Ancient trees towered above New Beacon, swaying against the wind. The provided plenty of shade, but the forest surrounding the high walls seemed to trap in the suns heat. For days the air remained hot and sticky, and though hot temperatures was welcome, Aurea could not get used to the humidity. The lion faunus struggled to keep pace with her hulking uncle. Every stride he took, she had to force three quick ones. The two were on their way to the rather small training circle so that Orenz could gauge some of the new arrivals. Headmaster Cobal had already welcomed them and gave a hasty tour. These days he was always busy, doing everything in his power to strengthen the signal. Occasionally he would make an appearance at the arena to critique those partaking in sparring lessons. Today though, with the new ship, the headmaster would be busy aiding the crew in transferring their supplies into storage units around New Beacon.

"I can't believe how many survivors have found their way here in only a couple weeks." Aurea fiddled with the leather straps of her golden wrist plate. "At this rate we'll run out of space to house people."

Her Uncle Orenz chuckled. " If I know Cobal, and I think I do pretty well, He's already got a plan for that."

"What could he possibly come up with? We don't have anything to build shelters with." She motioned to the high wall and said, "We could gather wood from the trees, but there's so many Grimm out there that Headmaster has restricted students from going out there without a hunter and huntress present."

"Wood?" Orenz laughed, "Don't be ridiculous girl." He unzipped his vest and let it slip off his shoulders. "We have new airships coming in more frequently. The way I see it, and I'm sure Cobal is ten steps ahead of me, that's a lot of scrap medal and extra tech. He will find a use for it all."

"Hmm!" Aurea thought in silence. It made sense and with how well the Headmaster designed New beacon, she was suddenly confident that he would figure it all out.

Finally reaching the small arena, Orenz crossed his arms and observed the current spar. Two students were going at it. The spar was a basic training lesson; no abilities and no dust. Swords clanged and scraped in a fury. They seemed evenly matched, but for some reason Orenz grunted.

"Stop holding back you two." The combatants halted immediately, confused. "Don't give me that look. Neither of you are trying. Step out of your comfort zone."

Aurea had noticed it as well. Without the use of the semblance and dust tricks, both were unsure of themselves. Her younger self would have blurted out their faults. Those days were gone now, as her uncle made sure of that. Instead, she stepped onto the platform and bared her claws. She would force them into releasing whatever was holding them back. The sparring only lasted a few moments, but by the end of it, the two who had started were laughing, feeling much better about fighting without the aid of their abilities. Though, Aurea stood over both of them with a genuine smile.

"You never know when you will have to fight using only your skills with weapons. You don't have to be afraid of that now." She helped the two up and congratulated them on their efforts. She could tell they were newer students, and though they had proven themselves at some point to enroll into Beacon before The Calm broke, she didn't expect them to be experts. Neither did Orenz for that matter. After Aurea stepped off the platform, her uncle looked around to the students surrounding the arena.

"Who's up next."

"C'mon mate, give 'em a good drumming!" Some of the students and relatively new arrivals might have been watching quietly or respectfully, but at the fore of the group, Ansgar stood, hands linked behind his head as he called out and made remarks on the two fighting. The Faunus, despite his general attitude and posture, was in fact either shorter or on equal height to most of the students standing around watching the fight. Before he had learned how to use his Aura, or even realize he had a Semblance, he had gotten into his fair share of scraps, so fighting without the stuff wasn't as foreign to him as some. Of course, if he had a say in the matter, he wouldn't restrain himself, but the powers that be declared the rules for the day, so he would abide by them. No semblances or Dust, boring as that was, but he wouldn't complain too loudly about it. Besides, he could chatter about such things, and when the one Faunus girl stepped in, having arrived with the one instructor, Orenz if he remembered right, he leaned back and remarked on her taking charge to the nearby students.

