The Battle of Entry and Initiation

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Yang leapt high and cried out, driving a fist down and into an Ursa, ending its charge in a somersault that signaled its demise and that of a Creep that tried to scurry under it and was crushed by its weight. Another leapt for the blonde's side and was blown away by a round from Blake's sidearm, before she turned it on four more in turn, throwing them back into the frothing hordes of Grimm beyond their battleline before they could leap on her or Nora on her left side. Another Ursa lumbered towards her and she ducked, snapping a following, buckshot-backed fist into its knee and driving it onto its side, another burst of buckshot from her other gauntlet ripping into its skull before it could react. Turning, the woman ducked a clawed swipe aimed for her chest and lashed out in a bone-shattering kick, cracking its ribs before a fist backed by fire blew its head, too, off entirely.

Beside her, Pyrrha danced back and forward, in and out of reach from Ursa to Beowolf both, and around the Creeps that sought to grip her thighs and slow her. Her sword and shield both flashed, bronze light in the darkness around her, in elegant, artistic lines through the air. Each flick, each thrust, each slash and cut crippling Grimm she could not kill outright without slowing and risking a strike, and slaughtering those she could with ruthless efficiency. Back and behind her, Ren sprayed short and wide lines of fire into Grimm, backing the Mistralian champion's wounding blows with his own and doing the same for Yang, peppering lighter Grimm while she handled the heaviest of them.

On Yang's other side, Nora alternated between wide swings that crushed Grimm and hurled them back into their fellows to devastating effect, and launching grenades between punishing punches and kicks that crushed the Grimm underfoot and fist easily enough. The grenades flew high and far, blasting rock, dirt and Grimm shards into the air and the Grimm both, wherever they were foolish enough to cluster. Nora did just that and a Beowolf leapt for her, before a high caliber round from Ruby's rifle blew its arm off and a Glyph crushed it to the ground under its own, gravity intensified weight.

The smaller, younger woman turned, snapping rounds off into lighter armored Grimm wherever she saw them. Her partner matched her, Glyphs springing to life to shift the other fighters' positions and both crushing and hurling Grimm aside wherever she thought necessary. High above, the Nevermore screeched and reared back, unleashing a tidal wave of massive quills on the battle below. Some skewered Grimm on the path to their battle line, but others flew straight, threatening them all.

Without ever looking up and breaking his concentration, the Force warrior kneeling on the stone held a hand out, redirecting them dozens of massive quills down sharper, impacting ahead of the fighting line more safely or deflecting them to the side, into the forest. Rising, he reached out for the Nevermore before it could fly up and away, to come around in another pass and pass even further beyond his range of ability.

"I thought the rocks would be a challenge…" He murmured, Ruby beside him sparing him a curious glance he quickly waved off with a hand. With a grunt, he reached out and up, eyes rolling back into his head as he let his very sight fade into the Force alone, casting the world around him in a fiery tempest of lights and darks of every description. The Grimm shrieked and colored the Force around it with panic as he tried to wrench its wing joints to either side and break them, breaking away from his control in a brief moment with a force on the young Force user like a rope pulled taut and snapped, the blond staggering forward and up awkwardly. "Damn it!"

"What's wrong, Jaune?" Ruby asked, pausing to snap a shot off over her sister's head, carving through an Ursa's shoulder to stagger it back before it could get an attack in. Turning to him again, she reminded him in an ever-more urgent voice, "You said you could stop it. A-And it's coming around for another pass, Jaune."

"I know, I know. I need a way to get closer, it's too high up for me to reach and moving… I don't have time to meditate and extend my ranger." And he needed an idea, grimacing and watching the Grimm circle, body flush with the Force enough to hurt and eyes aching from something he couldn't place.

Finally, he looked across the battle line and blinked, shouting at the young Schnee where she stood searching for her next target as an idea flared to life in his mind, "Weiss, can you get one of its quills for me and get it up here?"

