V'Real time

"Coming up next we have the last speaker for the day!" Opal's voice was bright and cheerful, as she flashed a smile at the camera. "The man! The myth! The legend! Myrridian!" she waved her hand in the direction of somewhere off stage, and at the same time, a man walked in calmly while waving at the people.

"Hello, people of Vale!" He said warmly as he took focus. Cheers burst from the crowd as the man fluttered his cape in the wind while he took it all in. Opal glared at the man behind his back while he revealed in the attention given by the masses.

The man turned around, a large smile on his face. Opal's glare washed away just in time for the man to completely miss it. "Opal! How are you!" He approached her desk, extending his hand.

Taking his hand in her own Opal shook and greeted him warmly. "I have been doing well Myrridian. A little backed up but well."

He smirked at her. "I guess being the most popular model in the world has its downsides huh?" A wave of rehearsed laughter erupted from the crowd, with a few genuine chuckles mixed in there. Opal herself let a hushed giggle escape her lips, as scripted. "Oh yes. It's not all bad." She responded as Myrridian took a seat next to her.

"So!" She clapped her hands quieting the audience. "Let's talk V'real time."

The camera pans away and goes to commercial.

~~~

"Beauty," A sensual voice said.

The image of a beach resting in front of a large body of water with no land in sight was painted on the screen.

"Love,"

The camera pans toward a lone woman sitting on the beach in a two-piece bikini under an umbrella, the sand collected between her toes as she wiggled them around playfully.

"Devotion,"

The image twitches to the woman running in slow-mo across the sands as waves crashed into the shore, drenching her pale shinning skin, as droplets of water ran down her body.

"InDuster,"

The woman started using a handheld vacuum cleaner to pick up all the micro crumbs that seeped into her towel and beach chair. The little device was small enough to get into the little cracks and agile enough to reach every corner with ease.

"The newest cleaner made my Caerwyn industries. Small, compact, powered by 98% pure energy dust fresh from the mines, and enough suction to rip the bone plate off the face of a Beowulf."

The scene switches to a man wearing a hazmat suit trembling in front of a large Beowulf with an InDuster in hand. "D-do I have to?" He pleaded only to receive an unintelligible order from off-screen. The man in question stumbled toward the Grimm shaking all the while, and once close enough he pointed the device at its face and pressed the button on top.

The bone plate was instantly ripped away from the Grimm, and the man stumbled back in fear as it roared loudly.

The camera went back to the beach scene where the woman was holding the InDuster out on display with both hands, a sensual smile on her face as she gazed directly into the camera.

"Get yours today for only 1999$."

The background and the woman blurred as a wall of text appeared on the screen too small to read, and too large to get through within the 5 seconds it appeared on the screen. A mechanical voice then spoke in a speedy tone. "Shippingfeesaredependantonlocation!"

"InDuster. The only vacuum you will ever need." The woman spoke one last time as the camera went to black.

~~~

The camera pans back to the stage right in the middle of a heated explanation.

"Vale was and still is a hub for tourism, business, exploration, schooling, and much to everyone's ire crime." The speaker's voice was booming and brimming with deep-seated anger, capturing the attention of all who watched the broadcast.

"This once great bustling hub of commerce was had seen a rapid rise in crime rates that surpassed even mantel in the past 5 years. 5 Years people! If there was a contest for the worst places to live in all of Remnant Mantle and Vale would be tied for first place! Fucking Mantle! A city popularized by its fatality rate outside of Grimm encounters.!" The speaker paces back and forth on stage, seething with anger as I talked. Opal, who had front row seats looked on with an uncomfortable look in her eyes.

The speaker plopped his butt down in the comfy leather chair with a heavy sigh. "At this point, the creatures of Grimm are a secondary concern to the average person." Silence reigned as people took that fact in. A few of the audience members shared a look with each other as the murmurs started.

A cough from someone behind the camera spurred Opal into action, wiping the expression on her face she plastered a smile for the camera.

"Are you sure about that?" She said inquisitively "Along with crime the report on Grimm attacks has also risen. People all over Vale are still terrified of the Grimm, and the world at large always will consider them an Enemy."

The speaker gave her a knowing look. "I get that. No one is refuting that fact. But right now people are more scared of the unknown than the known." He finishes as he gestured with his hands.