"Well, talk about lighting a fire under their arses, eh? Least they're scrapping right proper now." After watching the two laugh off their fight and get pats on the back all around, the fight once Whats her Name, Ansgar cursing his terrible memory with names once again, the classic three words came up, throwing down the gauntlet and waiting to see which two students would take up the gauntlet next. After a moment of no one stepping up, he chuckled and swung his arms back to his sides, coming to rest in his jacket pockets as he started for the stage.

"I'll take that dance Teach, question is though..." With a loose grin, he stepped spryly onto the arena, moving to its center after it was vacated and spun, letting his jacket billow behind him, revealing both the lack of a shirt underneath and the twin revolver grips tucked snugly into their holsters as he came to a halt, arms now spread wide like he was offering someone come join him. His voice carried a borderline teasing, but whimsical tone as he spoke, giving everyone an apparent idea of who they were dealing with.

"Who's gonna give poor ol' me the honor of being my partner, eh? Can't tango with only one person, and I promise I won't step on your toes! Well, not too much anyways. Haven't actually learned formal dancing, mind you, so our definitions of too much might not agree right away..." Odds were, he would keep rambling until someone gave him a reason to shut up, considering how much he seemed to like the sound of his own voice at this point.

---

Aiden was among some of the students that were at the small arena. He watched two students going at it in the arena. He could tell they were making mistakes, he was just too lazy to point it out. An instructor and what seemed like another student stepped up, the instructor was definitely a lion faunus. He didn't get a good look at the other one. He waited as the instructor pointed out their mistakes. The two students had finished their fight and walked off just as the instructor asked all the students if they wanted to fight next. Aiden heard someone next to him volunteer and walk onto the arena. He was talking a lot and Aiden hated it.

"Oh, shut up! I'll do it!"

Aiden then pushed past everyone in his way to get to the front. Making his way to the arena, he faced Ansgar. He would obviously be a little angry, but that didn't stop him from wanting to shut this guy up.

"See how well you can do against me, huh? Maybe then you'll stop talking so much!"

He would have his weapon in his left hand, ready to fight. He didn't know how good this guy was in a fight but if he could do it, he would love to shut this guy up.

Sarah was just laying there looking up at the sky, reminded her of her home in the county. Well this was her home in the country now, and she'd have to get used to it. She didn't have anywhere or anyone else to go to anyway.

She couldn't help but notice the laughing of the defeated trainees and looked over, she wasn't interested in a fight at the moment which in of itself was strange, but Sarah was feeling strange today. But the laughing had caught her attention and she turned around to look at the fight. It seemed that they both just got whopped buy the girl in the middle. Sarah made the girl out as Aurea, now she was a good fighter Sarah had respect for that one. She'd have to ask for a spar sometime, but now she'd just watch as she called for more students to come and spar. This time it was some noisy dude, his mouth ran faster than a beowolf...

The next up to the stand seemed to be very upset with this, and was taking part in the dual to shut the guy up. If he hadn't done it Sarah would've probably been up there given a few more seconds of listening to the dudes overconfident nonsense.

Sarah leaned up and watched as the two stood there. This fight might be interesting, simply to see if the prattler got his teeth kick in. Sarah couldn't think of their names off the top of her head, she hadn't fought them or seen them fight so she'd not spent much head space on them. But maybe that was about to change.

---

"Aww, does that mean you don't like my chatter? Shame, I rather enjoy it myself really. It'll grow on you, cross my heart and hope to die." Ansgar rebuked the remark of shutting up as the young man joined him on the stage and, despite his chatter, took a quick look over him to get a sizing up. Bit taller than him, wielded a baseball bat, based off his tone and stance the aggressive sort that didn't take kindly to, well, just about anything really. Cocky too, considering his opening statement, and he grinned as the challenger kept his left hand on his weapon. Casually drawing his paired revolvers, he spun them rapidly and made an act out of it, catching them in a grip that, if it wasn't for the bayonet blades that were currently jutting out beneath the barrel of each, would have looked rather odd for pistols. Grinning, he offered a low bow, eyes never leaving his opponent.

