"Tell me about it..." Grizel sighed. She could still feel the dirt lingering on her face. She really hoped it wasn't all that noticeable. Daiki then proceeded to ramble on about showering, and at the end of it all, Grizel couldn't help but burst into a fit of giggles.
Having not had much interaction with boys outside of brawls on the street, she had never really given it much thought, but... some subjects were just awkward to talk about with the opposite gender. If the faunus weren't too busy with her laughing, she might have flushed slightly at his suggestion of washing up.

Stuttering an aplogy once her laughter subsided, Grizel cleared her throat and, smiling as brightly as ever, simply said, "Yeah, after food, I'll make myself more presentable!"
She continued on her grand journey for food, turning her head to give Daiki a teasing smile and say, "Just make sure you keep your thoughts of me in the shower to yourself next time, 'kay?"

At least Grizel had grown to like Daiki enough to play around with him in such a manner. For someone weary of her race, he really was a great guy. This was gonna be great news to tell her friend back home.

RolePlayerRoxas said
"Tell me about it..." Grizel sighed. She could still feel the dirt lingering on her face. She really hoped it wasn't all that noticeable. Daiki then proceeded to ramble on about showering, and at the end of it all, Grizel couldn't help but burst into a fit of giggles.Having not had much interaction with boys outside of brawls on the street, she had never really given it much thought, but... some subjects were just awkward to talk about with the opposite gender. If the faunus weren't too busy with her laughing, she might have flushed slightly at his suggestion of washing up.Stuttering an aplogy once her laughter subsided, Grizel cleared her throat and, smiling as brightly as ever, simply said, "Yeah, after food, I'll make myself more presentable!"She continued on her grand journey for food, turning her head to give Daiki a teasing smile and say, "Just make sure you keep your thoughts of me in the shower to yourself next time, 'kay?"At least Grizel had grown to like Daiki enough to play around with him in such a manner. For someone weary of her race, he really was a great guy. This was gonna be great news to tell her friend back home.

Daiki would have spit out his drink if he had been drinking. He had not expected the faunus girl to tease him like that. Well, he reasoned with himself, she did fire the first shot. The rules of engagement were clear. "Oh, I don't think I can, good things are meant to be shared, after all... Besides, I'm going to shower later, and I'll get lonely, and I don't think I'll be able to keep quiet about these thoughts..." He sighed, with a mocking shrug and an expression of defeat. "I am a guy after all. If you notice guys looking at you weird later, I apologise... or not." He laughed at the end of it all.

If someone had told Daiki his first friend at Beacon would be a faunus, he would have laughed at them derisively. His father had been right - it wasn't fair to paint a group of people with the same brush just because a few of them spoiled the bunch. He was certain that would be news to his family once he sent a letter home. Though knowing his parents and how they were like, they'd probably ask him to bring Grizel home for a meal so they could meet this special faunus girl that broke his defenses... Daiki sighed as he pictured the scene. He had been wary of faunus at home because they mostly came to them for food and coin and took it by force. It wasn't as if he went out looking for faunus to fight and beat up.

A thought came to him. "I just remembered, I never introduced my self, did I? The name's Daiki." He offered his name, remembering they had yet to learn each other's names. Funny how he was having a conversation with someone whose name he didn't even know yet. It was a brave new world, coming to Beacon.

Isaac Markeel

---

Issac was in a moment of peaceful, insular comfort at the charming little bistro. His food was well cooked, and seemed worth the extravagant price tag, all the while he was basking in the ambiance of isolation and music. Thus far, it seemed like his choice to come to a quiet, calm place with a reasonably high price tag had been the correct choice: as he had been un-harassed for the longest of time.

His thoughts dwelt upon what was to come: mostly on the events of tomorrow, but the future just beyond that was also in question. He was confident that the test would not be an issue for Isaac. He couldn't imagine the academy would present a challenge that at least a reasonable majority of the new students could handle and among the group of people: Isaac was confident that he ranked in the top percentage of students. He had heard at least one rumour of groups being formed based on the results of the test: so there was the various issues that could be caused by that. What would his team be like: and what if one of the Faunus were on his team?

