As the morning sun rises, the dorm room of team ANVL remains silent aside from the slight snoring of Nora.
Alabast knew he would eventually have to get up and apologize, but he didn't know how. How can he say 'sorry for nearly killing you because you tried waking me up from a nightmare'?
It was around 7 when Alabast can't sit still any longer and pretend to sleep. He gets up and realizes he doesn't have a shirt on. He had forgotten or simply didn't notice.
He looks at his teammates and moves to the common room. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora are sound asleep and don't look like they will wake up anytime soon. So he does some morning exercise for 30 minutes.
When he goes back to the main room his team is still asleep, with Nora sleeping on Ren's lap while the guy sleeps sitting up.
Alabast goes into the bathroom and finds a note signed by Yang. The note is a to-do list on how to take better care of his hair. He's unsure of who put it in here and when they did, but in the end it doesn't matter. He takes a shower and follows the very detailed list to the best of his abilities but it's like trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner when you haven't cooked anything beyond Ramen noodles.
Fortunately it takes him only 15 minutes to finish everything he can. And the shower helped him get his head on straight. He remembers the previous night in great detail and wonders why he freaked out.
He did what he wanted, and he will continue to do exactly that. Who cares if he doesn't have a goal? He has four years until graduation to decide on one, so for now he will just be enjoy the start of his new life.
Before he exits the bathroom he puts on his school uniform. It's nothing fancy, but he's surprised it fits him so well. Although, he could do without the tie.
Stepping out of the bathroom he sees that his team is awake. Pyrrha sitting at her desk going through school supplies, and Nora sitting next to Ren on the side of Ren's bed. For some reason Nora is giggling while looking at her scroll and Ren is helplessly shaking his head.
When Alabast walks over to Nora and Ren he caught a glance of Pyrrha before she quickly entered the bathroom. She had a blush on her face and didn't seem to want to make eye contact with him.
He stands in front of Nora and looks into her eyes. "Nora, I'm sorry"
Nora smiles brightly and jumps to her feet. "Thank you, I know you didn't mean it last night. You just gave me the scare of a lifetime. Try not to dwell on it too much, and I'd appreciate if it didn't happen again. Okee dokee?"
Alabast closes his eyes and lowers his head. "It won't happen again, I can promise you that much"
"Great! Now let's not talk about that anymore!" Nora brings her scroll up to her face and taps on it a few times. She holds it out towards Alabast's face as she shows him the picture she took last night of him and Pyrrha sitting in each other's arms. "What I DO wanna talk about is this!!!"
Alabast opens his eyes and he can clearly see his muscular back full of scars in the photo. His hair looks much better, and there is some red hair mixed in as a certain red head can be seen hugging him with her head on his shoulder. A look of happiness on her face. "When did you-"
"Unimportant!" Nora cuts him off and pushes the photo closer to his face. "Now are you gonna spill the beans? I couldn't get more than a peep from Pyrrha when I asked her what happened last night"
"That was Pyrrha helping me out" Alabast simply says. "Are we going to talk about how you ended up sleeping in Ren's lap last night?"
The tables turn as Nora now finds the spotlight turned on her.
Nora blushes hard while Ren gets a slight blush.
Alabast looks away from the photo. "And….. don't go showing that picture off to anyone. I don't need everyone to know that I have all those scars"
"Deal!" Nora agrees, wanting to change the topic. "That is, as long as you tell us how you magically appeared inside the room"
It isn't a hard decision for Alabast. He would eventually need to tell his team either way. "My Semblance is called Darkness. It is extremely versatile, it allows me to create tangible and intangible constructs of darkness. One of the ways I am able to use it is to 'teleport' through darkness. There are some limitations, but I've trained to get rid of them for the most part. Now I only have to work on the range at which I can use it"
"That's so neat!" Nora practically bounces off the walls. Mines 'High Voltage'. I can't generate electricity but I can use electricity to enhance my strength or channel it through Magnhild like a lightning rod. I was struck by lightning when I was younger and was, relatively, a-ok. That's how we found I could also absorb some electricity"
"Emphasis on relatively" Ren adds. "I had to carry you for the next three days through the mountains"
"Wellllll~….." Nora nervously smiles and rubs the back of her head. She slowly makes her way towards the bathroom door.
"Noraaaaa…" Ren dangerously looks at her.
Pyrrha walks out of the bathroom and Nora zooms inside and slams the door.
"Did she not-?" Pyrrha worriedly asks. Did Nora not forgive Alabast and is now afraid of him?
Ren rests his face into his palms. "No, she accepted Alabast's apology"
Pyrrha tilts her head slightly to her right. "Then why did she-?"
