A few hours, a meal and a more thorough tour of the grounds (mercifully provided by one of the upperclassmen and not Professor Port), you drop your bags inside the doorway of your room. TEAM CASE is already written on the door. Two bunk beds line each side of the room, the back wall dominated by a huge window that gives you the impression sleeping in will be almost impossible. They've also provided two closets, desks, chairs and all your bedding.
A quadruple Ding! sounds out from all four of your scrolls as they light up with your class schedule for tomorrow, but you're free for now. An extra message, directly addressed from Prof. Goodwitch, tells you to not be late to combat training under any circumstances.
"Wow! The room is so bright!" Carmine exclaims, looking around. "And the view is great!"
He looks at the beds and hops up to one of the top bunks. "Dibs!" he calls, chuckling to himself as his crook hooks onto the bedpost and hangs casually off the corner. His bag goes unopened for the moment.
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"Guess mine's the bottom one," grins Shamrock tossing his bag on the bed and leaning Twilight Whisper more carefully against the wall.
He opens the window, sticking half his body outside. "Yeah, quite a view!"
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Esper looked to Azure, "I'm fine taking the bottom one if you want the top bunk." She swung her shield off her back and set it down leaning against the bunk post with a thud before doing the same with her folded glaive just behind the nook of the shield.
"So, what do you all want to do with the rest of today?" She asked as she pulled out her scroll and checked the message.
Not knowing anything about bunk beds, and thinking Esper is saying she wants the bottom one, Azure says "Sure", and hangs Reaper off another post.
"Umm...anyone up for a walk around the campus? It might be good to know which buildings are which, besides just enjoying the scenery..."
"Yeah sure! Let's have a walk around!" Carmine agrees. "We can find landmarks and see if there's anything fun on campus."
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"Yeah it would be a good idea to know exactly where our classes are. And it's never a bad time to find good spots to practice." Esper slipped her scroll into her pocket and picked up her shield slinging it over her back once again. Securing the strap she reached for her backpack that sat with her meager luggage, one traveling case filled with clothes and bathroom necessities.
She dug into it for a moment, "I'm pretty sure i saw the Vale CCT during our tour yesterday after we arrived too." In her hands now was a plastic tin of 'Bow-wow Bites' "I've been saving these since before the flight." She unscrewed the lid and pulled out a trio of milk bone biscuits that one would give to their dog and casually popped one into her mouth, oblivious of the possible oddness of the situation.
Pocketing the other two and putting the tin back into her bag she looked up at the group ready to go.
The outside of Beacon Academy is gorgeous. The statues are immaculate, the grounds are well kept, and the architecture is sturdy, sightly and well-integrated into the landscape. A few students scattered around outside in the late afternoon are studying on the well-kept grass, sparring, or practicing various semblances. Above it all stands the Vale CCT casting out the signal for your scrolls in all directions. Aside from the sounds of students chatting as faint background noise, it's overwhelmingly serene and peaceful.
That is, of course, until a Bullhead helicopter goes whipping overhead, a 4-man team of upperclassmen on board. As the sound of whirring blades fades into the distance, a murmur sets in across the students. Your scrolls ding again. <The Emerald Forest is off limits at this time by order of Headmaster Ozpin.> The scattered students start to gossip, and you can readily overhear "Third time this month--I hear the new kids had a terrible orientation--Can they keep us safe?"
"Nah, I doubt it," says the ferrety boy from before--Raz Morris. He leans over a studying Faunus girl, smiling down at her uncomfortable face. "You all know it's a matter of time before the Grimm come pouring in here too, right?"
Azure uncharacteristically walks over to the group with Raz and says "Hey, ferret-face - yeah, I'm talking to you! You have no right to be a student here, and talk like that! With that kind of defeatist attitude, it's no wonder you lost to us in the cave! You'd better shape up your attitude, or ship out, I don't care which!"
She casually walks back to her group and mutters under her breath "Guys like that *really* piss me off!"