"Yes, but why on Remnant do you need me to get a quill up there for you?" The Schnee didn't wait for his answer, though, a black glyph flickering above one and sending it hurling through the air, several white ones flickering and fading to slow it before it crashed into the stone and, panting and sweating, she turned to him, "Now w-what do you need this for?"

"I'm going to ride the feather up into the air, and leap to the Nevermore." Both of the young woman's eyebrows rose and he waved her off, asking simply, "Can you do it? It just needs to get within a hundred feet or so."

"I… Suppose so, perhaps if I can... Let me think for a moment." She turned, looking up behind them, and then back towards the fighting line, searching for something. Nodding, she turned back and explained, "I need something elastic enough to attach to those columns, the feather can sit on that while I aim and a glyph should more than do to hold it. You ride it up and deal with the Nevermore, and all should resolve itself."

"Sensing a but there…"

"...But, the only thing here usable for that I am aware of is Blake's ribbon, and Ren will have to replace Nora or Yang in the line to secure the other end." She glanced to Ruby and, with a grimace, added, "Unless you can?"

"I can." Ruby nodded, standing and inverting her scythe, giving the young woman a curt nod and a wide, beaming smile, "See ya later, partner!"

"You insufferable, juvenile- This is not the time for you asinine little assertions about our relationship, or delusions that we-" The young Rose shot off with a flurry of petals in her wake before the Schnee could finish, the girl half-shouting in distaste, "And we are not partners, you-you childish little cretin!"

The girl landed behind Nora and ducked past her, spinning like a twister through the Grimm and dismembering all those in reach. She and Nora fought together for a moment before the ginger backed out, batted away a pursuing Grimm, and rushed to Blake's side. Another pause as she explained the situation happened then, and the two rushed to them as another, fresh pack of Beowolves rushed into the clearing, lured by the Nevermore's cries and the sounds of fighting both.

Without a word for him, the two parted, Blake handing her weapon off to the hammer-wielding woman to wrap around a pillar of stone while she ran across to another of the few that were sturdy looking enough to warrant this kind of insane idea. Using the Force to pull the ribbon taut with one hand and lifting the quilled feather with another, Jaune held it against the ribbon until Weiss' glyph pinned it in place. At a curt nod, sweat beading on the girl's brow while her rapier trembled in his hand, he climbed onto the feather and laid across it, saber held in one hand while the other gripped the thick stem of the feather.

"Whenever you're-ready, Arc." Weiss grunted from behind him, the blonde warrior sparing her a glance to nod. "If this k-kills you, I don't want to hear a t-thing. Understand?"

"Fire, Weiss." He said by way of answer, the young woman more than happy to oblige. And, from what he could tell by how she collapsed to the stone, unable to hold it any long.

Like an arrow shot from a bow, he soared high into the air on an intercept course with the Nevermore, the wind ripping at him as he went. Using his own strength and the Force both, he held fast, finally reaching the apex of his arc high above the Nevermore and feeling gravity try and hurl him further still. This time, he let inertia do its work, and soard up into the air over the feather. Using the Force instead of his eyes, long since squeezed shut against the wind, he felt out the presence of the Nevermore and hurled himself towards it. Only when he was close did he squint his eyes open to see, through eyes blurred by wind-whipped tears, his hand igniting his saber as he sailed past the monster, who shrieked upon seeing him.

A sound that ended as, arm outstretched, he let inertia and gravity carve the hissing end of his weapon through its skull deep enough for the top to entirely separate. Robbed of life and mind both, the Grimm began to fall, and he went with it, albeit further out and towards the forest. He was surprised when he felt a tug on his back yank him towards the battle and turned. Again he felt a tug, a little black glyph flickering on his chest just below his chin.

