Gratia Mindaro - VGNB Dorms

"It wouldn't have bEeN fUN if you hadN't been wILlING."

For an instant, the pressure in the room felt as if it had increased, but the sudden shift in their environment disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Gratia returned her eyes to her notebook, pen scratching down further observations that had been noted during that intense minute. Intense fear, embarrassment and surprise were a range of emotions that could influence the movement of Luke Schwarz' hair, but were they the only forms of stimulus? All of which she had observed were related to a sense of discomfort or negativity. Could that have been the deciding factor behind its movement, with only the emotional states as correlating variables?

She needed to inquire further.

"What brings about positive emotions in you?" asked the solemn Mistralese girl.

Would emotions of happiness, joy and the like too engage Schwarz' ahoge?

His breath hitched in surprise and he found his eyes sharp once more, instincts screaming at him with the sudden change in pressure as her voice almost seemed to... warp. Taking on an edge he'd never actually heard before, an edge that felt predatory, dangerous.

Crazy.

His brows knit together.

Wait.

His body tensed under the pressure. This wasn't the first time he'd heard it. Just the first it had ever been directed at him, it had ever been this clear.

That's right--

Her fight with Cian. The same change happened.

There was a common thread here, a trend obvious enough that even he, who hardly knew how to read between the lines when it counted, could pick it out with ease. In contrast with her typical personality, Gratia Mindaro had only begun to bare her fangs in one specific context.

Fighting. Combat. Be it sparring or otherwise, Gratia Mindaro was the antithesis of the nigh-pacifistic, "talk-first-and-throw-punches-later" boy under her study. The signs were pointing towards that conclusion. Underneath that veneer of icy, solemn bluntness lied something ferocious, something vicious. Something he had only seen hints of, in moments so brief you'd almost believe them merely imagination.

Berserker.

And as quickly as it had came, that intimidating, oppressive aura vanished, and the room became normal once again. As if she had never changed, Mindaro was right back to work, pen scrawling across paper as her impassive onyx eyes remained glued to her notes thus far.

"Positive emotions..."

He frowned contemplatively, folding his arms and legs as he once again looked upwards to the ceiling, this time in thought.

"Well, helping people is definitely one of them. I try to help out with things if I can." he stated, head coming back down in a nod. "It's redundant to say, but I also do enjoy having fun: messing around with friends, playing games, going for a ride on my bike every once in a while, meeting pretty girls, enjoying a good meal, giving my little sisters a hard time, even just lighthearted conversation."

He looked to her again, searching for whatever reaction would come.

"I think I'm like most people: I like doing things that I want to do."

Robert Fallson - Airship Docks

Besides just a casual "hello" toward Oswald when he approached the slowly growing group, Robert mostly stood in silent confusion. At first he believed that maybe Oswald was helping Sapphire find her misplaced weapons until Shiro felt the sudden urge to start his "workout" now instead of later and Oswald made a comment about saying the wrong thing. Something other than a tiger-faunas' extreme training session was going on here, he could at least see that. It was once Gren talked to him that Robert finally began to see the big picture. Shiro had done something to make him feel responsible for his team leader's weapons go missing and was now on a quest to solve that problem. The workout stuff that Shiro had mentioned to Napoli was just made up for some reason, probably because he didn't want help. Was Robert naive? Oh hell yeah. But was he an idiot? Despite what many might think, the answer would be no. Shooting Gren a thumbs-up, Robert smiled and said, "I promise we'll bring him back, not only safe and sound, but with a clear conscious too. I mean really, what's the worse that could happen?"

Robert then began rapidly stripping out of his clothes until he was down to just his pants, underwear, and weapons. As he was getting everything into a semi-neat pile, another voice seemed to appear from nowhere. "Nothing much. Just going for a nice swim is all," Robert responded to the voice. Looking up, he searched the area for where it came from. There was only one person in sight, he couldn't tell who it was since he had already taken his glasses off, but they seemed to be too far away to be the source. The voice sounded as if it was close enough to have been spoken inside his own head. It was a bit creepy actually. Ah well," he said as he shrugged before looking back at the cliff side. "CANNONBAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!" Robert shouted as he jumped off, pulled his legs against his chest, and crossed his arms.