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Esper was about to walk over and go off on the ferret boy, but Azure stormed off and took that honor, perhaps a bit rough calling him ferret face and all. Overall it sounded like Azure would be the person you wanted on your side during a verbal punchout. Seeing as how untrained students were able to take out the grimm before the professors arrived without a scratch i think we're all safe if the upperclassmen and Teachers get involved."
She laughed and turned to the group speaking a bit lower, "Honestly i think he may try to slink out of combat practice, seeing as how he ghosted when Goodwitch showed up." There was a crunch as she brought her jaws down on the snack from earlier and swallowed. "You know what i should call Cobalt and tell him about Vale so far, he'd be so jealous. And speaking of combat practice I can't wait to show you guys my moves and see what you can do in person."
Shamrock shakes his pretending to be offended. "We had people from Vacuo, one from Atlas, one from the village outside the protection that cities give, and I finished a combat school."
He glows with confidence. "Not exactly untrained students, eh?"
Carmine actually raises a hand. "I'm... Actually untrained. Book learned, practiced on my own. I could use my dad's weapons testing room, so I have a little weapon skill, but... Im not great at the fighting stuff, not like you guys are."
He looks down. "I'll uh, I'll try to be a good leader. Just dont expect me to be the best at everything."
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"Hey, you should be a bit more confident about yourself," Shamrock claps Carmine on his back. "You did great back there."
Carmine shakes his head. "That was all the targeting software. Used some of Schnee's newest targeting algorithms my dad designed." he explains, pulling the shiny orb from his crook and opening a panel. Underneath the reflective metal shell lies much complicated gadgetry. "See?" he finishes.
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Raz visibly recoils from Azure as she berates him. "Wh--Bu--I--" He sputters incoherently, trying to get a word in edgewise before stopping with an uncomfortable blush and grimace. "Tch. You'll see how prepared you are. You're all gonna see," he mutters, taking a few steps back, his eyes lighting on Esper, then Shamrock and Carmine in turn. "Y-yeah, well, you're...."
He vanishes again, the barely-visible imprints of feet lighting up the dust as he flees the scene, whatever comeback he was trying to think of dying on his lips. Very faintly, you can hear him mutter "Targeting system, huh?"
The faunus girl lets out the breath she's been holding in. "Thank you, you guys. Are you some of the new students?" She asks in a Menagerie accent, giving all four of you a pleasant smile.
Carmine smiles and sits down across from her. "Is it that obvious?" he says, chuckling. "This is Esper, Shamrock, and Azure... I'm Carmine. Team CASE."
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"Pft, well he took off like a dingo tail between his legs and all." After Carmine gave them all a brief name introduction she nodded with a thumbs up. "Yep team CASE that's us, Carmine over there's our captain, er... leader? Eh they both mean the same anyway. We haven't really fought together, I mean.. they have but I haven't. They took down this big ol' grimm though while that kid from earlier came in and tried to swoop in on the glory."
Esper rolled her shoulder with her shield strap laying on it "I really do need to cut some things out of this design when I get a chance. Oh yeah what's your name are you one of the upperclassmen?" She finally responded to the Faunus girl, she couldn't place the accent herself never having met many people from Menagerie.
Carmine will grin. "You know, Esper, I'm pretty sure I could help you with that! I have a lot of weapons tech experience. Maybe I could look at the specs with you between classes. Never did any work with shields, so it's going to be fun."
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"You guys know I don't mean really untrained right? I meant more so you aren't academy trained yet." She started to smile towards Carmine but cut herself short, "That'd be cool, really though I think a better base shield would work best. I kind of had to work with what I could get at the time. Oh and that brings up a good point, what are you all good at... er" She looked around now a bit wary of the ferret-weasley boy eavesdropping. "On second thought maybe we should talk about that in our dorm instead."
"Yea," Shamrock waves his hand. "Nice to meet ya."
"We can look at specs together," Sham suggests enthusiastically. "I'm not as tech-savvy as you, but I like that stuff!"
"Mhm, better to talk about these things in our room," agrees Shamrock.
"All right. We can chat about that in our room after our tour is over?"
