As the colossal Dionaea continued to face its foes, it eventually made the mistake of challenging one portion of the students rather than continue to assault all of them at once. It died slowly as the students eventually bombarded the core hiding underneath its roots- together, so that it could not target anyone specifically as they did so- and class ended shortly afterwards. Professor Port was excited to see that everyone had defeated the Reisen-type Grimm, knowing that although exhaustive, it was good to know how some of the stronger Grimm fought.

He did kind of saw off the teeth, but thankfully it didn’t seem like anyone was going to worry about reaching that point.

Soon, the bell rang, signaling the next period for all the students. As Chatsworth collected papers from his students on their work in the Armory, and Port squeezed in one last talk about how the students performed exceptionally, the students filed out of their classes and headed to their next period.

---

Sangue eventually freed herself from the Dionaea’s grasp, stabbing the root with a poison-dabbed harpoon in her prosthetic. She reminded herself that she should thank Gren and Shiro for the arm, as it gave her more options to use the poison rather than contain it in a bottle all the time.

As class ended, she silently followed Ben as they left. Though she personally thought she did much better than she had back when they fought the Megaladeus, she decided to keep it for another conversation.

She also enjoyed watching the others fight. Sometimes she wondered how people used firearms and heavy weapons so fluently.

Turning to Ben on their way to their respective classes, she stared at Ben for a brief moment before bowing without a word. She then quietly made her way to her Survival class. She may have had trouble with directions, but she wasn’t incapable of memorizing places she always went to.

@Krayzikk

In the hallways of Beacon Academy as students began to file out of their classrooms, Sand slowed her brisk walk to pull out her Scroll. Her eyes scanned the time reported by the clock at the top and she let out an irritated sigh. Grimm studies was clearly a lost cause. She was much too late.

The new transfer training stepped off to the side, leaning against a wall to let people walk past. She had spent much of the day settling in and dealing with administrative troubles with the school’s registrar. She would have taken care of it the day before, but the parent’s day celebration had meant most of the offices had closed for the day. Now that she had taken the time to visit them, she realized that appearing in the school a week earlier than intended had caused its own share of problems.

That said, if she was being honest with herself, scheduling issues were only a mild irritation. What truly weighed on her mind was the news that she had received yesterday. After Robert had been relieved from his duties as team leader, she had been appointed in his place as leader of team STRG—team Sterling.

Another student may have heard this and felt pride, thinking their achievements had been noticed and they were being rewarded.

In her case, the circumstances behind the announcement left a bitter taste in her mouth. She had been brought into the team as a convenient replacement for a casualty, then chosen over two existing team members to lead them, despite being the newest member and having no previous experience as team leader. Had her unplanned role in their mission left such an impression? What had the headmaster been thinking?

What was I thinking when I agreed? That was not terribly difficult to answer. At the time she had been shocked, confused and, she had to reluctantly admit, a little flattered.

Now, however, as she thought of the responsibility she had agreed to bear and of the idea of leading a team with a recorded mortality rate, she found a knot of concern forming in her gut. What did the others think of her taking that position?

Robert was easier to read. Once it had become clear that he would not be getting immediately expelled, he had seemed almost relieved by the news. She had more difficulty gauging the reactions of the other two. From what she had seen, she did not think Trad would give her trouble. Grane worried her, however. It had been clear since they had met in the forest that he was adamantly against Robert holding the position of leader, but whether this was due to personal disapproval of the redhead, or a wish to hold that position for himself, she was not yet sure. Having said that, she thought it safe to assume he would be watching her for any mistakes she might make.

As she absentmindedly looked at the thinning herd of students walking by, it occurred to her that she would have to get to know each of them better. In and of itself, it did not seem terribly difficult. However, Sand was aware that she was not the greatest conversationalist. Answering questions about herself had always been a lot simpler than coming up with questions about the particulars of another person’s life. It simply was not something that often interested her. To make matters worse, small talk did not come easily to her unless the other person spoke enough for the both of them, and something told her that would not be the case for at least two of her teammates.

Which meant it could be better to find an approach that suited her.

Sand exhaled and pushed herself away from the wall, now searching for the PE room. She had a few ideas, but nothing concrete. For the time being, class beckoned.

Amaranth Desire: The Classes, They Are a Changin'

Amy felt very tired.

Again.

She sighed and looked back at her sketch of what she was planning as the two returned to their seat, losing herself in the sketches of her Crimson Angel project for the remainder of the class. It might seem unfeeling, but learning how to disengage her emotions from her work was something she’d learned how to do a long time before she came to Beacon.

Her note laid unforgotten in the back pocket of her pants, until she’d finished drawing up the armor, turned in the design to Chatsworth, and packed up the Fury to take with her on the way to her next class. Only then did she remove it, slipping the small, folded piece of paper into Lauren’s hand as they left class and parted ways. She’d not been able to read the boxer’s reaction to Emerald and Annabelle, nor to how she’d handled it, but...