"To the victor, nothing outside of bragging rights really. Not even those, considering the restrictions. Let's see if you can actually shut me up, tall, dark, and broody." Rising up, he reckoned the opening move would be his, and crossed the gap between them in a fast blitz, showing he was as fast in movement as he was running his mouth. He would feint a strike from his right hand bayonet, seeing if he could bait out his opponent into a guard or otherwise act. He had to gauge what his opponent would do, combat wise, and then go from there. Might as well rile him up too, anger clouded the judgement after all, and he already seemed rather willing to get heated over mindless chatter and banter.

---

Aiden wouldn't care too much about what Ansgar was saying as he would be a little busy analysing him. From what he could tell, this guy obviously like talking, he has two revolvers as weapons which could be troublesome and he didn't seem too concerned with this fight, acting slightly nonchalant. I'll give him something to be concerned about.

"Yeah, I'm sure about that."

He said very sarcastically as Ansgar did some trick with his revolvers, spinning them around and then bowing to him.

"Alright, fancy guy. Come on! Let's go!"

As soon as he finished saying that his opponent was closing the gap between them. This dude is fast... but so am I. He would see a strike come from the guy's right bayonet and instead of blocking or dodging, he simply stepped forward to his opponent with a rather bold attack, swinging his bat from his left hand sideways towards Ansgar's head.

---

"Someone's impatient!" Ansgar raised an eyebrow briefly, taking the broody lad's tactic into consideration. Meet him head on then, and step inside his attacks. Better against larger weapons than the equivilent of paired daggers considering he wasn't firing off ranged attacks yet. The movement of the bat was caught in his peripheral vision, and Ansgar wasted no time in reacting accordingly. Ducking down just enough to let the bat nearly brush his hat, and bobbing back to lunge forward again, he used this rising momentum to throw an uppercut with his right hand. Taking advantage of his feinted thrust, he had flipped the revolver in his right hand to hold it by the grip proper, but with the barrel and bayonet aligned back along his arm.

"Seems we don't have a good grasp on the concept of personal space, eh?" The uppercut was there to get his attention, as was his continued prattling, though the real danger was the fact his right knee was snapping forward with an upward rise, lending momentum to the uppercut but, more importantly, aiming to land a solid blow right to his foes groin. Sure, it was dirty fighting, but there was no such thing as a fair fight as far as the raven Faunus was concerned. Even if he didn't connect the blow, he could turn the blow into a shoulder check, slamming his momentum straight into his opponent. The plan was to throw him off balance and limit his range of motion. He didn't need nearly as much room to work up the momentum for his blades and punches to do their work as the bat would, and he would take advantage of that gladly.

---

Aiden saw that his attack had missed as his opponent dodged and he saw an uppercut coming his way. He managed to left his head back, dodging the uppercut but he didn't see the knee and couldn't react to it in time. He got hit below the belt and he was definitely not happy. He hated people who play dirty, which was ironic as he does the same thing from time to time. Aiden dropped to his knees from the pain, trying to throw a punch out of sheer anger, but Ansgar was already backing off. He kneel there for a few more moments before slowly and painfully lifting himself to his feet and walking off.

"Bastard..."

He would look over to the instructor and the student that was with him as he walked off. He did not want to have been made a fool of. he lost a fight he should have won and he wasn't having it. After lulling Ansgar, Aiden then rushed at him, subconsciously activating his semblance in the process. There is no way he's going to escape a beat down, even if the teachers have to stop him.

"Let's see how good you are without any of your cheap tricks!"

Aiden would be back in the arena, charging towards Ansgar. He wouldn't let someone who uses dirty tactics to beat him so easily. Aiden would try to swing his bat towards Ansgar's head again. He would swing multiple times, missing every shot due to his recklessness. He would then back up and transform his bat into it's shotgun form, aiming directly at Ansgar, ready to fire.

