Solution Seeking

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Almost a full month passed after Initiation before schedules opened up enough to give him personal time, and another fortnight was nearly added before he - as a first year - was allowed to go into the Grimm-filled forests around Beacon. The reasons for it were obvious, really. Inexperienced city dwelling Hunter trainees going off cocksure and arrogant could wind up dead, if they weren't vetted first by a number of weeks of combat courses and, of course, the heavily monitored Initiation process. Not to mention the fact that the first month and change would be taken up with orientations, explanations, term start tests, curriculum assignments, explanations of Valean policies for the non-native trainees, like Jaune and Pyrrha, and so on through the chore of academic tutelage.

The problem was that he needed to be in nature every now and again, to center himself and prevent one side of the Force or the other overwhelming his control and off balancing him. Weakening him.

"So I need to go out into the Emerald Forest, to meditate and train my Semblance properly." He finished his explanation, sitting across from the middle-aged woman in her office, the sun low and casting orange rays like fire into the darkening sky.

The office was surprisingly tame fare, considering the prestige that Beacon Academy held in the Hunter world at large. A main mahogany door that led into a moderately large room with a mahogany desk and a comfortable, leather backed chair on either side, for the woman and for students both. Opposite the door that let him in from the hallway, flanked by two massive bookshelves that covered every inch of the walls except what was made up of windows on his left, was another door just like the first. Through which, he assumed from her slightly relaxed clothing and food, would be her living quarters.

"And you want… Permission to violate standard Beacon procedures and go into the Emerald Forest." She asked, sounding tired and stirring a spoon in her tea idly.

"Yes, Ma'am." And he'd prefer permission to do it, too, rather than sneaking off in the middle of the night to handle his affairs and risking trouble. Hoping it would help, he rushed to add, "I used to do so by myself in Ansel all the time. And before that, too, back when I was training to make my way home."

"Because you need to… Meditate, as you said?" The Headmistress asked in clarification, sitting across her desk from him with a half-eaten sandwich on a plate beside her keyboard, the glow of her computer backlighting her face and lending her a somewhat paler appearance than normal.

"Yes, Ma'am." He'd interrupted her meal, but being the kind woman he knew she was now after so long in the academy, she'd set aside her meal to see to his needs. "And, ah, thank you for agreeing to talk to me. I know it's late, and the start of the weekend too."

"It is quite alright." She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. So while he knew she would tolerate him, he also knew just as well that she really wanted him to leave. She'd never say so, of course, being too polite for that. "And this is all to better control your Semblance?"

"Yes, Headmistress, it is." He nodded, sitting in his uniform and fighting the urge to twiddle his thumbs, even if it would definitely sell the 'nervous schoolboy' look he was actively fighting. "It's… It's important for me. For me to stay at the top of my form, I mean."

He wasn't nervous, not at all.

Goodwitch was just terrifying, enough for even Instructor to have been impressed, he was fairly certain.

"We have made exceptions to our strict rules in the past. Often to…" He sensed a pang of regret and pain there, echoing out from the woman even though her face and voice betrayed none of it. And he felt his curiosity rise to match it, and squashed it down. "Well. Unfortunate ends, I suppose. Regardless of the reasons behind the decisions and how well informed or intentioned they may have been, lives have been lost. Civilians and students alike."

"This isn't one of those times, Headmistress." He said to the woman as much to himself, pushing his curiosity away until he could look it up online later.

"Oh really? I've heard that before." There was the regret and anger again, echoing out of the woman as loudly as her words did. Frowning, she finished, "I can't even begin count the number of unfortunates from cockiness like that, Mister Arc."

"I see… I understand your worry, even if I don't…. Know everything that happened." He couldn't afford to press her and find out, though. Now was not the time to be dredging up memories that had her already upset. He would get nowhere fast that way.

