Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

All of a sudden Beryl was right in front of Luke. Her eyes were so dark of a blue that they were almost black and they shone with interest as they fixed themselves on the collection of fairs that stood proud in their defiance of the laws of physics. Her mind whirled through all the possible reason for such an anomaly. Anything from some odd side effect of his aura or semblance to some piece of faunus ancestry that made that bit of hair stiff enough to stand on it's own.

Or hair gel, hair gel would do the trick as well.

For a second her hand started to move towards the odd bit of hair. Fortunately for Luke, she realized what she was doing and stopped herself. Making a small coughing noise as she backed away.

"That's some very interesting hair you have there."

Gray eyes wide with surprise and back bent at a harsh, near-stumbling angle, the short young man looked for all in the world to be a deer in the headlights under her inquisitive gaze.

"Uh, yeah... I suppose I do." he replied, as she backed off and he finally found room to right himself, inwardly glad his own newfound degree of balance hadn't failed him when one would be almost certain it would, due to the lack of traction involved in wearing socks as opposed to shoes or even bare soles.

In truth, he was certain he'd seen far wackier than his own. Hell, he wasn't even the only person here with an ahoge.

What made his so egregious?

"It's hereditary." he explained, running one hand through his hair idly, almost as if checking if everything was still in order. "My Mom has one. My sisters have one. The only person not to is my father. What's caught Miss Mindaro's eye is that, apparently, it moves on its own sometimes." he said, even as the flash of heat that'd spread across his face faded back to normal operating temperature.

"I've never noticed it before now, but she seems adamant on that being the case."

He deigned not to mention his two-hour stakeout one summer.

It was a long time ago now, anyway. The details were fuzzy.

Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

"Well that certainly sounds interesting. I'll be sure to tell you if I ever catch it doing that."

Beryl had moved over to her bed while Luke talked and was now sitting cross legged on it. She pulled out her scroll and was idly flicking her way through her vast library of songs. All of a sudden she froze before smacking a hand to her forehead.

"Where are my manners. Please, have a seat....somewhere. Oh, there is a chair."

Apparently she had not had much of a chance to check out the room before falling asleep.

"Ah, thank you." he replied, pulling up the seat and flopping down into it, bag finding itself placed underneath even as one arm rested against the back. He crossed his legs, suppressing a restless compulsion to rock back and forth in his seat, and lounged for what must have been the first time since classes had begun.

Looking over to the girl as she returned to idly toying with her scroll, he examined her once more, this time under a less reactionary lens. Tall, about the same height as the teammate he was waiting on. Deep blue eyes that bordered on black. Glossy hair, whose sheen could be found on what was easily the most oustanding part of her.

The tail. Easily strong enough to act as a fifth limb, it extended out from assumedly the base of her spine, every bit as trained and coordinated as the rest of her.

Hm.

Strong, limb-like tail, casual balance and agility, natural inquisitiveness...

He wasn't sure if that sounded more like a cat or a monkey, but either seemed plausible. Neither would surprise him, if he'd felt the need to ask.

However, when he opened his mouth to speak, he elected to instead switch gears entirely.

"So, what're your first impressions of all this? Beacon and Vale, I mean."

With classes finally having ended, Oswald decided that the time to retrieve Sapphire's daggers was nigh. Of course, he'd have to prepare for the occasion, and it took a few minutes while he figured out what to wear. Should he focus on mobility? If he was going to be searching, that was likely his best bet. Besides, if any Grimm appeared, he could always just run.

Or punch them to death. It had been a while since his last unarmed kill. Even then, he'd had backup and his gauntlets though. A Beowulf would be easily within the realm of possibility. An Ursa would be tougher, but careful Aura use would make it rather simple. The question there became rationing. With his supplies, he could easily take on a single Ursa, but then he might be left with too little to continue fighting if more came.

Mobility it was. Despite his relatively short frame and slow, unwieldy fighting style, without the hundred or so pounds of equipment he wore to combat, Oswald could move pretty damn fast. He wasn't particularly agile or lithe, but in terms of raw speed and endurance, he was one hell of a contender.

Grabbing a gray t-shirt and a pair of running shorts, Oswald quickly changed in the bathroom before making his way to the docks. That was where Sapphire's weapons had fallen over, and he could plan his movements from there.

