It was perhaps an hour and a half later, after the newly minted teams had eaten their dinner and taken their time to introduce themselves to each other. For most of the students the concept of a 4 man team wasn’t introduced to them up until the ceremony; there were those suspicious of the fact that every sword they could chose had a matching sheath, but in their rush to pass initiation even the most savvy applicants didn’t have the time to fully comprehend the implication.
Team CLRT, however, wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with one another; although circumstances made it so they didn’t interact with each other at their best, it did show them they can work well together. As a result, their focus was more on the food offered, rather than reintroducing themselves.
Now, with their hunger sated, the quartet decided to make their way to their room, and more importantly to a bed. It was that decision that brought them back to the main hall, staring at a map of the campus.
“Beacon possesses a music club?” asked Viola with a raised brow, her hair once again combed and swept to her right side. With a little luck, this would be the last time she had to do that today.
“Apparently, I’m more interested in the sports fields myself.” Argent replied to his partner.
“I’m partial to the games club if they have ch…” the witch murmured before her eyes widened,
“I’m just surprised to see Beacon have such a non physical or mentally engaging club, ‘tis all,” she really hoped no one heard that.
“Well, I suppose even Hunters need some way to relax.” Cereza mentioned to the violet girl, pulling out her own scroll.
Not for the first time that day did Tierra growl at her crutches, thinking of how a normally easy trip to the dorms would be so complicated by these darn crutches. But the Faunus just sighed, knowing she was lucky.
“Did you see if they have an astronomy club or anything like that?” the cheetah girl asked, looking up at the stars.
“They sure are beautiful around here, far enough away from the city to allow a clear view.”“They have a garden club,” Cereza noted absently as she moved the map around on the small screen of her scroll. She scowled as her fingers blocked her view as they moved the map around for a better look, and started using her semblance instead. The images on the small screen suddenly started flicking around as the blonde cross referenced the text she had received with the map, and soon a path to the dormitories from their position was overlaid on the map itself, all without her moving her fingers.
“I have a path.”‘Oh, so the weapon isn’t the only thing powered by her semblance,’ noted the witch, remembering the words spoken to her during initiation.
She showed the image to her teammates, expanding her scroll so they could get a better look.
The limping faunus looked over the map, sort of snorting that the leader choose the easiest way possible to do things but also sort of impressed that the tall blonde had that sort of technique with digital devices.
“Are you also planning on mapping the way to our classes?” Tierra asked in a half bemused, half curious tone.
Cereza blinked at the shortest member of the team.
“Did you want me to?”It was Viola’s turn to blink at her cyberpunk teammate.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to know the shortest routes, if it’s not to much of a bother.” Still she couldn’t help but wonder,
‘...what else can she do with that semblance?’“You mean you hadn’t already thought of that?” asked the noirette of her taller partner.
“How extraordinary. I thought all technophiles would figure out with their high tech devices how to do things the easiest way possible while picking up a coffee.” Cereza frowned slightly, lowering her scroll as she looked at her partner. She knew that she wasn’t the best at social interaction, a by product of growing up with the only constant person in her life being her older brother, but even she recognised what seemed like mockery.
“And when, pray tell, was I supposed to think of this? I was a bit busy today being thrown into the air and then fighting for my life in a forest. Not to mention, we literally only just got our schedules and maps.”“Let’s just get to the dorms, I for one could use a good night’s rest.” Argent suggested, to head off any potential argument between his two teammates, though also because it was true, getting knocked unconscious after fighting for his life would do that.
“Splendid idea Sir Roan,” Viola clapped her hands once in order to get their attention, or at least the attention of her leader,
“We still have a few things to take care of till the day ends, do we not?” She directed her gaze at Cereza as she moved to Cerezas right side, the side Tierra did not occupy.
Tierra’s green eyes glared for a while yet at her partner’s face, rearing now for a fight. But then she sighed, knowing that now was really not the time, before replying,
”Yes, you are right, Viola. There are still things left to do.” Then the faunus turned her eyes turned a clump of bushes they were passing by before saying,
“Sorry for losing my temper, Cereza. It just has been a long day.”Uncertainty crossed Cereza’s face as she tried to think why Tierra would have lost her temper, but the blonde really didn’t understand. They had been talking, and then it seemed like the girl had mocked her and Cereza had pointed out that she had not had a chance to do anything at all, all perfectly logical.
’People are so illogical.’ She mused to herself, and looked down at the map she had modified. Deciding to ignore the situation for now, she gestured,
“The elevator is this way.”The hacker stepped away from the girls framing either side of her, leading the group in the direction of the dorm building.