So many things to think about, and all of them culminated in Isaac’s distraction and the subsequent appearance of the thing that had been on the stage. It, for its gender was impossible to guess at this point, was like a Lovecraft-ian horror: impossible to truly comprehend, but terrifying none-the-less. Its shadow loomed over Isaac, and it quickly invited itself to his table. He couldn’t think of a reasonable excuse to say no, if it hadn’t proven to be a teacher he would have not minded insulting it; but sadly it had been on the stage with the others. He indicated over to the nearest serving staff: might as well be gracious in his…

Suddenly his hands felt naked without the BUTLER unit. A chill run up his body, resonating from his angle as the creature identifying itself as BB had made skin contact. Isaac remained unflinching and unmoving as BB’s finger trace the rim of his glasses: yet his thoughts wondered onto how quickly he could hide a body, if it mysteriously ended up with a bayonet in its eye-socket.

He regained a sense of composure, not letting his discomfit at the situation become too obvious. “The staff would probably be insulted if you didn’t order something…” he was ignoring the less than subtle innuendo, trying to remain controlled and professional was proving a test: but he was not one to fail any sort of test. “...It’s only fair I share my name: I am Isaac Markeel. What is your job amongst Beacon’s staff?” He was trying to steer the conversation a little bit, keeping a sense of revulsion at bay was proving easy enough. He reached for his glass of water, sipping it while he awaited an answer.

---

Orion Armstrong

---

"I'm also good to go." Orion said as he looked the stranger-known-as-Jack. She seemed like a nice enough person, so he hardly had a problem when the woman asked his name. "I'm Orion...Armstrong. Orion Armstrong." He quickly made sure to amend his speech by including the second name, so as to avoid offending this stranger. Maybe humans expected a second name?

Despite the seemingly normal way that the pair had started the introduction: things rather rapidly changed when their was random question about Orion and Reya as a couple. Orion didn't know how to react, but he could almost feel the heat form in his cheeks. Trying to save face, he quickly blurted out a "No, Of course not! I only met her today." He felt an uncharacteristic level of embarrassment over the little bit of light jest at Jack's hands. It was probably just getting caught off guard...right?

Tarkus was a little surprised when Morella offered to spot him, he hadn't even noticed the Mistraltan food wasn't in the free section. He calmly turned down her offer, reasoning that he had enough Lien of his own, trying not to offend her by turning her down. He thanked her anyway, and purchased a meat gyrro with his own money, it wasn't much, and he still had a decent chunk leftover from what be brought with him. He didn't inspect what Morella got herself to eat, instead focusing on finding a table to sit at.

When they finally sat down, Tarkus slowly ate his gyrro, more or less appreciating how much it tasted like home. He finished rather quickly, oddly satisfied for how hungry he made himself out to be, and something caught his attention again. Something on his right arm. He kept forgetting Zoll was there, and had to make it a conscious effort to even notice it. The fit, the feeling, how natural it felt, the fact that the thing felt like it didn't even exist was what scared him the most about it. "The hell did Leo even make it this thing out of?" Then a thought that hadn't occured to him strick harder than an Ursa against rice paper, he slammed the palm of Zoll into his forehead in a fit of frustration, he wasn't sure how much it would have hurt if he could feel it, but he narrowed his eyes as he rolled up the right sleeve of his shirt, exposing the shoulder-piece of Zoll. He placed his left hand over it, and he began channeling his Aura into his arm, the small *ping* went off again, resounding as it bounced within the confines of the gauntlet. Within a few seconds, he had a nearly perfect blueprint of the gauntlet in his mind, he pondered over what did what, mulling over the inner workings.

"Can't believe he made something this intricate in Sanctum... He mumbled as he poked over it, he found two things that could have been the release trigger, one was linked to some sorta box that he couldn't map out, the other was oddly placed inside the wrist. He stopped focusing on the gauntlet and instead turned back to Morella, who probably had a concerned look on her face given that he just slammed his face into an armored gauntlet. He scratched the back of his neck with Zoll and gave a light chuckle before saying:
"Turns out THAT isn't how it comes off. Whodathunkit?" He attempted to play it off as if that were normal, though he still had a slightly noticeable red mark on his forehead.

"So, what'd you think of the ceremony?" He asked, trying to make smalltalk.