Robert Fallson - Lost... Again.

"This is my second week here! How is it that I still can't figure out where everything is?!" Robert shouted. As the clueless redhead rounded yet another corner, he dropped to his knees in defeat. "I'm back where I started!" he yelled, hands raised above his head as if he was grasping at something above and head thrown back as he stared into the light fixture above. "Yeeaurgh!" Robert then crashed forward to lie on the cold, hard tiling and wallow in self-pity. Everything that was in his backpack, which he had forgotten to zip up at the end of his last class, soon slid out and scattered itself around him. "Blargh." The young boy realized this was getting him nowhere and rested on his knees so he could pick up his stuff. Once the floors were cleared of all but one of his belongings, he looked at the cover of the last remaining book. "Of Mice-Faunas and Men," he repeated the title. "Strange name for a book. I wish Professor Albion would have told us a little more about it before assigning it to us." Dropping it in and zipping up the bag, Robert got back to his feet. "Okay, I'm sure I can find my way this time. Third time's the charm right?" As he walked down the halls, he muttered to himself, "I wonder how far the drop is from this floor."

A FEW MINUTES LATER

"This was a bad idea. This was such a bad idea," Robert said as he hung on to the window for dear life. Having seen the familiar sight of the docks just outside, he had decided that instead of trying to find the staircase down he would try to jump out the window and find his way from there. It was once he was clutching at the ledge of the window that he realized how bad of an idea this was. "Oh no. I'm slipping. I'm slipping. I'm slipping! Gaaah!" Robert plummeted towards the Earth as soon as he lost his grip. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, and for some reason a certain song began to play in his head. His eyes sealed shut as he came closer and closer to the ground beneath him. This was how he was going to die. A group of students would find his broken and bleeding body lying next to Beacon's Language Hall and everyone would know that he died falling out the frickin' window. Snap! "Ahh! My back! I think I- Wait a minute." Looking beneath him, Robert found he had landed on a soft bush. The sound he just heard were branches, not his bones. "I'm alive. I'm alive! Ahahahaha!" He climbed out of the brush and dusted himself off of dirt, bugs, and whatever else that had been residing in his landing spot. "Man, that window must have been like... 100 feet up in the air," Robert said, staring at the second story window he had fallen from... Yes you read that right, the second story. The melodramatic boy turned back towards the docks and began walking. "Hope no one saw that."

Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

Beryl looked up at Luke when he spoke. For a couple seconds she sat there, a finger tapping against her chin and a thoughtful look on her face.

"Well this is not exactly my first time in Vale. I've traveled here a few times before. There was that one charity drive a couple years back and I came to Vale with one of the priests once. Never actually been to Beacon though, so that's new. It's interesting being around so many other people my age. Back at the church in Mistral everyone was either older or younger than me. Kind of hard to connect the same way with somebody ten years older than you, ya know?"

Hanging her headphones around her neck Beryl did a sort of wriggle-hop to the end of the bed closest to Luke. The way she was staring at him made it obvious that he had her full attention.

"How old are you, by the way? Can't be too far off from me."

The church, huh?

Maybe she was orphan taken in? Being raised by priests and nuns, that would easily explain her politeness and overall demeanor. To be surrounded by paragons of morality at such a young age was bound to have that effect. Case in point, himself. The son of a police officer and a huntress was bound to produce a straight-laced young man, filled to the brim with ideals, morals, and a strong sense of personal justice.

He had no doubt the same could be said for her, even as her lithe, athletic form shimmied over to the side of the bed nearest to him in an almost mesmerizing sight. The kind one's mind repeated a few more times upon reflection, catching every moment in fine detail. The way the core tensed and coiled, springlike in preparation. The hips, the body's center of gravity, whipping over to the side in an understated explosion of motion, forcing the body to follow. Even the tail, swaying out in the other direction as counterbalance upon landing.

A fascinating movement detailing underrated poise and control. The moralistic, idealistic, and respectable young man, the very picture of an upstanding person, couldn't help himself from taking it all in.

"Me? Eighteen." he replied casually, meeting her eyes once more. "And I can get where you're coming from, a bit. Up until summer vacation last year, I was on something of a..."

How to phrase it?