Weiss' glyphs steered and the Force slowed him until, rolling and grunting with the impact - and ignoring the flare of pain all along his back besides - he came to a stop behind the fighting line and turned. A Beowolf's arm flew back as he leapt and his saber cut, its head following a moment after before with a shout he blasted the Grimm away in a wide cone ahead of them. His team launched into combat without hesitation, leaping onto Grimm like warriors of old, pinning them under heels and beheading, crushing or gunning them down in turn, turning their weapons on their fellows as soon as their targets died. Now free of the bestial reinforcements that had been called before, or aerial assault from their caller for that matter, they pushed forward and through, cutting apart and down and Grimm they came across.

Five more minutes, and a pair of disparate Grimm packs later, they finally came to a panting, sweating end of their battle.

"So, what," Ruby began, kneeling on the ground and sucking air between her words, "do we do now? I-I think we passed Initiation, that was a-a lot of Grimm."

"Yes, and we slew them easily and admirably enough to satisfy anyone who could possibly have the right to voice words on the matter." Pyrrha complimented, standing straighter than anyone else beside a fallen Ursa, the only sign of the exhaustion he sensed being her leaning on her spear. A spear which, he noted knowing, had been a sword moments prior. "You had some good plans, Jaune."

"Always been quick on my feet." He shrugged, rolling the soreness out of his shoulder and, safe now, focusing his Aura into soothing the mild aches and pains. Raising his voice, he called out, "Anyone hurt? Everyone okay?"

There were cuts and bruises among most of them, himself included, but they were healing under their Aura already so he let it be. Satisfied and bored, now, waiting for their pickup or more Grimm, they began to break apart and wander the grass fields, away from the fighting place if only to avoid the smoke. Smoke that, no doubt, would be seen by the Beacon observers watching them, who would be on their way here even now to see what could possibly have happened here.

Assuming they hadn't been watching them the whole time, that was.

Sighing, Jaune sat against a tree with his legs folded under him and his hood drawn, watching the sky while he rested and murmuring, "Well. At least this didn't end up with someone dismembered…"

"Have you fought the Grimm often?" Pyrrha asked, standing and leaning against the tree behind him, her spear in her hand while she watched the woods warily for both their sakes. In the moment before he could answer, she rushed to add, as though worried he would retort sharply, "You mentioned 'this time' with significance, which implies other times, is the only reason I ask. You don't need to discuss it, though, if it upsets you."

"I see." Was that concern for him, or pragmatism to avoid upsetting him and drawing black, fur laden attention, he was getting from her? After a moment he dismissed the suspicion and shrugged simply, "You said you know about me from the news, right?" She nodded and he went on, "Then you know I lived out on the Frontier, and fought Grimm that attacked my settlement. I also rangered in the woods, hunting Grimm, though, and you might not have known that from the news."

"I did not, no, and… Given my background, I don't put much stock in what news and journalists like to peddle as fact." He gave her a sidelong glance, one brow raised, and she shrugged noncommittally when he paused and she turned to look at him, "I'm a champion fighter, in Mistral, and known throughout the Kingdoms, though I do not enjoy it being dwelt on. I experienced my share of tabloids and articles, Jaune."

"I can see that, yeah." He nodded, offering her a small smile, "Tell you what, Pyrrha. You don't hold my tabloids against me, and I won't hold yours against you either. Deal?"

"That is a deal I can certainly accept, yes." He offered a hand, tapping the outside of her thigh for her attention, the woman giving it a look before smiling and taking it, shaking it gently with a small laugh that she demurely hid behind the haft of her spear. Turning back, she added in a quiet tone, "I'm glad that we all survived the battle with the Grimm. Against a Nevermore of that size, if some of us had died here… That would have been normal, no?"

"It would have been." He agreed quietly, eyeing the man-sized feathers it had launched at them three times in an effort to kill them. "But my Semblance let me protect us from them, and everyone was more than capable of killing the Grimm it summoned with its… Incessant shrieking."