There you go again, Desire.

“I’ll see you in sixth period, I guess,” she said quietly, and got up to head to PE.

Just a wonderful day so far.

Sangue should have known better than to expect any part of a quiet walk to class. The loud, drawn out, monosyllabic "AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" as the Tornado Negro rushed down the hall behind her should have clued the snake in that she wouldn't be getting much quiet.

And, as Lauren put her head down like a raging bull and lifted Sangue up, over her shoulders and onto the boxer's strong shoulders, it became apparent she wouldn't be getting any walking done either.

"Sangue Naga!" Lauren crowed in glee, tilted her head up and aiming her overjoyed emerald stare at the red-haired ninja. They had only been separated for the span of a class period, but Lauren acted like she'd broken free of a thousand-year time loop in order to come and spend fifth period alongside her teammate. "My soul sister from another mister! You ready to go and Survive like a motherfucker with me, empress?"

---

Just as the faunus had finished tying the tentacles to a pole like a triad of shoelaces, he was attacked by even more roots. "How generous of you~" He chuckled as he bat away one of the roots with his cane, intercepting the others with his own tentacles. His job was to distract as many roots as possible, which was working.. relatively.

---

For the most part, Llyr was pretty unimpressed by the whole fight. While he may have had just a little bit of fun fighting a thousand branched beast, it seemed that it didn't have the brain to even fight the majority of the class. Strength in numbers he concluded. As the grimm disintegrated unceremoniously, Llyr approached his comrades in arms. "Now wasn't that bloody boring! It's much too bad it didn't do what everyone expected something with tentacles to do!!" He burst into laughter at his own 'joke', if you could even call it one. "But alas, I must bid you all adieu! It is time for the Survival of the fittest!" He added as he loudly snapped his fingers, the bell ringing as if he had set it off himself.. Such impeccable timing. He even gave a bow as if it was some sort of performance.

"May we dance again!" He grinned as he took Cian's hand, giving it a light kiss before combat rolling out the door, the same way he entered. Dramatically.

---

Since Llyr didn't know where the class was, it wasn't long before he just got lost on the outskirts of the campus. A slight breeze blew by and you could probably imagine a tumbleweed rolling passed him. That's how lost he was. His eyes flit from side to side, gazing at the vast emptiness that was in front of it. Perhaps 'emptiness' was an exaggeration. There were trees.. A few. The Squid kid shrugged nonchalantly as he proceeded to keep walking in a seemingly random direction. Maybe not 'walking' per say. Skipping, jumping, hopping, rolling.. pogo..ing. All such things equated to 'walking' for Llyr.

Port made no mention of there being homework (thankfully - Ashe didn't even have a dorm yet, so homework would completely crush her), then yammered on about how well the class had done, but Ashe didn't see it that way. There were several ways they could have killed the Dionaea in a matter of seconds, and nobody had done any of them - probably because everybody was expecting everybody else to do it, or because everybody was too focused on teamwork and protecting one another to mow the creature down early. On the bright side, Ashe now knew what weak points looked like on plantlike Grimm, and that there were actually weak points to begin with. The plantlike Grimm didn't seem to be any different from animalistic Grimm except in shape and limb count. There was still a central point necessary for their survival, which meant... Fuck. Lightning kills them. And I hate using Lightning.

Before Ashe could come up with any proper strategies on how to kill Dionaea in the future, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class. So she turned to leave and spotted Skye on the way out of the room. With a quick jog, Ashe caught up to the fox and tapped her on the back. "So, uh... Thanks for earlier, I guess. Didn't think I'd do so badly against that thing."

"No need to thank me, I should have noticed you were alone far sooner than I did. Maybe then you wouldn't have been hurt so badly...", Skye replied. The taller Fox Faunus was visibly exhausted and favoring her right shoulder. Bit hypocritical to talk like that, given your condition..., Ashe thought to herself. With a flash, Skye's expression shifted slightly as though remembering something. Ashe suddenly remembered too: they'd made plans to go to the gym later. Skye wasn't exactly in good shape and they needed to fix that.

"I'm heading to Physical Education now, so as for the gym later... well I should be healed up by then. More importantly thanks for helping to get those tentacles off me. I had hoped that part would go... better than it did."

"Yeah, didn't expect them to throw something that big at us on our first day, but... You did pretty well. And I'm fine. Yue patched me up nicely. Guess I'll see you in Dust Apps later, right? Hopefully that'll be a bit calmer than Grimm Studies was."

Skye tried to shrug and winced at the sharp sting in her left shoulder. "But it can happen just like that out there, and with even less warning. Normally I'd suggest running, but it's going to be our job to kill them as Hunters. But thank you. If Dust Apps is half as bad as fighting a Riesen..."

"Heh, yeah, running's always an option. The thought did cross my mind a couple times. And... Hm. There's no way the Dust Apps teacher is as bad as Port, right? ...Right?"