Instead, he tried to be diplomatic, lacing the truth with some of the falsehoods his family had helped push to get him here to make his argument. "I'm trained, Headmistress. And I've been fighting for years, against far scarier things than the kinds of Grimm in the Emerald Forest. You know my history and what it entails, so you know I am not arrogant here."

"Yet you did not fare well against Miss Xiao Long." The woman pointed out, pinching off a piece of her sandwich and, as politely as she could, popping it into her mouth.

"That's a symptom, Headmistress." He argued, "Not the cause of the problem. The cause is my not meditating properly."

"Why would that cause this kind of problem?" She raised a hand when he started to speak, asking for, and getting, a moment's pause. "Be detailed, Mister Arc. I'm considering your request, and depending on your explanation, I may or may not accept it. So do yourself a favor, young man, and choose your words very carefully."

Now he felt another wave of roiling emotions roll off of her, this time suspicious and dark outright. What she could suspect, he had no idea, but she was suspicious of something around him or something in general, and he couldn't tell which.

"The people who took me in were a small group, fishers and travellers mostly. Most of them practiced a religion that I haven't heard of outside their grouping." There were no details there she could attempt to verify, he knew. There were dozens of wandering, migratory tribes along the coast, hopping between Sanus, Anima and even Menagerie on boats of their own and rented ones. "Out there, Auras are awakened more often than in the city, because of how harsh the world can be. Grimm, bandits, the labor of simply surviving, all can awaken an Aura young."

"Indeed it can." She nodded, pinching off another piece of her sandwich to eat while he went on.

"And every group, tribe, what have you, they all handle teaching people how to control their Auras and Semblances differently." He went on, "The group I was with, and the man who adopted me especially, were highly religious. They practiced martial training to hone their control, and meditation. My Semblance was always more in tune with that, being a mental application much like your own is."

"You focus and imagine, or think through what you want to be more precise, to enact your will through your Semblance." She responded, explaining her own Semblance methodology at least in the generic sense, to see if he would agree. He did, nodding, and she asked, "So how does your meditation help your Semblance specifically? And why can you not simply do so somewhere here on Beacon's campus, where you'd be infinitely safer?"

"My Semblance allows me to attune to my environment and… Use the state of it, to augment my control, if you get what I mean." She nodded, and though he sensed her unsurety, he could not confront her on it without raising questions. Questions he didn't want to have to be trying to piece safe answers to, and maintain his important lie at the same time. "I can feel the environment around me, almost like… Like when you take a bath, you can feel the hot water and steam."

"It's comforting, but also focusing. It simultaneously makes me happier and stronger, letting me process information and emotions and better myself whenever I can." He went on quickly, before the woman could interrupt with a question or over think what he was saying.

Half of a good lie was controlling what a person thought about, and he'd learned how to do it well enough from Instructor to at least pantomime his skills at the art. "It helps me understand what I am learning and process the information more quickly, and maintains my control of my Semblance besides. It weakens me and can be dangerous not to meditate in a natural place often enough."

"Dangerous how?"

"If I can't focus properly, I can put too much force behind an attack or motion with my Semblance. Suddenly a nudge is a cannonball to the face." That had happened in training quite a few times. Metal dummies crushed and warped under what was supposed to be simply turning them around. "Or I need to focus too much, and miss an attack I should have seen coming, and get shot."

It was a low blow, definitely, but this was an important matter to him. Beyond the homage he was forced to pay to his lie of a background, and the protections he needed for it, he was being entirely truthful. This was as much a part of his training as exercises, diet, and sparring, and he couldn't let it slip away to the detriment and risk of himself and his team. If he had to play dirty to protect himself and his goals, then so be it.

He was, after all, no Jedi.

"Ah, I… I see what you mean, then, I believe. And why you came to talk to me, when I assume you found no other recourse." The woman grimaced at his nod, and then took in a deep breath that ended in an exhausted sigh.

"I'm sorry if I'm being a bother…" She would find some solution for him now, he knew, because she would not risk a student coming to harm when she could, and now he just needed to play the polite student and wait.