"Eat this!"

The teacher would probably stop the fight before things got too out of hand, but that didn't stop Aiden from trying.

Aurea watched the event unfold rather quickly. The silver eyed faunus seemed to have a lot to say, even in the midst of sparring. She figured it had to be some kind distraction tactic, and apparently his fighting style matched. With a quick fake of the hand, the attacker was able to land a follow-up knee. The human, clearly pissed off, took a moment before he stepped down in an apparent surrender. However, the moment he made eye contact with her, Aurea knew this wasn't the case. She steppes forward, but was halted by the giant arm belonging to her uncle.

"No!" He said abruptly and not a moment later, a burst of rage burst forth from the human. He was charging, weapon at the ready and eyes glued to his previous opponent. Before Aurea could react, Orenz was gone and suddenly between the two fighters. He held out his hand, palm upward and took the brunt of the attack. With his own ability, he would absorb whatever damage could be dealt. His face turned that of pure disappointment. Aurea watched as her uncle deeply observed the young man.

"That's enough for today," he said with authority. "Another childish outburst like that and I'll show you the true meaning of rage.

Aurea's eyes widened in disbelief. The damage Orenz absorbed must have been a significant amount of power . She has only ever seen him act like that when he stores enough energy, as doing so brings out his anger. The more he absorbs, the more he lusts for battle. He showed great restraint, even if it was for a student.

Sarah look on at the fight, and holy hell was it short. She didn't fully see what happened but one of the boys was quickly brought to his knees, she wondered what kind of attack he'd been hit by. In the end it didn't matter, the dude was obviously pissed about his defeat, quickly standing back up and charging in. Sarah stood up when she saw his wild swings, and then Orenz intervened and the air seemed to get heavier. Orenz was one intimidating dude, Sarah wanted to fight him, but not right now. He didn't seem to be in the mood for it anyway, she'd need to see if she could ask someone else.

Sandra would slowly move a little closer so she could better see everything, she'd have lugged her gigantic weapon onto her back as she walked towards the sparing area. She wanted to ask if another match could get started but also wanted to wait for this this little kerfuffle to be over.

---

Aiden would try to attack Ansgar but would be stopped as the instructor stepped in and seemed to absorb the damage. Aiden was a little surprised he was able to take the attack head on, usually his increased power would be too much for people to handle. He was berated by the instructor. Aiden didn't pay any attention to it, he just angrily looked at the instructor for a few moments before walking away. He passed that same student that was standing next to the instructor from before, probably giving him a look of disappointment. Exiting the arena, he went back where everyone else was and pushed his way to the back.

"What are you looking at?!"

He would say to some students who were looking at him the wrong way. He put away his bat and proceeded to sit down at the back, a little bit away from everyone else, not wanting to really pay attention anymore, especially after what had went down with the teacher. He took a quick glance around and saw Sarah Ember, looking away again after just a moment. He didn't feel like interacting with anyone else right now. he just closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down.

---

"Oh how the mighty have fallen, eh friend?" Ansgar grinned like a madman when his knee connected solidly, even if the majority of the students couldn't see precisely how he had been able to bring his opponent down to their knees rather swiftly. Dancing backwards from the blind swings thrown at him, he kept that grin on his face as his opponent rose and started stumbling off, and he spun the revolvers as the bayonets retracted, holstering them snugly and letting his hands resting on the pistol grips. Fittingly, his angry foe seemed to be unable to let the fight just end considering he had turned and walked away, charging him with a massive surge of rage and energy, swings wild and obvious, and he bobbed and weaved, not even bothering to strike back. Let him dig himself into his own grave, figuratively of course.