"I-I don't know. I've never met her..."

"How 'bout this. If it's half as bad as Treezilla back there, I'll try to find a way to pay you back for dragging me into your group."

"Fair. Consider it a deal."

Ashe smiled and nodded in response. "Well, guess this is bye for now. Hope you enjoy your next class, Skye!"

---

Ashe found herself staring at her Scroll map. It wasn't very detailed, and the room number listed on her class schedule wasn't anywhere on the old map program she had. One by one, she went down the list of every single building on the map. SB212 wasn't anywhere. Hell, the prefix "SB" wasn't on any of the buildings, so she assumed it simply wasn't anywhere on the grounds. She turned around and stared at the central tower for a moment, then glanced about for the best vantage points. The top of the amphitheater seemed decent enough, and within a few minutes and with an impressive display of climbing skill, she made her way to the top of the structure. The hooflike shoes she was wearing were coming in handy sooner than she'd expected - she'd have to thank her family for them when she had time to check out the CCT.

From the top of the building, she could see a fair bit more of the surrounding campus. Beacon was enormous - far larger than she'd imagined, and she couldn't help but wonder why there were so few professors teaching at a school with so many dormitory buildings. Presumably Beacon also handled post-graduate classes. Even though some of the buildings blocked her view, with her scroll in hand she could roughly map out which buildings were where -- and far off in the distance, she saw something beyond the borders of her map. Something square and grey, about the height of a small tree and much wider, with a flickering light coming out of it. Ashe assumed this was where she needed to go, and made her way in that general direction, with a solid 'Clack!' as her keratin rimmed shoes crashed into the pavement below.

Several more minutes passed and she came to the building in question, entered, and searched for the classroom. Most of the place was broken down and fairly eerie, but all abandoned buildings were like that. After checking each room, she went upstairs and eventually found the classroom in question, where she took a seat in the far back corner of the room and waited for class to start.

Estelle carefully balanced on one foot, the ladder a little rickety. It was times like these she was jealous of Bianca’s ability to fly. She teetered back and forth on the thing attempting to stabilize herself enough to use the staple gun in her hand. She finally hit a sweet spot on the ladder’s legs and gained a stability. Enough to push the staple gun into the right hand corners of the banner. With a sigh she clambered down onto the safety of the ground. She carried the ladder back to the corner of the room and took in her work.

“Welcome.”

In beautiful hand written cursive adorned the entire length of the gigantic lecture hall. From this hall there was Estelle’s desk which, of course contained the controls for the survival exercise room, which was separated by Plexiglas but was otherwise completely visible from where the students sat, and behind where Estelle would stand to address them. She quickly put her heels back on and straightened the pencil skirt she wore back out. She had decided to take a more serious look for her first day of classes. Opting for her blouse, putting her hair into a chopstick bun with small stands escaping in front of her face, and the pencil skirt that she wore now.

She quickly retrieved her cupcakes from her desk that she had baked the night before. Carefully placing one on each desk for the students to eat while she explained the basics of her new curriculum before they were going to go into the Survival Room.

She took a deep, uneasy breath and prepared for the first step towards a better, more honest life for herself. This was the start of something that she could do for as long as she lived. It felt incredible. Now she just awaited her students.

Gratia Mindaro - Survival Class

"So you're in charge," said Gratia, her tone flat and clinical as she observed Estelle's movements.

The Mistralese girl had already settled into a desk near the front of the classroom, cloth satchel resting on the floor beside her. She quietly gnawed away at the choc-chip vanilla cupcake with strawberry icing that her unexpected newest teacher had provided them, tongue relishing in the sweetness of the confectionery. Having the elder Nuit in charge of Survival was a real fucking surprise, especially when she had only been a senior student a mere two weeks prior, but in hindsight, she should have expected the family of birdbrains to pull something unexplainable out of their arse. It probably ran in the blood. Fortunately, cooking skills didn't, because unlike the diarrhoea-inducing dogshit that Bianca's creations usually ended up as, the cupcake she was finishing off wasn't a) a plague-ridden crime against taste; and b) actually capable of passing a health inspection.

She was less sure of Estelle Nuit's teaching ability, but maybe she would be proven wrong. Gratia Mindaro wanted to do something of fucking substance this period, and if her former teammate's elder sister could provide that substance, than she could move on from the bullshit that was the monotony of Armoury. Even if she had been given more than sufficient time to complete her prototype headgear, the rest of the session had been as dry as an old hag's vagina. Nothing had fucking happened.

Gratia pushed the thoughts of Armoury to the back of her mind, leaning back comfortably against her chair. Her onyx gaze drifted around the room, resting for a mere moment on the cupcake sitting upon her neighbour's desk before they returned to their original goal: taking note of everyone else in the room. There were numerous students that she recognised, while some were still unknown to her. The teenage girl would take their measure later.

For now, they were of no import.