@Abillioncats

Krysthane yawned and looked at her beeping scroll, she just wanted to nap for a few minutes before getting ready for the night on the town. Glancing at it she smacked herself lightly on the forehead. SHE'D TOTALLY FORGOTTEN! She jumped out of her bed and began racing towards the gym. Her scroll beeped and again and she looked at it slightly irritated while running and attempting not to smash into everything. Luckily the message was quickly so Krysthane quickly stowed the scroll away and found herself outside of the gym. She took a deep breath or two, smoothed down her somewhat wild yellow hair, and walked in calmly.

"Ah Emerald, good to see you're already prepared. I guess since we're both ready we can start." Krysthane said confidently as she took a ready stance, clearly willing to let Emerald make the first move. Krysthane stood with her left leg slightly forward, her right arm loosly held by her right leg and her left arm crooked just in front of her stomach. Her plan was the same as last fight, use only kicks for the first part until her opponent was adjusted, then hit em with a sucker punch. If that didn't work... well she would figure out something, this was just for fun after all.

Kuhaku Shiro - An unnamed lake, just outside of Beacon

What was he even worried about in the first place? Normally, Shiro had zero fear of heights. Hell, his first day at Beacon he was launched into a forest filled with Grimm and he handled it no problem. He figured something must've been off, maybe his medication altered his personality more deeply than he thought. The loud roar of the winds whipping him and that dreadful sinking feeling wasn't the most delightful thing in the world, but why was he scared? All these wonders and more were erased from his mind the moment his body dipped into the waters. Though it wasn't cold, the temperature was low enough to immediately send chills up his spine and made him almost want to gasp. That would've been bad of course, swallowing a large volume of water into his lungs. His mission would've ended right then and there, with emergency services been sent out to retrieve him. Thankfully, he had enough willpower to resist the urge and shook it off. Breaching the surface of the lake's waters, it was then that he resumed his normal breathing. Turning his head head left and right, Shiro located the breathing gear Gren gave him and his flashlight. Sliding his goggles over his eyes, he pressed the mask against his face and cinched down the straps to alleviate the bad fitting. Shaking his head to make sure that everything was good to go, a sixth sense alerted him to an incoming presence.

Turning back around and looking up from where he had jumped off from, his glowing blue eyes widened as he saw other bodies jumping down after him. They didn't intend on stopping him, did they? Did they think he jumped over to harm himself? Surely, they couldn't be some reactionary rescue diver team. Frowning, Shiro clicked on his flashlight to check if it worked. Thankfully, it did. Not wanting to be snatched up in some other bull, Shiro got right to work. Lunging down into the lake's waters, Shiro got to his search. He figured that since Sapphire's weapons were metallic, the flashlight's beams could possibly gleam and reflect off of it to help him find it faster. His plan was to swim around the lake's perimeter and work his way in at a sort of spiral. Once at the lake's center, the next step was to scale back up to Beacon and see if they landed in some rocky crevice. Looking over his shoulder, he watched anyone tailing him before powering through the lake. His little light flitting to and fro as he scanned, he left behind a trail of bubbles as he swam.

Abel Fulgurate - Dorm

Once Abel's surprise at Shiro's unexpected entry and removal of clothes had worn off, he maintained a level of confusion about the same as Sapphire. All he could offer in response to her question was a bemused shrug. The thought flashed through his mind: without his usual armor on, shrugging proved to be a much more enjoyable feat. He made the resolve, then and there, to try and do it more often when unencumbered. “Don't know. But I doubt he would. Only two places to swim on campus, Port's probably got another Megaladeus in one and the other's a sheer drop off the airdocks.”