IC: Kiora nodded slightly, the Edge hitting against the chair as she stood up.

No collapsing for it. Even if it could, the rust and continuous beatings would have impeded that mechanism a long time ago.

"Sounds good to me. But can we take a different route than everyone else? I- There's too many people."

Grizel had anticipated that Daiki become flustered, flail wildly and stutter his denial that he would never do such a thing. He was a boy, after all, and if fictional stories had taught her anything, it was that every boy ever reacted in such a manner to the mere idea of a girl anything less than the typical attire,

Instead, Grizel had become flustered, flailed her arms wildly and stuttered her disapproval of such a scenario that her new friend had outlined.

Of course, it was all in jest, but the faunus really hadn't expected the retort. She assumed he'd be too reserved or something, or at least hold off until he'd warmed up to her. So... did that mean they could already be considered friends? Considering what he'd first said, this was a breakthrough! Internally, Grizel was cheering herself on for changing someone's mind on her first day at Beacon. It almost made her want to rub it in the face of that rude girl from the airship.

Daiki reminded the both of them that introductions hadn't been conducted yet, and with her characteristic grin, Grizel replied, "Ehe, well, I'm Grizel! Pleasure to meet you, Daiki."

Addica looked at the massive group of students all heading in the same general direction, "That just looks like a headache full of emotions, another route does sound more appealing," he though to himself. Looking back at Kiora Addica replied "You know another route sounds a lot more enjoyable, too many people for me as well,". Pulling out his phone he quickly downloaded and opened a map of campus. Smiling at Kiora "I think I may have found us a less crowded route," Addica said leading the way out of the auditorium.

Stepping out of the auditorium Tirren quickly found himself at a loss for directions yet again. 'Totally should have stayed with those other people, they had a map on the... Wait that's it!' Tirren thought. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out his phone and pulled up a map of the Beacon campus. "Now onwards to free food," he voiced in a heroic tone, setting off towards the buffet. "Then I should probably grab my stuff and take some time to rid myself of this gunk. Yep, got a plan!" Tirren said to no one in particular.

IC: Kiora tilted her head slightly and looked at the phone with interest but masked it as quickly as possible when he looked up. "S-sounds good to me." She paused, her lips moving slightly as she considered-

"Lead the way."

As they started moving she started speaking again.

"I can't- I can't deal with a lot of people at the same time. Never dealt with it before."

Lorelei stood up again, angrily looking around once more. "...Ash, stop stealing my food!" she said, swatting his hands.

"Don't blame me, keep a closer eye on you"re herd, darlin'!" he said, with surprising clarity as his mouth ws full of fries.

---

Beecher Betelgeuse


B.B. giggled at Isaac's comments, fingers lightly touching his/her lips before saying, "Well, you'd better order me something, honey! I wouldn't want to be too rude..." continuing to giggle while quickly brushing against Isaac's hand. Leaning on his/her arm, B.B. twirled a lock of pink hair around his/her finger, saying, "And I deal with all of Beacon's financial contracts and paperwork, I've got my hands in everything involving money here..." B.B.'s hands drifted towards Isaac's plate, finger tracing around in some of the venison's juices while saying, "You might say I've a mind for business and a body for sin..." huskily, taking the finger back and slowly licking it before giving a sly smile and holding his/her nail in his/her teeth.

A waiter slowly, and nervously, walking over, looking far more uncomfortable than when it was just Isaac. "Eh, um, Mr...Ms...Teacher Betelgeuse, do you, um, want something...to eat?" they asked, fidgeting with their notepad.

"Hmmmm..."B.B. trailed off, fingers walking across the table, before dancing on Isaac's hand. "What do you say, honey? What drink are you gonna buy me?" B.B. asked, biting his/her bottom lip. Ma-a-a-aybe a little help wouldn't hurt, what I wouldn't give to wash clothes off those abs... B.B. thought, as his/her eyes seem to brighten. B.B.'s pink Aura blossomed from his/her body, though it was invisible to the naked eye. One of the petals from the pink flower of energy lightly touched Isaac's chest, and although he couldn't see the Aura, he was about to have a warm feeling coursing through his body. B.B. giggled, shoulders bouncing with each laugh.