"Self-imposed exilement from anything resembling a social life. And on top of it, that was with everyday society, not anything like Signal or Beacon or whatever hunter scouting programs there are. I was simply a normal high schooler, toiling away in asceticism."

Which is an altogether different story.

"So, I'm getting used to things too."

Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

"Hmmmmm." Came the interested reply as the otter faunus leaned forward slightly to rest her elbows on her knees and cup her head with her hands. "Well that certainly sounds like it has an interesting story attached to it. I'm seventeen which puts us closer in age than pretty much anybody else I know."

Something had been bugging her ever since she learned she had been coming to Beacon. It was a bit silly when she thought about it, the chances of a big school like this one not having what she was looking for were slim to the point of hilarity. But still, her faunus blood would not just let it drop.

"Say, do you have any idea if this place has a pool or anything of the sort. I think I'm going to go crazy if I don'thave anywhere to swim and I'm not looking forward to taking a dip in the bay."

The last bit was accompanied but a slightly annoyed little huff.

S W I M S U I T

And just like that, the "cat faunus" theory went straight out of the window, never to return. Everyone knew cats (with the interesting exception of tigers, to his knowledge) had a massive disdain for the water in anything more than drinking form. Did monkeys swim? No, they were almost entirely arboreal. Sure, the likely could, but did they have a compulsion, a physical need?

Absolutely not.

What was this cute young woman, one year his junior, then? What bloodline could create a being such as her? Neither Cat or Monkey were applicable by his process of elimination, so what was left in the running?

"Oh, a pool?" he replied, gaining a helpful lightness to his voice. "There's an Olympic-sized one at the Rec Center. It's usually open around ten or eleven on the weekdays, so you should be good to go."

A place where he found himself not going as much as he'd have expected himself to. Granted, it had really only been three, four days, but already things felt like an eternity...

Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

Beryl lit up at that, her dark blue eyes somehow managing to grow giant sparkles. Her mouth opened slightly and what probably would have been best described as an "eeeeeeeeeeee" if it had managed to escape emanated from somewhere within her lithe frame. The thought of a pool that big was apparently pure heaven only to be surpassed by a large river or lake.

Suddenly her face shifted through a variety of emotions ranging from dismay to thoughtfulness to quite hope that was accompanied by another look at Luke.

"Um," She said with a slightly embarrassed look now on her face. "Would you mind showing me the way there some time? I seem to have lost the brochure map."

Assuming there ever was one. Seriously, do they just make the new students wander around and hope they learn the layout that way?

"I know it's a bit much to ask to somebody I just met...but you seem like a nice guy and I still don't really know anybody here."

Kuhaku Shiro - Airship Docks

Dryly swallowing, a nervous bead of sweat rolled down the side of Shiro's face as he stared over the precipice of the docks. He wasn't worried about the lake below, he adored playing in bodies of water. While he wasn't an olympic athlete, he was still fully confident in his swimming abilities. That wasn't the problem. Was it his confidence in his climbing abilities? Well, his body was hardy and strong, hell it had to be. Considering the abuse he puts it through both intentionally from training or unintentionally due to his clumsy nature he wouldn't have made it this far at Beacon if he couldn't take some physical strain. If he couldn't take a hit, he wouldn't have any ground to stand on for the gauntlet of physical burden morning sparring classes and the cruel torture at the hands of Professor Iderson and Ms. Vanhomrigh in practice class. He wasn't about to scale a mountain for funsies bare-handed with no tools. Even though he probably would have to do that because he hadn't thought that far ahead.

No. The problem was that his mind was its own worst enemy. The problem, was Shiro developing a new fear of extreme heights. Or, at least what he perceived to be 'extreme'. He was experiencing a sickly feeling of vertigo the longer the stared over the edge, a fretful look etched onto his facial features. He started to come up with excuses not to dive over the edge. Shoot, he forgot his towel. He didn't mind getting wet, but it was still an uncomfortable feeling sometimes. What if he didn't make it back in time to complete the repairs on his weapon, he could cause irreparable damage to Kladenets if he let it cook for too long. Truthly, that was impossible because he knew the metal could withstand a dip into an active volcano. He was feeling achy too. Practice class had each student pair up for what was called 'Basic Aura Control' and beat on each other for the remainder of the class. How long ago had he eaten? With sore body and full belly, the dunk into the lake below could end up nasty. There was also the fact of how in the hell he was going to make it back up to the docks. His mind rolled through excuse after excuse, unending.