The wheels in the guardian's head began to turn. Where and why exactly would a cat faunus go swimming? On the edge of his mind, the semblance of an idea took place, but try as he might he could not recall the details. “Must have lost something before traveling recently,” he decided at last. “Don't know what though.” A dubious glance shot Sapphire's way. “You goin' to Gren's party thing? Also, I had no idea you were in here. Um...” On the off chance she hadn't noticed, he elected to not mention that he'd released a quiet flatus about a chapter back in his book. Hey, he'd thought he was alone. “Your power, I guess.”

Gratia Mindaro - VGNB Dorms

The ballpoint pen clicked shut with a resounding sense of finality. It paused against the surface of her notebook, almost frozen in the moment. Gratia looked back up, her onyx eyes once again staring at Luke Schwarz' face. She was watching him, studying the twitching of his muscles, her impassive gaze resting upon him for several long seconds.

"That will be the end of this phase of the experiment then," she said, voice still as flat and emotionless as it had been before.

Bringing about positive emotions in other people was far more difficult than its antithesis, and Gratia Mindaro could not care less for expending such effort on such a trivial matter. It was beneath her to bother, and the experiment itself was not so urgent that she would fucking try and cheer or amuse Schwarz just so his hair could do a loop-de-loop that defied common sense. Her results had already lived up to her expectations so far, and any further observations were not necessarily required.

Good science however, would only occur if she followed up on it.

And she refused to do lackluster work.

That meant she would have to continue her observations of Luke Schwarz at a better time, but it wasn't as if the Mistralese girl had anything better to fucking do.

Vega Venetia – VGNB Dorms

Vega opened the door into her Dorm, when she came upon the sight of Gratia…and then two other individuals, one she did not know of, one of them with a piece of his hair standing upwards. She took a glance at the Otter Faunus, as this was Bianca replacement…respectable but common clothing to Vega tastes. Perhaps this Mistral faunus was a member of the lower class but she knew not to open up with questions and remarks like that only until they reveal who they truly were. Her anger towards Gratia when she upstanded her in an entire class had died down, she was still annoyed by her though but relaxed herself by discarding all thoughts of cheese man and Ms. Gracious upstanding her.

“So what’s up” as she said it to everyone in her dorm, with a calm friendly demeanor.

Sangue Naga - BASL Dorm

The day went on as the time for excitement faded temporarily.

Sangue sat still on her bed, reading through a letter she received not too long ago. The Grimm Studies class eventually ended well enough for her to leave without injuries. Although she did help someone out, she came to a realization that she needed to think a bit more wisely before jumping straight into a risky situation. Perhaps listening to her comrades would get her on a very smooth road to improvement.

"..."

The red-haired woman carefully put the letter away as she lay on her bed, her eyes slightly shut. She ended up wearing a new sarashi because the one she had used earlier became very worn-out.

Sangue read her letter, Lauren flipped her coin, and Amy was fighting her way through the daze of painkillers. The fourth bed in the room, unlike any of the others, was covered with a chaotic mass of blankets. The mass hadn't been there that morning. It had somehow grown up over the course of the day, coming into existence almost completely unnoticed when no one else had been in the room. A bottle of acetaminophen and a half-empty glass of water stood on the nightstand next to it, but otherwise, the region was completely still. BASL's captain had not been seen for an hour or two, either, but any connection that might have had to the aberrant blanket growth was unexplored.

Until, of course, after Lauren's most recent coin flip effort the mass shifted. The entire mound seemed to scoot across the mattress towards the nightstand, slowly and painstakingly. A single appendage slipped its way out of the mound, reached into the nightstand drawer, and rummaged around. As soon as it had laid hand on what it wanted, apparently a small energy drink, it retreated back into the mound. All was, once again, still.

Until a few minutes later when Benjamin Lloyd finally poked his head out from the cocoon and blinked slowly, surveying the room. Another blink, and the captain idly brushed a few stray groups of hair back into place. Another, and he set the empty can on his nightstand. He stared at each teammate in turn, then sat up, slowly casting off the remnants of his lair.

"S'been a long day." The team captain yawned and stretched. "Whatever we do, and wherever we go, we should make sure there's food. Skipped dinner. Pharmacy might not be bad. Think Amy and I used half the painkillers in the room."