"Aww, I might take this a tad more seriously if you actually could land a solid hit!" Much like the faunus watching with the instructor realized, his chatter was as much distraction and getting under the skin of his foe as it was simply that he enjoyed talking and running his mouth. With this human? It was working wonderfully, even if it had pushed his foe into breaking the rules of the sparring match, but rules only worked if all parties agreed to abide by them. Putting a steady amount of space between him and the opponent who had switched his baseball bat over to a shotgun, and kept smirking. His hands were resting on his revolvers, eyes having taken on a blue glint as his own Semblance kicked in, acting out of self defense at this point. For him, everything was moving almost painfully slowly, the shouting from Teach, though once he saw that the Faunus instructor would intervene in time, he cut his Semblance off. It was taxing at the best of times, doubly so when he had to physically act under it, so it was quietly appreciated he didn't have to react under his own Semblance.

"That was fun, wasn't that fun folks? I think that went fairly well, all things considered." For someone facing down a rage fueled human trying to put a rather gaping hole in him with a charged shotgun blast, Ansgar was acting rather relaxed about the whole situation. All in stride, far as the raven Faunus was concerned, and it was just how he usually operated, and considering his casual stance as he strode off the arena and hopped down, he appeared to have put it behind him. He was rather curious if Teach's comment on that being enough for today meant fights in general, or just their fight. It'd be a shame he he couldn't get a good look at some of the other student's fighting styles, but oh well, he at least had a handle on Mr. Tall, dark, and broody who was now sulking off his defeat and scolding. As for Ansgar, he would likely wander about the students present, chattering to whomever was unfortunate enough to find themselves stuck listening to him.

Sarah would watch the students leave the sparing stage, she'd give Ansgar a brief look before looking over at Aiden. Coincidentally he was also looking her way even if only for a moment. Sarah felt like she should go talk to this kid, he seemed to have some anger issues and Sarah could relate to that. So she decided to walk over to where the teen had stationed himself and sat next to him, "Hey." She would say pausing for a moment to gauge his response. But she didn't really give Aiden a chance to say anything before she continued. "You messed up there, but don't worry. I get you."

Sarah wouldn't be looking at Aiden instead focusing on what little bit of Ansgar she could see. "But you know what, watching you and him fight, even if it was brief has gotten me in the mood for a scrap. And I think chatter box over there is still raring to go. So I just thought I'd come over here and let you know that I'm about to kick his ass. And also, if you ever want to talk. Well, you should be able to find me." Sarah would say with a smile as she stood up and adjusted the way her massive weapon hung from her shoulder.

Sarah would then walk up to Orenz and whispered to him "Hey could I fight that motor mouth? He fights in a way I really want to go up against, I am interested to see how he handles a strong defense... And uhh, I kinda want to shut him up." Sarah smiled trying to look innocent while rubbing the back of her neck and laughing nervously.

Aurea was approaching a slightly disgruntled Orenz. She couldn't tell if his frustrations stemmed from the fact that a student lashed out or the fact that he let himself react the way he did. He was a caring beast of a guy when it came to those still learning, but when he stores energy like that, the struggle to hold back his anger becomes rather difficult. Aurea watched him take a few breaths. With no way to release the energy in the presence of students, the giant faunus had to resort to calming his mind. It could take a while.

A tall girl walked up and whispered to Orenz, to which Aurea intervened after barely hearing the question. She knew her uncle, who was in his head, might unintentionally ignore her. She walked up to the girl who towered over her.

"I think it might be best if sparring ends for the day," Aurea said calmly. "Nerves around here seem to be on edge and it's never a good idea to spar with a goal like that in mind." She motioned over to the boy that Orenz had scolded. "The goal should be to improve ones skills, otherwise, we end up with situations like this, where someone becomes angrier than necessary." A quick thought entered her mind and figured she might ask the question. "What happens if you step up there and it doesn't go your way? Can you handle failing your goal in what's supposed to be a simple sparring match?" Aurea chuckled. "Forgive me," she said as she put her hand to her forehead. "I think all of Uncle Orenz' lessons are rubbing off on me a little too much."