---

*Morella Cinder*

* ~ *
* ~ * ~ *
* ~ *

Morella paused with eating her burger as Tarkus punched his forehead. She chewed slowly as he inspected his gauntlet, before he turned to her in faux nonchalance.

"Turns out THAT isn't how it comes off. Whodathunkit?"

"Yeah...funny that..." she said dryly, resuming her burger eating as he asked about the ceremony. She nodded, saying, "I found it quite good. I had similar notions myself, I've felt that I've led my own potential slide in my training. I'm looking forward to the training hall, I hear they've got the best facilities in Vale. And I'm sure their crafting workshops will have tools that can work with Obsidium properly, after I give my Slicers a test run. I had to go off location to work with the parts before we left Signal, it cost a fortune..." As she was finished talking, she went back to eating her burger. After a few bites, she paused, realizing she was possibly being rude. Finishing her bit and clearing her throat, she said, "And what did you think of the ceremony?" setting the burger down and looking to Tarkus. Her eyes drifted up to the red mark still on his forehead, lingering slightly before returning down without even an eyebrow twitch.

Daiki laughed as Grizel sputtered and flailed. He liked this faunus girl, she wasn't at all like the other faunus he had encountered back home. He knew deep down they weren't all terrorists or thieves, but it was hard not to be on guard against them when he had grown up equating them to danger.

He supposed it wasn't fair for her to have to keep a distance then just to put him at ease. She was the one making an effort so far, after all. "You don't have to keep your distance like I'm about to stab you if I get too close, you know." He offered with a smile.

Grizel, despite her happiness at the progress she'd made with her new friend, was momentarily taken-aback by Daiki's words. So, in this still-short time frame, he'd grown so accustomed to her presence that he was no longer worried of pick-pocketing or anything? She practically leaped at the chance to stand side-by-side, looking like she'd just won the lottery on the same day that she'd found a four-leaf clover hidden under a rabbit's foot. So quite happy.

"Well, I hope I'm not being too forward by referring to us as friends, right?" Grizel asked eagerly, "because this would be so great to talk about! And I can teach you more about us faunus and stuff! It'll be fun! Probably!"
Her rumbling stomach interrupted the upbeat chit-chat, and Grizel nervously laughed it off, "But, well, um, first... we should get that food."

There was a slight pause after Jack's little prod at Reya and Orion, and while both of them were flushed with red, Reya's reaction was a bit different. See, in such situations previously, Reya would always break out into uncontrollable laughter. Not to hurt the other person's feelings, by making them think she was making fun of them. Actually, it was the thought that anyone would ever be paired with her by her peers that was absolutely hilarious. It was just so silly, in her mind, to think about boys at school. Reya had to focus, and while she might occasionally steal a peek at possible prospects, she never acted on it. She was taught that it wasn't lady-like. Then again, she didn't exactly adhere to her childhood teachings.

And this is why, after the brief pause, Reya began quivering with laughter. "We...we j-just-hahahaha!" She stifled out, before forcing the sentence through her lips, "We just met! It would be weird if we just hooked up like that!" In actuality, it was probably a terrible choice of words, one that might haunt her if anyone else heard. It was kind of hard not to, considering how loud Reya's cackling was. At Signal, she had to go to the nurse for nearly falling unconscious from laughter. Maybe Jack would remember it, though possibly not. Hopefully, that even wouldn't repeat itself. "Oh...oh jeez. I'm sorry. Laughter...it's my weakness." Reya smiled, looking at Orion, "Don't take it the wrong way, though. You're a pretty cool guy." With that, she turned around and headed off to the Buffet, going slow as to let the other two keep pace.

Smiling Sayuri nods, "That sound like a good plan to me. I just wanna grab my stuff before everyone starts rushing over there before the curfew," pulling out her phone she downloads a map before heading over towards the storage where their stuff was being held gesturing for Kalimay to follow, "Just be sure to save us spots if you get there first!"

IC:

"Can do."

Alistair replied cheerfully, raising a hand in acknowledgement as KK and Sayuri took off towards the storage lockers. He maintained a slight grin until they rounded the corner, at which point it faded slightly, shrinking until it was more a look of thought than one of cheer. The crowd was still exiting, but it had thinned enough that he could see the person he needed to talk to across the auditorium. He began slowly picking his way through the throng of people, knowing it would be a minute or two until he could get anywhere near her, and a good few more until the crowd vacated enough for them to talk. That in mind, he moved at a quite leisurely pace.