@Crimmy



Beryl couldn't help but stare at the empty cupcake wrapper in her teammate's hand. The other girl couldn't have entered the room more than a few seconds before her. Beryl had only left the Armory classroom second because she had tried to give Jer-kun a thank you hug. And she had seen Gratia enter the Survival room.

The berserker of the team certainly had a serious sweet tooth. It almost made one want to reevaluate the crazy "I ruN on ThE poWEr of My eNeMIes SOULS," bit. Combined with her constant dismay at their team leader's terrible fashion sense it created an odd dichotomy with her more acerbic side. Which was most of her sides.

So thinking the young Faunus settled into the seat next to Gratia with a nod and plopped her bookbag protectively between the other girl and the cupcake she had been speculatively eyeing. And for good measure she took a bite out of it as she sent a friendly wave down at the teacher.

That's... Bianca's sister I think. This should be interesting.

Armoury, for better or for worse, for me having done better or worse within it, had finally passed. A class could only go on for so long, and no matter how stretched out it may have felt with me puzzling over every little nuance and concept I was looking to draft onto paper and later apply in creation, it wasn't any different.

Before time, all things shall pass.

Next up: Physical Education.

P.E.

Gym!

Yeah.

Knowing my interests, this may come as a bit of a surprise— nobody expects a near-miss of a NEET, an internet culture obsessed almost-washout highschooler, and someone only a handful of months removed from being on the fast track to failure—

That isn't the resume of someone you'd associate as having a positive outlook on going to the gym, not even remotely. I wouldn't even be surprised, let alone upset, if me enjoying working out was a bit of a shock to someone— a small dweeb like me in the gym runs counter to most expectations.

But, I had to cram multiple years of training into less than one, and nobody manages to get through that without learning to feel at home in the weight room, track, or ring.

Before time, all things shall pass, indeed.

It wasn't too terrible of a walk. Like every campus gymnasium, the exercise areas were a bit out of the way, true, but it was manageable enough that I had ample time in the passing period to get from point A to point B.

I did have to wonder, though, whether or not we were going to have another "hands-off" sort of day. If that were the case, I'd invariably migrate to the weights— It being a Tuesday, generalized strength work was in the cards for me.

Well, I guess I'd have to take what comes at me first and foremost.

I entered the hall, and took my usual place.

The sound of Lauren storming through a hallway caught her attention, though regardless of how quickly Sangue reacted, she wouldn't have been able to say "Hi" to her before the Negasi picked her up wildly.

Sangue blinked, her eyes slightly wider than before. As Lauren excitedly spoke to her like she was ready to take on anything in the world, the red snake wondered if she should tell her that she could walk.

After her Grimm Studies class, however, it felt nice to have the warm and bubbly Lauren pick her up instead of a cold, slithery vine of a giant angry plant attempting to throw her around. So she softly answered with a short "Yes" and a slow nod.

@Plank Sinatra

Lauren threw her head back and laughed at Sangue's tentative answer. With her teammate on her back, Lauren picked up the pace on her way to Survival. It was clear that, as much as she enjoyed the material, she had been chomping at the fucking bit to slip out of Armory. Straightening up her shoulders (and careful not to push Sangue's head through the ceiling) Lauren released the faint sigh that had been stuck in her chest and grinned up at the snake.

"Sangue, love of mine, don't you ever get involved with women," she admonished, with a roll of her vibrant green eyes upwards to meet Sangue's. "'Cept for me, obviously. The rest of 'em are all the damn devil. They don't mean you not an ounce of good will. If I didn't have to be gay I wouldn't be. Well, I would be. I hate dicks."

This was dumb. What the fuck did Sangue even think she was talking about right now?

"Just stick with me, Sangue!" she course corrected with a glowing smile. "Together we'll survive all that the thots of the world have to throw at us, yeah? Ooph, watch your head here, babe, don't want to knock you out."

Lauren ducked down as she entered the hall where Estelle Nuit - God damn, look at this bitch living her best life, dat hair! - had taken over Survival classes at...some point? She didn't know when. Lauren had never taken a Survival class before. She'd learned quickly it was hard to concentrate on PE with Ben and Luke around to play off of (and play with) and she went to the gym enough during her free time with her student privileges that she could afford to leave her darling Cap alone for another class period or so. Survival had seemed like an easier take. She'd been surviving her whole life all over the world, right? Easy A.

As if she would flunk me.

Plopping Sangue down into a seat towards the front of the class, and quickly scooping up the one beside her, Lauren was halfway towards plopping her jacket down onto the desk as a makeshift leather pillow when she realized someone had left a cupcake on her desk.

On every desk.

Oh, Stella, you make it too easy.

Lauren cracked her con artist's grin down at the confection on her desk.

Now how the hell do I make this look most like a nipple...

@Write @HereComesTheSnow

Flying was something else.