The faunus girl looks at Esper, her eyes growing wide and shiny. "That sounds so cool. You guys had a way better orientation than me," she glances up, reflecting. "It took three weeks for that sprained ankle to heal."
The faunus girl gives the four of you an enthusiastic little wave at your team name. "I'm Orabel, by the way, I'm on team ZERO," she says, glancing back and forth and not really taking notice of the subtext about weapon specs and strengths. "I'd be happy to show you around if you didn't get enough of a tour earlier," she says, smiling. "Or you can just explore. The grounds aren't huge."
"Having someone who knows the place is always nice. So, where can we eat in the town, besides the cafeteria on campus?"
"There's a couple of good restaurants," she says, "But it's hard to get a pass to go into town right now. Hopefully they lighten things up soon. Same for training," she says, turning to Esper. "The Emerald Forest is a great place to train if you don't mind getting your hands dirty, but they lock it down every other day lately."
"I'll show you some other spots though," says Orabel, leading you around. "Some people practice out on the grounds, but if you get stage fright, the roofs of your dorms do pretty well too." She leans in, walking backwards, and whispers conspiratorially "I don't know if we're actually allowed to be up there, so be careful." She winks and turns back around, giving you the grand tour in much more detail. She shows you where each of your classrooms is going to be, and points out Glynda Goodwitch's combat practice room. "You can book this for practice too, but the upperclassmen get priority."
She leads you up from there into a wing of offices, and stops in front of the infirmary. "Well, I should probably visit my team," she says, still smiling, but with her ears drooping distinctly. "It was nice meeting all of you though. You can find me on the list in your scroll if you have any more questions." She shuts the door behind her, leaving the four of you outside.
Carmine seems to be engaged enough as it is, and doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary.
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Esper was quite enthralled in the grand tour, a bit bummed that they have been closing the forest recently she'd like to go out and try training obstacles on hard ground. "Stands to make sense that the senior students get to use the area more."
Spotting the goofy Floyd boy waving at them Esper moved to wave back but watched as he was pulled away, frowning and stopping as she raised her arm. Making a sort of off-handed 'aww' She had caught glimpses of the other members of his team throughout their tour and was starting to wonder how closely they were trying to follow and if they had any idea how terrible they were at it.
When they made their last stop at the infirmary Esper was a bit shocked that all of Orabel's team was unavailable to meet at the time she was such a nice girl. "Hope they get well quickly and thanks again." she offered as the door closed.
She looked to the others not wanting to bring the subject of their shadows up right now. "Well that was a much better tour, should we head back to the dorm now our first class is pretty early?"
Shamrock follows Orabel as she describes the facilities and doesn't pay much attention to everything else.
"Sure," agrees Sham. "We don't want to be late for class, do we?"
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm hungry after all that work in the forest today. What say we stop by the school cafeteria on the way back to the dorm?"
The cafeteria is full of long tables, still scattered with trainees reading or eating up in their off hours. They cast a constant net of gossip over the hall, but for the most part, people seem to keep to their teams and other close friends.
The night is quiet, the air inside cool, and altogether your bunks are comfortable. It might be a strange feeling for some of you to be away from your homes, but Beacon seems to do its best to be accomodating, and for the most part, your sleep is peaceful. Breakfast waits for you in the morning, and a few of the older students advise you to eat light--combat training can be rough.
Glynda Goodwitch is already in the classroom when you arrive. Your scrolls ignite five minutes beforehand with another message reminding you not to be tardy. "Welcome to introductory combat training," Casting her stern eye over a few of the students who make it in just at the start of class, she waves her wand, zipping a boy's fly shut, cinching down the buttons of a girl's blouse, and tying another's shoes. "You all know my name by now, and I've read your dossiers, so we can skip the pleasantries. Tell me, what is the most dangerous enemy you can find in Remnant?"
"King Taijitu!" Shouts Tora from the back. Glynda shakes her head, glancing around.
"There are Nevermore as big as buildings," Says another student on her team.