"Indeed. They are all skilled combatants, and it was an absolute pleasure to fight with them and you alike." She turned at a low thrum, looking up as a trio of small, Beacon patterned Bullheads loomed down from the cliffs and circled the wide clearing for a place to land. A place that was conspicuously easy for them to find, given the clearness of the area. "It appears our ride has arrived, for our return journey."

It had certainly taken them long enough, somehow allowing their entire battle against a small hoard of likely nearing a hundred lesser Grimm and one superior, flying one. He didn't voice the complaint - or the suspicions behind it, for that matter, and there were plenty of those to be certain - to his partner as he stood, instead giving her a small smile and then scanning the various pieces of bone plating for anything interesting.

Seeing nothing worth looking at, he remarked dryly, "Well, let's not keep them waiting. They might decide to leave us here, and I am far too done with Grimm for the day to let that happen. Shall we, Pyrrha?"

"Of course." She nodded, adding in a quieter tone, "And… Call me 'Pyr', please. I rather liked the nickname when you said it previous."

The ride back was… A surprisingly muted affair, really, the group of children still impossibly anxious over whether they would pass the tests they'd been put through well enough. He knew, of course, that they had. If only because their only objective had been accomplished, unless you counted not dying as part of the test. Which they'd still accomplished, so the addition didn't make much difference to him.

'Thinking in circles gets you nowhere but dizzy, Jaune.' He chided himself, turning back to his partner when he sensed her gaze on him and offering her a small nod that she returned, turning to listen politely to Nora beside her rattling off a story about her part of Initiation. 'Energetic, but tolerable. If only for the amusement.'

Content, he let his eyes close and the Force take him where it would while they journeyed back to Beacon.

"Your formation was rushed, and had holes in it, but… Given the frankly rushed nature of the conflict at hand, and the lack of a true answer to the Giant Nevermore besides, I don't see any reason to belabor the strategies you used. You will have classes for that soon enough, in any event." The Headmistress was as chilly and beautiful as he remembered, if in that more intimidating and powerful kind of way that belied it, as he remembered. "Though I will endeavor to get across the need for anti-air stratagems that don't include flinging yourself into said air to get at the target."

All she got for that was awkward snicker, that seemed to aggravate her to no end, from the more, er, energetic of their group.

"Honestly, the nerve of you all… A genuine shame you didn't take a few licks to teach you some sense." Though he caught her probing, worried gazes as they assembled at the docks for 'debrief' upon their return. Green eyes flicked across each of them inspectingly, looking for wounds not yet healed by Aura. Which kind of deflated the edge her tone held as she continued in as blase a fashion as she could manage, "Though in future, and I stress this more than you might hear, I should note that a retreat is always an option."

"If we'd done that, we were worried the Grimm would pursue us into the woods and hit us from every angle where we couldn't maneuver." He pointed out, more than happy to force her attention onto him instead of Ruby, who had started squirming anxiously the moment the Headmistress turned glinting green eyes on her. She turned to him and, hedging his bets, he added further, "We also figured the Nevermore would sense us by our anxiety when we did get caught out, or just anxiety at the risk of getting caught, and fire on us where we couldn't see it to dodge or know it was coming."

"Only a fool would give up all their advantages in combat." Pyrrha, saint that she was, added from beside him. She didn't look at the older Huntress, staring straight ahead instead like she was in the military, but he sensed her the Force reverberate with satisfaction at… Something. "So rather than run, pray to the Gods that we could outpace them, and in all likelihood be beset upon in disadvantageous terrain, we held advantageous terrain and took the attack."

"It was still foolish. Especially as inexperienced in combating the Grimm as you all-"

"I'm sorry, Headmistress, but I am pretty experienced in fighting Grimm." And he wasn't even going to let her act like he didn't. He was trained to be calm and accepting of whatever came, and to avoid vapid pridefulness, of course. But in the same vein, he was trained to take proper pride in his skills and abilities. "I trained to fight them for years, in the field, and spent the last year in Ansel training and rangering in the woods. I fought plenty of Grimm in that time, and knew good terrain when I saw it."