“Thank you,” mouthed the witch to her partner once she was sure the other two wouldn’t notice, before a thought struck her. Quickening her pace to catch up to her leader, simple task given Tierra’s limp, she held her left hand in her right as she opened her mouth.
“Do we know the layout of our residence?” Argent pulled out his scroll and pulled up the map of the dorm on the holographic screen, then he held the device up for his teammates to see.
“It’s on our scrolls, check it out.”“The text said we were on the second floor, room two-oh-seven. It should be one of the rooms in the middle, though which exact room I am not sure.” Cereza explained, not stopping her slow walk or looking up at Argent’s screen as she flicked through her own scroll.
“There...doesn’t appear to be any sort of partitions between the beds.” noted Viola, a practiced smile appearing on her face in order to mask a small sense of dread building in her stomach.
Tierra’s eyes snapped back to Viola,
“No partitions?” The faunus then looked closely at the knight’s dorm map.
“Oh boy. This is going to be awkward.”“Partition? Why would we-” Cereza stopped and turned back to the trio behind her, her eyes alighting on Argent. Her mind was quick to finish the coding - one bedroom, one male and three females. She fiddled with her scroll awkwardly.
“Oh.”“There’s nothing in the rules that I’ve seen that says we have to leave the beds where they were, it should be pretty simple to rearrange the beds as we see fit.” Argent pointed out to the girls on his team, he wasn’t any more comfortable with the prospect of sharing a room with three girls than they were with sharing a room with him.
The noirette then took an even closer look, trying her best to estimate sizes and such.
“No good way to arrange the beds and add a some sort of barrier. The girls’ side would have be pretty squished in order to give you any decent sort of room even if we just did a Wall of Vacuo with a big enough cloth and string.” She hummed a bit and tried to think of something.
“Let’s...not overdramatize the situation,” Viola said with a voice that was at odds with her smile,
“People our age are probably used to sleeping with...in this arrangement, and I assure you both Sir Roan is nothing short of a gentleman...I’ll simply have to find a work around sharing a changing room with a...sword bearer.”Argent had a suggestion for a solution.
“Well, if space is the big issue about putting up a curtain then there’s a fairly simple solution: bunk beds, if we have at least one then the other two don’t have to jam together to make room and whoever gets the second bunk will have the top bunk as a sight shield, regardless of which bunk they choose, how about that idea?”Cereza made a face.
“Can I not have a bunk bed? It’ll be hard enough sleeping in the same room as other people, let alone sleeping so close to someone.”Argent shrugged.
“We only need one bunk bed for this to work, so that should be fine. Anyone else object?”That didn’t exactly help with her current predicament, nonetheless,
“I see nothing wrong with using one bunk bed, although i would to prefer not sleep in it unless i can get the bottom bunk.” “Let’s figure it out when we get there; we’ll have a better look at the size of the furniture and room then.” The hacker suggested.
"That would probably be for the best," Tierra agreed with her partner.
"Besides, we may not be able to make bunkbeds. It might be too damaging to the furniture or something. I could sleep under one of the beds if worse comes to worse."“No one is going to be sleeping under a bed; that’s ridiculous.” Cereza frowned.
“What would that accomplish? Besides, even if someone were to sleep under a bed, it would have to be Argent since he is the only male in the team.”As she spoke, she led the rest of team CLRT towards the elevator again. Waving her scroll in front of the access panel, the blonde frowned at the red light that came on.
“Declined? What?”She was just about to dive into the computer system to find out what was going on when two pairs of footsteps behind the group caught her attention. The hacker half-turned towards the approaching people, a question on her tongue before she realised they were not students.
A pair of adults approached, one female and one male. The woman was a platinum blonde, her hair long and loose, flowing over her shoulders and contrasting against the dark brown corset with golden embroidery and matching sleeveless cropped jacket she wore, along with a pair of bracers that held some sort of mechanism that obviously folded out into a pair of weapons. Black stretch vinyl pants tucked into knee high boots completed her look, and she watched the quartet with guarded pink eyes flecked with gold.
Her companion was taller, and there was a certain amount of familial resemblance between their features. He also had platinum blonde hair, kept short and neat to go along with the white formal shirt he wore with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the top couple of buttons undone. A buttoned up stormy grey vest and rumpled black slacks over combat boots completed his casual-formal ensemble, and where the woman’s eyes were guarded his black ones were steely. A complicated frame was visible attached to one shoulder, and what looked like a belt of shotgun shells dangled from the obvious weapon.