It gave him more time to think. He hadn't really decided what to say to her proposition, nor was he really sure what he would do. The question was quite far outside his realm of expertise, nor was he adept at handling the intrigues of society's upper classs... But maybe that was the problem. Maybe he was looking at it the wrong way.

Several more minutes of pensive though elapsed before the auditorium was more or less empty, and he decided it was time to approach. He stopped a short distance away, hands in his coat pockets. Truly, the two were an odd pair, even in conversation; Arara displayed all the hallmarks of high class society, from the weapon she held, likely a family inheritance by the look of it, to the clothes she wore. Made by her family's company, of course, and the highest quality, by the look of them. In contrast, Alistair was slightly unkempt. He needed a hair cut, he had what looked like a small smudge of oil under one of his eyes, his coat clearly hadn't been in its prime for a long time, and though thy couldn't be seen very well, his clothes seemed similarly utilitarian, with slightly faded colors that indicated a long life of use.

After a pause, he spoke.

"Well, I've been thinking, Ms. Sakanade." The taller boy began, clearly picking his words carefully at first. The longer he spoke, however, he seemed a bit more confident in his speech, though the note of politeness never left his voice. "The first thing that I wondered, if truth be told, is why a member of the Sakanade family spent more than a few moments talking to a miner's son. Why anybody here has, really.

"I couldn't seem to find a reason. The nearest I could find was that I'd managed to piss off one of the richest people here. Which makes a degree of sense, at least initially. The cynical part of me agreed with what someone else said; That you were looking for a puppet."

A pause, though he spoke again soon enough that it was clear he was continuing his line of thought. "My existence hasn't lent me towards thinking the best of the wealthy. In my limited experience with them, they didn't care about you unless you brought something to the table. I've always trusted those in the middle classes more. Maybe it's because they were always kinder in their rejections, even if they refused to help."

"Which is why I realized that my line of thought wasn't really fair. I was looking for the string, for the fine print, rather than considering the offer for what it was. Though I highly doubt my opinion matters much, it wasn't fair to automatically lump you in with the people I've known."

Alistair stood a little straighter, smile inching back onto his face. "I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. It probably makes me an idiot, but I'd rather think you mean well than the opposite. Which is where I come to my counter proposal."

"If you want to be friends, great. We're friends. No fine print, no trade, it's as simple as that. If, after getting what you said you wanted, you find that you want to help, that's your perogative. I don't expect one outcome or another."

Smile blossoming into a slightly hesitant grin, he withdrew his hand from his pocket and held it out to shake. "So, Ms. Sakanade. Friends?"

They started moving along the pathways of the campus, slowly breaking away from the main body of students."Well I've spent the last few years around the crowded halls of Lantern, but I still prefer being around a lesser amount of people... With the crowds come headaches that I would just rather avoid," Addica said well dropping back to walk next to her rather than ahead. By the time he had finished his statement the two were completely separated from the rest of the students and well on their alternative path to the food court. Slowing his pace even more Addica began flipping through things on his phone, "You know if you truly want to avoid the crowds we are going to have to avoid the free food... I'm sure that I can find us some place else though if you'd like".

Tarkus scratched the back of his head slightly, someone off-put by how dryly Morella responded."She never was one to laugh much..." he thought as he ceased scratching, he didn't know what he was trying to accomplish with the joke, probably thought he could get the same reaction out of her twice. That or he just needed an excuse for why he punched himself in the forehead.

He listened to her speak of her thoughts on the ceremony, silently rubbing the red spot on his forehead with his unarmored hand. When she brought up the workshops here, his mind began to race with the possibilities, if they were good enough to improve Obsidium, they were good enough to drastically improve Cadeyrn's capabilites. When Morella paused for a moment as she was eating, she asked him in turn what he thought of the ceremony. Pondering for a moment, Tarkus held his chin in his palm as he thought for a moment, he knew what he thought, he just didn't know exactly how to articulate it.