"It's not a Grimm," says Glynda, glancing around. "Surely one of you knows."
"People," says Floyd quietly. His team sits around him, looking various shades of bored.
"Correct," says Glynda. "In your basic combat school, you learned how to fight Grimm, and fight them well. And chiefly, fighting Grimm is your occupation as huntresses and huntsmen. But you also serve, at times, as soldiers--and at other times, as peacekeepers. I hope and pray that none of you ever need these lessons in the real world, but it's my job to train you, just in case."
She gives a short lecture about small unit tactics, and how to maximize your advantages as a team of four. She touches briefly on combining semblances for team attacks, effective positioning and the use of ranged combat vs. human opponents. Then she taps her wand into her hand sharply. "Of course, there is only so much good talking can do where combat is concerned. That's why we'll have a few short sparring exercises--four on four, so you can get some practice in with your new team."
"Any volunteers?" She asks, and team FRET's hands shoot up. "Excellent, and uh..."
"I hear Carmine Rouge has a new targeting system he's been dying to try, professor," says Raz Morris innocently, his eyes glancing up to Carmine and smirking as they walk to the front of the room.
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Esper eats something light as per the message given by Glynda, and the fact that she had already eaten quite a bit earlier that day. She tries her best to get comfortable in the soft bed and her pajamas which were fairly bland though made of a nice silky material she kind of wanted another blanket in case the nights here were as cold as the ones in Vacuo. With mornings arrival she is rather slow to rise but off like a bullet to the showers once she's up, her enthusiastic feelings start to dye off as she remembers she has to wear a uniform for most of her classes.
Her short sandy brown splotched tail pokes out of the bottom of the combat skirt ever so slightly making her a bit uncomfortable How are we expected to fight in this uniform? She gazed at it for a while dreading the time when she'd have to actually put it on for an extended period.
She watched as the professor used her semblance to fix up students as they arrived she seemed like a very short tempered and by the books woman. To her question she was quite surprised that Floyd was the one to answer it correctly, grimm may attack but most of them can be repelled fairly easily in small numbers. Humans and Faunus on the other hand can cause more destruction than any grimm in small forces. She'd had to deal with raiders and she's had to watch traveling hunters and huntress's deal with raiders, Vacuo is quite filled with them. She also knew that after the raiders are gone there is still quite the chance for more disaster given the strong emotions which often attract grimm.
At the mention of team sparring Esper almost threw her hand up to volunteer but had given herself a bit of time to see if anyone else wanted to go. She'd like to see what she was up against, not like she'd gotten that chance much before, but she knew Cobalt for far longer than anyone here and they had sparred plenty of times. These people were likely nothing like her brother as far as combat was concerned.
Esper looked to Raz and the rest of team Ferret she'd been itching to show off and what better way to do it than to have her team kick his teams butt. She wanted to see what Floyd's gauntlet could do back in the Emerald forest, but circumstances hindering that this was a perfect opportunity. Though that is if Carmine agree'd to the boys open challenge she even tried to hold her tongue but could feel herself slip as she leaned over and encouraged him "We can totally kick their butts here."
After dinner, Azure gets ready for bed and sleeps well. As she's dressing, she raises an eyebrow as Esper goes off for her second shower in 8 hours, but says nothing.
Noting Glynda's antics with the student's clothing, she made a mental note to be *sure* everything was in place before heading to Glynda's classes. She mentally allocated an extra 5 minutes in the morning to get ready, *and* be on time.
After Raz's comment, if her eyes were lasers, they'd be burning holes into Raz with the glare Azure was giving him.
Carmine actually looks a little surprised when he's called out. And great... he thinks, looking at his group. Well this is going to be my call.
He hefts his shepherds crook, trying to shrug nonchalantly. "After you guys somehow missed all the grimm during our trial, I would guess you'd need to show her you *could* fight at all. We're in if Miss Goodwitch thinks you can learn something from it."
Shamrock tries to suppress his yawns while listening to Glynda's lecture despite his interest. It's way early for combat practice. Or any other lessons.