Not flying in an airship, actually flying. Not something Ben would ever had the ability to do himself, but Bianca Nuit made it look easy. And tagging along for the ride, he could get a glimpse at that, too. He had dropped out of an airship without any sort of parachute under similar circumstances, using the force from that terminal velocity to achieve a decisive strike on an immense enemy. His heart had raced, adrenaline pumped, and it had felt like nothing else.

It still wasn’t anything like this.

Bianca wove in and out of attacks with ease, changing course and altitude in ways that made him feel his stomach moving around. It took some time to adjust to that, to get used to the rapid changes and the fact that he had absolutely no control over his own trajectory. One hand maintained his grip on the Faunus girl, because falling would really suck, but the other was on Joyous Guard. She was doing a fantastic job of keeping them away from the vines but there were simply too many of them. He couldn’t do a lot, not while he was a passenger, but run interference? That he could do. The blade shot out here and there, batting aside or biting into any tendril that got too close. Anything that dared to threaten their forward advance would be evaded or eviscerated, without exception. It was a comfortable rhythm, almost, once he got settled into it. He had to trust that she could keep them in the air, and he did.

Nuit might have seemed uncertain and meek before the fight started, but she was holding her own. Even better than he’d thought. If she said she could do it, she could. No doubt. Between them no tendril could really get close, no matter how hard the DIonaea tried; and it was trying. The rest of the battle had faded to a dull din in his mind, something beyond the screen imposed by the writhing plant matter; he could no longer really see the others, or he had no time to see them. From up here, there was nothing he could do anyway. He had to trust that they could hold their own, just like he had to trust that Nuit could fly.

When her wings enveloped them, he had to grin. Any other time the exhilaration might have made him laugh, but all he had time for was a grin.

But they couldn’t get close, not close enough to strike. The Dionaea was making sure of that. Evasion and defense could get them close, but not close enough.

…

”Throw me.”

”What?”

”Throw me.” Ben pointed with the Joyous Guard’s tip, deciding it’d be clearer than trying to explain. He cocked his head a little, flashing the Mistralian girl a cocky grin. Bianca’s eyes widened a little when it clicked, until surprise was replaced with a matching grin.

A lot of things happened at once. Bianca got as close as she could, made sure she had a line of sight on the main trunk, and threw. Her arm was bolstered by her Semblance, hurling the Redwood boy forward and down. Ben channeled his Semblance into his arms and shoved off from his grip on Bianca in the same direction, gripping Joyous Guard with both hands and drawing it in close and parallel with his body.

He became a spear. A spear thrown from on high, hurtling towards his target like a bolt of lightning. Both Semblances sped him up well beyond what gravity alone could ever have done, his blade cutting through air resistance like it was nothing.

Their monstrous foe seemed to have realized, at the last moment, what was happening. It went after Bianca with a vengeance but the girl was already evading, breaking off the attack with her job done. She didn’t retreat, she harried the Grimm on her own, but it was Ben that really drew its attention. It tried to bar his way with vines, but even the thickest tendrils did not even slow his flight.

The air ripped at his face, buffeted his air, and streamed through his uniform. It could only have been a few seconds, but it seemed like an eternity. Joyous Guard’s inertia alone could have carried him through the Grimm’s hastily improvised defenses, it was like a freight train in motion, but the slain tendrils still battered against him when he tore through. The Grimm was silent or he might have thought the roar that ripped through his throat belonged to it. Joyous Guard’s pommel braced against his palm, leaving no room for the weapon to slip off course, his Aura gathered for impact, the cacophony of battle drowned out in the blood pumping through his ears-

In an instant, the tip of his blade struck true; buried to the hilt.



There wasn’t anywhere near enough time between classes.

Not when you needed to get from one place to the next, try and deal with the fact that your shoes were soaked, and catch your breath from the last one. Still, he was looking forward to PE; he knew Luke was there, and he hadn’t gotten to spend any time with his friend since the mission at the refinery.

There was no dealing with his pants, not without a trip back to the dorm, but he needed different shoes for gym anyway. The uniform shoes were classy, but athletics practical? Less so. Grimm Studies to the gym was a bit of a haul, and he’d had to waste some time changing shoes and grabbing his stuff from the classroom, so he had to cheat a little; a little help from his friend Deinamig got him there with a minute to spare.

He jogged into the room with Joyous Guard returned his his back (and returned to a shield, no sense hauling a huge sword around) and his jacket tossed over one shoulder. He wasn’t worried about explaining the state of his hair, or why his pant legs were soaked. Anyone who’d ever heard of Port would understand.

He came to a halt next to Luke, once he picked out the Shiroyaman kid at his usual spot.

”Hey, man.” He greeted, taking a pause for a quick breath. ”Good to see ya.”

As Armory class ended, Oswald stood up with his meager write-up on what the group had done for the class's duration. They'd gotten quite a bit done, actually- both Igneus Iudex and Brookeborough's Vengeance were practically complete, with only minor tweaks and modifications needed to make them as effective as they would need to be in combat. The Aegis, on the other hand, was still a bit behind on production, owing to the difficulties of producing a stable, scaled-down version of the shields that protected the stands in Amity Colosseum.