"Because she let it slip that once upon a time, many years ago, that she lied to Ren when she was struck by lightning" Alabast holds up his hand to stop Pyrrha from asking if she was alright after that. "Nora's Semblance allows her to enhance herself with electricity from an external source. She discovered her semblance from a lightning strike and had Ren carry her for the next 3 days through some mountains. She fled to the bathroom to escape the consequences of her actions"
Pyrrha asks Ren if that's true from just a glance.
Ren picks his head up and swings his feet up into his bed. "That's more or less the gist of it. And speaking of Semblance… Mine is 'Tranquility'. It allows me to mask the negative emotions of myself and others I am in physical contact with. Doing so makes us invisible to all Grimm to a certain degree"
"That's convenient" Alabast doesn't know how exactly to respond. He will say that if Ren drops out he will find a lot of money in smuggling things through Grimm infested lands. It's a bit ludicrous if you know the right people.
Pyrrha stands next to her desk and grabs a mechanical pencil. "My Semblance is 'polarity'.I can control the magnetism of any metallic objects"
"I stand corrected, THAT is convenient" Alabast brings his right hand up to his chin and covers his mouth as he thinks about how useful Pyrrha's Semblance is. If he didn't have the ability to teleport himself with his Semblance he'd say that Pyrrha's Semblance matches it for versatility. The tiebreaker coming down to who has more Aura to fuel their Semblance and who can use their Semblance better in combat.
Alabast continues thinking about his Semblance and how he can use it in various ways. He moves over to his bed and sits down, looking at the floor.
Pyrrha is about to ask Alabast about his Semblance. She only heard bits and pieces through the door. But before she can ask-
*Brrrrrr!* *Clunk!* *Wham!* *Ting-ting-ting* *Vrrrrrr!* *Svmp!*
The sudden sound of construction fills the room.
Alabast doesn't pay it any mind. It sounds like it's coming from team RWBY's room and if they needed help they knew where his team was.
Pyrrha decides to push her questions of until later. They'll probably be answered sooner or later.
Nora finishes up getting ready and swaps with Ren who has moved past his mild annoyance at Nora.
The construction ends and Alabast looks at the clock on his scroll, it's 8:55 and Alabast goes back to looking down at the floor.
Ren exits from the bathroom wearing the male school uniform.
"Damn it!" Alabast shouts and stands up, looking at his scroll.
"What's wrong?" Pyrrha turns in her chair to face Alabast.
"Class starts at 9 and it's 8:55!" Alabast says while grabbing the things he will need for class.
Team ANVL gathers their things together in under 15 seconds and open the door to see team RWBY also exiting their room.
First was Weiss, followed by Ruby who shouted "To class!". Followed by Yang and Blake.
As Alabast was looking down the hall the rest of his team looked out the door frame by getting on his shoulders and poking their heads out like a totem pole.
"Don't just climb me! We need to go!" Alabast shouts, causing his team to get down and they all start the mad dash to their first class of the school year.
Team ANVL stays a few steps behind team RWBY, mostly because they don't know where they are going for their first class. They're banking on team RWBY knowing the location, and this doesn't instill confidence in Alabast but it's all they have at the current moment.
As both teams make their mad dash through the courtyard of Beacon a certain Headmaster and Professor watch them. Ozpin and Glynda have their own reactions to the rather comedic scene. Ozpin enjoying the scene while Glynda is annoyed at their lack of time management skills.
"At least we know there is plenty of room for their improvement" Ozpin comments.
Glynda pinches the bridge of her nose as she can feel a migraine starting. "If arriving to class on time is considered an improvement…"
Ozpin doesn't say anything else and just sips from his steaming coffee mug.
——————
*Riiiiiiiiing~*
The first bell of the semester rings as team ANVL and RWBY barely make it into class on time.
Team RWBY moves towards the front of the class while team ANVL sits towards the back near the windows.
"Welcome!" A jovial tone echoes throughout the classroom.
The voice belongs to a rather short but round older man. He has gray hair and a rather large gray mustache covering his mouth. His suit is a dark red with gold accents.
"My name is Peter Port, but please, call me Professor Port. I'm glad we all made it here on time this fine morning! Hahaha-hoho~" Port laughs at his own joke. "Anyway~! If you do not know yet! This class will be about the creatures of Grimm! YES!!! Those dastardly creatures that lurk in the shadows and prey upon our negative emotions! However to a Huntsman, such as myself, the Grimm are in fact the prey! And it is in this specific class where I shall educate you all on the various aspects on the Grimm! I'll even throw in my own personal field experiences and thoughts, no added charge. Hahaha~"
Everyone in the classroom can already tell how this class will go. Terrible attempts to make them laugh and the professor will surely stroke his ego at any chance he gets. Only a few students decide to take this class seriously as the professor motions towards the chalk board full of various facts and diagrams of Grimm.