A bit more lie in his words than he enjoyed but it did the trick, the woman grimacing but nodding curtly, "I disapprove of you interrupting me, but… A fair point nonetheless. And since it was your plan, I suppose credit is due for deferring to a more experienced compatriot at the scene."

"Thank you, Ma'am, and I'm sorry for-"

"Which means the reprimand lies with you as well for the lunacy of hurling yourself into the air in the hopes of killing the Nevermore. What if your weapon had not pierced its armor?" She cut in, the blonde's mouth clicking shut while those around him inched away from him. Or more accurately, her ire at him. Even Pyrrha took the smallest hair's breadth away from him, and ignored the pointed look he sent her way for it.

'It's treason then, eh, Pyr?' He grimaced, but turned back to the expectant, older woman with a small sigh, "Respectfully, Ma'am, there's almost nothing that my saber can't cut through. It's… Special, like that."

"I've heard that song and dance many times, Mister Arc." She chided, shaking her head and sighing gently, "Overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, Mister Arc. Never, ever forget that. The moment you are comfortable is the moment you just may lose a life. Be it yours, or those around you or under your care."

"As you say, Headmistress." The point didn't bare arguing, really, and he wasn't in the mood for it even if he could find a reason to try. Fighting Grimm was fun, flying back with three excited chatterboxes was distinctly less so. "What else is needed, here, Ma'am? I'm sure we all would enjoy even a brief rest."

"The cafeteria is down the hall, as you went to get to the auditorium previous, but further still and in the next building." She turned, directing their attention from the docks - where they had landed today and the day before both - past one massive building where they'd slept the night before to another, this one with entire walls made if tall windows. "You are among the last to find a Relic location and be picked up, so I suggest hurrying along so you may eat while team assignments and naming conventions."

"A Relic location." Ruby murmured, loud enough for the question to be heard even if she still shied away from the Headmistress' sharp, questioning gaze. Standing her ground as much as she seemed willing to, the youngest of the group explained, "Y-You said it like there were other locations, Headmistress. Were there?"

"Of course. With the disparate spreading of students across the Initiation grounds, there were three separate locations to ensure the forty or so hopeful partner pairs actually had enough Relics to recover." Though, judging by the three exhausted-looking children across the way waiting wit their luggage and emanating sadness into the Force around them, not all had managed to get their Relics after all. The Headmistress stepped into his line of sight and smiled thinly, "Not all who venture gain, young man. They may try again next year, and likely will."

"I, uh, yeah." He hadn't meant to be staring at them, even if he'd known that they were too distracted and wrapped up in their own heads - deservedly - at the moment to really notice anything. For the woman's benefit, he shrugged and asked, "You mentioned food?"

"I did, Yes. Hurry along, now, the team naming ceremony will be conducted inside an hour or two." She waved a hand for him to head along and he did, walking with his group towards the cafeteria while the more excitable team members talked.

Pushing open the great doors into the cafeteria, they were met with a wall of sound and emotion, students celebrating now that they were together and being fed. Being actually hosted like this, with hot food and a bustling staff tending to injuries and feeding them luxuries, told the students there they'd passed. Or, maybe, one of the disparate and celebrating groups had been told as much and the celebration they started had carried on and welcomed more students coming in.

That they'd seen rejects - and only three of them at that, which spelled something bad out plainly given the even-numbered groups they were placed in - outside with their things only added to the certainty.

"Pancakes!" He flinched, before he felt an arm around his shoulders, the ginger in their group tugging him and his partner along excitedly. All the while, rattling in his ear, "Renny makes the best pancakes, you know. He has this recipe with acorns and stuff that is just straight out to kill for!"

"I-Is the saying not 'to die for', Nora?" Pyrrha managed to get out, between the girl's excited giggles and the rest of the noise around them.