”Miss Blerta?” The large man asked firmly, watching her carefully.
”Your presence has been requested in the headmaster's office.” Continued the woman, presenting a notice bearing Ozpin’s signature and seal.
“Oh...can I ask what it’s about?” Tierra asked, nervously eyeing the two humans. The notice looked official, but why wouldn’t they have pulled aside before the ceremony, or at dinner? Why wait until now?
’I wonder what it’s about? I haven’t done anything to get myself in trouble...have I?’”Not our place to say, i’m afraid, although it is to do with your enrollment around here.”Cereza watched the scene in curiosity, her mind already thinking of doing a little bit of hacking to find out what was going on. Her mind brought up the memory of her brother talking about his new gang he was creating, and the hacker thought to herself;
‘Wasn’t Midas making an information broker’s guild? I wonder if I can get any information on this from him.’“...May we come as well?” asked the violet haired witch, a practiced smile on her face set in order to mask her worry.
“If it’s something that involves her enrollment than it is of concern to us as well.”“Sorry, Miss. Involved parties only.” The man gave her what looked like an attempt at a reassuring smile, and held a hand out for Tierra.
“This way, Miss Blerta.”“...Understandable,” she said with a curt nod.
As Tierra and the two adults walked off Argent spoke up.
“What... what was that?”Tierra hobbled in the direction the man indicated, framed on either side by the two adults as the remaining members of CLRT watched with mixed emotions. As they turned the corner, the man pulled out his scroll and sent a message to someone, and moments later the trio’s scrolls *pinged* as a text came in. Upon inspection, it was a new set of access codes to the elevator and dorm rooms.
“I’m...not sure. But I might be able to find out.” Cereza frowned slightly. Contemplating sending a text to her brother with her semblance, she turned back to the elevator and finally accessed it. Stepping inside, the hacker turned back to her remaining team mates.
“We won’t be able to do anything standing around here; let’s go.” “Of course.” Argent agreed, though he was still thinking about what had just happened.
Cereza held the doors of the elevator open a second as she noticed her violet-haired teammate wasn’t following.
“Viola?”“...Hmm?” was her short reply, as she turned her head to glance in her teammates direction.
“Are you coming?” The hacker beckoned the young woman towards the elevator.
“We can discuss the entirety of the program in our dorm, and maybe find out what’s going on.”Viola silently made her way to the elevator.
“Right.” The ride up to the second floor was silent, none of the trio really feeling like talking. Cereza checked her scroll for the number of their dorm while she waited, reaffirming what dorm they were in.
With a sigh, it was Viola that decided to break the silence.
“What number was the room assigned to us again?”“207.” Cereza replied shortly, watching the floor indicator.
The hallway was empty, thankfully, as the remains of CLRT made their way to their dorm. The doors were blank, but the electronic latches beside each door had the room number etched into the panel in small writing. Either the other teams were all fast asleep, due to the later hour as CLRT had been a bit slower in their travels because of Tierra’s broken ankle, or the rooms were soundproofed, as the halls were eerily silent.
Cereza carefully checked the latch of the door nearest her and the doorway opposite, and counted the doorways down the hall.
“We should be somewhere near the middle, unless we’re in the side building. I doubt that though.”“How so?” inquired the witch.
The hacker gestured to the T intersection in front of the elevator they had arrived on, which had a sign pointing to the side building and proclaimed: ‘Dorms 215-218’.
“The evidence suggests otherwise.”“Oh, apologies. Guess I was a bit distracted,” her tone of voice mirrored her statement.
“I can understand that, but right now we need to find our dorm. We can worry about this thing with Tierra in the morning, once we’ve gotten some rest and hopefully more information.”Cereza led the way, striding down the hall. As they drew closer to another T intersection, she checked the room to her left, reading the number.
“208. That means this one should be our dorm,” She motioned to the door on the right of the group, opposite the dorm she had just checked.
With a wave of the hackers scroll, the remaining members of team CLRT were finally allowed into their dorm room. The room was pretty bare bones, with four large beds, four tables, a low bookshelf underneath the window opposite the door and a small door either side of the surprisingly spacious room.
On one of the tables just beside the door was a bag of pegs and an instruction booklet, detailing how to put together the bunk beds.
“I guess bunk beds are allowed.” Cereza muttered.
‘Bunk beds,’ that thought was enough to wake Viola out of her stupor, a sense of dread forming in the pit of her stomach before she remembered Cereza and her both made their distaste for the beds known. Now a little more awake, she looked around the room.