Alabast is not one of those students paying attention. It's been 11 years since he attended any form of school and he remembers why he fought so hard to not attend the children back in Kuo Kuana.
It didn't help that Alabast had already encountered most of the Grimm that will be discussed in this class. Port had sent a class syllabus with a list of Grimm they will learn about. And Alabast prays that Port's tests won't have the old man's experiences on the tests… that would be ridiculous.
After Port drones on for a few minutes Alabast finds himself stuck in boredom. He messes with the side cape over his left arm. It's the same cape he wears on his combat uniform, but he's decided to wear it on his school uniform as well. And it seems Little Red also had the same idea since she has her red hooded cloak on.
Alabast looks over at Pyrrha and sees that she's struggling to pay attention, but she tries her best not to be bored to sleep. It doesn't help that she was up for most of the night, but she's able to stay awake and take notes. He also looks down at team RWBY at the very front of the class.
He sees Weiss copying down everything on the boards into her notebook. Then there's Blake paying half-attention as she reads a book. Yang pats attention but doesn't bother taking notes. And Ruby… well Ruby is entertaining herself and is amusing to watch.
Little Red was screwing around as she played with her pencil, folded a piece of paper into a rose, balanced her books on her hand topped with an apple, and a few other random things. Alabast didn't know what her goal was but it certainly made sitting through this class easier, especially as Weiss fumed at every idiotic thing Ruby did. Weiss getting upset was just an added bonus in Alabast's eyes.
Before Alabast realizes it, Weiss is getting ready to fight a Grimm. Right at the front of the classroom as Port drags a cage from a back room.
He wonders if that's how this class will be, going from 0 to 100 in mere seconds. If that's the case, maybe it won't be all that bad.
As Weiss tries to mentally prepare herself for fighting whatever Grimm is in the cage the rest of team RWBY, including Blake, shouts and cheers for her. Nora is the third loudest, cheering right behind Yang who is behind Ruby. Pyrrha also gives some words of encouragement.
Deciding this might be entertaining to watch, Alabast sits up in his seat.
"I am TRYING to focus here!" Weiss reprimands her teammates.
"Oh, right. Sorry…" Ruby lowers her arms that were over her head when she cheered.
Port grabs his weapon from off the wall. It is an axe combined with a… blunderbuss. He holds it up in the air. "Alright! Let the match… BEGIN"
The axe comes down and breaks the single small lock keeping the deadly Grimm inside the cage.
As the cage falls open, a boar Grimm sprints out as Weiss nimbly dodges to the side. As she evades the creatures charge she swings her weapon at it only to meet the creatures armor.
This Grimm is relatively small. It is similar to that of a boar but it has white bone-like armor covering a majority of its body. It has two long tusks on either side of its mouth that are used for both offense and defense. The armor covers it's back and sides, meaning it is only vulnerable on its underside which makes it a rather tricky opponent for most. This Grimm is called a Boarbatusk.
The Grimm slows down and turns around to face Weiss as she gets back to her feet. Her weapon Myrtenaster, a rapier-revolver, pointed towards the beast.
"Hoho~! Wasn't expecting that, we're you?" Port chimes with his arms behind his back as he 'supervises' the fight.
Weiss grits her teeth and prepares to engage the Grimm for a second time.
"Hang in there Weiss~" Ruby tries to cheer her teammate on. But it only causes Weiss to get more annoyed.
A white Glyph forms beneath Weiss' feet before she glides across the floor, meeting the boar mid charge.
Myrtenaster scrapes against the armor on the Boarbatusk's skull and is deflected to the side and gets caught between its tusks. This causes Weiss to have to challenge the Grimm to a tug-of-war to get her weapon back.
"Oh? A bold new approach. I like it!" Port comments on the side.
"Cmon Weiss! Show it who's boss!" Ruby cheers with an expecting smile on her face as she expects Weiss to win relatively easily.
It was for a split second, but Weiss gets distracted by Ruby who she was about to tell off again. But before she could, the Boarbatusk wins the tug-of-war and flings the weapon across the room.
The Boarbatusk then uses Weiss' momentary pause upon being disarmed and distracted by Ruby to charge forward and deliver a solid blow knocking Weiss back.
"Oh-Ho-Ho! What will you do now without your weapon?" Port asks.
Weiss pushes herself up off the ground and rolls to the side as she avoids the next charge. She quickly uses this chance and runs to her weapon.
Ruby brings her hands to her mouth and shouts. "Weiss! Go for its belly! There's no armor undernea-"
"Stop telling me what to DO!" Weiss shouts back at Ruby.
This causes Ruby to lose her usual energy.
The Boarbatusk begins its charge again, but this time it jumps into the air and begins to roll at a fast pace. This causes its armor to protect all of it since it's basically balled up.