"You are not, Mister Arc, I assure you of that much. Our students' needs and improvement are our first priority…" The woman paused for a moment, to consider something, and then turned to her computer and began typing at a speed he only wished he could match. Endless hours of practice, he was certain, had lent her that kind of speed and skill. "I will have your Scroll registered with perimeter security to admit you access on occasion into the forest."

"Thank you, Miss-"

"You will not abuse this privilege by going out there constantly, and your partner will accompany you out each and every time." He grimaced at the second part, but nodded. Pyrrha would need to know the full half-truth he'd told Ruby at some point anyway, and now he had a good reason to tell her all about it. "Further, you will go out on weekends, and if I find out you are taking advantage of this kindness it will be rescinded. Understood?"

"Yes, Headmistress."

"Very good. Yes… Very good." She nodded, taking a deep breath and seemingly resigning herself to the risk she was taking. Or rather, to the risk she was allowing him to take. "Check in with security when you come and go, and I don't mean the droids. Find a guardsman to clear you to leave and enter, and remember your weaponry and armor. Tell Miss Nikos of this as well."

"I will, Headmistress. I swear it." He nodded, smiling at the resolution. It had been easier than he'd feared, getting this cleared the way he needed it.

"Then on your way, young man." She waved towards her door, smiling gently and jokingly adding, "Now if you would leave me be, I would rather enjoy finally having my dinner."

Laughing, he nodded and stood to leave, giving the woman a more respectful nod in farewell as well. The woman returned it, but didn't say anything as he left, and after a moment he stepped out into the hall and pulled the door behind him.

"Well, how did it go?" Pyrrha asked, the saint that she was for waiting out in the hall only staff frequented with any real regularity. The woman smiled after a second and crossed her arms, chuckling, "Never mind, I can see on your face that it went well, Jaune."

"You can?" He blinked at the statement, surprised and worried. Was he so easy to read?

"Oh yes. You have this grin that you always sport when you're happy, and a glint in your eye when you are excited." She stepped past him without waiting for him to react, clasping her hands at the back of her waist as they walked back towards the dorm.

Like that, she looked and echoed a feeling of nothing less than a satisfied, carefree and content student. It was an infectious feeling, and drew a smile to his own face as well as they stepped out to cross a courtyard back towards the student dorm. "So, what was decided then, Jaune? Did things go to plan as you had hoped?"

Around them, lit by the fluorescent, moth swarmed streetlights that were the norm for Vale, the trees and grass were mostly green. But around the edges, buts nibbled at leaves tinging with orange and red, the onset of fall driving them to feast ahead of the cold season. The grass' growth has slowed as well with the same onset, showing even more the worn footpath that had been beaten by feet into the grass and ground, stretching across the forty feet or so of the courtyard.

'The onset of fall, and nature's rest soon to follow.' Or so Instructor would have put it.

"I'll be allowed into the Emerald Forest as long as I don't take advantage of it and spend all weekend, every weekend, out there." He finally answered after a few minutes. "As long as I do that, she said it was fine."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, she didn't like it but… She understands that I need this, and it feels like she's being lenient with me." Or at least, that was how he extrapolated what 'don't take advantage' meant. Better to ask for forgiveness for a misunderstanding than for permission to get more than you were given, he figured. "The conditions are that I check in and out with security, and I, uh, need you to be with me. For protection, apparently. Since we're first years."

"I see. Such is a more than reasonable set of requirements, I suppose." She turned to look over her shoulder and meet his eyes and then chuckled, waving a hand around them. "It is getting cold, and the Grimm could cut you off from Beacon. Better to have an ally to help you, should you be trapped out on a cold night. No?"

"Yeah, I suppose that's true." And when winter came, it would be three times as true, he knew.

"Ah, but fall is such a beautiful season…" Her green eyes turned to him, corners crinkling in a smile as his stomach dropped out from under him and he felt nausea well up. The smile vanished, replaced by anxiety and she turned as he sagged against a tree beside the worn dirt path across the tree-filled courtyard. "Jaune? Are you well?"