"Anyone got any big ideas for the night?"

"So am I free to go, or--" he cautiously began, before cutting off as the door opened behind him. This place was certainly getting crowded...

Tilting his head back to look at the stranger, both eyes now uncovered by hair, he examined the arrival. It was yet another girl walking into the room, with brown hair, piercing green eyes, glasses (altogether gave off a pretty cute bookish vibe), and...

Er, well...

He squinted, hoping it to just be the odd angle his head was at messing with his perception, or something similar. No additional effect. Half-turning in the seat and righting his head once more, he found that the transition from position-to-position was ultimately unhelpful in making sense of what exactly he saw.

Green.

She's wearing... something green.

All that aside, though, he still raised a hand in polite greeting, and favoring the woman with a small, friendly smile.
_{Interrogate me}
"Uh, Hi there. I'm Luke, from JCML. Miss Mindaro's got me over to ask me a few questions. I take it you're the only member of Vignobility I haven't met yet?"

Or was she also the subject of study, this time in regards to fashion statements as opposed to hairstyle? Instead of saying this or even allowing it to show upon his features, though, he kept quiet and respectful for the time being. No matter how weird things may have been upon first glance, he didn't even have a fraction of the story behind it.

She could have lost a bet, or something, after all.

That experiment theory couldn't be right, anyways, based solely upon the new arrival's demeanor. She wouldn't be acting quite so casual if that were the case. Right? He wasn't the only one who would be perturbed by the thought of the arctic young woman of VGNB conducting experiments in regards to things such as clothes or hair.

He couldn't be.

Gren Orchid

Another new arrival in the form of Ebon showed up at the gathering. Was he here for the party or other reasons? Gren wasn't certain. When asked for what was going on Gren gave him the short. "Shiro and some others are going to dive into the lake to find some daggers. Want to help?" Gren wasn't certain if Ebon was the type to care about such things. He seemed to be fairly aloof, almost like Sapphire. He just imagined a funny situation were the two were introduced, simply stating their name, glaring at one another, and then leaving. They'd later be found hanging out in aggressive silence.

His fantasies aside Gren was debating to himself if he should help as well. Without his rebreather Gren had to admit he wouldn't be able to swim for long, and there was also the matter of the fact that he swims with the grace and speed of a scuttled ship. The best he could do really was perhaps help Shiro back up the cliff if he found the daggers, but who knows how long that would take. Gren still needed to host this party. Turning to Ebon Gren clapped his hands together and bowed his head towards the other hunter. "I'd hate to have to ask you this, but could you please help my friends out? I'm afraid that I can't swim, but I want to make sure they're okay! I'll understand if you don't want to take the risk yourselves, but I'll accept your help in whatever form you can provide it." Though not quite begging yet, Gren felt like the only way he could compensate Shiro for not actively helping himself is sending as many people as he can.

"You moron." Scornfully Ebon walked away with his scroll out. A few seconds later a rocket locker came crashing in and Ebon nonchalantly strapped the Kingdom to his arm. "You idiots and your stupid pride. I don't even need to read your minds to know that your egos are the only problems here." The Kingdom opened up and one Midnight Eye and one Claw R-Type flew out. Together they went over the cliff and down into the water. Ebon just stood on the edge focusing his concentration on his two little ships. If he was closer he could send out even more, but if he had to search the entire lake then two was all he could manage. The Midnight Eye would help him spot the daggers or other dangers while it was the Claw's job to actually get the daggers if he finds them. Ebon quickly noted the other swimmers but ignored them. He wasn't close enough to use his telepathy on them as he was having a hard enough time trying to maintain the link between his R-types. "Aren't you suppose to be at a party? Or is everyone a no show?"

Sapphire gave a knowing smile to Abel. "Yeah... my power..." She rather liked the effect it had on other people. She normally didn't explain the intricacies of it's workings to anyone but the knowledge that she could be anywhere and they might not be able to notice her usually unnerved most people. It wasn't exactly the ability to shoot lighting out of the sky but for a girl like Sapphire who preferred keeping to the shadows it was the perfect disguise. It was also rather interesting to see the pretenses that people dropped within themselves when they thought they were alone. Sometimes that was the only time you got a glimpse of the real person.