For most students this would have been the end of the fight, since not many would be able to deal with such an attack.
However, Weiss summons a glyph just before the Grimm crashes into her. It bounces off the solid light blue glyph and lands on its back as it grunts.
Weiss does a backflip into the air and forms a glyph beneath her feet that turns black as she jumps off it and impaled the Boarbatusk with Myrtenaster. Her jump being so fast she became a blur to most students as she ends the Grimm.
With the fight being over, Weiss allows herself to catch her breath.
"Well done! Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress in training. And I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today" Port concludes the class.
The class applauds Weiss for her victory, with Alabast slowly clapping. Which seemed to have caught Weiss' attention and added to her sour attitude.
Alabast quickly replays the fight. He remembers his many encounters with Boarbastusks and wonders if he ever had this much trouble with them. They are pack creatures and combined with their offensive and defensive capabilities they usually are very hard to deal with for even professional Huntsmen. However, Alabast can simply break through their armor. Although he prefers to save the energy and attack their undersides using his semblance.
And upon seeing Weiss get disarmed he is reminded why he has Bestia Fang. Although he will take them off whenever he goes to sleep from now on.
Weiss glares up at Alabast and he simply gazes back at her with a neutral expression from his seat in the back. She storms out soon after, with Ruby following behind trying to catch up.
Alabast stands up, curious about how this will unfold. "I'm going to see what's up with 'Princess'… and what Little Red is going to do about it. You three, keep Yang and Blake company?"
His teammates nod and wish him luck because they saw the way Weiss was acting.
Alabast exited the room after Weiss and Ruby, listening in on their conversation. He had his back against a wall around the corner from the two.
He saw Ozpin walking by from down the hall. Ozpin raises his mug to Alabast in a pseudo-greeting. Alabast simply gestured down the hallway to where Weiss and Ruby were going at it.
Ozpin looks past Alabast, down the hallway, and proceeds to walk up behind Ruby after Weiss storms away.
After Ruby finished 'talking' to Weiss she turned around only to be surprised by Ozpin.
The Headmaster doesn't say anything at first as he sips from his mug. After a momentary pause Ozpin gives advice to Ruby to try encouraging her and lead her towards the right direction without getting himself involved too much. Just a few words here and there and it's up to Ruby to push forward and grow into a leader.
Alabast looks outside to the large balcony and sees Weiss talking with Port. He remembers the guy creepily say 'Huntress' and click his tongue at Yang earlier in the lesson and wonders how he is still a teacher here at Beacon. Ever since that point Alabast lost all respect for him as a person.
All in all though, Ozpin seemed to help Ruby and Port seemed to give actually good advice to Weiss.
If Port talked like that in class Alabast might pay attention.... Yeah no, that still wasn't gonna happen. But it would at least make him consider it.
Ruby walks towards the door leading outside after her conversation with Ozpin and saw Weiss walk away from the professor. Alabast stealthily made his way behind Ruby and down the other hallway. Ruby turned around and walked where Alabast had previously been standing. This leaves him an opportunity to talk with the Princess.
Alabast walks past Port who just watches him walk by and doesn't say anything.
He followed the direction Weiss went and also could smell her distinct perfume or shampoo, whatever it was it was distinct. Probably from Atlas. It wasn't bad. It didn't bug his nose like most other perfumes do with their strong scents.
As he continued following the trail through some corridors he saw Weiss going towards the entrance to the library. A place he hopped to avoid as long as possible until he was forced to do research for a paper or something.
Alabast followed behind Weiss at a distance, not in a rush. When he entered the giant library he smelled the distinct scents of paper and ink. It wasn't good nor bad.
He spotted the white hair and combat dress that Weiss was still wearing. She was standing in between bookshelves and looking down at an open book in her hands.
He walked over and expected her to notice him. Yet Weiss didn't, she was too engrossed in the book she was reading.
Peering over her shoulder he sees that she was trying to learn how to be a good teammate and teach others. The book detailed some pointers on teamwork and some other topics. Alabast wonders if there is a book for leading, but quickly forgets the idea since he'd rather not take advice from a random book.
Weiss sees a shadow cast over her and looks over her shoulder. She was met with the big stature of Alabast and he was pretty close to her.
She quickly turns around to face Alabast and jumps back, bumping into the shelf full of books hard.
The tall shelf teeters, threatening to fall and knock down the other bookshelves like dominoes.
Alabast doesn't want to play clean up so he moves forward and grabs the bookshelf. He stops the shelf from domino-ing into the others, but that didn't stop the books from falling off of it.
He watched as the books fell off the opposite side of the shelf, making it too heavy on his side and he couldn't adjust his grip in time. So he ends up pulling the shelf towards himself and Weiss due to the sudden loss of weight of the books on the other side.