"Not when I'm involved it isn't." She grinned and shrugged, letting them go finally to grab them all plates while the others caught up. Shoving one into each of their hands, and keeping two for herself, she crowed, "Come on guys! Let's eat! Nothing like sweet pancakes after a fun day of playing with Grimm."

"Don't you mean-"

"She doesn't." Ren cut in gently, smiling like a man with the patience of a saint and experience with it being tested. Taking one of her plates, he started heaping up pancakes for her and added, "Nora always says what she means."

"Yep!" She bounced on her heels, mind clear of any less than innocent thoughts that might have crossed the minds of adrenaline-fueled teenagers around them at that, and aggressively - somehow - handed off her plate when Ren reached for it. "Bananas! Ren, look, there's-"

"I know."

"And strawberries!"

"I love strawberries!" Ruby chimed in, sliding past him and grabbing the plate Ren offered her without even sparing her a glance, grabbing the metal spoon in the big bowl of them and heaping a pile on her plate. "They're so sweet and yummy. Oh! Strawberry pancakes?! Those exist?!"

Yet again a cute young woman started bouncing early on her feet, and yet again he sensed the attention of hormonal youths of both genders and species focusing on them. This time, though, he turned and met their gazes, sending an eerie sensation of foreboding through the Force around him. Their minds weren't built to discern the Force, of course, but they still felt his foreboding, Force backed threat of nondescript suffering and pain if they kept trying to peek up his team member's skirts. To them, no doubt, it was like ice had lodged itself in their stomachs, along with the threat of a slow and painful death the only kind of which they could anticipate from very specific, rare Grimm.

Needless to say, if there were any peeks between the folds of Ruby's skirt, or up Pyrrha's or Nora's, none saw it.

"What?" He asked when he turned back and caught Pyrrha watching him, holding a plate twice the size of a normal one and packed full of pancakes, sausage and bacon. He took the offered meal and, when she didn't respond, asked, "Why are you staring, Pyr?"

"You're protective of the girls." She observed simply, trailing behind the rest of their loud group as Nora or Ruby led them to somewhere to sit, towards the back of the room near the door. Furthest away from the food, too, but that was probably why it was empty. "I can see it, in the way you keep glaring at anyone that looks our way. There's a certain kind of heat there."

"I have seven sisters. Comes naturally to me, I guess." He shrugged, letting them all choose their seats ahead of joining them and adding in a lower tone, to not interrupt Nora's excited 'Ursa taming' story retelling. He'd been there, for her arrival, but apparently she'd sent the Grimm back into the forest with a wave of her hand and 'her mystical Nora-ness'. "Besides, I don't mind putting the fear of the Dark Side into these pathetic little tools if they think their hormones overrule you all's privacy."

"Aww, you are so sweet!" He blinked as an arm wrapped around his shoulders and he was pulled flush against soft skin, staring down into the rift between Yang's… Assets for a moment before pulling back while she sniggered, "Oh my, Birdboy, looks like you are the pervert here~!"

"I am not!" He scowled, ignoring the sniggers across the table and raising a finger meaningfully, "And my name is not 'Birdboy'. It's Jaune."

"Whatever you say, Birdboy." He groaned but the other blonde just laughed. A loud, boisterous sound that continued even when Jaune none-too-gently jabbed a fork down into his food to eat.

"What's the Dark Side?" Pyrrha asked when Yang had returned to teasing someone else - her sister, judging by the way the little brunette scrunched down and hid her face behind a hand while she ate - and they'd eaten a bit, since both of them were more than hungry enough to put off any kind of chat for some food.

"You mentioned it in the same way one would 'put the fear of Oum' or the Grimm, or the Brothers." She answered when he gave her a curious look, the blonde chidin himself for the slip as soon as she said it. It must have shown on his face, for Pyrrha's eyes blinked wider and she held up a hand, awkwardly laughing and waving the question off, "I-It's none of my business, I suppose. If you would rather your privacy I won't mind, Jaune. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Pyr, it's… Fine." He said, taking a couple of pieces of syrupy pancake and using it like the biscuit to his sausage, chewing on it and grabbing a drink of water while he thought. First about whether or not to say anything, second about what to say when he decided to. The better not to flare tensions early, and control what she knew and how she perceived it.