It was odd, but something about her tickled at the back of his mind in that moment. Like the way your hairs stood on end and your heart raced when someone told you something foreboding, or you saw something ominous that got to you deeper than it probably should have. Something wrong feeling, that he couldn't place, instead flailing for the answer and receiving nothing but the fading sense of trepidation and foreboding

"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, helping him sit against the tree while he caught his breath. He reached out with the Force, trying to find the source of that malignancy, but only found Pyrrha's worry and, distantly, the echoing, weak emotions of the people of Beacon. Lacking a source for the sensation, he withdrew and turned to look at the woman who asked again, "Are you alright, Jaune? You look ashen."

"I'm… I'm fine, I think." He wasn't fine, not really. He was confused, and didn't understand what he'd just felt. Pyrrha stood and offered him a hand that he accepted, letting her pull him up, and he wondered aloud. "I was told my abilities could overwhelm me if I couldn't maintain them… I wonder if this is that?"

"Perhaps…" Pyrrha swallowed anxiously, smiling and putting on a brave front for him. "I have heard of many Semblances and Semblance types that come with such problems. This just means we will be going out tomorrow to deal with your own, bright and early if you are feeling well enough."

"We'll see." He'd need to, if only to delve a bit deeper and see if he could find where that… Malignancy had come from. Now, he wondered if Miss Goodwitch's own sense of malignant paranoia had come from her or echoed from somewhere else around them.

Tomorrow, he'd meditate on it and find out what exactly had happened, he swore.

When they'd gotten to their dorm, he was still ashen and upset. Confused, the other duo had hopped up, ready to help however they could until he explained that his Semblance had acted up and he needed rest and to head into the forest to deal with it in the morning. At the mention that he'd be fine with Pyrrha with him, and they could relax, Nora had scoffed and laughed outright.

"Oh please, fearless leader, you know better than that." She said when he asked what was so funny, giving him a hard stare that showed a fire and certainty that surprised him. "If you think we're sending you off into Grimm filled woods with just Pyr - no offense, P, you're perfect and awesome - you have another thing coming."

"But I'll be-"

"Fine, especially with three relatively well-trained team members around you to protect you." Ren cut him off, the trio giving him flat stares and firm smiles to show how very, very outnumbered, and thus outvoted, he was.

"Fine, fine. I know when I'm beaten." He sighed, waving them off and plopping down on the edge of his bed with a groan. His stomach wasn't steady as of yet, unfortunately, but he grimaced and put it to the back of his mind for now and asked, "So what did I miss while I was meeting with Team RWBY? I know you all were hanging out until just a few minutes ago."

"Blake and Yang ran off early to deal with some stuff, while we gamed in the library. They didn't say for what, but Ruby and Weiss both said they had been working together on something for a while now, so we let it go." Ren explained while Pyrrha and Nora ducked into the bathroom to change into their sleeping clothes and they changed in the room proper, for modesty on both ends. "The War game went alright, and we're all headed into Vale on Sunday to hang out. Assuming you feel up for it."

"We'll see." He didn't fancy a trip into Vale, surrounded by so many people, really. But tomorrow he would be able to balance and center himself, and so he was certain he'd be fine.

"You'll be right, come the morning, Jaune." Ren assured him, laying in the bed beside Jaune's and sighing. "I'll make you a home remedy I and Nora made use of in Mistral, it'll settle your stomach and give you energy. Nora is already looking forward to everyone hanging out on Sunday. Yang and Blake said they had something important to talk about."

"All right, all right." Sighing, he fell back onto his bed and pulled the covers over himself, knowing already that he would be going regardless. It was annoying, but he didn't have much choice in the matter. They were his team, and that meant that he needed them on his side if he were to be a hero like he wanted to be. "Like I said, I know when I'm beaten, I won't be trying to argue with Nora."