"I guess it was good, started rocky but I gotta give Mr. Tower one thing, I don't think I'd have even managed a speech like that. He did make some good points, won't get anywhere around here being passive...this place is on a whole other playing field compared to Signal." He yawned lightly as he leaned back a bit, stretching his arms out a bit before returning to his position. "The first step to getting through that door is making sure you can level the whole building around it. And if I can pull off what I have in mind with Cadeyrn, no door is ever gonna be a problem. Not even a metaphorical one." He glanced over his shoulder, peeking at Cadeyrn, still magnetized to his harness. Even now he was still proud of the thing.

He recalled what he'd been working on for a bit on the ship, rummaging in his pack he pulled out the still incomplete music box, his other hand dove in once again to retrieve some of the parts for it, sealed inside of a sealed bag. Tarkus placed the box into the palm of Zoll and began placing and meshing the pieces together. Within a few minutes of work, the box was done. He smiled just a bit before placing the small wooden box back into his pack in the sealed bag, he turned once more to face Morella, and asked:

"You said you made some improvements to the Slicers right? What exactly did you improve, I thought they were just about as good as they could get, but if you managed to push 'em even farther...Lemme guess, you improved the boosters?"

Daiki laughed and entered the Beacon Buffet with Grizel. "Mm, food." He almost purred as all the different aroma of different dishes hit his nose. Curious, he turned to Grizel and asked, "I don't suppose you have the sense of smell as good as a wolf, do you? Could you identify every dish her? Just curious."

"Hmph! Just because I'm a cute little wolf, suddenly I'm just like one?" Grizel jokingly huffed, turning her face away with folded arms. Her gaze returned to the table with a thoughtful expression, continuing, "...though I might be able to recognise most of this stuff... I've been trying to get better at cooking, so I've seen a few recipes."

The faunus obtained a plate and began piling as much random food as possible onto it, "Oh, and um, no, my smell's nothing special, I'm afraid~ Otherwise, I might have consumed the entire table by now."

And so, with a precariously-balanced plate towering with a random mish-mash of edibles, Grizel slowly made her way towards a table. She'd just eat all this up real quick and get to a shower immediately afterwards. And there was that rag to wash out too. And then there was all of tomorrow to look forward to, too!

Orion Armstrong

---

The conversation took it's strangest turn yet when Reya began her laughing fit. Orion wasn't sure if he should be insulted by the display, but the human girl seemed to be doing her level best to assure him that she was not trying to offend him. Admittedly, the fact that the woman was laughing so heavily did scratch a smidgen of the Faunus' pride, both as a person and as a man. He had never considered himself a casa-nova, to be sure; but he had liked to imagine himself as a few notches above 'laughable'.

"I'll keep that in mind." His words were measured, he didn't want to let the hurt pride shine through: mostly because it was a damn foolish pride at that.He contemplated leaving the buffet hall to bury his head in the dirt or in a sketch pad, but that would give hints towards his emotional dissonance. He eventually followed behind Reya, although his focus was less on her and more on walking by the stranger, Jack. She had already gotten an introduction from Orion, and neglected to say a word to follow.

---

Isaac Markeel

---

Isaac watched with a certain revulsion as the confidence of the creature before him became ever clearer. She…he…it clearly spoke about its title, and managed to make an innuendo about that, only then to follow up by playing with Isaac’s damn food. It took a great deal of self-control to avoid cutting the finger off; but Isaac managed to maintain a sense of decorum…just.

BB asked Isaac to choose a drink for it, and Isaac would have responded by giving the blunt and boring answer of ‘water’, yet an odd sense of emotion was welling up in his chest: An excitement that sought to further pursue conversation with the enigmatic creature before him.

“A pot of tea then; since I’m having to share.” Isaac waved the waiter off after giving the order: not willing to watch as it gawked or admired or feared the creature Isaac was making light conversation with. “So if you control the academy’s finances, that would make you a person of some importance, it seems. An important person such as you must be privy to important information: would that be a fair guess?” Isaac smiled briefly as he put down his glass of water and sliced a bit of the Venison steak, before placing it into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. He was hoping to manipulate even this strange situation to his advantage: and the strange creature could very easily be the key that provided him answers to a great many questions stuck in his mind: The revolt of the last academic year being paramount amongst them.