As the books begin falling from above, Alabast moves his body to cover Weiss while he still holds the giant bookshelf up.
The books rain down as he protects Weiss. He is 6 foot 6 while Weiss stands at 5 foot 3 in her heels.
Weiss looks up at Alabast with wide eyes as his head gets pummeled by the many books falling down onto him.
Back when she had initially seen Alabast behind her she had a frightened expression. And Alabast cornering her against the bookshelf didn't help either, especially since she hadn't noticed the wobbling shelf.
With Alabast's arms on either side of her, she couldn't escape. And when he lowered his head her mind blanked.
A memory resurfaced from Weiss' past. It was back before her sister left for the military. They were young,and their mother had only recently started her decent into alcoholism. Weiss remembers watching a romance movie with her sister and the both of them fantasizing about their future, about finding their own knight in shining armor…
As Weiss relives her youthful fantasy, it suddenly bursts. The dazzling knight is replaced with… a Faunus… that is anything but shining. The Faunus being Alabast.
Weiss isn't racist to Faunus, not intentionally. She just has high prejudice, which is thanks to her upbringing. Her prejudice is the work of her father, Jacques Schnee, and the information he fed her as she grew up.
Now this isn't to say she isn't aware of her… unique views. She is smart and eventually found out that most of what her father was telling her was baseless or outright untrue. It's just that, when the White Fang started attacking her family friends and her family themselves… it grew harder to deny what her father was saying.
"Tch" Alabast clicks his tongue, bringing Weiss out of her thoughts.
When Weiss comes back to her senses she notices Alabast is shield her from the falling books with his body. It takes one more second for her to realize that she was the one that bumped into the bookshelf, but this situation wouldn't have happened if Alabast hadn't snuck up behind her.
A moment later it happens. A large book falls from the top shelf and hits the back of Alabast's head. The force from this fallen book causes Alabast's hair covering his left eye to move for a fraction of a second.
But that's all it takes for Weiss to see Alabast's full face, the hidden left side.
Weiss saw all the scars on Alabast's face and it left her utterly speechless. The scar under his right eye, a few small ones on his chin or on his forehead…. But none of them compared to the left side of his face that he hides.
It seemed his left eye was fine, but the skin around it…. The skin around the left eye looked like it had been put through a meat grinder and put back on his face as someone tried to put the skin back where it used to be. The scarred area going from his forehead down to the middle of his cheek and from his temple across to his nose.
Weiss could only imagine what it must have felt like to receive such a scar. She has a scar over her left eye, and she remembers the pain. But to receive a scar as large as Alabast… it made her stomach churn.
Before she could realize it, Weiss reaches out and places her fingertips on Alabast's scar.
Alabast flinches hard but isn't able to pull back as another book falls onto him and the weight of the bookshelf reminds him it would crush the Heiress if he lets go.
Weiss feels the scar and frowns. "It… looks so… painful. What happened?"
Alabast looks down at the Schnee heiress and sees her solemn expression. The scar on her left eye just now catching his eye, he hadn't paid it much attention previously.
Weiss disliked having a scar mar her face, and can only wonder how Alabast deals with it. Simply living with it must have been difficult, judging by the fact he doesn't show his entire face. She hated it when people asked if she was ok, if it still hurt, how she got it, and all the other questions and stares she would receive. How could Alabast deal with it? She saw his other scars over his forearms and face, now she wonders if he has any parts of his body that don't have scars…
The last of the books fall to the ground with a few bouncing off Alabast. People have gathered to see what the commotion was and begin whispering as people say what they think happened.
Making sure the shelf won't fall Alabast backs away from Weiss and presses his left hand over his face where Weiss had been touching for a brief moment. He looks to his sides and sees people holding their scrolls out as they record him and whisper their theories about what happened.
"Did that Faunus just attack THE Weiss Schnee?!" "He tried to attack her!" "I saw him stand over her and threaten her" "I saw him follow Weiss in here and go straight towards her" "That dog tried to knock the shelves over to hurt her!" "This is why Faunus should stay in Menagerie!" "Look at the mess he created"
Many more comments were made, some more racist than others, with all of them not being in Alabast's favor. Nobody stood up for him, but he expected this to be the case since his first year in this world.
The Faunus in the crowd of students slowly gave him a pitiful look or simply looked away, afraid to be brought into this mess. There weren't many Faunus, but a few were present.
"Alabast….." Weiss tried to call out, but she was immediately surrounded by people trying to see if she was ok, asking if the 'Mutt' hurt her. She tried to correct them but they were like a tidal wave and nothing she could do would stop them, they wouldn't listen at all.