Though what Abel said about Shiro struck a cord with Sapphire. There was one thing that Sapphire could think of that Shiro had lost over the edges of the Beacon cliffs that he could possibly be going through the effort to retrieve. However after her outburst on the airship and her generally rough treatment of him Sapphire didn't see how Shiro could care about her mother's prized work. Besides, the chances of retrieving them in a lake that size which was also no doubt infested with Grimm was ludicrously small.

Discounting the possibility that Shiro would be that foolish Sapphire decided that it was time to go. Gren had voiced intentions to throw some sort of night on the town for his friends and anyone else that wished to join. While he hadn't exactly specifically referred to her Sapphire thought she could assume that she was invited. Otherwise she'd simply return to Beacon. Besides a night out on the town might be fun. There was usually something to beat up in the dark nights of Vale.

Deciding to done something more casual Sapphire dressed in ripped black jeans with a studded belt, a black tank top that hugged her figure, and black converse hightops. She tied the scabbards of the school daggers onto her forearms and hitched the holsters for her disassembled polearm to her lower back as always not really caring that Abel was in the same room. She went into the bathroom and applied a bit of eyeliner. Just enough to give her that "don't mess with me look" before she left the dorms.

Sapphire didn't know exactly where Gren would be but since the party was to take place in Vale she could assume that he would appear at the airdocks sooner or later. She wasn't disappointed either. Gren was waiting a little off the airdocks along with someone who Sapphire thought was named Ebon. She'd never been formally introduced.

Sapphire strode up to Gren. "How many people did you expect to show up to this?" she asked wondering how long they might be waiting.

Gratia Mindaro - VGNB Dorms

"Venetia."

The curt, toneless greeting was Gratia Mindaro's only response to her team leader's entry into their shared dormitory. She was utterly unphased by the sudden interruption of her experiment; this was the other girl's room as well, after all, and it wasn't at all strange for Vega to want to return to said room after the end of classes. Probably to drop off shit or the like. Not that it was her business to pry; whatever the fuck her leader wanted to do was completely worthless information to her.

"This is Beryl Harken," she added, almost as if it was a sidenote, although her emotionless tone made it difficult to decipher whether or not she actually felt that the tidbit was worthy of such a description or not. "Otter. Swordswoman and whip-user. Likely close to mid-range combatant."

She had, after leading the newest member of VGNB to the dorms, made sure to read up on Beryl Harken's publicly-available record in the same manner as she had with Cian Kuze earlier in the day. The Mistralese girl's suspicions that the Faunus was an experienced sword-user had been confirmed by what she had read off the files, but the whip speciality was not something she had expected despite the obviously modularity of the weapon she saw. Disregarding her inability to predict that Beryl was a less-than-orthodox fighter, the information upon the otter's combat capabilities had been highly elucidating. It was important and essential information that needed to be remembered.

And Venetia, as usual, hadn't fucking checked up on it.

"We'll have to reformulate our tactics," said Gratia. "Relying on shit like Nuit fUckInG oVEr THe eNemY from above won't work anymore, unless Harken here's got some aerial bullshit or something."

Cobalt Chideta- Airship Docks

Cobalt had felt pretty proud of himself after destroying the Megaladeus, making tonight a perfect night to go party. Everyone else had done well also, he hoped that some people from the class would show up as well. Cobalt dressed in his usual casual wear and headed down to the Airship Docks to wait for... something. He probably should've asked where they would all be meeting up so they could go party.

On his way there he briefly thought on the situation with his team. The only real problem he saw had been Diamond's lack of trust, so at least that was done with. While he wanted to be friends with her, forcing a relationship was never healthy. "Wait, that sounds wrong. Forcing a friendship is never healthy. Yeah, that's better." Cobalt nodded to himself and walked out onto the docks.