“We each get our own desk it seems,” said Viola, eying the desks, or rather the three shelves on the wall the desks were placed.
The tallest member glanced around the room, noting the stuff stacked on three of the beds.
“Tierra’s things aren’t here.”And once again Viola was beginning to feel distracted,
“I...haven’t noticed...” was her reply as some strands of hair began to fall in front of her face, despite the fact she still kept her head high and her smile in place.
Argent could see the mood of the room dropping fast, this line of conversation needed to be derailed immediately.
“Come on girls, we still need to set up. We can worry about Tierra when we have more information, we just need to focus on the problems we can solve before worrying about the ones we don’t know anything about, alright?”Cereza pursed her lips and nodded,
“You are correct, Argent. I’m sure we can find out more in the morning; for now let’s set this up so Tierra can come back to a perfect room. You suggested a single set of bunk beds, Argent. Do you mind sharing with Tierra? I don’t think Viola or I particularly want bunks.” ’I can send a message to Midas in the morning if the professors don’t tell us anything.’“That should be fine, I’d prefer the bottom bunk, but until Tierra’s leg heals I’ll take the top.”“Which beds should we use as the bunk beds?” inquired Viola, moving the loose strand into it’s proper place.
“Well,” Cereza surveyed the room,
“If we leave the two outer ones in their corners, we can use the middle beds for the bunk. Less furniture for us to move about in the long run.”“We may have to move a table or two if we wish to place the bed next to a wall,” was Violas reply.
“That’s easily done,” The blonde shrugged one shoulder,
“And we’ll be opening a big space in the centre of the room, so it’s not like we won’t have anywhere to put them. If you’ll get the tables, Viola, Argent and I can grab the shelves and move the beds.”With a vague plan sorted, the trio placed all their gear in a pile just in front of the bookcase before starting. Viola pulled two of the tables out of the way while Cereza and Argent took down all of the wall shelves and piled them onto one of the beds that wasn’t going to be moved.. The taller duo then moved one of the beds, tucking it into the corner between the entrance door and one of the closets. Viola was quick to drop each pin for the bunk beds into the posts, and Cereza and Argent lifted another bed on top of the first one they had moved. It was done quickly, the instructions for creating bunk beds being pretty clear and simple, and the trio looked around the room.
“We can probably leave the bookshelf where it is, and There should be enough room to tuck a desk between it and a bed. I’ll have that one, so I can set my laptop up.” Cereza pointed out, and pushed one of the tables Viola had moved into the allocated space.
Viola took the chance to explore the closet she would have to share with Argent. Room there was, enough even for four people if they tried. Nonetheless, Viola was self aware she...liked to take her time doing things most kids her age would call menial...if they even knew what the word was. Things that, would require Sir Roan to wait a couple…hours? For her to relax proper…
’Houh?’ thought Viola as she opened a drawer, revealing some spare sheets and something couldn’t place.
“What do you suppose this is Sir Roan?” she asked while feeling the material with her hands.
“Looks like spare curtains to me.” The silver knight replied to his partner’s inquiry.
“A spare...” a thought struck Viola as she exited the closet and took a look at the shelves.
“Sir Roan, have you...given any thought to the possibility of either of us having to change at the same time in case of an emergency?”“I’m going to go ahead and assume that’s what the spare curtains are supposed to be for. We’ll just need to set up a screen for changing in emergencies.” Argent wasn’t any more comfortable with the prospect of changing in the same room as a girl as any of his teammates were at the prospect of changing in the same room as him. Viola was right, it would be best if they had a method in place for handling such a situation ahead of time.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to modifying my desk as a spare changing place. I...lose track of time when I spruce up and would abhore to have to make you wait on me.” She also would hate to be interrupted from her grooming but,
‘that information is not important for him to know.’Argent shrugged.
“Whatever you need to do.”Taking a closer look at the shelves, Viola noticed they were made of one, as opposed to two, pieces.
“Hmm, miss Cereza, a moment of your time please?” “Yes, Viola?”“Would you be opposed to sawing the shelves on the wall in half?”“How many are we talking? Because I wouldn’t mind a shelf for myself.” The hacker replied.
“...All of them? there are 6 shelves as of now so if we split them in half we each should get 3 to use for anything we need,” the Witch supplied.
“What? Why would we need twelve short shelves?” Cereza asked incredulously.