Still, it had been a good class. Oswald handed his write-up to Professor Chatsworth, then waved to Emerald and Anna that he was ready to go. Emerald grabbed his belongings and Anna followed along, joining them in the next class as well, but not exactly familiar with the school's layout. As such, he'd suggested they all go together. It had the added benefit of allowing Oswald to slow down a bit and not feel as bad about his injuries. He was just chatting with his friends, was all.

A few jokes passed between the teammates, and more than a few moments of silence that felt a little uncomfortable, but soon enough they'd arrived at the Survival classroom.

And....there were cupcakes on the desks? Scowling, Oswald leaned his cane against a desk and grabbed the cupcake, inspecting it. "What the hell...? Why the hell are there cupcakes in a Survival classroom? This is just...empty calories?!" His protestations were somewhat muffled by the fact that the cupcake was now missing half of its delicious, fluffy body. Looking at the cupcake, then at his teammates, Oswald frowned. "What? If anybody needs these, it's me!" He gave a crooked smile but didn't laugh. That...would probably hurt.

Turning to what he recognized as one of the seniors, Oswald cocked his head and swallowed what was left in his mouth. "Why are there cupcakes here? And where's the professor?" The question leaving his mouth was immediately followed by a cupcake entering it.

A man needs his calories.

@Krayzikk

Life has a funny way of timing things, I find.

I'd just gotten settled into "my" de-facto spot, as it so often is in classes that lacked predetermined seating arrangements, and had been beginning to think to myself. More specifically, I'd begun to think to myself that, hey, absolutely none of the familiar faces from classes before were around— At the very least, Lauren had definitely switched on me. Would I be stuck on my lonesome the whole time?

On one hand, I could focus entirely on my own work without inevitably getting sucked into goofing off, true, but on the other, I was down both a reliable spotter and an irreplaceable hype man for the hard lifts...

"Hey, man."

And then he'd appeared.

The finest son of Redwood, Shiroyama's oldest ally and fiercest enemy.

The master of smithery, strategy, and swordplay in one scruffy, solid package.

The unbreakable shield and unstoppable blade of the Bastille. The mighty anchor that held them all in one solid, stable place, gathered around his impalacably, undeniably heroic form.

An inspiration. A comrade. An ideal to strive towards. The kind of man I should be myself, kiddo.

"Ah, hey."

O Captain, My Captain...

...Hm. Hold on a sec.

Actually.

Now that I think about it, maybe too much of Lauren's influence is worming its way into my head after all.

I'm sorry, Eb-Onee-sama, but this might end up being a prudent decision for the both of us, assuming you've really switched classes. I wish you all the best in your endeavors.

I'll pick heavy things up and put them down in your honor, if not by your command.

Do your best out there!

"Good to see ya."

"Same to you, man." I replied cordially, eyeing his half-soaked frame. It wasn't altogether uncommon a sight from those (un) fortunate souls who had decided to take Grimm Studies, coming back from it looking as though they'd ran a marathon or gotten into a water balloon brawl. Honestly, Professor Port really didn't seem like he knew how to hold back...

Hands-on lessons involving Grimm had to be like that, though, I supposed.

Surely it wasn't any worse than a Manticore...

"Have things been insanely hectic for you too, by any chance? I mean, come to think of it... We haven't really gotten the chance to catch up since the mission, have we?"

And with all the commotion between cruises, families, and teammate switches upon teammate switches, that alone felt like it was months ago...

I was going to be an old man by the time I graduated, if we were in for four years of this.

Sangue tried her best to understand what Lauren meant about not getting involved with women.





And in the most predictable outcome out of all outcomes, Sangue failed to do all three of them.

...On a second thought, Sangue believed she knew what Lauren meant by her third point. She heard Apep talk about it all the time, after all, albeit rather angrily...

Instead, she listened to Lauren attentively and kept her head away from the ceiling. She didn't want to hurt herself before Survival. With Lauren, however, the usual simple concerns she had often faded. BASL in general made her relax more just by their presence, though Lauren's excitement made that effect happen almost instantly.

Sangue continued to remain clinging onto the Negasi. If there was one thing she noticed, it was that walking with Lauren often resulted in Sangue appreciating the wind.

Except there was no wind. It was just her moving fast enough (or being moved, specifically) to feel like wind blew against her face.

When the two arrived at the Survival class, Sangue was plopped into one of the front seats with Lauren like a kokeshi doll. Glancing at Lauren, she watched Lauren fold(?) her clothes before freezing with a curious expression. Sangue, too, looked at Lauren's table, and then at her own.

A cupcake sat on the table.

It didn't look like it'd sprout out dozens of black roots to try and fling her across the room at any moment.

It looked cute.