He snickers at Carmine's comment and waits for an answer from Glynda Goodwitch.
Raz hisses at Carmine's comments, but Glynda doesn't seem to take notice, aside from a tiny curl to her lips. "Very well then. Our first training bout will be Team FRET vs. Team CASE," A few of your classmates look notably more excited at your name. From the back row, Tora cheers you on. Walking to the front, there's a fairly wide open space with markers for you to stand on. As soon as you do, a force field sparks into life around you, preventing you from moving from the spot. "This will be a training bout only. You may use your weapons and semblances," says Glynda--a readout appears at the very far wall of the room, with all of your names in order, each displaying a 100/100 below it. "If at any time your aura is reduced below half, the room will isolate you using these field chambers."
"If", she continues, "You are reduced below fifty percent aura, do not continue to attack, simply wait for the isolation to kick in." Glancing up and down, paying special attention to Felix and Carmine, she says, more quietly, "Remember that fighting one on one comes down to individual skill. But when you're fighting with your team, tactics make the difference. Divide and conquer, ladies and gentlemen."
The display begins to tick down from 10 as you stare down your opponents through the force fields (Raz quailing slightly under Azure's menacing glare). A wall of energy separates your section of the room from the rest of the watching students, protecting them from any stray bullets or aura. Plenty of time to draw your weapons, activate your semblance, and pick a target...
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Esper drew out her shield and glaive making sure to load both while she had the chance. "Stick with me if you aren't sure about fighting in the front-line." She braced her glaive atop the upper curve of her shield pointing towards the other team letting out a built up breath. She thought this might be like when she used to spar with Cobalt except more of them and they weren't her brother.
Azure activates her semblance near the end of the countdown :
And with her second action (due to Quickness), draws her weapon, which by default is in Ranged mode, and aims it in the general direction of Raz.
Shamrock pulls out his weapon in the form of the shotgun and gets ready to jump in front of the other team.
"I'll cover you," he glances at Esper.
Carmine switches Gravitas from Red Bishop to Red Pawn mode, his palms feeling sweaty against the textured pistol grips.
"Okay, so we've seen what they can do. Azure, get on ferret-face the instant we start. Don't give him a chance to disappear on us. Shamrock? support Esper, get their attention and let her soak up the hits with her shield." Carmine states in a low tone, trying to give tactical suggestions based off his analysis of the different team's abilities.
"I'll try to be the wild card, but I get the feeling that I'm their target of choice. If you see them coming at me, use that opportunity to hit them. If I get taken down, but you guys get two, it was worth the sacrifice." he lifts Gravitas the shining orb floating between the two pistols.
As the countdown dwindles, he glances at his team, taking a deep breath. "Alright, let's rock."
Team FRET stays disconcertingly quiet. Floyd slips on his gauntlet, Tawny draws a small pair of trench knives, and the two quietly nod to each other. Felix lowers himself to the ground, his toes curling on the floor like a track runner--his tails wave behind him, and his feet light up with a slight glow of aura.
[ooc]benny
Raz's lips curl, and he smiles at Azure. "Scared, Crowder?" He smarms, pressing his forehead up against the holoshield. "Or do you just like me that much?"
Combat Card Draw (Round 1):
King of Spades: Raz
King of Clubs: Shamrock
Ten of Spades: Carmine
Seven of Spades: Esper
Seven of Diamonds: Azure (ate a six of clubs with her quickness raise)
Seven of Clubs: Tawny
Five of Hearts: Floyd
Two of Clubs: Felix
"Begin!" Shouts Glynda, signaling as the holoshields drop. The students cheer as both teams start to move.
On the King of Spades: Raz slips his thumbloops back on, but reserves actually pulling them to fire, instead smirking at Azure again. "I know I'm pretty great, but you really seem fixated on me! It's a little creepy..."
Nodding to Carmine, Shamrock runs forward and disappears in a pillar of leaves and reappears with a jump in front of Raz. Unlike him, Sham uses his time to start an actual fight.
"You talk too much!" the shotgun spits out three shots.