Alabast took a deep breath before walking out of the library. He wasn't gonna give them the pleasure of having him run with his tail between his legs.
Weiss eventually squeezed through the crowd and stepped around the books that lay in piles on the ground.
The Librarian had tried to calm the crowd down and used her semblance to control paper to put the books back but the students were in 'mob mode' until Glynda came in. Weiss was able to leave when Glynda started scolding the other student about their prejudice and how they are not acting like a huntsman/huntress and a few other things.
As Weiss exited the library she saw Alabast standing with his back against a wall, arms crossed over his chest, and looking up at the ceiling with a blank expression.
Weiss approached him from the front. She saw his red eye staring into space as his mind was clearly somewhere else.
"Ahem!" Weiss tried getting his attention.
She was met with silence as Alabast glanced down at her before looking back up. He wasn't in the mood to talk to her.
"Can we talk?" Weiss tried initiating the conversation but was meet with the same silence, then there was a cricket noise that went throughout the hall.
Weiss decides to talk since Alabast can hear her but isn't wanting to respond. "I tried explaining to them… but they wouldn't listen. I think Professor Goodwitch saw the footage and is setting those, idiotic, students straight. Does that happen to you often?"
Weiss already knew the answer, but she was trying to get a reaction from Alabast.
And it worked.
Alabast shakes his head. "You have…. no idea. It's not just me... If there is ever a conflict between a Human and a Faunus the Human 9/10 times is deemed to not be at fault. And that 1/10th in the favor of the Faunus is only if the Faunus has evidence and witnesses to prove them innocent or in the right. I've been to places that are better than others, but I've also been to worse places. In the end, it's not like it matters. We get used to it over time, but that doesn't mean we forget it or are alright with it. Humans always use the Faunus as a scape goat whenever they get the chance"
"Not everyone does" Weiss quickly states.
Alabast rolls his eyes. "Obviously not, but more than the majority does. And guess what? The majority rules and makes the decisions right? All throughout history there are blatant examples of racism against Faunus. The Faunus only want to be seen as equals"
"Is-is that why the White Fang were doing their peaceful protests before they got violent? To be seen as equals?" Weiss hasn't talked about such topics with an actual Faunus before. Mostly because she was cooped up by her father.
"That it is Princess. They only wanted equality among some other goals, such as justice. Don't get me wrong, that's not to say that their goals have changed. It's just that they changed how they approach reaching those goals. A lot of Faunus don't agree with the violence of the current White Fang, but everyone must admit that they are getting results. They now believe the ends justify the means, but not every Faunus agrees with that" Alabast remembers how people left the White Fang over the years. Some come and go, those Faunus are the ones that have something to go back to. The ones that stay do so because they wholeheartedly believe in the White Fang or they simply don't have anywhere, or anything, to go back to.
Weiss takes a step back. "You… talk as if you're a member…"
Alabast sees Weiss put her hand on her hip and ever so slightly flinch when her weapon isn't there. "I'm not. You'll be hard pressed to find a Faunus that doesn't know about the White Fang. That especially applies to me since I come from Menagerie…" He pauses when he sees a hint of confusion on Weiss' face. "If you didn't know, that's where the White Fang was originally based back when they were peaceful. That's my bad, I shouldn't have expected a Schnee to have bothered learning something like that. Also, if I was a member of the Fang, why would I even bother talking to a Schnee"
Weiss' eyebrow twitches. "I- You-… how dare… Did nobody deem it necessary to teach you manners?"
Alabast shrugs at Weiss' attempt to change the subject and his response. "Teach me manners? Who? Never met my father, and I only have one memory of my mother from the Bloody Hours protest where she was murdered in front of me. Never really wanted to get attached to anyone after that so I ended up teaching myself the manners I have today. All things considered, I think I did a pretty decent job. What's your excuse?"
"My excu-" Weiss closes her mouth, stopping herself. She was angry, along with a few other emotions. She thinks of the way she was raised and her family, specifically her mother and father. She doesn't approve of the way her mother acts, but could she bare witnessing her death? At the age of 6, back when she was still…. She switches gears as she imagines what may have happened if her father was never to be seen… and it might have actually made things better.
"You two!" A stern female voice echoes through the hall.
Alabast and Weiss look back towards the library doors and see Glynda Goodwitch walking towards them.
Glynda narrows her eyes at the two students. "My office. Now"
She walks between the two after a moment. "Get moving. I now have to make the reports of what happened. I need you two to give your statements about this… incident. I won't be taking the others' statements due to the fact that none of their stories match up nor do they remotely know what happened. I saw the recording of what happened, however, I need written statements from those involved. Specifically, I need a students perspective for the report… for whatever reason"
Alabast and Weiss followed behind the annoyed professor as she spoke. Neither Alabast nor Weiss wanted to find out what would happen if they didn't follow her. Weiss didn't want to find out because she was worried it would impact Goodwitch's view of her and subsequently her grades. Alabast's reason was much more simple, it would have been much more bothersome had he not followed.