Orenz rested his hand on Aurea's shoulder. "It's good to see you're picking them up so quickly." He took one last breath before confronting the girl as tall as him. "She right, though. No doubt that child had thought the same thing, and if I let him follow through with that attack, someone might have been seriously injured." Orenz lifted his chin to address the surrounding students. "This arena is meant to hone your skills," he hollered, "and to help your peers hone theirs. Intentions of harm for whatever reason will not be tolerated."

Suddenly the small crowd started to part, allowing Headmaster Cobal to pass through. "Oh my!" he said with a light hearted smile. "Which one of you ruffled his mane?" Cobal was staring at his PDA while approaching Aurea, rubbing his hand atop her head as a person would a dog. Being around Orenz a lot, she got to know his old team rather well and considered each of them uncles and aunts. "At least one of you has learned to tame that ferocious attitude."

Aurea let out a light laugh. The headmaster walked passed her and took his place on the raised platform. He observed the students for a moment. There was lots of old faces and an increasing number of new ones. He smiled confidently. In the face of things, he was happy with the turnout. His signal was reaching people across the world, which meant his efforts were paying off.

"I am pleased to welcome those of you who have no doubt struggled to find your way here. To the ones who have been here, I assure you, from what I have been told by the leaders of our new arrivals, that their journeys were far from smooth. Like us, they have lost close ones along the way, so I ask you all, old and new, to treat each other with the utmost respect." He looked back to the raven faunus who had embarrassed the raging human. It was as if he had seen the whole thing unravel. "I understand personalities may clash, and that is to be expected. However, let us learn from them instead of trying to change them. You will be working with each other, after all. Speaking of which." Cobal walked across the platform, hand crossed behind his waist.

"We need a team to scout far beyond the walls. Details of the mission will be spoken with me privately after we have some volunteers. Two teams would be best, but I don't expect everyone to be quite ready to leave just yet. Take note that eventually, we may need all hands on deck. But on to business. Who wants to put their skills to use?"

---

He would be trying to calm himself down after his outburst earlier when Sarah came up and started talking to him. He didn't respond but smirked to himself as she walked away. He hadn't met anyone that had similarities, shutting up chatter boxes for example. Considering her suggestion about wanting to talk, he watched to see if she could get a fight with the chatter box. As expected, the instructor said no. Disappointing. He thought for sure chatter box would get his comeuppance. Aiden stood up and was about to push through the crowd again to get to the front when the Headmaster entered the area and he parted with everyone else, even though he didn't want to. He had gotten into enough trouble already, he wasn't looking for any more.

He watched as the headmaster passed by the student accompanying Orenz and listened to what he had to say. When the headmaster referenced him and chatter box, he rolled his eyes, getting slightly angry again before calming himself down. Cobal then mentioned something about needing a team to go beyond the walls, eager to finally go out and get some real action, he raised his hand.

"I'll do it."

He walked past everyone to the front of the crowd. The only reason he volunteered was because he thought that chick from before would join up. He wanted to see how she did in battle. She was one of the only people that he liked so far, they both shared a dislike for chatter box after all. He also figured chatter box would probably join up too. He was willing to tolerate him, but if he does anything to set him off again, he won't hesitate for another scuffle.

Sarah was a little disappointing with the response she got, she had wanted to explain how it'd be good for him to get knocked on his ass but the headmaster had arrived before she could formulate an argument. She looked over at the headmaster with little difficulty, being a good amount taller than everyone had its perks. And the moment shed been waiting for finally arrived, she had the chance to leave the campus and shoot some filthy Grimm. Her face lit up with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm, "I can go! I'll help! Pick me!" She would say raising her hand up and jumping up and down. Of coarse with her height she really didn't need to but alas she'd already done it.

The temperature around her picked up a little, almost as if her urge to go was so strong it was manifesting as heat in the very air. Of coarse in actuality it was her hidden rage at the Grimm that was behind the temperature shift, buts he wasn't about to admit that. She looked over at the angry kid who had also volunteered, she was excited to see him demolish some Grimm skulls with his might bat. If she had a tail right now, oh boy would it be wagging. Sarah might have looked a little frightening as she giggled while drawing her massive weapon.