"Elaborate for me, if you would." Opal put her elbows on the desk and leaned forward showing off a bit of cleavage in the process drawing the eyes of the speaker momentarily.

"What I mean by that is. Most people know the Grimm are a threat. They have been for as long as humanity has been walking around. But more than that because of the number of criminals hidden in the city people are afraid not of the monster who will bust down their door, but of the random pedestrian that might put a bullet in their skull on this day or the next."

"So you mean to tell me. Paranoid is what's causing all this?"

He winced slightly. "Well yeah. What's scarier? The monster you know? Or the one you don't?"

"I see... and what of the police?"

This time the speaker scoffed. "What about the police?" Opal raised an eyebrow as the speaker continued. "What good are aura-less cops with what amounts to pea shooters in front of trained assassins and "Freedom fighters" who have their aura unlocked?"

"You think the police are incompetent?" Hushed whispers scattered around as Opal asked this question. The speaker looked around to see the disproving looks of a few people who whispered to others. He panicked slightly and hurried to reply.

"N-no." He stuttered out drawing a momentary smirk from Opal which vanished as soon as it appeared. "It's just a no-brainer that the crime rate is so high. An Aura user will always win against a non-Aura user. The physical difference between the two is way too big to be bridged by inexperienced cops." He started to explain, setting the crowd's mood down as his reasoning started to make sense within their minds.

"I can understand that point of view" Opal gave him a wide smile. "Then what about the Huntsman? Surely they are doing good right? I mean, Beacon academy is only 10 miles away from the city."

The speaker's response was immediate and was dripping with venom and so much hate that the crowd, the cameramen, opal, and everyone watching paused in surprise. "No"

It was so quick that Opal did know how to respond. She just looked wide-eyed at the man whose gaze turned colder than structures made of Ice Dust. "D-do you want to elaborate on why?" She stammered out in an attempt to regain her composure. The working crew doing the same not long after.

The speaker scoffed once again. "Because the headmaster would prefer to keep all of his child soldiers to himself instead of sending the graduates to the hunters union so they can do some real good in the world"

Opal winced at the terminology, as did most of the crowd. But no one was brave or dumb enough to deny it. "Child soldiers is... such a hateful term, no?"

"What else would you tall kids trained to fight and kill monsters?"

Opal put on a brave face. "I would call them heroes, and I hoped you would do the same."

Myrridian didn't falter. "You would be wrong." He stated like it was an irrefutable fact of life. Just like the sun that will always rise and fall, Opal was and always will be wrong. "People are scared out of their minds, and the huntsman academies and their respective headmaster are too selfish to help the common man." He continued on without waiting for a response the words getting heavier as time went on. "I mean hell. One of the headmasters is also a General for Oum's sake. Your right. "Child soldier" isn't the correct Term. I mean to say private army."

Opal and the viewing crowd were shocked. They wanted to deny this, to tell him that he was wrong but seeds of doubt were planted into their heads by the years of inactivity by the four academies. As his words sunk in they started to make more and more sense.

How many of the Ace ops were top of the scoreboard in Atlas's combat classes? How many scientists were former academy students who had the best grades? And how many times did you actually see Huntsman doing anything but killing Grimm? Sure it's important, but with how high the crime rate in the city is surely they can spare a few teams right?

"And don't even get me started on the one known as Arc." He rolled his eyes as his glare somehow managed to sharpen at the mention of the name. A few in the crowd stopped their musing as the slow bubbling anger started to rise in their chests.

Opal herself one was of these people. "I think I speak for everyone in this room when we tell you that no one considers that Monster a huntsman." A wave of nods from the stage crew was all the confirmation needed.

"But you see what I mean right?"

Opal gave a slow nod. "Yeah. We do."

"Someone like him was allowed to be a Huntsman. If that isn't a concern for the people then I don't know what is. I mean what's next? First a murderer. Who's to say they won't train a rapist? Or god forbid a pedophile." A collective shiver ran down everyone's spine at his words.

Myrridian smirked ever so slightly looking at their faces. "The huntsman can't do anything for you." He eyes scanned over the crowd, seeing the realization set in.

"...But the freelancers can."

The camera immediately cut to black.