The three come to an office and Glynda opens the door. Weiss looks up at Alabast who motions for her to enter first.
For the duration of the silent walk Weiss connects the dots of what Alabast said. Alabast being here at Beacon in the same year she is, and the protest being 11 years ago. He must have only been around 6 years old. And a reason why he knows so much about the White Fang is that his mom was likely a member. There's a possibility that he learned about the White Fang to try and find out some information about his mom.
After the students enter the room Glynda walks in and closes the door behind her. She walks over to her desk and takes some papers out along with pens. "Neither of you are in trouble, nor will you face repercussions of what happened. Just fill out the questions and be on your way, you only had one class today so the rest of the day is free"
After a few minutes Alabast finishes filling the papers out first. Weiss puts as much detail as she can in and is taking this extremely seriously while Alabast just wanted to finish.
He slides the paper towards Glynda and stands up.
Weiss looks over at him but quickly turns back to her paper and writes exponentially faster. She wants to talk with him before he gets the chance to disappear.
Glynda grabs the paper and reads it as Alabast exits the room. Before he can fully leave she sternly looks at his back from over the paper. "Alabast. I know you couldn't do anything in that situation, however, you should be more aware of your actions and their consequences. You do not only represent yourself at this academy but your team. You are the leader, your actions impact your team just as much as they impact you. I hope you don't end up dragging them down"
Was she harsh? Yes. But she has her reasons.
Glynda has never been one to shy away from being blunt, especially to her students. She'd rather not have a team with so much potential be squandered due to Alabast's inability to lead. She does understand Alabast's situation, being a Faunus amongst Humans isn't easy. She's seen the worst of humanity even before she became a professor or professional Huntress. She knows that politely helping someone like Alabast won't help, he needs to be told the hard truths.
Alabast paused at the door and waited for Glynda to finish speaking. Once she was done he walked out with the door closing behind him.
Weiss continued to write at a rapid pace while Glynda heavily sighs and sits back in her seat as she reads Alabast's recount of the incident.
A few minutes later Weiss finished and is allowed to leave after a warning.
Weiss exits the room and was prepared to run down the halls to try and find Alabast, but to her surprise the Wolf Faunus was across the hall waiting for her. She knew he was waiting for her because as soon as he saw her he began walking down the hall.
Seeing Alabast walk away, Weiss caught up with him. She tried to talk, but the atmosphere was heavy and made it quite difficult for her.
Alabast randomly walks into an empty and dark classroom.
Weiss watched as Alabast disappeared into the room with his tail being the last thing she saw besides his back. The hall was quiet with not even footsteps echoing through it.
Inside the classroom there was a bit of light thanks to the hallway light, but not much. After a moment Weiss walked in after Alabast but she couldn't find him. She got to the teacher's podium when the door shut, taking away what little light there was.
The heiress felt fear and dread grip her heart but she pushed those feelings down just like she was trained to do when she faced her enemies. She looked where the door was and only saw two glowing red eyes staring back at her, eyes that reminded her of the vicious Grimm.
*Flick*
Weiss had to shut her eyes when the lights were suddenly turned on. And when she opened them a few seconds later she saw Alabast walking away from the light switch. "Night Vision…" She mutters.
"Sometimes I forget others don't have it" Alabast monotonously says while walking up to the heiress.
Looking up at Alabast's right eye Weiss realizes it isn't all that scary, not by itself at least. The eye alone actually looks beautiful, it's the face and expression that changes how it looks.
Alabast stops in front of Weiss and folds his arms across his chest. "I plan on explaining my scars to both our teams sometime tomorrow. Can you keep quiet about them until then?"
Weiss' right eye twitches, clearly annoyed. "I can"
"Good" Alabast is turns around and begins walking away.
"I can, IF you answer some of my questions" Weiss states, annoyed that she hasn't learned anything yet.
Alabast stops walking and turns back to face Weiss again. "Depends on the questions"
Weiss smiles at having managed to rope him into answering her questions, even if he still might refuse them. "When did you receive your scars? Was it at the-"
"Bloody Hours protest? Yes, that is where I received the majority of them" Alabast looks down at his forearms. Some scars were from some dangerous Grimm encounters or fights with some rather dangerous people and targets. "My turn, where did you receive yours?"
"Wh- That's NOT how this will go" Weiss adamantly states.
"Does it make you feel like less of a person than you were before you got it?" Alabast continues.