Cobalt sat down on a bench overlooking the city and sighed. The view was so beautiful. There wasn't much that could possibly ruin this moment, no sir. He looked around and saw Gren conversing with some people, so that solved the whole meeting spot problem. Cobalt waved at Gren to show he was here and went back to looking at the city.

Beryl Harken- VGNB Dorm

"I have a few tricks to get into the air with. However it would be best if we did not built our strategies around that. My main focus is on distracting enemies and limiting their mobility so that my teammates can deal the finishing blows."

So far Beryl had been quiet. She still was having trouble trusting Gratia with Luke after that whole episode and her little slip of crazy had not helped matters. She had been leaning up against a nearby wall when their team leader entered the room.

Is she looking down her nose at me?

Beryl was not one to judge, but when one grows up in a church orphanage learning to read other people was just something you picked up. Especially once she started helping the priests get donations. Knowing what the potential doner thought would often be the difference between new shoes for the other kids or another month of table scraps.

Right now Beryl was picking up the distinct impression of a young "Ojou-sama" looking at a member of the "lower class"

It's alright Beryl, you deal with this all the time. Breath, just breath and don't punch your new team leader in the mouth

For now she contented herself with staying where she was and continuing to watch the proceedings with a small frown on her face.

Vega Venetia – VGNB Dorms

Vega took the one lined signification from Gratia. “I see.” Vega then looked at Beryl. “Pleased to meet you Beryl,” giving a small wave “Vega Venetia, your team leader.”

On the particular note of tactics, yes, with Bianca gone VGNB cannot fuck over their enemies anymore from above, what a shame, what a loss. “We will reformulate our tactics when everyone is here…Napoli is somewhere else and I have to get to a party soon in the city.”

She then looked over to Lucas, a guest in their dorm.

“Ah, so you met Napoli, and yes I am with nobility stretching over to two clans” she said with pride. He probably does not know.

He had a cute vibe going over, long hair, small jacket she could not help but ask looking at him… “Why does that part of your hair” as she pointed at it “stand up and…what kind of questions was Gratia asking you.”

Seriously, was it about his hair maybe that was the questions Gratia was asking? Only knowing Luke just now, she wanted to know the circumstances why a part of his hair stood up.

Oh, so she actually was blue-blooded.

I was just making a pun...

As her next question reached his ears, he frowned, letting loose yet another small sigh. How many times was this going to come up? Ahoges weren't that strange, Jack had one too, for Pete's sake! They weren't fascinating at all, so why did so many people focus their attention upon it? If he wanted an easy icebreaker, he didn't want it to be his own hair! Let it be something else! A casual question about if they need any help or something!

"This is just how it's always grown. Same case for my mom and siblings, too. No gel or anything like that." he repeated for probably the third time. "As for questions, she's really just picking my brain as to what makes me tick. Nothing that outlandish."

No, what was outlandish was the context within which the questions were being asked.

But that was Gratia's weirdness, not his own. She could explain that. More interestingly, something about this "Nuit" character that Beryl was supposedly replacing piqued his curiosity...

"Say, what happened to the person Miss Harken's replacing?"

A simple question was aired.

Quickly resurfacing after making contact with the water, Oswald began scanning the lake for Shiro. While he was only minimally worried about the Tiger Faunus, he also figured it would be prudent to stick together in case of an incursion of Grimm. The other boy seemed to take off in a spiral pattern in his search, so Oswald decided that his best bet would be to follow after, carefully checking the areas Shiro passed by. He didn't have his Scroll on him, in his infinite wisdom, so the warrior was forced to rely on his natural eyesight. While the outer edges of the lake weren't particularly deep, he would have trouble checking the deepest parts due to a lack of light and his need to breathe.

He'd have much preferred to have actually talked to Shiro about this beforehand and make a plan, but Sapphire's team member had an unfortunate penchant for choosing the exactly wrong decision to make. Regardless of the circumstances, they had a job to do, and Oswald would be damned if he didn't get it done. These daggers had to have meant a lot to Sapphire, and retrieving them meant a lot to Shiro. So, there wasn't a choice to this, really. They had to find these daggers.