There he stood, nothing but his trousers and arm wrappings. Goggles around his neck, small flashlight in his hand. He was in no way, shape, or form prepared for what he was about to do. His body felt like it was a statue, made of stone and ten times as heavy. White ears drooping, tail lazily sweeping at his ankles, was he really about to do this? Shiro didn't even really like Sapphire. He felt she thought the same. What did he owe her? What had she done for him? Sighing, he shook his head sadly. He really didn't want to do this.

"But, I still have to."
Frowning, he deeply inhaled and puffed out his chest.
"It was my fault she lost them."
Forcefully exhaling, he smacked his palms against the cheeks of his face.
"How would I feel in her place? If the roles were reversed and she caused me to lose Kladenets and Perun..."
Hopping in place to get the blood pumping and flowing, he started to hype himself up.
"I'd be pretty upset and hurt."
Stretching and popping a few joints, he limbered up.
"Come on, Kuhaku! Courage! Bravery! What's a 100-foot drop anyways?! What, like it'll kill you?!"
He froze.
"Y-yeah, probably. Especially if I land badly..."
Angry with himself for this whole situation, he frantically ruffled his white head of hair and let out an exasperated growl.

"GAAAH! DAMN IT! I DON'T WANNA!"

He dropped to his knees and punched at the ground repeatedly. Annoyed, he really didn't like the way things were looking. No mistake about it, he intended on jumping very soon. A few more minutes, and he'll just 'YOLO' and do it. It could even be fun. At the very least, it'll make for an exciting story to bring back.

Hgrphbl--

This was too much!

W-Was she doing this on purpose?! Did the basketball ace whom he'd somehow become best friends with as a senior, also one year his junior, somehow squirm her way into Beacon under the guise of a replacement transfer student?! Had she replaced Basketball and Running for a hardcore statdump into Swimming?! Where'd she even find the Soul Vessel?!

No, that's not it. On purpose or not, she isn't this innocent, be it genuinely or just as a facade.

No, that girl is in-your-face-no-shame-at-all perverted.

This...

This was different. This degree of cuteness was natural, a different beast than that of a certain athlete. Not that she wasn't cute, either, but her cuteness was just of a different breed.

Sort of.

His head stopped swirling out of control, and he forced himself back on topic with an extraordinary effort.

"Sure, I'd be glad to help once Miss Mindaro's finished with me."

Surely her study couldn't take that long, could it?

He would, at some point during those four years he spent at the school, learn to smack himself one should he ever think or say that again. But as a wide-eyed, naive freshman, he simply did not know better.

Napoli Fiordilatte (Ground Pounding Action at the Airship Docks)

"I must say, never seen someone take nature vs nurture so literally. Did Mother Nature really piss you off that much?" A voice quipped behind Shiro's head. "That said, I suppose Mother Nature is exceptionally thick skulled, you might actually have to pound harder to get her attention. Some might even say she's hard as rock."

Now that he had Shiro's attention, Napoli raised a single hand in greeting, and as always, accompanied it with a massive grin. The huntsman in training, fresh out of his first day of classes at Beacon, had felt the need to escape. The boss kept getting on his case about going to a party, Beryl was still asleep last he saw her, and well... well, no one else deserved mention. They should be Gratious he even thought of them for a split second.

That was terrible. Even her name is useless for puns. What else can I say?

Mind the row?

What sense does that make.

Anyway, back to the stuff that mattered.

Despite these rapid fire thoughts, Napoli's greeting for Shiro did not miss a beat or experience any delays. Shiro may have been a Tiger, but the cat did not have his tongue.

See, even Shiro's name works better for jokes.

Sorry.

Focus Napoli.

As his raised hand came down and extended into an offered handshake, Napoli took the opportunity for a proper introduction this time, "Greetings Signor, name's Napoli Fiordilatte, we've bumped into each other a few times but we never quite got the opportunity for a proper introduction. You're Shiro," There was a brief pause as Napoli racked his brain for a last name, before being forced to forfeit, "Sorry, I don't think I ever had the chance to learn your last name. Regardless, I'm pleased to meet you. mind if I ask what brings you out here?"