---

Ansgar had fallen into chatting idly with some other Faunus students while the tall girl had went looking to see if she could spar with him as well now, though he missed all of that, being out of ear shot of the whole discussion between the two. When Orenz raised his voice, announcing the purpose and intent of the arena being to train and help others train, and to not let it escalate to anything beyond that, the raven faunus chuckled a bit, arms linked behind his head casually. While he wasn't laughing at the instructor, far from it, being the receiving end of just such a thing sparking off was, well, hard to describe. Interesting, though, since it seemed that Mr. Broody had shown his hand in being fueled by rage. Useful to know, though that would make sparring matches for the purposes of training tricky, since once his partner did something to infuriate him, that could set things off rather quickly.

"Sure thing Teach, won't go ruffling my feathers over it at any rate." Chuckling at his own bad joke, the arrival of Headmaster Cobal certainly got people's attention. Grinning a bit more sheepishly as the Headmaster pretty much pointed out him and Mr. Broody, he gave a sort of 'what can you do' sort of shrug in response, having no intentions of changing how he acted just because someone got pissed off with him. Besides, when Ms. Goldilocks stepped in before his sparring match started, she had been looking for no holding back. No sense disappointing an audience then, even at the expense of a sparring partner. When the Headmaster mentioned heading out, Mr. Broody and Ms. Giantess spoke up one after the other, both volunteering for the mission. Suppressing the urge to laugh while he spoke, he also stepped forward and volunteered.

"Well, I could certainly use the opportunity to stretch my legs and head out on a field trip. Besides, a friendly little team building exercise is just what we could use right now, I would bet!" Of course, Ansgar was putting as much friendliness into his tone as he could get away with, hands moving to the pockets of his long coat, continuing to smile and be generally happy. Especially if it was an irritant for certain parties involved, someone needed to learn to reign in their temper after all. That, and with the end of sparring so early, he did have some energy to burn, but whether he would be sent out with those two or not remained to be seen.

---

---

Despite having only been present at the encampment for a couple hours at most, Jet already found himself wasting away with nothing to occupy his mind. It almost made the trip seem like a colossal waste of time. Resting up against a fence with his hands shoved in his pockets, a Cheshire grin permanently fixed from ear to ear, the young Faunus scoured the sparring arena. The battles tickled his fancy a little, but the no semblance challenge that had been set was a major deterrent. No use fighting a battle he knew there was no chance of winning. He settled for just watching today, impatiently tapping his toe while he prayed something exciting would happen. The large, burly teacher stepping in to halt a potentially fatal attack garnered a curious rise of an eyebrow, but was otherwise met with an exasperated sigh.

Jet's attention swapped between the loud mouthed Faunus and the moody human, rubbing his chin with a quizzical expression. They were intriguing, to say the least. He couldn't help but think about how fun they'd be to toy with. Loud, rambunctious and over-eager. It was a recipe for excitement. He'd definitely keep those two in mind if he ever needed a quick rush.

The Headmaster stood at the podium and addressed the campus, bringing Jet out of his train of thought. Adjusting his hat, the young man walked forward and joined the rest of the crowd. Headmaster Cobal was requesting the aid of Huntsman in a scouting mission. Really? A scouting mission? It sounded like a snooze fest. Still, it was better than just sitting around here watching the grass grow. As expected, the squawking birdbrain and brooding tough guy put their hands up to volunteer; as well as a girl who could barely contain her excitement. Jet found her enthusiasm unnerving. In any case, he slowly raised a hand into the air and cleared his throat.
"I must insist you allow me to attend. I fear for my sanity if I am to spend another moment in this place." Jet speech was refined and proper, but his casual cynicism dripped from every word he spoke. A few peers shot him an annoyed look. Perhaps they were questioning who this stranger was, making demands of the Headmaster. Or maybe they were puzzled that someone dressed so finely would even be a Huntsman. Jet paid them no mind, but instead tilted his head to stare directly at the other's who had volunteered. He flashed them a grin that most would perceive as friendly, but a keen mind would notice the rather cold, indifference behind it. It wasn't a sincere smile, but a mere facade of politeness which Jet had made a habit of over the years.