"Scooch." With a hand, he gestured for her to slide down a bit and she did, the blonde subtly moving the Force to direct attention away from himself with practiced ease when he saw the others start to turn to them. Now they were a bit further away, and his words would be lost in the sound of the cafeteria, he started to explain, "The Dark Side is half of the Force, which is- Which I believe, rather, to be an energy that suffuses life around us. The Dark Side is all about passion and emotion, and its counterpoint is about naturality and control, letting things be what they are and acceptance of them."

"So it's a religion?"

"Yeah." It worked as a description, anyway. "I use it to focus my Semblance, since it's… Mental, how mine works."

"I see." Her eyes flicked between him and the space he'd put between himself and the others and she blinked, mouth forming a little 'o' of realization. "You do not wish the others to hear about this."

"No."

"May I ask why, or would that be… Insensitive?" The question was innocent, and posed with a fragility that made him wonder what she thought he'd do to her for asking.

"Stop stressing out for no reason, Pyr." He rolled his eyes and sighed, the woman giving him a sidelong glance while he ripped his bacon into little strips and pitched them into his mouth, thinking up a good enough excuse not to want the terms spread around. "In my settlement, race and religion never mattered. Out here, though, it does. People get harassed and heckled just for having different kinds of ears, or a tail, or something."

Amber eyes flicked to his but returned to the others' conversation before he could meet them, and he sighed, adding in the finish, "I don't want that kind of attention, you know? I'm here to learn to protect people, not… Put up with assholes that don't tolerate wrong-think about the gods, or whatever."

"I understand that, I suppose." She nodded, and through the Force he knew she didn't really understand what he was on about, but sympathized with wanting to be left alone well enough to make up the difference. After a moment, she added, "Though, you should be open with your friends, in future. They will accept you, if they were ever your friends in the first. And better not to build on false pretenses."

With that, she turned back to her food and began eating, now content to ignore him entirely and leave him to his own thoughts. After a moment, and with a small shrug, he turned to his own food and let the matter lie. Instead, he was content to wait until, eventually, the naming ceremony came and he could see his new lodgings.

He wouldn't have to wait long for that, he was sure.

The naming ceremony was relatively simple and fast, enough so for no one to have much time to complain. They were gathered in the auditorium again, lined up in their teams - the obvious ones, of course, based on who picked similar pieces from the same locations - and told the order they'd be called in. Then they'd been filed to one side while other, older students came in to watch the ceremony quietly. It took less than half an hour, with only eleven new successful teams for the year formed. The number struck him as odd, though he knew there were other, lesser Academies and paths to being a Hunter.

The names themselves, though, struck him as even odder.

"Juniper is an… Acceptable enough designation." Pyrrha countered gently as they made their way to their dorms, dressed in Beacon uniforms now and sporting grey, Beacon issued and Hunter-suited backpacks full of their school supplies and changes of uniform. As well as their luggage, though that had been heaped on a trolley Nora was pretending to be a horse pulling. "It's a… Strong name."

"It's a type of berry and tree." He argued gently, smiling ever-so-slightly to show there was no heat meant in his words. The woman got the message and rolled her eyes in amusement, chuckling under her breath, and he added, "I just figured we'd get better names than plants, Pyr."

"A Juniper tree is beautiful and strong, and lives a long life." Ren offered in a sage way, a single hand raised, finger to the sky, as he spoke. In a way, Jaune decided, he reminded the young Force wielder of Instructor, albeit far less sadistic. "Naming us after such a beautiful, strong tree is clearly the Headmaster's way of saying he has faith that this team will stand long and strong, as a beautiful display of the Academy's tutelage."