And besides, Pyrrha and Nora would pout if he didn't, after all. And their pouting was essentially a weapon at this point, even if they didn't compare to the veritable weapon of mass destruction that was a Ruby Rose trademarked pout.

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During the day and early evening, the Library of Beacon was a full place, brimming with the dull and gentle thrum of hundreds of muted conversations. Just hanging out in somewhere more spacious than their dorm but heated unlike outside, studying and discussing training or the curriculums, reading and discussing books, or even helping out around the library for work, the reasons were varied and continued on into infinity.

During the week, few wanted to make the half hour trip, plus line time, twice to get into Vale proper. A couple times, Yang had dragged team RWBY off to see Vale, but even she found the lines and waiting too much for having just a few hours until curfew. Also, Ruby got tired easily unless high explosives were involved and Weiss was a nag about homework.

Really, Yang wished her team had the stamina to keep up with her, but oh well. She'd survive, somehow. Probably by picking on Weiss and how close she and Ruby were, the Schne always turned a bright cherry red whenever Yang did that. Especially when she did it in a full library, and had the young woman squeaking protests and flushing red for all to see.

Now, though, the Library was empty aside from a handful of the droids that the librarians employed to put books back on shelves and clean, even if technically the library was open at all hours. If you came too late, the security bots would monitor you and make sure you didn't do anything against the rules, but by and large you would be left completely and totally alone.

"See? No one is here at all, late as it's getting and being Friday." Yang prodded gently, sitting on a bean bag chair in the back of the library. Hands cupping the back of her head she yawned and stretched out on the comfy sort-of-chair and added, "And the spot you picked is great, too. Nice and quiet, plenty of privacy."

"Yeah… I like it back here, I can read in peace." The woman nodded, waving a hand at the brick wall to one side and then to the rows of floor to ceiling history books on the other. "No one comes back here, usually. So it's a good place to be alone."

"And a good place to let your hair down too, Kitty-Cat." Yang pushed, the other woman shrinking in on herself a little on the beanbag while Yang watched her. Gently, when she saw Blake staring at the ground and drumming her fingers anxiously instead of moving to do anything, she pushed, "You picked the spot, Blake. Not me. We're safe here, you cleared it yourself. And you've told me a dozen times how much your ears have been hurting."

"They do…"

"Then take the bow off, stretch your pretty kitty ears out, feel the breeze on 'em." Yang prodded, smiling gently in the same way she had for Ruby when she was younger. For a while, Ruby had been scared to move, once her Semblance had kicked on and she could randomly go flinging at high speed into walls or trees. Like then, she offered, "I'm right here, Blakey. I got your back."

"...Okay, okay, fine. Just… Keep an eye out for me, okay?" Yang nodded and she sighed, flicking her eyes to the end of the shelf at their side worriedly for a moment in spite of Yang's agreement to watch for her, and it being nearly three yards away and dark.

"I gotcha, Kity-cat." The woman assured her, standing and stepping by to stand with her arms crossed towards the opening like a bouncer. It was paranoia, Yang was sure, but she wouldn't say as much and risk offending her pride and closing her up. "Nothin' gets past Momma Yang, you can bet on that."

"I am not calling you 'Momma Yang'." The woman chuckled, Yang's sensitive ears catching the sound of fabric rustling for a moment before her Faunus friend sighed. "Brothers, that's better…"

"Knew it would be." Even on guard duty, so to speak, she turned to look at the woman and smiled. "Your ears are cute, you know."

"Yang…" Blake flushed at the compliment, her velvet ears pressing flat against her hair in reaction. "They're just ears… Complimenting them is weird."

"And my tits are just sacks of fat hanging off my chest, but guys compliment those all the time." To her face less so, but the point was made. She could have gone further and pointed out Blake's oft praised behind, too, but the woman was already blushing and Yang didn't want to push her too hard. "They're cute, and I said so. Just take the compliment already, you bad kitty."