He definitely knew that he couldn't see what was going on, but he could definitely hear what was happening. Some people were fighting, well sparring to be more specific. Despite how blurry the figures in the arena were, Viridis could tell how skilled these people were; they were far more skilled compared to him, and probably always will be since they all would be training at New Beacon to counter the break of the Calm. In all honesty, he was just blessed to be standing where he was now, although his face was hard and lowered, pastel green locks leaning forward in the process. Could he really be useful to the people that have saved him? Yeah, Viridis doesn't have any formal training, nor can he run away from a fight if/when he finds himself in one, so wouldn't that make him a hindrance more than anything else?

Before Viridis could think himself into yet another spiral of depression, the sound of arguing and clashes had him look up with arched eyebrows. Were people actually fighting each other? Was someone hurt? Unable to tell from where he was now, within a small crowd of other people, the short boy slowly but surely maneuvered his way around all of the people. Unfortunately, by the time he managed to find his way around all of the mess laid out before him, Viridis was startled by the Headmaster's voice reverberating in his ears. Clutching his long white tunic now, the boy listened carefully to what was expected of him.

Hearing the Headmaster talk about how terrible it was getting to this place and for everyone to see each other as equals put Viridis in an even more anxious and depressed state. Making it here practically half dead, and having these experienced people treat him as equal? He could never think that, even if the Headmaster said so.

However, when the Headmaster stated he was in need of a scouting team, Viridis perked up, despite his face not showing it. Scouting? That was something he could do. And even if he couldn't hold so much as a candle to these other people, perhaps he can prove where he shines most? Shaking his head to get rid of his nerves, Viridis squinted as he focused on the Headmaster's cobalt blue hair. He could already hear other people chiming in that they would like to join, so once he managed to walk a bit closer to the small group forming around the Headmaster, the long haired teen brought his hand up slowly.
"U-Um...I would like to go as well. If that's alright with everyone else." He spoke up, his gaze now locked on the ground.

---

Panic set in as Clara slowly realized she had gotten lost from the group that she was supposed to be with. She had stepped away for just a moment to admire some of the natural beauty in the terrain around her, and without realizing it, she had been left behind. Unfortunately, no one had made it a priority to let her know that they were getting ready to move on. All she knew is that as a new recruit, she was supposed to be joining the others at some sort of arena in order to have their abilities assessed by the headmaster. Or something like that. The change in environment was really a lot to take in, and Clara was still not sure that she was even ready to fight others.

"Come on, Clara. You're already screwing up. Just find the stupid group," she said to herself. Fortunately, a rather kind faunus had heard her frustrations and pointed her in the direction that she was supposed to be. She gave them a quick smile and took off at a light jog, hoping to not be too late. The thought of not being able to give good first impressions brought a frown to her face. This was supposed to be a new beginning. She was meant to do great things. Now she was probably going to get stuck with the rejects, the lazy, the inept. All because she was late to this stupid assessment.

Fortunately, she had finally stumbled across the group of students that she was originally with. They might have been hard to recognize if it weren't for the incredibly tall girl standing among the others. Her height was slightly intimidating, and made her someone Clara wouldn't easily forget. Clara slipped in between some of the other students, hoping that her tardiness would go unnoticed. Clara had arrived just in time to hear talk of scouting beyond the walls. The headmaster wanted volunteers to perform this task, and several students had already volunteered. It was the perfect opportunity to prove herself to her peers.

"I'd like to join, if you all would have me," she said confidently outloud to no one in particular.