“Look, we can put one full shelf above my bed, one above yours, and one for each of the bunks, which will give us plenty of space for personal items. The beds are big enough that a shelf just above the mattress isn’t going to interfere with any sleeping positions. That’s four of them. Then we can split to remaining two in half and put them above the desks, so we each get a shelf for textbooks. We all get a full shelf and a half shelf, and we don’t need to go sawing every shelf in the room in half.”“Perhaps not, but i do need a way to make that curtain cover this whole corner without any gaps. Sawing all of them just seemed like the simplest solution,” was violas explanation.
“Well, half a shelf above your table, which will only be a few feet, should be easy enough to cover. Then we can have another half above the table next to the door,” Cereza gestured to the table she meant as she spoke,
“and another half above Argent’s table, wherever he decides to put it. Then I can have the final shelf above my table, beside my bed. That’s only two shelves sawed, and we each still get a full shelf.”“That does sounds like less of a bother...fair enough miss Cereza, I’ll admit defeat,“ with that minor setback out of the way, Viola moved on with her request,
”Did you perhaps also think of a way to cut the shelves?”Cereza glanced around the room, looking for anything that could be vaguely used as an axe. The only thing she could think of would be one of their weapons, as there wasn’t exactly a saw stored away in one of the closets. However, Argent’s sword and Viola’s rapier weren’t exactly designed for any sort of sawing motions. Her eyes lingered on Llaw Du, or more precisely, the fact that it had a handle that could be used as a leverage point for the back and forth motion a saw needed.
“Well,” She sighed,
“I guess we could use my weapon. I can unfold one of the blades, which should suffice for what we want to do, and you and Argent can hold either end of the shelves steady between two tables, which can act as work horses.”Sensing a bit of reservation, Viola vaguely considered using ice dust to cover her sword into a makeshift saw...and promptly dismissed that idea,
“I’m sure we can use Sir Roan’s sword just fine, it might take a bit longer but the result will be the same.”Cereza shook her head, hefting her weapon into a ready position.
“It doesn’t have the handle necessary for the proper leverage and would probably end up taking us all night,” She explained, showing how she could grasp the side handle in one hand and the main part of the folded up shaft with the other for a proper sawing motion. She pursed her lips and waved the violette’s concerns away,
“It’s fine; I’ll just have to sharpen the blade is all.”The job was done quickly, and the shelves were quickly moved around the room. One whole shelf went above Cereza’s bed, another above Viola’s bed, and the remaining two were mounted against the long side wall of each bunk, giving Argent and Tierra - when she came back - a shelf each. The two shelves which had been split where each mounted above one of the tables, though in the case of Viola’s curtained corner she mounted it below the table as a beauty shelf.
With a pause, Viola turned to her teammates.
“I was planning on looking for a faculty member like Miss Goodwitch and requesting a mirror,” and perhaps ask her some questions regarding initiation,
“Do any of you have a request I can make on your behalf?”Cereza shrugged from across the room, where she was fiddling with a wall mounting for her shelf.
“I don’t really need anything. Argent?”During this, Argent picked up an unclaimed table and carried it over to the foot of the bunk beds before taking an alarm clock out of his bags and setting it up, then he turned to his teammates.
“Nope, I’m good.”It was late when they finally finished setting up team CLRT’s dorm room, and Cereza stretched as she toed off her boots.
“I think it’s time for bed,” She said as she instantly lost six inches, making her the same height as the silver haired knight. She glanced at her scroll, which said it was just after eleven, and shifted her swag to beside her bed, placing her briefcase on her table.
“I’m going to take a shower, and then I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you all in the morning, I guess.”“Mind if I join you?” said Viola, as she lost 2 inches of height, picking up a bag no doubt filled with bath utilities.
Cereza shrugged, though inwardly she felt a little uncomfortable at the idea of there perhaps being public showers. A lifetime of two people did not make her ready for shared shower stalls, and she prayed that they had private stalls in the bathrooms.
“I can’t stop you. We’ll be back shortly, Argent. Unless you wanted to shower as well?”“I’ll shower in the morning, I’m just gonna get changed and go to sleep. Good night.”“We’ll try and be silent when we come back,” said Viola,
”sleep well.”“Thanks.” Finally allowing the full extent of the day’s exertions to catch up to him, Argent gave his partner a sleepy smile.
Once the girls were out of the room Argent changed out of his combat clothes and into a black tank top and grey sweatpants before climbing the ladder to the top bunk and getting under the covers. His exhausted mind shut down immediately, sending the silver knight deep into dreams.