As many as she had seen before, Sangue never tasted many cupcakes. Apep really hated sweets, so the closest thing she ate to sweets ended up being the black bean noodles she nearly burned her tongue with. Or perhaps bread, though she usually ate it with coffee. Though, now that she thought about it, parts of Gren's kebabs were very sweet. He called them "munchies."

She then remembered Gren.

---

"...you could always come find me and I’ll try to cook you something up. I do it for my team all the time. Of course, bring the rest of your crew too! The more the merrier."

---

"..."

Staring at the cupcake, Sangue wondered how he was doing. They weren't exactly the best of friends, but they had gotten along through the few times they met each other. And in those few times, he always did something for her. Whether it be making kebabs or practically giving her a new artificial limb, he offered many things, despite her reluctance in having him give so much to her.

...I should meet him again, she thought. And the next time they met, perhaps she could give him bread. Or coffee. Or perhaps both, if he did not dislike one or the other. And maybe she could introduce her friends to him.

Even if it wasn't much, she wanted to give something back to him.

She blinked as her thoughts trailed back to the cupcake in front of her. Lauren looked pretty happy with the cupcake on her desk, but Sangue remained silent and left her own cupcake alone. Instead, she watched Lauren with her idle expression while occasionally looking around the room. It seemed like she was looking for someone, though she remained quiet about it.

@Plank Sinatra@Lucius Cypher

@HereComesTheSnow

"Nah, we haven't."

Hectic...

They'd all taken on an S-Rank mission as freshman, killed a Reisen, came back, he and Lauren had gone to the club, he'd ended up losing his tonfa in a bet (admittedly somewhat planned), gotten pretty drunk, spent Saturday night working in the Armory until morning, met Sangue's guardian, Amy's family, Lauren's family, had to handle the two of them raiding his wardrobe, another late night thanks to a certain someone, then get up and get through his morning before walking right into another fight with a Reisen that had more limbs than the guy outta Luke's cartoons and longer ones than Jack, limbs he had a running wager through the whole class as to how many he could cut. And he was drenched.

"Port made us fight a Dionaea, but other than that it's been pretty normal man." The Redwood boy let Joyous Guard drop to the ground, supporting it with one hand while he tried to wring some of the water out of his hair. His school blazer, he concluded with a stare in its direction, was beyond any help he could give it. He'd have to hang it up and hope it dried out some during the period.

Then he glanced Luke's way, and mused for a second over what was most important to fill his friend in on.

"Finally had the cash to make this." He tapped a finger on Joyous Guard's surface. "Some teammate family drama, but I think that's going alright. 'Specially considering the roster rotations you had this weekend. Speaking of, I met your new teammate."

"What's been up with you, Luke?"

@Krayzikk

"A Dionaea? That's..."

I tried to remember what I could of poring over Jack's notes from the class, in the occasions he'd let me take a glance to keep myself abreast of the different classes and breeds of Grimm in my own right.

"That's the plant one, right? A little Biollante sort of thing?"

The first form, specifically?

Well, even if he wasn't familiar with Godzilla movies, I was pretty sure I was right. The Dionaea was... another Reisen class, too. If nothing else, Ben would quickly be the go-to-guy for killing the biggest monsters on the block.

"New teammate, huh?" I scoffed facetiously. "Which one?"

Bianca Nuit and Skye both had been transferred in over the weekend, and Cian had been witched off to... parts unknown. KYSS, wasn't it? I thought it was that...

"Well, for me, It was the usual experience." in continuing with my snarky pretenses, I laid down the debriefing with a matter-of-fact air. "I came home to an impromptu cruise trip with Grat, Bianca, and Beryl, since apparently somebody just had four tickets lying around and figured they ought to just give them to me."

Veronique Pressman.

I still hadn't met her yet, and because of that, I'd yet to properly thank her for it.

For turning a weekend into a whirlwind...

"And, if that's not enough for you, we got to both meet Jericho and solve a murder mystery on that ship. Only got to relax on Sunday... And then it was right around to Family Day. Mom and Dad were nice to catch up with, but my sisters and Tanner were... another story, to say the least."

I could feel the facade fading quickly. Well. I've never been a terribly good liar. It's part of the reason why Lauren's taken me under her wing.

"Then we had the formal welcoming to the team for Bianca and Skye... Well, about as formal as me gathering everyone for a quick toast of ginger ale can be, at any rate. Really, the most normal thing's been classes today."

I did need to talk shop with him at some point for Armory, but that could wait until we'd both had time to cool our heads from the classes previous.

"Gotta say I'm pretty hopeful for Dust Apps, on that note. But yeah. 'Hectic'."

Skye somehow managed to stay focused enough to keep up with Ashe and their conversation following the ordeal in Grimm Studies. However, once her new friend departed for her own class it was as if all the energy Skye had left drained out of her all at once. Her eyes glazed over and her shoulders slumped and she began to walk towards where she thought her next class was. Her aura was fine as far as she could tell but physically she knew she was not okay. Her shoulder was healing but much slower than it should be, and she felt far too fatigued and sore for just a single fight lasting less than an hour. Not only that but everyone else had ended up having to help her; she had not held her own like she was supposed to. In the end she was lucky everyone else had been so competent.

