the location of Tatsuka park.

Oh, fantastic. It's nearby. B commented, looking at the map. Although I wonder why gay people are faster.

Jaune shook his head. I'm sorry, what? He had to ask.

The upper left corner. B pointed out where estimated times were. There were four figures. Car, Bike, Person, and the same outline of the person symbol, but in rainbow. The blank, non colored person had a time of ten minutes, while the multi-colored striped one had a time of eight minutes. Jaune's head tilted at that.

Huh, I guess you're right. It says gay people are faster. Jaune mused, finding the thought rather amusing. He knew that wasn't true, of course. But developers and companies were strange like that. He continued on, passing the main hall and cafeteria as he went.

In that same cafeteria was Arslan Altan, the girl he had abandoned just minutes prior. She had just sat down with about half of her team. Nadir was, of course, somewhere else. He had always preferred to eat alone, despite Arslan's invitation to do otherwise. She looked down at her plate of greens and cut meats. It was a fairly standard meal, as it was no particular day. Although in a moment today would deviate from what she would consider a standard tuesday. It had already shifted from being a standard Tuesday by Jaune's presence alone, and it was only going to deviate further. Sun Wukong, a well known classmate, if not loose friend, sat down in front of the lioness. Bolin raised an eyebrow at the unusual occurrence, already suspicious of the mischievous faunus.
"Mister Wukong." Arslan greeted, putting down her fork. Sun just waved the greeting away.

"Arslan, please. We're all friends here. Sun is fine." He smiled, before leaning in conspiratorial.

"Anyway, there's something I need to ask you." He asked in their native historical tongue. Arslan's brow immediately furrowed, leaning in to meet Sun's words.

"What is it?" She asked, very concerned. It was uncommon for faunus to speak in Feral here at school, because it was mostly non feral speaking humans that were here.

"Did you know that Jaune speaks Feral?" Sun said, accusatory. Arslan was now confused. Of course Jaune spoke Feral.

"Yes? I mean, why wouldn't he?" It was only logical that he would, considering what she knew about him. Now it was Sun's turn to be confused.

"What do you mean?"

"He's a faunus?" Arslan said, as though the answer to that question was obvious, and not knowing was a sigh of obviousness. Sun looked like someone had just taken a sledge hammer to his world, shattering it into pieces.

"He's a what now?" Sun responded wide eyed. Arslan's head tilted to the side. Now she was getting a little concerned for her fellow faunus blonde.

"He's a Faunus. You know, like you and me. It's not that surprising that he speaks feral." Arslan responded. Sun blinked at her, still not quite believing her. Arslan sighed as she bit into her baked greens.

"Look, I know he doesn't have any visible traits, but he speaks feral, has some of trademark senses. And you know, if it walks like Scarab, Riddles like Scarab, it is probably a Scarab." She continued for him. Bolin and Reese had lost interest in the conversation as the tone went from immediate concern to the usual exasperation one had when dealing with Wukong. Sun frowned, chewing on the inside of his lip.

"You sure? I don't see anything on him that says he's a faunus." Sun shook his head. "Besides, when I asked him where he learned Feral, he said he learned it from a fisherman."

that got a less usual reaction out of her. She racked her brain, knowing that was calling some memory of a bibical story. "As in, like, Hakim and the World Swallower?" She asked, thinking about the second testament story where a fisherman learned from a large fish how to talk to the wind spirits. Sun shrugged.

"I dunno. I follow the sixth." the monkey said. His face darkened as a clearly unpleasent thought passed him. "You..." He started, pursing his lips. Arslan got concerned again. It was rare for such a deep expression to pass the money faunus face.

"What is it, Sun?" She asked him.

Sun shook his head. "Well, you don't think he's been docked, do you?" He whispered, his tail flicking with agitation. Arslan blanched, her eyes growing wide. That would explain so much about Jaune. She realized, her fork falling from her hand. The distrust, the panicky glances, the paranoia, the constant vigilance. it would even explain the bags that were forming under his eyes, and maybe even his scars. He even came from Vale. While it wasn't as bad as Atlas, Arslan could still imagine the terror that one might have faced there.

"Oh no..." She whispered in shock at her revelation.

Once again, i have returned with a new chapter! We get to really see a part of Sebastian that really defines his character. Speaking of which, I do have something to say about him. While his view on the world is cynical, it is also justified and logical (he knows something that will be revealed later that while is important to his character, is not so much to the story). But he is also wrong. Those things are things that can coincide and still be true. Truth is not dictated by Logic or justified by action.

As for the Gay Joke, I do hope I have not offended anyone. It is a harmless reference to how traffic navigation apps reference Pride Parade routes, and if you've seen the post you know what it's referencing. I can't imagine that I have, but I know this fandom and the internet well enough to know that this is warranted.

And now we get to count conspiracy theory number one. We will have a lot more of those, and hopefully all of them will be as funny as the idea that Jaune is a Faunus, when he very clearly isn't.

Also, a bit of a shift from cannon in worldbuilding: Atlas remains the most racist, but I have swapped Vale's racism and Mistral's racism kind of. Vale is, due to their stronger political and historical connection to Atlas and Mantle, influenced more by Atlas's culture, including their racism. Mistral is more classist than racist, but still has racist people. Vacuo is just close knit anarchy.

A word about the Faunus testaments and their language: The Faunus language, Feral, is based off of the Testaments. There are six Testaments in the Faunus Religion. Most of the words, phrases, and saying in Feral are direct references to the stories in those Testaments. the first Testament is of course the oldest, and is the most polytheistic. The sixth is the newest and the most aesthetic feeling at the moment, focusing more so of an almost Buddhistic style of spiritual advancement instead of praying to particular gods. I have every intention of exploring this a lot more, particularly as Arslan and her Family are explored post first mission, which are next Arc anyway. This is just the transition time, which will last two more chapters. (Ideally).

As always, please leave your comments, ideas, and other thoughts. I really enjoy reading them and they really make my day.