Kuhaku Shiro - Airship docks

After a few bashes against the ground, Shiro's knuckles started to smart and throb with a dull pain. Figuring he should stop while he was still ahead, he stopped his assault and groaned as he shook his hands out to rid them of their aches. He'd be needing his hand in peak condition. He'd be using them later, after all. At that time, a semi-familiar voice chirped behind him and his ears perked. Head and ears swiveling to look behind him, he vaguely remembered the face attached to said voice. Blinking, it took him a moment to process the Hunter's words. He didn't get the puns and jokes at first, but it'll hit him later. When the gentleman grinned, the infectiousness caused Shiro to grin also. Why? He didn't quite know. Shiro just sat there on the ground as the young man continued to speak. Some of his lingo Shiro couldn't decipher, deepening his confusion and creating a brief awkward silence. The awkwardness of the moment grew even more when Shiro realized that the guy knew his name, yet he didn't have the decency to remember his. Something having to do with pools and lattes? He couldn't remember.

"Uhh...Huh?"
He shook his head, attempting to rattle his brains in order to break free from his confusion.
"Oh, hi. Yeah, you're that guy that won against Sapphire by technical default."
As soon as the words were uttered, his memory was jump started.
Expression brightening, "Oh! Hi! That's right, I ran into you once. I think. Uh, the last name's Kuhaku. Pleased to meet you too, Napolo!"
When he was questioned as to his purpose for being there, Shiro distractedly looked back over to the edge of the docks and back at up at the gentleman with the strange name. He wasn't sure if he should keep what he was doing on the down low, so without giving it much more thought he half-lied.
"Ah...I...I was going to practice my swan dive. Th-then some laps in the lake below. Finishing off with some rock climbing."
He leaned out slightly, peering closer to the edge before resituating himself.
"Y-yeah...That's it. Just some...hardcore training! Heh.." He turned to flash the 'guy' a half-baked grin with a silly thumbs-up gesture. Only an complete idiot would buy that sorry-ass white lie.

Gren Orchid

After the rigorous event known as classes, Gren was finally free to spend his afternoon however he wanted. And he wanted to take his good friend Grane out into the town, preferably with his fellow students. Gren, for once, actually wore something different than his usual armored get up. For this special occasion he was going to try to dress "Casually". Of course an issue for someone like Gren was that typical fashion doesn't take into account seven foot tall orc men, even for faunas. Fortunately, Gren was a man of many skills, and one of those skills involved using a sewing machine. Thus Gren dressed himself using clothing he made himself: A white tiger striped t-shirt (The pattern which he obtained from both the internet and looking at Shiro's hair in his sleep), blue jeans the same hue and color as Abel's eyes (Which Gren also got in his sleep). For footwear Gren was debating between taking his black leather boots, or more casual converses. He liked boots, but they were very nice boots and he didn't want to scuff them up if he got into a scuffle. However his converses were well-worn but also comfortable, perfect for an urban environment. Gren then also realized he only had three pairs of shoots: His leather boots, his converses, and his sabatons. "Hmm... I may need to do some more shopping."

Ultimately Gren chose the boots. He also picked out a hat, a grassy green cabbie hat, just for himself. It had his emblem stitched onto the cap itself which Gren found insanely awesome. But Gren wasn't properly dressed unless he had the God Eater strapped on his back; the prefect accessory to any ensemble he figured. As Gren was about to leave he looked at his desk and noticed his rebreathing. "Ah. That's right." Shiro was still going to try to get Sapphire's daggers. By this point they've likely fell into the ocean already, and unfortunately Shiro is a Tiger Faunas, not a great Weiss shark. While a prototype, it'll certainly be useful to Shiro, so Gren grabbed it and left.

Eventually Gren arrived to the air docks. There was still some time before the others would rally here, and fortunately for the orc he saw Shiro not too far away, talking to Napoli. "Ah. Two nevermores with one bullet." Gren has been meaning to talk to Napoli about Sapphire's... Performance. A lot of things have happened to distract him however. Gren walked over to the two, his steps audible even from so far away. "Shiro! Fiordilatte! Glad I found you. I was thinking I was going to need to send a search party first."