She thought about everything she could have done better as she wandered closer to the physical education classroom, gradually correcting her directions by asking around. Eventually she found where she needed to be though she was a few minutes late. She noticed Luke and Ben talking together in their own corner of the gym and her spirits lifted. She walked over to the two of them and sat down nearby, quite relieved to finally be off her feet.

"Hello again, Luke, Ben. She inclined her head in a sort of informal bow towards the two of them.

---

The rest of Armory class was... interesting, in the sense that the general mood had shifted completely and everyone seemed very involved with their projects. In the end Annabelle opted to send Tiger back to wait for her rather than to show him off just yet. She decided she could always show Gren later, they were friends after all.

Oh well. We did get a lot of work done at least. But what was all that with Gren and Oz? What the heck happened out in that hallway? Woo! I sure have my work cut out for me to get this team out of the dumps! I sure hope our leader isn't too grumpy, that would be three spirits to lift and no backup cheer. My work never ends...

The very long walk to the surprisingly isolated survival class was fun at least, for the most part. The weird silences where Emerald and Oswald started withdrawing back into their heads were easy enough to break up with a bit of teasing and joking around.

Upon arrival at what she had to assume was the right place, judging from the very pretty welcome sign, Oswald brought her attention to the cupcakes. Seriously? This teacher is the best! It's even strawberry frosted... Are they homemade?

The treat was partway in her mouth and her tongue a hairsbreadth away from what was sure to be a heavenly experience when she froze in place for a moment. Perhaps it was the expression on Oswald's face, or his comment about calories that made her stop. But in the end she chose to believe her seventh sense was speaking to her again.

With a gentle poke to the big man's injured ribs she got him to open his mouth, and before he could start yelling at her she stuffed the entire cupcake into his face. She felt a pang of disappointment at missing out herself but it felt like the right thing to do. She stood fully facing Oswald now, leaning towards him and looking up at him. She smiled brightly at her tall teammate and reached up to gently pat his cheek.

"You're lucky I like you, Ozzie."

“Bianca Nuit threw a boy today at a Little Shop of Horrors looking thing!” Said one boy. “It was insane, I thought she was a shoe-in for the psych ward, but I guess not.” Another replied.

“Yeah I think she’s just kind of weird.” A third concluded. The other two boys nodded in agreement. “Nice ass though.”

I walked out of the Grimm Studies room leaving one boy with a sore head and the other two laughing at him uncontrollably. Straightening out my outfit I sighed. It was time to get to Stella’s class.

“I wonder how she’s doing…”

Stella ‘Living her best life’ Nuit was not doing well. She glared at the girl who refused to quit. The young woman had crafted a nipple from a sweet and was now performing actions that Stella dare not consider less she lose her focus. She averted eye contact harder than she ever had, even after the whole identity theft fiasco on parent’s day. She simply stared ahead, sweating.

“I’m sure she’s fine.” I landed on, deciding that worrying about her was fruitless considering I was about to see her. Making my way down to survival I had to take a short trip outside to reach the classroom. It was nice feeling the warm air engulf me, but after the work out I had just been through in Grimm Studies and the fact that sporting plumage on your back didn’t really cool you, I could do without it.

But as soon as I walked into the survival room I felt a gush of cool air hit me at once. To say the building had A.C. was a bit of an understatement. It was essentially a system that could replicate any climate, Stella could have had the place snowing if she had wanted to. Speaking of Stella, just to distract my sister I decided to pick a front seat, sitting down beside a girl I wasn’t too familiar with and Ben’s teammate ‘Sangue’ with the red hair one seat down I placed my pure below my chair, entwining it around my feet.

Looking around, I was really impressed with how well Stella had done at making the place up. There were cupcakes, strawberry icing on top of a chocolate chip vanilla cupcake. Mom always used to make them…

“Yes, Gratia I have taken over the class.” Stella responded to my former teammate, immediately my head shot up.

Gratia’s here?!” I thought glancing all around for the girl. It had been awhile since we had talked about finding therapy over family day-weekend, but I was to present my options to her by Wednesday and she would go over them, analyze them for quality. Knowing Gratia though, it was best not to approach her until my ducks were in a row.

Glancing over at the girl’s beside me it took me a second before I recognized her.

Wait. That can’t be?? The girl from the bathroom wall? She was making deadly eye contact with someone. Slowly licking her cupcake, but... Who… Was… it?

“Ahem.” Stella said, clearing her throat as the rest of the class continued to pile in. She looked about as red as a… Well as Stella did when she was attracted to a girl but knows the relationship would be an illicit affair as their teacher-student relationship was strictly forbidden. It was like a kind of maroon. “We will be starting shortly, so if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask. The exercise itself will be explained once we begin, so don’t worry too much about that.”