"Yang that's kind of racist…" The woman sniggered, though, and that let Yang know she wasn't serious about the allegation. That and the playful flicking of her ears.

"Nah." She shrugged, turning back to watch the entrance like the bodyguard she was now.

"You can't just 'nah' racism, Yang!" Blake laughed outright now, though, and Yang joined her for a short, bright moment. After a second, the two settled into silence and Blake asked, "So… Are you going to ask about the White Fang?"

"Nope, 'cuz I don't really care about that noise all that much." Blake had told her a few times now that she'd been a member. It was like she expected to be judged and derided for it, Yang could see it on her face whenever she brought it up and hear it in her voice now. "If you start talkin' about your past, I'll listen. But I won't push for information I don't have a right to."

"Don't you?" Blake asked, "You are my partner, my past could… Could affect you. Hurt you."

"And Weiss' last name could too, if some asshat comes after her for it." Yang shrugged, not even deigning to look to Blake for what she saw as a true non-issue. "Grimm claws, a mugger's shiv, some asshat's bullet, I'd get between any of you and any of it. Why it's there doesn't matter a lick to me, just that the people I care about are okay."

"But-"

"No buts involved here but yours and mine, Kitty-Cat." She cut her off, finally turning to beam at the woman, who rolled her eyes at the terrible joke and fought to hide her smile behind a hand. Still grinning, Yang called her out, "Oi, don't roll my eyes and then snigger behind your hand. My jokes are funny, damn it!"

"They're tolerable, but I wouldn't call them funny." Blake argued, waving a hand at the beanbag across the low table from her. "Sit down, I can hear if anyone is coming with my good ears uncovered."

"Good ears…?" In response, while Yang sat, Blake leaned forward and pulled her hair back on one side. There, Yang saw two natural Human ears, that the Faunus woman even wiggled in demonstration of their being real. "Huh. But I looked it up, and don't most Faunus… Not have Human ears?"

"Well, it's actually a more fairly even split than most statistics show, especially in the Kingdoms where virtually all Faunus who do not necessarily answer the polls have some Human in their family." Blake explained simple, Yang not really knowing enough to bother arguing or overthinking the subject. Blake was a Faunus, she'd know better than Yang ever could, statistics and polls be damned. "It's a vestigial genetic trait, like your tailbone is. Leftovers of evolution, and nothing more. They work, just not as well as my more, er… Refined, I'll say, feline ears."

"Cats can hear better than Humans, and if you have their ears there's nothing wrong with saying you hear better." Yang agreed by way of explanation, offering a shrug and a smirk to show she wasn't bothered. "I'm just here to listen, Blakey, don't look to me for judgement. You won't find a drop of it. This here is a judgement desert."

"I see…"

"More desert here than Vacuo."

"Yang…"

"I hope you don't mind sand being coarse and rough." She grinned, watching Blake's eyes narrow in anticipation of the terrible joke. "Because like sand, I wanna be everywhere. Long as you're there, I mean."

"Gods damn it, Yang…" The Faunus rolled here eyes, falling for the trap Yang had laid, tricking her into a false sense of security.

"Also, in your pants!" Yang crowed, throwing her hands up ahead of the dictionary Blake hurled at her in response. Laughing, Yang added, "Sweet! I can look of 'beautiful' and see a picture of you, now. Thanks, Blake!"

"Yang, stop that! These pickup jokes are terrible, please!" Blake flushed, smiling wide and happier than she had been all day, to Yang's knowing eye.

"Like paper jokes? Eh? Ehhh?" Blake hurled another book at her and she laughed. Still smiling, the blonde let her ramble off her faux-insults and hurl another book at her that the blonde brawler caught easily, stacking it with the others.

This was a better, brighter Blake than she'd walked in on. Tomorrow, she'd ask about the White Fang, but for right now she was more content to just spend some time with her friend and let her unwind. Plus, it was fun watching her ears flick around at her jokes and the sounds Yang herself couldn't hear.