"N-No! It reminds me that I need to get stronger, to not let my guard down" Weiss touches the bottom of her left eye with her hand where her vertical scar. "Does it make you-"
"I don't even remember anything before I was 6, before the protest, before I got these scars. So technically things only went up from there" Alabast gets lost in his thoughts.
"So your earliest memories…" Weiss' eyes widen.
Alabast remembers his nightmares. "Are of the things that happened during that protest"
This revelation strikes Weiss like a bolt of lightning. If what Alabast says is true, then his only memory of his mother is of her being killed. And for him to receive his scars… he was likely cut by humans at the protest. She can tell by the look in his eye that he isn't lying, and why would he lie about something like this?
Alabast snaps out of it and looks at Weiss. He's not sure why he explained it, he said he would do it tomorrow.
"How…" Weiss tightly holds her hands to the point her hands are paler than usual. "How can you not hate Humans if what you say is true?"
Alabast looks at Weiss and sighs. "You more than anyone should know that appearances can be deceiving, to not judge a book by its cover, right Princess? Sure Humans generally are terrible, but there are those that are kind… almost annoyingly so… like Ruby. Then there are Faunus that are just as evil as the worst Humans, and other Faunus who are as kind as the kindest Humans. The way I see it, the Faunus are basically Humans with a little extra. The only difference between Humans and Faunus are the animal traits. If you didn't see a Faunus' trait, you would mistake them for Human. To answer your question, I don't hate Humans. Because it's not like every human took a pair of scissors across my body. I just hate people who I hate"
With that said, Alabast goes to leave the room.
"Wait!" Weiss calls out, causing Alabast to stop at the door. "Do- do you hate me… for being a Schnee?"
Weiss is well aware that the Schnee name isn't viewed nicely by most since her father took over. Especially with the claims from Faunus. She has never been able to talk with a Faunus like this, so she can't help but ask.
Without turning around, Alabast opens the door. "If you continue acting the way you are, I will see you as nothing more than a spoiled Schnee brat"
Alabast walks out and looks over his shoulder. "You can't read a book and expect to change. I recommend broadening your view of the world. Relying on others, such as your teammates, might be a good place to start. See you around, Princess"
Weiss watches as the door is shut, leaving her alone in the empty classroom. She isn't sure why she asked if Alabast hated her or not. Hearing the way he called her 'Princess' the last time, it was different than the previous times. Like there wasn't any sarcasm or mocking tone behind it. Weiss already planned on changing how she acted and interacted with her team, but maybe she should also look into the Faunus a little more.
Whenever she sees a Faunus she is reminded how they attacked her family and how family friends were never seen again. How her father would get angry if anyone spoke of a Faunus. Her father would complain about how they lost so much money because of Faunus, but that was more when the Faunus became violent and started stealing dust. She never had a reason to think of things from a Faunus' perspective.
——————
Alabast walks down the hall and pulls his scroll out. He texts his team and tells them he will explain his scars to them and team RWBY the next day. He doesn't have any of team RWBY's numbers so he tells his teammates to inform them for him.
Turning a corner he walks into a shadow.
As he continues walking he finds himself inside his team's empty dorm room. From the classroom, Glynda's office, to the dorms is half of the campus. So instantly moving that distance is very convenient.
Alabast quickly changes and throws his uniform onto his desk as he puts his headphones on. He plops down on his bed and rolls onto his left side, facing the rest of the room.
On his desk he notices his Bestia Fangs resting on top of a note.
'These things are SO cool! Not sure how they work though… It looks like you take very good care of them, I couldn't find a spec of dirt on them! OH! This is Nora by the way. Just wanted to let you know that I am all good and that you shouldn't worry about me. I'm a lot tougher than I look. I found out they have PANCAKES at the cafeteria in the morning! Since you're our leader, I request that we wake up earlier and eat as a team. (I'm not sharing my syrup though). Looking forward to the future of our team, you'll be a great leader Mr. Alabast!
Boop!!!
Yours truly, Nora Valkyrie
(P.S. I hope you don't have anymore nightmares. I still have a few of my own, occasionally, but it helps when I think of them as just bad dreams. We can't stop them from happening, but we can make the time we are awake the best we can)
(P.S.S. I don't do the best with motivational speeches and stuff. I like encouraging my friends through cheering louder than anyone else. Ren is the one with few words that are very motivational)
(P.S.S.S. I'm rooting for you and Pyrrha! Good luck!)'
Alabast sighs after reading Nora's letter. He puts the note in a drawer, along with his Bestia Fangs.
Rolling over to his other side he thinks about how the rest of the semester will go. Hopefully things don't get too crazy, but considering how team RWBY is… that hope is as small as his chance of regrowing his ear.
After a few minutes he goes to sleep after setting his alarm an hour early. Some actually good food does tempt him after not having much for the past 11 years.