"They named us after me!" Ruby called, leading her team just behind them. Eyebrows raised, he turned his gaze on Ren, and the man shrugged simply.

"Ren doesn't have an answer to that one, I guess, Ruby." Jaune called back with a derisive little snort and shake of his head. After a minute, he sighed and wondered idly, "You think they let us change our team names if we ask nicely enough, Pyr?"

"What would you even name our team?" She asked quietly, smiling but shaking her head. He shrugged and her eyes rolled, "Leave the name be, partner-mine. It's not so terrible, and were I to be frank, I prefer it to whatever other copper bottomed idea they might come up with to replace it."

"Fine, fine, since you like it so much." Again, she rolled her eyes at him, but he ignored her and flicked his eyes from one side of the hall to the other, and then looked to his Scroll to check while Ren tried to prevent Nora attempting to run Pyrrha down. Key word there being tried, of course, though the Mistralian ignored the little prod of the trolley's handle on her hip well enough. "Ah, here we are, guys. Time to decorate, I guess?"

Inside, the room was relatively Spartan, considering Beacon's standing and the normal decor levels equally. Four simple enough looking beds, the nice headboards notwithstanding of course, with equally nice dressers to one side and bed-tables on the other. Two of the beds were lined against one wall to the left of the door, the other under the windows across the room from them. They were painted a nice red, with white trimmings and a muted, dark carpet over the floor that Jaune found appealing enough to tolerate. And a flick of the Force pulled the curtains closed, leaving the room in muted sunlight from outside, blocked mostly by the curtains now.

The third wall was divided, between a wide, oaken bookshelf and a large room with a heavy door that screamed bathroom even for Jaune, who had spent so long under the mountain with his tiny little thing pf a bathroom as to have forgotten the concept of a grand thing like a sit-in tub until his return to Ansel. His had been made of cheap iron mined in Ansel with wooden walls and floors for the most part from the forest around the settlement, after the renovations they'd done to finally replace old and broken. This one, though, was normal porcelain, like any other bathroom in Vale could be expected to be. Against the wall the bathroom created, with their backs to the windows, were two sturdy, moderately large desks for working on, complete, even, with two small monitor screens they could hook their Scrolls to in order to make working a bit easier.

"It's spacious enough." Pyrrha was the one to comment, standing awkwardly and watching the other three mill about unsurely in the middle of the room. "So, hm, where, ah, where does everyone… Want to sleep?"

"Nora won't sleep without me nearby." Ren commented idly, Jaune's brows knitting at the statement. He turned to look at the man, mouth open to ask, and he explained in clear brief, "Frontier kids, Jaune. And wanderers, for most of that time, from place to place. I would rather not get into it, but… We get anxious when we're apart, so-"

They were cut off by Nora, who picked up the nightstand and dresser between two of the beds, one under each arm. Face flat, she moved to the middle of the room and set them down, grabbing the beds and pulling them together without comment. With an amused, kind of resigned roll of his eyes, Ren turned to pick up the lighter end table and move it out and into the hall where they'd been told maintenance would pick up any unwanted furniture, sitting the extra dresser beside the bathroom door.

"I… Suppose that gives us the other beds, then." Pyrrha shrugged, reaching by Ren - who was unloading their stuff while Nora bounced on her half of the bed they'd made - to grab her suitcase and start unpacking. Hesitating, she asked, "Corner or between the beds, do you have a preference?"

"Do you?"

"Not truly, no."

"Then corner, if you really don't care." As far away as possible from Nora's constant energy, as much as he may have liked it. And he did enjoy it, but eventually it would tax him, and Ren seemed more than happy to contend with it himself. She nodded without a question and, grabbing his stuff to unpack, he grunted a, "Thank you, Pyr."

"Of course, Birdboy." She smirked and he groaned loudly, unbuttoning his blazer and grabbing a change of clothes. It was late enough, after all, to get some rest.

Tomorrow would be the start of actual classes after all.