As Gren walked over to the two he took out the rebreather and handed it to Shiro. "Shiro, take this. It'll help you breath in the water. If it works, you ought to have about an hour before you run out of air, so make every minute count. Unfortunately I can't help you because I need to take my friend Grane out... But when you're done, give me a call and I'll make sure you can catch up to us." Looking over to Napoli Gren bowed his head deeply. "Sorry about that, I forgot my manners. I'm Gren Orchid, part of Team SWSG. Sapphire Rode is my team leader and... Well I saw your battle. I cannot speak on her behalf, but as a member of her team allow me to say that I apologize for her attitude and let me assure you, it's... Something we're trying to deal with. I know Sapphire can be very standoffish, and while she certainly has her reasons, a certain amount of social grace is needed for people in our line of work, don't you agree?" As Gren spoke to Napoli, he also took out his business card and offered it to the new acquaintance.

"I'm afraid I cannot stay for long, as I'm hosting an outing on behalf of a comrade of mines. However if you find some time, feel free to contact me and I'll do my best to include you, and anyone else you bring." Gren gave a polite smile to Napoli, which would normally clash against Gren's own brutish appearance, his fortunately his change in attire at least made him look civilized. Or at least less like a monstrous thug and more like a really big guy.

Gratia Mindaro -VGNB Dorms

"Schwarz, Harken."

Gratia Mindaro breezed into the room, dressed in only her signature dusky turtleneck jumper and a pair of brown jeans. She had discarded her Haven uniform since the end of class, and it was clear from the light amount of moisture upon her flowing, brown-black hair that she had also taken a quick shower before arriving for the experiments. If she had been at all surprised by the proximity of her newest teammate and her subject, nothing showed upon her face. In fact, the solemn girl's onyx eyes were already at work, her impassive yet intense gaze already aimed at Luke Schwarz' ahoge in search of a reaction.

"You are early," she noted, tone utterly flat as she made her rapid approach. "Good."

The Mistralese huntress pulled up her own chair, dropping down onto the wooden seat with little fanfare, eyes still yet to leave the ahoge. A notepad and pen appeared in her hands, ready to take down any observations that would be made in the process of their experiment. Despite her aloof, almost-bored expression, it was obvious that she was intent on obtaining answers.

"Physical attraction provides no stimulus," she immediately stated, writing something down.

He visibly deflated, ahoge following suit and drooping in response almost immediately.

"You've been staking me out, haven't you?" he asked, entirely forgetting to deny any physical attraction to Miss Harken. Not that it mattered, anyhow... Attractive was attractive. It was one thing to adhere to politeness regarding it, but he wasn't denying anything.

At least, not to himself.

Seriously though, there was no way she'd walked in and immediately known that, right? No way, such things were impossible. She must have had some method of divining information like that, too, because from what he knew of Mindaro, little though it was, she was not one to make assumptions.

Shoulders and hair rising from their dispirited slump, he folded his arms adamantly, meeting her icy onyx gaze with his own in an already-familiar confrontation of two very different psyches.

"Miss Mindaro, I have to ask. Is this really worth going through all this trouble?"

He already knew the answer he would get, but he wanted to ask in any case.

Gratia Mindaro - VGNB Dorms

"Yes."

She jotted something down onto her notepad, the scratching of her pen against the paper the only other noise that originated from the impassive and standoffish girl. Gravity had clearly taken effect once again during that moment when her words struck at Schwarz; his visible deflation had been accompanied by the mystery of his seemingly-autonomous hair. Whether or not the observation was reproducible was what she was intent on finding out through the course of their experiment together.

"How is it that you keep your hair straight?" asked the Mindaro, continuing to show nothing in her expression.

A sigh escaped, not from his mouth, but from his nostrils, in a slow, heavy exhalation. He knew that was coming. Gratia Mindaro was nothing but ruthless in her pursuit of the answer. Even Math had shown that side of her. From nobody else could he expect the required pages needed to study the entire section of the course he had a problem with if he asked them about it.

In a way, it resembled her brutal tenacity and aggression in combat.

One thing remained clear.

There would be no talking his way out of it.

"It just grows this way." he replied, succinct and clear in his delivery. "The only thing I put in my hair is shampoo when I wash it."